Steve Gentry
[0:00] Welcome to the Village. My name is Steve. I’m one of the pastors here. I do a lot of the teaching here. [0:06] And I’m so glad to see each and every one of you here this morning. [0:09] And I love the way that final song we just sang, where it says that all of our burdens, [0:15] God has overcome. So I want you to know, no matter what happens this morning, [0:21] whatever burden you came in here with this morning, and even a crowd like this, [0:26] I’m sure someone in this audience today, there is a burden that you are carrying.
[0:32] There is a struggle that you are walking through right now. And there is weight on your shoulder that you have. [0:41] And I want you to know that the first thing you have to know about the Gospel is that God has overcome that. [0:49] In Jesus, all of our struggles, all of our burdens, whether or not it’s a personal sin, [0:54] whether or not it’s a sin that has been done to us, whether or not it’s a decision that you have to make, [1:01] the Gospel has overcome whatever you’re going through today. [1:06] And that’s a little bit about what we’re actually going to talk about.
[1:08] Last week, we were privileged to hear out of Romans chapter 7 about the struggle [1:13] that we will continue to have throughout our lives with sin that we have been redeemed from. [1:20] And last week, you heard Nate talk about how sin in the Gospel, that when we come to faith in Jesus, [1:27] we are now dead to sin, we are alive to Christ, but sin is still something that Paul wrote just so well in Romans 7, [1:36] that it is still something that he is struggling with. [1:39] But Nate talked to us a little bit about how sin is now to be reckoned as an outside force that is coming to invade our lives,
[1:47] but it is not something that still has a stranglehold on us, but rather we now have life in Jesus. [1:55] And sin is something that we can reckon ourselves through faith, that we’re dead to that. [2:01] It doesn’t have the power to overcome me. [2:05] But the struggle of faith, the struggle of belief is that I’m still going to struggle with the force of it, [2:12] the effect of it as I’m in a physical life, but I’m trusting that in the next life, [2:18] in the age that the Scripture says is to come, in the Kingdom of God, I will no longer have to struggle with that.
[2:25] But that is what faith is, because we won’t experience the Kingdom in this life, [2:30] so we shouldn’t trouble ourselves with attempting to make this life as comfortable as possible, as peaceful as possible, [2:36] denying the effects of sin on us as much as possible, but rather we have a hope that is still yet a future hope in the Kingdom of God. [2:45] And that is what drives us. [2:48] And it was a great segue between the last series and this series. [2:52] In the last series that we had, we talked about what it is that it is to be alive in Jesus,
[2:58] and the different forces and changes that Jesus brings into our lives through the transformation of the Holy Spirit that we get, [3:05] and that as we abide in Him, we grow in Him in this life of worship, in this life of mission, in this life of discipleship. [3:15] And then last week we talked about sin, and this week what we’re going to talk about for the next six weeks really, [3:21] is the different ways we resist that life. [3:23] Maybe if you saw the sign and you may have come in thinking that we’re starting some new club or something about resisting, [3:29] you know, the forces of the world around us and that we are the resistance.
[3:34] We’re resisting, but we’re not going to talk about a positive resistance for the next six weeks. [3:39] We’re going to talk about the negative resistance that each and every one of us struggle with in our lives [3:44] as we battle sin that seeks to come in and convince us that we do not have life in Christ, [3:50] and the resistance that we put up to the different great things that God wants to do in us. [3:55] And today we’re going to talk about everybody’s favorite thing, and that’s change. [4:01] Resistance to change. Read through the New Testament.
[4:05] If it’s one thing that God says the Gospel of Jesus will do in our lives, [4:12] it is revolutionarily and drastically change us.
[4:19] But talk to especially any guy in the room today, and what is the biggest thing that we fight against? [4:26] Change. I don’t like it. I am a creature of habit. [4:31] I like to get up at the same time every day. I like to go to the gym at the same time every day. [4:36] I like to eat my meals exactly the same time every day. And just even the simple things. [4:42] If my wife says, could you not go to the gym in the morning? Could you go in this afternoon? [4:46] My whole life falls apart. I’m like, what?
[4:49] You realize that different people work out in the afternoon than in the morning, right? [4:54] I cannot be expected to have people around me that I do not know. [4:59] Dinner is not going to be ready until 6. I like to eat at 5.30. [5:03] If I eat at 6, the whole series of events that I had planned for the rest of the evening will be completely drastically changed. [5:11] Wait a second. You want me to stop somewhere on my way home? [5:15] I’m going to have to recalculate gas mileage to stop and get that smoothie.
[5:20] I’ve got to go to the Tropical Smoothie. I’ve never been there. I go to Smoothie King. [5:25] Wait a second. They have different flavors of Tropical Smoothie. I won’t even know what to get. [5:31] They don’t have Bold after 10.30 at this Starbucks. I have to drink Pikes Place. [5:37] I drink Bold, not Pikes. Brew it.
[5:43] We laugh, but we know that somewhere in each and every one of our lives, there’s something, probably a whole host of things, if you’re like me, [5:54] that you don’t want to change for anything. You don’t like it. [5:58] I mean, I’m still wearing some of the same shirts I wore in high school. I like change that little.
[6:06] I think men kind of struggle with this the same. It’s kind of like when you go in your living room [6:10] and you invite someone over to your house and they’re in your recliner. [6:13] It’s like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. That’s the throne, brother. [6:17] You ain’t the king of this ship. Even at my parents’ house, I’ve sat at the same place at the dinner table for 30 years, probably. [6:28] And if I walk in and somebody’s in it, I almost leave because I’m like the authority structure in this home is just falling apart. [6:37] All right. Everything’s ruined. Condemnation is happening all around us.
[6:42] Apocalypse is setting in. I need my chair. [6:45] All right. And you’re like, Steve, you’re not really like that. You’re exaggerating. Sure. Yeah, let’s pretend I’m exaggerating. [6:53] I need help. I really do. But the thing is, is so do you. [6:58] Because even though you may not be honest about it, you struggle with many of the same things I do. [7:03] And these are just like simple lifestyle changes.
[7:07] This isn’t to go into something far more detrimental to our lives because the gospel doesn’t say I’m going to come in and change just a few key components around in your life, which we would be uncomfortable to begin with. [7:23] But the gospel is this work done on our behalf by Jesus. It’s this good news that we hear. [7:28] And when we believe that when we trust in it, God says he sends his spirit to live in us.
[7:36] And it changes not just a few things, not just some things. [7:42] It changes the very foundations of who we are. [7:48] Paul goes so far in Galatians chapter two as to say that the life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. [7:59] When he says that, he’s saying the life I now live. In other words, there’s been a change and I’m living my life in its entirety differently.
[8:11] Everything has changed. Not just a few things. Everything. [8:18] And I have yet to come into contact with the person who is completely comfortable with that type of change. [8:26] But the thing is, is that the change of the gospel is beautiful.
[8:31] There’s nothing more revolutionary that brings more beauty into our lives. [8:35] It takes us from a place where we’re obsessed with death to a place where we have life. [8:40] And even something that’s a good change that will bring nothing but goodness into our lives. [8:46] This is what we do. OK, I’ll hear.
[8:52] Hear and hear. [8:55] These are the things that I’m comfortable with changing, even for the greatest news, the greatest thing, the greatest mission, the greatest everything that has ever come. [9:06] God becoming man to redeem me and giving me the purpose that I was created to live for in the first place. [9:14] And what we do is we negotiate. [9:17] We say, I’m good with this, I’m good with that, I’m good with this. [9:20] Don’t so much like people. So not going to be around people too much. Don’t expect that.
[9:26] I don’t like reading, so I’m not going to be in the Word. [9:29] I’m kind of scatterbrained, so prayer is kind of one of those things that I’m not really comfortable with either. [9:33] Wait a second, I’m supposed to, oh, this is news, so I’m supposed to communicate it to others that don’t know it. [9:39] Well, that could be awkward and change my whole social structure, so I’m not going to be but so serious. [9:43] It’ll be kind of like a hobby that other people have. [9:46] The gospel will be kind of like a hobby in my life, and I don’t think anyone would say the gospel is a hobby, but we sure do act like it sometimes.
[9:54] And so there’s that little bit of change. We’re like, OK, but when it comes to changing everything, we don’t know about it. [10:02] What I want to do this morning is I want to go into the scriptures and I want to see why we cannot resist the change that the gospel is to bring and still say that we trust it. [10:15] We can’t do it. Go to Second Corinthians, Chapter three this morning.
[10:21] I’m going to read two different parts of this chapter because I know at some point you would like to eat lunch. [10:28] We’re going to start reading in verse three. I’m not going to go through the whole chapter.
[10:34] And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. [10:51] Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God, not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything is coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. [11:09] For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. [11:14] The first thing I want you to understand about the change that must happen in our lives for the gospel to be true in our lives is that the hope of the gospel is revealed through real life change.
[11:30] The hope of the gospel is revealed through real life change. [11:35] Notice the few things that he says in this text. First, he says that we do not come in the change that happens in our lives through the gospel is not shown through simple writings. [11:46] This is not just simply even a spoken word. It’s not just simply something that’s written down as dogma or tradition. [11:54] This is something that God, through the life that is given us by his Spirit, gives us brand new life, not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts themselves.
[12:11] It’s telling basically that there’s something revolutionarily different here than in anything else that’s being offered through religion or through life force or through any type of spirituality that’s offered. [12:22] Because everything else at this point, and even up until this day, everything else is simply a tradition or a theory that has been invented. [12:31] And what Paul is saying is this is not a theory that’s been concocted. This is not a religion that’s been invented. [12:37] This is an actual move from an actual God to change your hearts. [12:43] And what I believe he is referencing here when he says it’s not written on tablets of stone, but on human hearts, is I believe that he’s referencing Ezekiel, which is a prophecy from the Old Testament, Ezekiel 36 verses 26 through 27. [12:56] And this is what God says to the nation of Israel through Ezekiel. He says, and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit.
[13:03] I will put within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. [13:10] And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
[13:21] Ezekiel, God is speaking through Ezekiel at this point to an entire nation that has been basically chosen by God to be the forerunners of Jesus. [13:31] Jesus comes out of the people of Israel and God says to them that you are not following me. You actually have hearts of stone. [13:39] Because at this point in the nation of Israel’s history, they’ve become exceedingly disobedient. [13:43] Now they’re actually following most of the letter of the law that God has given, but what they’ve done is the places where God says, [13:52] I want your heart, I want your passion, I want your desire, I want the love that I have actually given you the ability to have through my image. [14:01] That’s what I really want. Instead of that, they’ve said, we’re not capable.
[14:06] So what they were doing at this point in Israel’s history is that they were just coming up with more and more rules, more and more things that they can do. [14:16] And the book of Matthew, Jesus actually looks at them and saying, you’ve taken it so far that you are tithing of your spice racks.
[14:27] So they were doing things. But God said, that’s not what I want. I want your hearts. [14:34] And what I’m going to do is because you may not know it, but you have a heart of stone right now. [14:40] And I’m going to do work. He doesn’t say you’re going to do a work. [14:44] He says, I’m going to do a work in which I will come in and I will take that heart of stone and I will put a heart of flesh inside of you. [14:55] Think about that allegory just for a second. [15:00] When you have something that’s stone, what that brings to mind is something that’s cold, something that’s hard, something that’s unfeeling, something that’s just so solid you can’t hope to change it.
[15:11] You can only hope to break it.
[15:16] And have you ever passed by a construction crew and seen one of the operators operating a jackhammer on a sidewalk on some cement, on some good stone? [15:25] That’s what they have to do. They can’t just move stone. They have to take it and they have to break it.
[15:32] God is saying, I’m going to change everything. [15:36] And I’m going to take a sledgehammer to it and I’m going to soften your heart and then I’m just going to take it out and then I’m going to put a new one in that comes directly from me. [15:45] My spirit is going to abide inside of you. [15:48] Now think about it this way. Those of you that haven’t really seen any change in your lives, you haven’t really seen where the gospel has changed you very much. [15:55] If you go from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh, is that a change? [16:00] I mean, under any definition, of course, that’s a change.
[16:04] One is dead, lifeless, unfeeling, not beating, it can’t move. [16:08] And one, this heart of flesh, and he’s actually literally talking, he’s making them think about the way the human heart works, how it exists, what does it do? [16:16] It pumps, it moves, it pushes blood in, excuse me, it brings blood in, it pushes blood out throughout the body. [16:22] It is a very source of life that we have. [16:27] And God says, I’m going to bring such revolutionary change in. [16:31] It’s going to be as if you’ve experienced life for the very first time and you are not going to be responsible for it, are you?
[16:38] And that’s why it’s hope.
[16:42] It’s because it comes from an outside source. [16:44] We needed to be saved because the changes that we were trying to make, which really weren’t changes at all, [16:50] they were just things to make us more comfortable, make us feel like we weren’t condemned, make us feel like we knew life. [16:57] The changes that we were enacting and that we will enact over and over and over again do nothing to change our foundational status [17:05] in the way that we think, the way that we actually live, in the way that we actually see things. [17:11] Because I can change your actions, but I cannot change your heart.
[17:18] If you shock a mouse enough times and amaze, it’s going to go the other way. [17:23] But it may not want to. [17:25] It may have really liked that way.
[17:28] But what God is saying in Ezekiel, what Paul is saying that God has done through the work of Jesus Christ, [17:34] is that he’s not simply changing the way we act. [17:37] He’s changing the way that we feel, the way that we think, the way that we believe, the way that we exist, the air that we breathe. [17:46] He wants us to be so dependent on him that our very life hinges on the life that he puts inside of us. [17:54] And there’s no way you can foundationally change who you are without changing everything.
[18:02] I don’t know about you, but that makes me a little uncomfortable.
[18:07] I say, wait a second, I can’t go through the same routines I’ve always been going through.
[18:13] I don’t believe you can.
[18:17] If you change foundationally, will that not affect your routines? [18:24] Think about that. [18:26] Will that not affect your very values as a person?
[18:33] Consider that for a moment. [18:37] Because that’s the very thing that we often resist when we look in that. [18:43] The hope that we desire to have, and everyone wants hope. [18:49] Hope is not something that everybody’s like, many people will say, I am hopeless, but I’ve never met a person that says, I desire to be hopeless. [18:57] That’s something that I’m really good with, makes me feel good. [19:01] Everyone wants hope, because we all know that something’s wrong.
[19:07] That’s why we make some certain changes. [19:10] What do you do when you’re unhappy with your job? You look for a new one, because your hope is found in a new job.
[19:16] Why do you think the divorce rate is so high? You’re unhappy in your marriage, what do you do? You find another one. [19:21] Unhappy with your girlfriend, find another one. [19:24] What the Scriptures are actually saying here, our hope is not found in the places that we think it’s found. [19:31] Our hope is found in changing us, not changing things.
[19:39] But you see, the power that God brings into our lives through the Spirit, look in verse 6 real quick. [19:45] He says, our sufficiency, ending verse 5, He says, our sufficiency is from God.
[19:53] So what you need to do with that is you need to realize, look at that verse and say, there’s nothing I can do to change myself. [20:00] Nothing. Write that in the margin if you want to. [20:02] Nothing I can do to change myself, because those changes will drive me further and further into hopelessness. [20:08] Because what I’ll find is that I’m just as dissatisfied with the change that I can bring as I was before. [20:15] You will be, I promise. [20:18] You will, young guys, you will never find a girl that’s perfect as you want her to be.
[20:25] Because I’ve found with young men is that that’s where they look for their hope.
[20:30] They look for it in a female, young ladies look for it in a husband. I went to Liberty. [20:33] There were so many girls looking for their MRS degree. It was ridiculous. [20:38] That was Mrs., by the way. That was a funny joke. [20:40] You’ll be driving home today and you’ll say, you know, Steve had a good one that I didn’t laugh at and I regret that.
[20:48] I think all my jokes are funny, so it’s okay.
[20:52] And what we do is we try to find hope in these positions and postures in our lives. [20:57] Are these people that we can bring, are these people that we can push out? [21:00] And we find over and over again is there’s never perfection. Never. [21:06] So we have dissatisfaction. [21:07] So what Jesus, excuse me, what Paul is saying here is that our sufficiency and the satisfaction that we seek is not going to come from within us. [21:15] It can only come from God himself.
[21:16] And then he says, God, who has made us competent?
[21:23] Who’s made us competent? You ever felt incompetent? [21:26] Had to pull one of the trailers this morning and it fell off. [21:32] It did. [21:33] I’m on Charter Colony Parkway, not like in the driveway. [21:37] I’m driving down the road and it’s now dragging down the road. [21:41] All right. Totally incompetent, Steve is where that’s concerned.
[21:44] I’ve felt incompetent. [21:47] I guarantee you that in some place in your life, you have sought change.
[21:53] And you felt totally incompetent.
[21:58] See, that was a good one, huh? [22:00] When you have felt totally incompetent. [22:04] And I’m talking about maybe you sought some serious change, a career change, a relationship change, and you just fell flat on your face. [22:13] And every one of you, if you haven’t experienced, well, you will. [22:18] You will.
[22:20] And you have felt absolutely incompetent to bring the change. [22:25] And you wanted it. [22:27] You didn’t get the job. You didn’t get the girl. [22:29] You didn’t get the grade. You didn’t get the prize winning catch in the game. [22:34] Something made you feel incompetent. [22:36] And God says, with the change that I am bringing, understand, it does not depend on your competence.
[22:46] Because God has made us competent through Jesus. [22:49] Because our competence is based on the cross and nothing else.
[22:55] You are incompetent. [22:58] But that’s why it’s good news. [23:00] God doesn’t care anymore. [23:04] Because He laid that incompetence on His Son and you don’t have to pay the price for it.
[23:10] You don’t have to pay the price for your incompetence. [23:16] Jesus has paid it. [23:18] But more than that, we don’t just have to start over. [23:21] We don’t just get a second chance. [23:22] God just says, my Son’s competent and so are you now. [23:27] I impute His righteousness onto you.
[23:29] And you are in the same category, righteous-wise, as He is.
[23:37] This is not about guilt change.
[23:41] This is about a majestic realization of your royal standing with God and then living it out in your life.
[23:50] Hope brings real life change.
[23:55] Understand, number two this morning, to resist change is to resist the Gospel. [24:03] To resist change is to resist the Gospel. [24:08] A lot of you just got uncomfortable. [24:10] I did too. [24:12] Because I don’t like it any more than you do. [24:15] But look in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, go up to verse 12.
[24:22] He’s jumping off of this section. [24:24] He says, since we have such a hope, we are very bold.
[24:31] In other words, we’ve been made competent by God. [24:33] We’ve been made sufficient through the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf. [24:36] And we are bold in our lifestyle that we refuse to live with the guilt and the baggage that sin would place upon us. [24:45] And we are bold in the way that we live out the hope. [24:48] We live out the change that God has brought to our lives. [24:51] But look at this, not like Moses.
[24:56] You’re like, wait a second, Moses was one of the big daddies. [25:00] If you don’t know anything about the Bible, you probably know of Moses. [25:03] He led Israel out of Egypt. [25:05] And here Paul is saying, the boldness you have is not like the boldness of Moses. [25:10] It’s better. [25:11] Because look, it says,
[25:12] who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. [25:20] But their minds were hardened. [25:22] For to this day, when they read the Old Covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. [25:30] Yes, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. [25:35] But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. [25:40] Here, what Paul is referencing, just really quick, and I’m going to fly through this one,
[25:44] is Exodus chapter 33, when Moses had been in the presence of the Lord to receive the Ten Commandments, [25:50] he had actually said, God, please allow me to see your glory. [25:54] And God said, you can’t see my glory because you’re a sinner. [25:57] It’ll kill you. [25:59] And God says, but do this, hide behind the clump of a rock, and I will pass by, [26:05] and you will see just the very garment, the very backside of my glory.
[26:10] And that’s what happened. [26:11] And what happened to Moses is that he was so changed by the glory of God that when he came off of the mountain, [26:21] the Israelites looked at him and they were frightened out of their minds because Moses was shining like the sun. [26:29] It wasn’t that he had red hair and a ruddy complexion. [26:33] He was literally putting off light because the glory had revolutionized him so much and they couldn’t bear to look at him. [26:44] And I believe it’s because their sinful state.
[26:46] They could not bear to look on someone that had been near the glory of God and had been transformed by it. [26:53] So what Moses would do is in the Holy of Holies, he would walk in to be in the presence of God, [26:59] and then he would walk out and so that he would not frighten the Israelites, he would put a veil over his face [27:06] because they couldn’t look at the glory. [27:09] They didn’t want to be around him. [27:12] And what Paul is saying here is when the glory of the Lord, the work of Jesus Christ comes into your life,
[27:18] you are to live boldly walking in his glory. [27:22] And it is going to be a change that people will see and they will wonder what is this change? [27:31] What is this hope? [27:33] That’s why 1st Peter chapter 3 verse 15 says that always be ready to give an answer when people ask you about the hope that is in you. [27:45] He’s not talking about simply making an academic defense of the faith because you’ve got all the right answers. [27:50] No, he’s saying that Peter is saying this is a guy that denied Jesus and was radically transformed and then he died for the gospel.
[27:58] He says there’s going to be a hope in you when the gospel changes you. [28:03] And that hope will be so revolutionary in the culture that you live in that people will wonder at why you have so much hope, [28:12] why the trust in God has changed the way that you live so much. [28:16] And Peter was writing that book to a group of people who were literally in modern day Turkey, [28:23] totally running out of Jerusalem so they wouldn’t have to suffer the persecution in Rome. [28:27] And they find themselves in an area they’ve never lived in.
[28:30] Not only are there no Christians, but there are no Jews. [28:33] So culturally, they’re very uncomfortable and people are beginning to kill them. [28:38] And Peter says, you will have a hope even in the face of being killed and people will be shocked by it and say, tell me about this hope.
[28:52] And if you go to modern day Turkey, because of those people, there were cathedrals built because Christianity came in and they’d never seen hope like that.
[29:04] And it’s not because they just knew it. [29:07] They knew the answers. [29:08] They knew the Bible verses. [29:10] It’s because the Spirit came in and took that heart of stone out and put a heart of flesh in. [29:14] And they said, God, I’ll move with you. [29:15] God, I’ll live for you.
[29:17] God, whatever change you want me to make, I’ll make it. [29:21] But what happened in Israel is that they decided that they would live by the letter of the law rather than the glory that they saw that Moses had been in the presence of. [29:30] And so, whoa, whoa, whoa, you can’t expect to change who I am.
[29:37] You can change a few things about me, but you can’t change who I am to the core. [29:42] And I’ve had conversations with people that tell me they’re believers and they have all the right answers. [29:47] And I actually had one conversation, a very close friend of mine, and he says, God can change a lot about a person, but he can’t change their personality.
[29:54] He says, that’s impossible. [29:56] You can’t change a person’s personality.
[29:59] No, let me tell you, God will change everything.
[30:07] Nothing is off base.
[30:10] To the very core of your emotional state, God can and will change you.
[30:18] Because what else would he need to do about me? [30:21] God doesn’t want me to just read a book. [30:25] God doesn’t want me to just throw a few Hail Marys. [30:29] God doesn’t want me to just follow a few dogmas or recite a few prayers or just, you know, do a few things to earn this favor. [30:39] He’s given it to me. [30:41] And the reason that he does it in the way that he does it and the violence that he does it and the ruthless pursuit that he does it is because he looks at me and he says, Steve, I want to change everything.
[30:52] Even that which you’re uncomfortable with. [30:56] So when I go about just changing a little bit here and a little bit there like Israel did for centuries.
[31:04] God says, you don’t get it. [31:07] I want to give you my life.
[31:11] I want the lines between who you are and who I am to be totally blurred.
[31:18] I want to give you a new life. [31:19] I want to give you mine. [31:21] And so when you fool around with just throwing these simple, you know, little offerings, these little tokens of your life up to heaven, God does not feel worshiped.
[31:33] God is not a hobby to be trifled with. [31:38] He’s the creator of the universe who says I should condemn you, but rather I will show my magnificent love to you and then give you my spirit. [31:47] And to say, well, there are certain things that God can’t change, or I don’t want him to change about me. [31:54] Who do you think you are?
[31:58] How dare I?
[32:01] How dare I tell God that there are places in my life that he cannot have? [32:06] There are things in my life that I’m unwilling to change. [32:09] But we resist. [32:16] We say, but not that. [32:19] Not that.
[32:22] But you’ve got to understand this morning that it’s not simply the change of activity.
[32:30] It’s an internal change. [32:33] And that’s going to drive that external activity.
[32:38] Internal change is not just the change of activity. [32:39] It’s the change that drives external change. [32:42] The gospel is a force of change. [32:44] You cannot describe it any other way. [32:45] Look in verse 16. [32:48] Yeah, buddy.
[32:52] But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. [32:56] That veil that Israel had where they were hiding from the glory of God. [33:00] Even when the cross, even when Jesus died, the veil that separated the holy of holies from the rest of the temple was torn in two. [33:06] God says, my glory is now unleashed. [33:09] Jesus has paid the price for sin. [33:10] Nevermore to be paid again.
[33:13] So the veil of the glory of the Lord is to be lived in all the time. [33:16] There is now no sacred secular divide. [33:19] It does not exist. [33:22] In verse 17, he says, now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
[33:31] The change that the gospel brings is what everyone on earth desires. [33:36] It is because everyone is seeking some type of change, but they’re trying to change themselves. [33:41] And God is saying, no, it’s going to come from me. [33:46] You cannot do it. [33:47] So I will do it for you. [33:49] My question this morning.
[33:51] What are you trying to change in your life? [33:55] To find the hope that God has already promised you. [34:00] Where are you dissatisfied in your life? [34:03] And that is where you’re seeking change that God says, just trust that I’ve given it to you and I will do the change.
[34:12] People my age, I’m 30 years old, and people my age are usually at some kind of transitional place in their lives. [34:17] They’re either, you know, married. [34:19] They just got married or they just had a few kids or they just started a career. [34:23] And it’s a very strange place to be in your life. [34:26] Because sometimes the career you wanted your whole life, you get it and you’re like, well, this is terrible. [34:31] I didn’t really want to do this.
[34:34] Or you get married and you’re like, I did not know him or her. [34:39] Oh, boy, I did not know that this is what it was going to be like, Mom.
[34:44] I say it that way because I think my wife probably had a few of those conversations with her mother. [34:49] I would if I was married to me. [34:51] And I don’t know what she was thinking. [34:52] I must have been a really good con artist to convince her to marry me. [34:57] But here’s what we do. [34:58] And I referenced it earlier.
[34:59] Here’s what we do. [35:01] You know, things aren’t going really good in Richmond for me. [35:05] You know, I bet if I moved to D.C., I’ll be happy.
[35:10] But I’ll be happy. [35:11] It’s a big city. [35:13] A lot of younger people, I guess, people, you know, Georgetown and Foggy Bottom. [35:17] This is really hip, you know, cultured.
[35:20] The restaurants are more expensive. [35:22] They’re locally owned. [35:24] They’re organic.
[35:26] Tasteless, probably.
[35:29] There’s some organic people in here. [35:30] That’s not true.
[35:33] It’s so full of taste. [35:36] I like Little Debbie’s.
[35:39] They’re a little organic. [35:42] I think they started as corn somewhere. [35:45] And they got processed a few times along the way. [35:49] But here’s what we do. [35:50] And then we move. [35:51] Let’s say we just moved to Chaco Bottom.
[35:54] 15 minutes down the road. [35:57] We find the same disappointments. [36:00] Same dissatisfaction.
[36:03] Same sin. [36:05] Everywhere we go. [36:06] We get a new job because we didn’t like the people at our last job. [36:10] And there’s always that one lady. [36:12] She seems to follow you to every job you go to. [36:15] Different name. She looks different.
[36:18] Same devil woman.
[36:21] All right. [36:23] And you’re like, ah, she followed me. [36:26] There’s no hope.
[36:31] You know, you get on a new diet. [36:32] You lose 40 pounds. [36:33] And then you realize you still like pizza.
[36:37] That change didn’t stick.
[36:42] The people there in my Bible site laugh because I like food.
[36:46] You’re like, we know. [36:47]
[36:50] Whatever.
[36:52] Here’s the key. [36:54] You are attempting to do on the outside. [36:58] What can only be done on the inside?
[37:02] Or have you ever been in a place where everyone around you is wrong but you?
[37:08] Everyone else needs to change but you. [37:11] No one’s treating you right. [37:13] No one’s doing right. [37:14] And man, I can name 12 people right now that need some drastic changes in their lives.
[37:23] I can tell you, they’ll never change.
[37:28] You want to know why? [37:29] Because you’re not changing. [37:31] See, the hope of the gospel never starts with the person next to you. [37:35] Maybe in his sovereignty it will, but you’re not to wait until they change.
[37:41] The hope of the gospel starts inside of you, an outside force coming in. [37:45] Not with external activities that lead only to religion and pride. [37:51] If you could make the changes or change other people to the degree that your life will be full of hope and full of happiness, Jesus would not have needed to die on the cross.
[38:02] But the problem is you. [38:04] The problem is me. [38:06] The problem is that I am a sinner seeking hope in false places. [38:10] And the work that needs to begin is a work inside of who I am. [38:15] My very core values as a person needs to change and needs to go to the cross. [38:21] Whereas the only place I can find relief from the sins that so easily beset me.
[38:27] And then what happens is, is when I realize the change that needs to take place in me, people begin to see that change and then they have hope of change too because now I’m a minister of the gospel. [38:39] And they’re actually seeing the change that the glory of God brings into someone’s life. [38:47] Finally this morning, gospel change is the continual progressive work of God. [38:56] I’m really going to hit fast forward right now. [38:59] So good luck keeping up. [39:01] Verse 18.
[39:19] There’s four things in that verse that you need to see. [39:24] First thing you need to see is the very beginning of the verse. [39:27] And we all with unveiled face. [39:32] How does the gospel say that that veil that separates me from the glory of God comes off? [39:37] It’s Jesus. [39:39] Understand this morning that at the moment of salvation, when you trust God, as feeble as your faith will be when you first come to Christ, as little as you have figured out when you first come to Christ.
[39:52] I’ve been a believer for years. [39:54] I’ve been in church for years and I still feel like my knees of faith are so wobbly. [39:59] But in spite of me, God has taken the veil of his glory off. [40:07] Not because of me.
[40:10] The only reason I can see with an unveiled face is because of what Jesus has done for me. [40:18] I can’t take any pride in it. [40:20] I can only worship in light of it because he’s done it. [40:28] The veil that is keeping you from the glory of God is a veil that God will remove if you will trust in the vicarious substitutionary work of Jesus on your behalf. [40:40] Because you couldn’t die for your sins. [40:42] You’re not perfect.
[40:43] You can only die for your own and then be condemned for eternity. [40:46] Jesus, sinless, perfect Son of God, took on flesh. [40:51] He’s eternal. [40:52] He’s the God who spoke the world into existence. [40:55] He said, in spite of your sin, in spite of your rebellion, I love you. [40:59] I’m dying for you.
[41:00] I’m taking your sin onto myself. [41:02] And he takes the veil off. [41:05] And I can see the glory of God. [41:07] So what does that do? [41:08] Secondly, it’s this continual work. [41:11] When you come to Christ, there is transformation.
[41:14] There is a change. [41:15] In John, Chapter three, he looks at Nicodemus and he says, You must be born again. [41:20] It’s a total change. [41:21] But what happens in being born again is that you are changed so that you can continue changing. [41:28] We talked about that a little bit in the alive series. [41:30] But look at the way Paul puts it.
[41:32] He says, Beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed.
[41:37] You see the continuality there? [41:41] Couldn’t quite get the word out. [41:42] Continuity. [41:42] Do you see it? [41:45] Being transformed. [41:46] That is a tense that is present yet continuous in the grammar.
[41:53] So it’s not a one time change. [41:54] Some of you are looking back in your life and saying, Well, ten years ago, I saw God do something and he changed me ten years ago. [42:02] So I don’t need it anymore, right? [42:04] No.
[42:06] It’s a continuous work of God. [42:08] When you were first a believer, didn’t you think some pretty crazy stuff that wasn’t true once you actually read the scriptures? [42:16] You’re like, Oh, OK, I didn’t know that. [42:20] That’s called growth, folks. [42:23] It’s called change.
[42:26] I’ll change. [42:28] It’s continuous.
[42:30] I’ll ask you a question.
[42:33] Where’s God changing you right now?
[42:38] Not ten years ago.
[42:40] Not a month ago.
[42:46] For some of you, these recent changes have happened in your life are so you think they’re so small, but they’re huge. [42:53] Some of you hadn’t been to church in years before you started coming here. [42:55] You know, that’s change.
[42:58] That’s change. [43:00] Some of you were about to give up.
[43:03] That’s change. [43:05] But understand. [43:07] God doesn’t want to stop that. [43:09] He has so much more for you. [43:13] And if you cannot in your seat right now say, Here’s where I’m changing.
[43:20] Don’t be condemned.
[43:23] With unveiled face, you see. [43:26] God doesn’t show you where you need to change and the fact that you still need change to condemn you. [43:31] He does it as a dad disciplines his son in love so that his son will grow up. [43:37] Don’t resist it. [43:39] But like a kid, you’re going to.
[43:42] But don’t resist the change that God wants to bring into your life. [43:45] Don’t resist the change that the gospel brings. [43:48] Will it take time? [43:49] Probably. [43:49] Will it be hard? [43:51] Absolutely.
[43:52] The heart that leads to Jesus is very narrow. [43:56] Sometimes you need a machete, but that’s what community is all about.
[44:01] Because in community, what you do is you see the changes that are happening in other people’s lives, and sometimes they reach back and pull you along with them. [44:11] You cannot look at the way Jesus lived his life with the disciples or the way that the early church started and say, I can change by just me and Jesus in my living room.
[44:23] No, you need people in your life speaking truth into your life.
[44:28] What’s and I mean, I nailed this one so much and you’re probably sick of it. [44:32] But what is keeping you from getting into a community group? [44:35] Is a community group something that you have to do to be safe? [44:38] No, but it is an intentional environment that we at the village have created so that discipleship will take place. [44:46] Discipleship life on life is absolutely biblical. [44:49] It is the way that God designed his church to grow and designed his people to change and designed his people to learn how to follow him.
[44:58] So we create an environment called community groups so that people will get to know each other so that lives can be connected and discipleship can take place.
[45:09] What is stopping you from that change?
[45:14] You need to make that change. [45:15] Maybe you’re in a community group and you’re not being real.
[45:24] Maybe you can change. [45:25] Maybe you should email your community group leader, get coffee. [45:28] Maybe just start with a small change. [45:30] Just be real with the leader.
[45:33] I’m not saying you got to air all your laundry like 15 people. [45:36] Nobody wants to do that. [45:37] Maybe just start with one.
[45:40] Maybe just me.
[45:43] I’ll buy you lunch.
[45:46] You’re going to have to confess some sins or something, but I’ll buy you lunch.
[45:50] I’m just kidding. [45:51] You can buy me lunch if you don’t want to confess.
[45:55] By the way, I just like free lunches, folks. [46:00] I’m cheap too fast food.
[46:04] Then look thirdly in this verse and then we’ll be done.
[46:08] Our being transformed into the same image. [46:14] You know what that same image is? [46:15] It’s the image of Jesus. [46:18] We’re being transformed, each and every one of us, into the same image. [46:20] You know what that tells me? [46:22] That tells me it’s not based on what I want to change.
[46:26] It’s not based on my personality. [46:28] It’s not based on my preferences. [46:29] It’s not based on my likes or dislikes. [46:31] It’s based on Jesus.
[46:35] From one degree of glory to another. [46:40] See, that’s what the Christian life looks like. [46:42] It’s Jesus continuous progressive.
[46:47] When we resist the change, we resist the progression as we follow Jesus. [46:53] Jesus wants us to grow. [46:56] Jesus wants us to get closer to Him. [46:58] Jesus wants us to find our life in Him. [47:01] He doesn’t want us to grow more and more independent from Him. [47:04] Where we can stand on our own two feet.
[47:06] He wants us to grow more and more dependent on Him. [47:10] Where we realize more and more how incapable we are, [47:14] but how capable He is and how blessed we are to know Him and be saved by Him. [47:20] One degree of glory to another. [47:22] Are you going further into Jesus? [47:27] Are you continually changing?
[47:29] What is it? Is it scripture that you don’t want to read? [47:32] Is it prayer that you don’t want to pray? [47:35] Is it people that you don’t want to be around? [47:37] Is it relationships that you know you need, but you avoid because you’re not comfortable in them? [47:42] Is it volunteering that you’re just quite frankly too lazy to do?
[47:50] You could be a host of a hundred other things.
[47:54] Quite frankly, the need is greater than the effort that will be taken to change that verse.
[48:04] Because all it needs is one step.
[48:08] And that’s why we’re here as a church.
[48:12] That’s why we’re here. [48:14] We love you. [48:17] Finally, I just want to tell you this morning that resistance to this type of progression is a mission killer.
[48:26] You may not see much of the mission of Jesus taking place in your life.
[48:31] You may be just struggling so hard with the mission. [48:35] But realize that if you were to take a truck out into a field this afternoon, [48:40] let’s say it’s a hundred acre field, [48:41] and you drive forwards and backwards, just you keep the wheel straight. [48:45] Forwards, backwards, forwards, backwards, forwards, backwards. [48:48] At first, it’s going to be easy. You can turn a steering wheel and go out.
[48:51] But after a while with our habits and our routines, [48:54] when we go forward, backward, forward, backward, forward, backward, ruts begin to form. [48:58] Forward, backward, forward, backward, forward, backward. [49:00] And we start to sink into that dirt. [49:01] Forward, backward, forward, backward, forward, backward. [49:03] And after a while, you can’t steer the wheels out of the rut.
[49:09] Because you’re up to like the catalytic converter in dirt now.
[49:14] So before what would be an easy turn, now you’re going to have to call a tow truck.
[49:23] Now it’s going to have to be some serious work, serious labor.
[49:30] Here’s the key. [49:32] Some of you have been developing ruts for decades.
[49:37] Decades.
[49:40] You’ve got habitual sin.
[49:42] Just straight up unbiblical immorality. [49:45] You’ve got it, you know. [49:48] You’re in a rut.
[49:51] Some of you, it’s just something simple, but you’re in a rut.
[49:55] You can get out of that truck all you want to, pull on the bumper.
[50:01] You’re not going to get it out. [50:03] You’re not going to get it out. [50:05] Jesus doesn’t expect you to get it out.
[50:10] Jesus wants to heal those ruts. [50:14] He wants to fill the dirt back up. [50:18] And He wants to drive the truck. [50:22] But sometimes it’s not as mystical as you think it needs to be. [50:29] Sometimes it’s as simple as praying, help the Lord. [50:34] And sometimes it’s as simple as talking to a friend.
[50:41] Who can pray with you, pray for you, and carry you all the way to Jesus.
[50:48] Be the church. [50:51] Stop resisting change.
[50:56] Father, we love you.
[51:00] I’m going to ask you this morning, Father, that you would begin to tear down the walls that we are building. [51:10] To the change that you want to bring into our lives. [51:14] That we would stop resisting you, Father.
[51:19] Your gospel saves us and it wants to continue to transform us. [51:24] Lord, you have worked redemption into so many of our lives, yet we’re struggling to live your mission.
[51:34] Lord, and some of us, we need to be redeemed. [51:37] Lord, I pray this morning that you would begin a work in this church of redemption, of transformation. [51:45] And that we would not be a people that are defined by our resistance to change. [51:51] But rather we would look at whatever needs to take place to take the gospel further into our lives. [51:57] And then drive it out of our lives into the lives of others. [52:00] And we would say, yes Lord, change us.