Skip to content Stand Alone Messages: Experiencing Christ Aug 16 · 55 min ...more
Stand Alone Messages: Experiencing Christ
August 16, 2021 · 55 min
In one short verse of Galatians 2:20 we learn the secret to Paul living a victorious Christian life. In writing to the Galatians, he shared how the grace of God is what grows us and sanctifies rather than outward behaviors. This means that the Christian life is not about what I begin to do or stop doing that pleases God, rather it involves Christ being able to live His very life in and through me. This amazing truth helps us to root our identity in Jesus Christ and believe that we are truly everything that God says about us because we belong to Him. Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub
Series BRAVE Church August 16, 2021 · 55 min · BRAVE Church
In one short verse of Galatians 2:20 we learn the secret to Paul living a victorious Christian life. In writing to the Galatians, he shared how the grace of God is what grows us and sanctifies rather than outward behaviors. This means that the Christian life is not about what I begin to do or stop doing that pleases God, rather it involves Christ being able to live His very life in and through me. This amazing truth helps us to root our identity in Jesus Christ and believe that we are truly everything that God says about us because we belong to Him. Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub ...more Show the full description Show less In one short verse of Galatians 2:20 we learn the secret to Paul living a victorious Christian life. In writing to the Galatians, he shared how the grace of God is what grows us and sanctifies rather than outward behaviors. This means that the Christian life is not about what I begin to do or stop doing that pleases God, rather it involves Christ being able to live His very life in and through me. This amazing truth helps us to root our identity in Jesus Christ and believe that we are truly everything that God says about us because we belong to Him. Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub
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Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub serves as president of Pastor Jeff Ministries, a national and global ministry designed to equip believers and challenge them to take
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0:00 Lord Jesus, thank you for who you are and all you're doing in our lives. Lord, we gather to worship you because your name is above every name and you're the only 1 who is worthy of all of our honor and praise. And so0:11 Lord, we gather today because we not only wanna worship you, we wanna hear you. And we believe that every time this book is faithfully proclaimed that you speak and so we're inviting you now to speak directly to our0:21 hearts and give us a greater glimpse of who we are in you and what you wanna do in and through us. And now for all God's people who have gathered, who desire to hear the word of the Lord, who will believe what the Lord0:33 shows you and will by faith put into practice what he shows you. Will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word, Amen, Amen. The mission of Brave Church is to help you experience the0:45 fullness of Jesus Christ. It's to help you experience the fullness of Jesus Christ. Ephesians 4 11 says that our job is to equip the saints for the work of ministry. We believe in the priesthood of all believers. We0:55 believe that every single person who is a believer matters to God because God wants to use every single believer for His glory. And so what we want you to be able to do here when you're a brave church is to1:07 experience Christ to the full. Now here's the problem in many Christian circles. There are people who regularly gather for worship services, oftentimes sitting in the exact same seats, trying to find the exact same1:17 parking space, only to leave the church unchanged, not much different than you were before. And some feel that, no, that's the pastor's job to grow spiritually or some of those special saints to grow1:29
1:40 Christian, the Bible says that everything pertaining to life and godliness was given to you in Christ. You have everything you need. But for many Christians, what I find is even Christians that would say, I wanna
1:50 experience Christ or I'd love to experience more of Christ, I don't quite know how to do that and I want to do that. And my desire as your pastor and our desire as a church is to see you equipped and know God
2:02 well enough that as you continue to walk with Him that you could say, I am experiencing the love of Christ in my life and I am experiencing it to the full and I am continuing to grow in that. And if that's you here today
2:14 and you would say, you know what, I'm either experiencing Christ to the full, give me more or you would say, I'm not experiencing Christ to the full. Maybe you don't even know Christ yet or maybe you know Him, but you've
2:23 plateaued or you're plummeting in your faith and you would say, I'd love to remember what it was like, those first moments where I trusted Christ and I wanna continue to have that experience on an ongoing basis. So
2:34 that's you today, the Lord has a word for you. I'm gonna encourage you to open your Bible to the book of Galatians, Galatians chapter 2. And as you're turning there in your Bible in the New Testament, just wanna set
2:46 up this book. This was written by the Apostle Paul to a group of churches in Galatia, who were struggling with this idea that even after they became believers, they were trying to keep all the works of the law. So in
2:57 other words, they realized they were saved by grace, but they didn't know that they could continue to live by grace. And so they were going back trying to keep all the rules and rituals and the apostle was writing back
3:07 to them saying, no, you were saved by grace, you grow in grace. And let me explain to you how all of that works. And when he gets down to chapter 2 in verse 20, he has a thought about who he is in
3:19 Christ that I believe is true for every single believer. Now for those of you've been coming to brave for a while, we've been covering a lot of the landscape. We've gone from Genesis one:one all the way through
3:28 Revelation 22, 21. We've covered a ton and ton of ground. Today, we're gonna be in 1 verse. Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20. Many of you haven't memorized. I know I haven't memorized, but I've probably memorized it in
3:39 so many different versions. I'm gonna read it from my Bible, so that we can be here. And as you hear the Apostle Paul's word as a testimony to himself, know that this word is true to every single person who calls himself
3:50 a believer in Lord Jesus Christ. And here's what he says, I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh,
4:02 I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me. Read it 1 more time. I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life at which
4:14 I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me. And as we look at that verse, for many as we heard that verse before, I wanna unpack 4 elements from this verse that I
4:25 think are essential if you're gonna experience the Lord Jesus Christ to the full in your life. No matter who you are, these are true for you. And the first is this, if you're gonna experience Christ to the full, it
4:36 starts with death. Experience Christ, experiencing Christ to the full starts with death. Notice how the apostle says this. He says, I have been crucified with Christ. I've been crucified with
4:48 Christ. The challenge so often in leading people to the Lord is what we wanna do is we wanna promise people all the blessings of Jesus Christ without them coming to the end of themselves. In other words, the gospel that
4:58 we falsely proclaim is, you can have all the blessings of Christ and continue to live your life the way you wanna live your life. That is not the gospel anywhere. You won't find it anywhere in the New Testament. There
5:08 will be no place where you meet Jesus talking to somebody who is a sinner, who he tells, just go continue to live your life of sin and just pray this magic prayer and I'll take you to heaven someday. It's not there.
5:20 There has to be a death and why? Because the gospel itself, the good news of Jesus Christ, all centers on the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The only way that we can have relationship with God is through
5:31 the death of Jesus. For Christ died for our sins once and for all according to the scriptures to bring you to God. That God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him would not
5:41 perish but have eternal life. Right? God the father sent the son to be the savior of the world. Jesus Christ came into the world over 2000 years ago as incarnate flesh, fully God and fully man, fulfilled the law,
5:53 but what made our access to God possible began with his death on the cross. It started with his death. If Jesus Christ had not died, we cannot have a relationship with God.
6:06 That's why Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life and no 1 comes to the father except through me. You might say, well, I believe in God or I'm very spiritual. If you don't believe that Jesus Christ death
6:17 is essential for the payment of your sins, I'm here to tell you, you do not have a relationship with the living God of the universe. It's through Christ and Christ alone that you can have life in his name. And it comes
6:29 through the death of Jesus, but the way in which all of us may enter is also through our death. That's the New Testament teaching of how we come to know Christ. Jesus made no bones about this. In Matthew
6:41 16 verse 24, He said, if anyone would come after me. That means if anyone wants to be with me, if anyone wants to know me, be my follower, be in relationship with me. If anyone would come after me, he
6:52 must, not he could, not it's a way, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. Jesus said, if you wanna have a relationship with God,
7:04 here's what you do. Number 1, you deny yourself. It all starts with a denial of self. Why? Because from the time you're born, we're falsely taught that this world is supposed to center around
7:16 us. Our needs, our desires, our wants, our goals, our dreams, our hopes, our desires, our spouses, our kids, our life. At some point in time, you have to come to the realization, it's not about you
7:27 anymore. God didn't put you on this earth to make your life about you. God put you on this earth to worship Him and serve others. So there must be a time in your life where you deny yourself, then take up His cross,
7:40 take up her cross. Everybody in the first century know what crucifixion was. Crucifixion was capital punishment. It was for those who had sinned the highest sins, who had
7:51 gone against the government, broken the highest laws, who had once publicly rebelled against Rome, were now publicly submitting to Rome's leadership all the way to their death. So the
8:03 ones who had been public in their disgrace of Rome, were now publicly going and being willing to die in front of everybody else. Here's what it means. It means to be a Christian means, from the time you're born, you've
8:15 been in rebellion against God. Now you might say, I've never been in rebellion against God, I'm a good person. The Bible would say, no, there is no 1 good, no, not 1. And the reason you think you're a good person is
8:25 because you're comparing yourself to the wrong thing. You're comparing yourself to other people, you're not comparing yourself to a perfect, holy, infinite triune God. You start comparing yourself to Him and you'll
8:35 realize, yeah, I'm not that great. I'm not good. There's nothing good in me. And so you have to deny yourself, take up your cross. Meaning this, I was once outwardly
8:47 outspoken public about my rebellion against God. Now in my life and in my words, I am publicly saying, I'm willing to go to my death for him. And then what? Follow
8:59 him. Follow him. What does it mean to follow Jesus? It means that you take his word as authoritative and do whatever he tells you to do whenever he tells you to do it. Even if you don't feel like it. Jesus said, that's
9:10 how you're gonna be my follower. That's how you're coming after me. It all begins with death. Now Jesus' death was different. When Jesus died on the cross, he was a substitutionary atonement for all of our sins, which
9:20 means he took your place. All of us here have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Some of us think we're worse sinners than others. I met a guy the other day, I invited him into church. He was buying my friend's
9:31 Harley and he was there and he looked like a Harley guy was tatted up all over and I said, man, you need to come to brave church. He said, if I came to your church, lightning would probably strike, right? And to which I
9:43 said, I'll pay you if it does. So I hope he's here today. Anyway, everybody's welcome. We have tears of sin as human beings, God doesn't. To break the
9:55 smallest law, the Bible says to break it all. And we have to realize that we're dead in our transgressions and sins that were already dead and Christ wants to make us alive. But we don't get to come to Jesus and just
10:05 take his blessings. All throughout the New Testament, that's what people wanted. They wanted him to feed them because they heard about him feeding the 5000. They wanted healing from him because they heard that he healed
10:17 diseases. They wanted demons cast out because they heard that he had the ability to do that. They wanted their dead children raised because they heard that he did that. We want all the blessings of Jesus. And so even
10:27 when Jesus would perform a miracle in the New Testament, often you'll see him say this, don't tell anyone. Don't tell anyone. Why would he say that? Aren't we supposed to tell everybody about Jesus? No, what he was
10:37 saying is don't tell everyone about the miracles I can do because the story is not over yet. Once Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead, then he said, now go tell the world. And that's when people are running
10:46 away, won't tell them that. I want the Jesus that heals and the Jesus that blesses and the Jesus good. I don't want the Jesus that hung on the cross and had to die for my sins, the 1 I have to come to in humility. I
10:56 don't want that Jesus. That's the only Jesus that there is and it starts with your death. Now, your death is not dying for the sins of the world. Your death is coming to the end of yourself when it comes to sin,
11:08 this world system and the devil. It's getting you to a place where you realize, I'm done with sin. I wish I didn't do it anymore. I'm done with the devil lying to me. I'm done with this world system. This is not working
11:19 for me. I need someone else. I need Jesus, which is oftentimes why when you hear a testimony of people who get saved later in life, God engineers circumstances in your life to let you hit rock bottom. Where you think
11:30 everything's going along fine until your spouse gets sick, until the death of a loved 1, until your child is rebellious, until that job you thought was gonna bring you all the success no longer wants you there anymore,
11:42 until, until, until. And now you're on your face saying, I did everything right. I went this way. It's not working out for me. What's going on? And it's God screaming at you trying to get your attention saying, you still
11:52 don't recognize you're a sinner and in need of me. You're still living completely for yourself. And in order to experience the fullness of life in Jesus Christ, you must come to the end of yourself. And it's God's grace
12:03 that gets you there. It's God's grace that shows you that you're not there and that's what God wants to do. That's why Jesus very boldly said that, I am the way, the truth and the life. I mean, I'm the only way
12:14 that you can get to God. I'm the only truth that's out there. I'm the only life you can experience. Anything else you experience outside of me is not true. And we're all born dead in our transgressions and sins as
12:26 Ephesians 2 1 tells us. But I mean, think about this, all throughout Jesus' ministry, you never see Him welcome people to Himself that at first don't realize they're a sinner. That's what I love about the New Testament.
12:37 We see them with prostitutes and they realize their shame, they realize their guilt, they realize they're no good and what does God do? He pours out mercy to them. But when Jesus gets around people like religious,
12:49 pharisaical people that think they have their whole act together, He just tells them truth that they need to repent. I mean, about the rich young ruler for a second, case in point. The rich young ruler comes to Jesus
13:02 and he says, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And here's Jesus answer. Why do you call me good? There's only 1 good. Meaning God's the only good 1, so why are you calling me God?
13:14 So Jesus tells him, well, keep the commandments. And this guy who Jesus just said, there's only 1 good me, meaning you're not good. Jesus tells him to keep the commandments. What's he say? I've kept all these since I was
13:26 a kid. I'm good too. Jesus said, no, you don't get it. And he looks inside of his heart and he says, go sell everything you have and then come follow me and your reward will be great. And what
13:38 does the man do? As Jesus looks at him and loves him and tells him that, that man walks away. Now to add insult to injury, many people in our generation would say something like this like, I don't want to leave. I mean,
13:49 the guy's got bank. I mean, he can help our ministry. Maybe we'll invite him back and tell him he's a good guy plus I'm looking at the other 12 I got and they're not all that great. Maybe we can bring them back. I mean,
14:00 if you don't need to die, then Jesus owes the rich young ruler an apology. Because as he's walking away, then Jesus commands to the crowd, he proclaims to the crowd, how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of
14:09 heaven. I'll tell you the truth, it's easier for the camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich person to enter the kingdom. So he basically says, that guy can't get in because his heart is for this
14:21 world. And there's no entrance when your heart is for this world. So the disciples are looking around like if he can't get in, then who can get in? Like he's a good dude. He's a good guy. He's trying to
14:33 keep the commandments. He's trying to be nice to you and you're sending him away. If he can't get in, then who can get in? And what does Jesus say? With man, is impossible, but with God, all things are possible. What
14:44 does that mean? God can save anybody that gets to the end of themselves. But the only way in is to realize I'm at the end of myself. I need something other than me, myself and I. I need something other than this world
14:56 supporting my life. I need something other than building my house upon the sand and all the things that the world promises. I need something different. I need the rock. You must die. It always starts with death.
15:08 1 of the reasons we have a hard time sharing the gospel with people is we don't wanna tell them that. We wanna tell them, hey, if you trust Jesus, He's gonna bless you. If you trust Jesus, He'll give you life. If you
15:16 trust Jesus, you'll go to heaven. True, but if you don't die, you can't have relationship with Him. If you're not willing to turn your back on sin, death and the devil in this world, you can't have relationship with
15:28 Him. That's why Jesus says in Mark 8 35 and 36, He says this, for whoever wishes to save his life will lose it. But he who loses his life for my sake will find it. For what is it profit a man
15:40 to gain the whole world and yet forfeit his soul? What good is it for you if you live the life? What good is it for you if you prospered in every way and at the end of your life, whether you live 50 years, 100 years,
15:51 150 years, what difference does it make if you built your house on something other than Jesus and spend eternity in hell apart from God because you chose to rebel against the God of the universe. What what does that
16:02 profit you? I mean, these are the ways that Jesus was bringing people to Himself. He was showing people He was exclusive. He's the only way and there's only 1 way to Him and through Him. And yet He was inclusive and then
16:13 He said, whosoever will may come. You wanna come, you can come. You recognize you're a sinner, you can come. You recognize you're lost, you can come. You recognize your life's not working, you can come. You recognize
16:24 that you're dead, you can come. But it's only through the cross that you can come. Now think about this for a while. Anybody here today have any fears ongoing in their heart? Any worries?
16:36 Any anxieties? Paul said, I've been crucified with Christ. Think about those things you worry about or fearful about, frustrated about, angry about. If you were dead, would you care?
16:48 I mean seriously, if you were dead, would you care? I mean the answer is obviously, no, I wouldn't care because I'd be dead. Here's what Paul says, I've have been crucified with Christ. It's a perfect tense verb. It
16:59 means it's already happened. I was saved. I was crucified with him. I was buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
17:09 I've been crucified with Christ and it has ongoing ramifications. So just because I was saved at this day, doesn't mean it stopped. Every day, I am putting my life to death so that Christ can be exalted in and through
17:20 me. That's what it means. Many of us don't experience Christ to the full because we don't start with death. I mean, the reality is when we hear stories or we see television programs
17:32 that show people on death row, where you hear their story and you realize, yeah, they deserve to die for what they did. And we realized they're living in a prison or a cell and it's just a matter of weeks or months until
17:43 they're gonna be executed. And it does something in your heart like that'd a horrible way to live your life knowing that you're gonna die. Friends, let me tell you from the time you were born, you're on death row. You've
17:52 been in your own prison of sin, you're in your own cage and you will die and you will face the Lord and apart from turning to Him, you will spend eternity in hell, all of us. That's why there has to be a realization by
18:03 the spirit of God that that's your condition and that you have a need for the glory of Christ. It always starts with death. It always starts with coming to the end of ourselves. That's why Paul was able to
18:15 endure all that he did. That's why he could be stoned and shipwrecked and beaten and starved and all these different things. And Paul, how do you do that? He's like, well, these light and momentary afflictions are
18:25 nothing compared to the weight of glory that is to come. Well, then Paul, we're gonna kill you. That's great for me to live as Christ to die is gain. I mean, what can you do to a dead man? I'm
18:36 already dead. It means that God has ordained all of your days before 1 of them came to be. Psalm 1 39 tells us that you get a certain amount of days and you get to live those quality of life either for yourself or for
18:47 Christ. And if you're really living for Christ and you're already dead, then every day that you get to live is just icing on the cake. So we as Christians should live as if we've already died and that every day we have
18:58 is a gift from the Lord to glorify him and serve other people. That's why he gave us life. Amen? Paul says, I have been crucified with Christ.
19:10 It starts with the death of me. And then let me give you the second point. Experiencing Christ to the full, also works from the inside out. It works
19:22 from the inside out. Notice what he says, for I've been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. What's he saying? He's saying for many of us as Christians, we think that the Christian
19:34 faith is an outward thing, that it starts outside. If you ask most people what a Christian is, they would tell you, people that try to be good people or people that try to follow the Bible, people that don't drink,
19:43 people that don't smoke, people that don't chew, people that are really critical of all these other people that aren't like them. I mean, that's what Christians are. They'll talk about the outside. They go to a church
19:54 service, they do these different things, they give That has nothing to do with Christianity. Christianity always starts on the inside and works its way out. Here's the beauty of the gospel. Hear me on this
20:06 because you may know this and you may not know this, but even if you know this, ask yourself if you're practicing this. The beauty of the gospel is this, when you come to the end of yourself and you begin to say, Lord, I
20:16 need to turn for myself and turn to Christ. That's called repentance and faith. That's the foundation of the gospel. It's the bedrock to the gospel. When you do that, it's not just that God promises to take you to heaven
20:27 someday. It's not just that he promises favor and blessing in your life. Here's what he promises. When you trust me, I will personally come to live inside of you.
20:39 I mean listen to this. Christianity is not outside in and what God's doing out there and I'm praying to him up here. Christ is in me. I mean think about Colossians chapter
20:50 1 and verse 27 and following, where Paul writes about this. He talks about the mystery that has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to his saints. Well, what is it
21:02 Paul? Verse 27, to whom God will to make known the riches of his glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
21:15 Remember when Jesus rose from the dead and he told his disciples he was gonna be going away. He told them that even before he went and was crucified, and then he ascended into heaven. Before he left, the disciples were
21:24 saying, well, where are you going and how come you're not gonna be here and what did Jesus say? It is good for you that I'm going away. It's good for you because if I go away, I will send you another, the counselor, the
21:35 Holy Spirit, the paraclete to be with you for how long? Forever. Here's what he was saying, right now, as fully God and fully man in the flesh, I can coach you, I can train you, I can be
21:47 here, but I go to heaven, I'm sending the third person to the Trinity, not a force. God himself in your life, so that everywhere you go, there I am. When you pray, I'm in
21:59 you. When you're seeking me, I'm in you. When you're looking for wisdom and a decision, I'm in you. I mean, have you thought about that for a moment? I mean, what Paul was saying is different than any other religion in
22:09 the world. Every other religion in the world is, what must you do to get right with God? What must you do to keep good with God? What are the prayers you pray? What are the things you do? There's no other faith in the
22:19 world that promises that their spiritual leader is God who will come to live on the inside of you. As a Christian, that's exactly what we're proclaiming. Amen? So when you become a
22:31 believer, the excitement is not, I get to go to heaven someday. That's good. That's a benefit. That's favorable. I'm looking forward to it. The benefit is, God came from heaven to you and lives in you and you are now his
22:43 vessel that he wants to use. I've been crucified with Christ, no longer I who live, I'm dead, but Christ who lives within me. It's his life. That's why when we get to Philippians, you'll read
22:55 in Philippians 2 about the humility of Jesus and all the way that he was, who did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, emptying himself, took the form of a man and to being found in him and being found a
23:05 man became a servant, became obedient to death, even death on a cross. And you hear God saying, so so live like that. Like, well, how do I do that? He tells us in Philippians 2 at the end
23:17 of that section. Philippians 2 verse 12 says, so then my beloved, just as you have always obeyed not as in my presence only, but not much more in my absence. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Notice what
23:29 he doesn't say. He doesn't say work for your salvation. He doesn't say now that you're a Christian, be really, really good. Now that you're a Christian, try harder. What does he say? Now that you're a believer, this
23:40 salvation which is in you, work it out. Let Christ out. Let him be everything in and through you that he wants to be. You are now his vessel to do that.
23:52 And he goes on in verse 13 and says it this way, for it is God who is at work in you both to willing to work for his good pleasure. Here's the beauty of the Christian faith. I love this. Christianity is not simply
24:03 sharing the gospel, so you get somebody saved, then they can go to heaven. That's great. Kindergarten. That's like 0.1. That's fantastic. But there's too many Christians that have trusted Christ, and then they say things
24:13 like this. What now? Already trusted Christ. Okay. I've already told all my friends about Christ. What do I do now? You get to allow the living God of the universe on the inside of your life to do things in and through
24:24 you that only he could ever do. It's awesome. God's not somewhere out there. God is in here. And because of who I am in Christ, that's my identity. That's how God sees
24:36 me. So every way that he sees Jesus is how he sees me. Now listen close to this and then we'll make application. So I'll tell you this on the authority of God's Word as your pastor.
24:48 I am holy. I am completely forgiven. I am adopted. I am beloved. I am God's cherished possession. God can't love me any more than he already does.
25:00 God thinks highly of me, his thoughts for me outnumber the grains of sand. I am crowned with glory and honor. You say, well, Jeff, I know you. I caught your kids out there in the parking lot on the way in
25:12 and you are not holy. Sometimes you do things that are no, no. That's what I did, that's not who I am. See, what began to shift for me about 4 or 5 years into my Christian faith is I stopped trying to
25:24 be what the Bible told me to be by trying to commit to it. How many have ever tried to commit to something Jesus said you can't do it? If you didn't raise your hand, you lied and that's
25:36 You can't commit to being holy. You won't even make it to your car. You have to believe that you already are and then he begins to work out your new
25:47 identity. I mean, the analogies we use sometimes come from second Corinthians 5 17 says, therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Behold, old things have passed away. All things have been made new. When we
25:59 taught through the Genesis series, the Alpha series, that God created the world in 6 literal days, arrested on the seventh. He made everything out of nothing He created. When you become a believer from the inside out,
26:09 that's exactly what He does in you. He takes your dead life with the emptiness of the spirit and He fills you with Himself, the Holy Spirit. He makes you alive. He creates you. You're fundamentally different than you
26:20 were before. God does it from the inside out, not the outside in. It'd be interesting if God did it from the outside I mean, if you got saved and you look totally radically different, you were totally chiseled as a guy,
26:30 you look beautiful as a girl. Oh, you got saved. Right? But God doesn't do that. He works from the inside out. You look exactly the same on the outside, but what begins to happen is you start walking it out and then
26:41 people like, what's going on? You're different now. I mean, the analogy I've always used is kind of the difference between a cat and a pig. Right? I mean, fundamentally different animals, fundamentally different natures.
26:53 If you went to a farm, you would see a pig in its sty rolling around in slop, doing all sorts of things and oinking and that kind of stuff. For those of you on cats, we'll pray for you at brave
27:05 church. But cats, my dad's a vet, he's here. Cats as a nature tend to take care of themselves. They're very independent animals. They would like you to know how independent they
27:17 are. They clean themselves. You can put a litter box there for a cat. It will take care of itself. You don't need to let them out for a walk. I mean, they're very independent animals, but they function differently. But
27:26 if you could read and reach inside a cat, you could reach inside a pig and you could change their nature. So on the outside they look the same, but inside they were fundamentally different. It'd be weird. Like you might
27:36 go down to your farm and you would see a pig and it might be up on the style like prancing along or another pig over there licking itself. And then you go over to pet it and it's like.
27:48 Then you hear a scream from the house and you run into the house and there's this cat just like lying around, going to bathroom everywhere and just total mud and like what happened? Well, the nature's got switched. When
27:59 you become a Christian, the Holy Spirit comes inside of you, your nature gets switched. And if you try to go back and live the way you were before, you can't get there. I mean, it's like the illustration of the
28:08 caterpillar and the butterfly. When a caterpillar becomes a butterfly, it doesn't go back and live as a caterpillar. It can't function that way anymore. It has to live as a butterfly. It now has wings. If a butterfly
28:19 tried to cover its wings and go hang out with all of its warm friends and try to pretend that it wasn't a butterfly and apologize for being able to fly and all these different things, the butterfly would be miserable.
28:29 Yet many of us as Christians with Christ in us go backwards and we try to live our lives the way they were before, apologizing to our non Christian friends for why we're a little bit different or trying to explain to
28:40 them that nothing's really different about us other than I'm going to heaven and you're not. No. No. Here's the reality. Everything's different about you now, and what God wants you to do is live out your identity in
28:50 such a way that as you speak it and as you live it, God begins to come through you in such a way where you own it, And everything that's true about you, you begin to practice. Now let's make a practical application.
29:02 Because we as Christians, we still sin in our life. There are some of you that genuinely know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, but you have this sin pattern in your life. And for some of you guys is pornography. For some
29:12 of you in this room, it's alcoholism. You wouldn't call it that, but you just drink every night until you get bust. It's called alcoholism. Some of you it's drugs. Some of you it's illicit sexual relationships. Some of
29:24 you it's the way in which you eat. Some of your anorexic bulimic. I mean, we could list all these different sins, but here's what we try to do as new creations in Christ. Instead of living out the new creations and no,
29:34 that's who I used to be, but I'm not that anymore. What we try to do is because we recognize God loves us so much, we try to go back and fix all those things. I'm gonna commit to not drinking anymore. I'm gonna commit to
29:45 eating different. I'm gonna do all this and I'm gonna cover up where I'm still struggling so no Christian ever sees me. It doesn't work. If you had anger problems before you got saved, you'll probably still have anger
29:56 problems after you're saved until you let your new identity in Christ change you. There's a difference between trying to fix your sin. Let me just tell you this, just it'll save you a ton of time and you'll thank me for
30:05 later. If you could fix your sin problem, Jesus Christ didn't need to die on the cross for you. I mean, do you hear what I'm saying? You say, well Jeff, we're supposed to live holy. Here's how you do
30:17 it. You begin to tell the Lord, Lord, that's who I was when you saved me. But Lord, I wanna love what you love and I wanna hate what you hate. And I do not have the ability in myself to change these sin patterns in my
30:28 life. Lord, would you please change me? And Lord, I'm gonna be authentic and I don't care who knows because I'm gonna go public with this thing because I have no secrets because I already know who I am. So I'm not shamed
30:38 about what behaviors I do. I just wanna see them live more consistent than what they were. And people that do that will begin to see change. I know 5 years into my walk with Christ, I began to see change. Instead of
30:48 being the guy that tried to be a Christian that was failing miserably, I became the guy that said, I am a Christian and I am different. And Lord help me understand why I do that. Because I kind of like that sin and I
31:00 know you hate it. So teach me to hate it like you do and show me why you hate it and teach me to love your new me the way I'm supposed to. And every time I've let Christ change me, He's got a perfect track record. Jesus
31:12 can change me in a way I can't even change myself. And just to save you time because I've told you this from the pulpit before, you can't change anybody else either. You can't change yourself. Living your new identity
31:23 means that you are a new creation and that your life is now hidden with Christ in God. It's Christ in you. So the desire that Jesus has is not for you to fix all your problems. The desire Christ has is for you to let
31:35 him lead your life in an authentic way. The desire He has is to let you continue to grow. And just because I'm declared righteous and holy and when I know today if I died, God would present me according to Jude
31:47 24 and 25 that Jesus would present me faultless before the Father. I know all that's true, but I know in my life if I look in the mirror, it doesn't seem like it's caught up yet. And I'll spend the rest of my life
31:58 wanting to model what Jesus wants me to be. Here's 1 of the reasons why many Christians don't experience the fullness of Christ. They spend all their time being shamed for their past, and then try to fix it. And they
32:09 know they're saved, but they spend their whole life saying, I've tried that. I've tried to get involved. It doesn't change. I'm still angry. I still have outbursts of anger. I still have this. Well, of course you do.
32:19 Until you start saying, that's not who I am. That's who I was. That's what I was when I was a caterpillar. Now I'm a butterfly and butterflies don't act like that anymore. I don't know why I was acting like that. Lord,
32:28 thank you for your forgiveness and that teach me how to fly. That's what it means to walk with Christ. And that's encouraging, because it's no longer me who's trying to do the work. It's me being humble enough to let
32:38 Christ do the work in and through me, and it's a different lifestyle. When you live the Christian life, and it's all about Jesus coming through you rather than what you're going to do for him. That's what God wants. And
32:49 this is where you get in Romans chapter 12 verses 1 and 2 about being a living sacrifice. What's a living sacrifice? I mean, that's a double entendre. I mean, you can't be alive and a
33:01 sacrifice at the same time. Sacrifices are dead. People that you know, people and plants and animals that are alive, they're alive. You can't be both at the same time, but you can as a Christian. Because a living
33:10 sacrifice is someone who's died to themselves and the things of the world, but the risen Christ has come to live inside of them through the Holy Spirit. They are a living sacrifice. It means this daily, I'm choosing to
33:20 die so that Christ can be exalted in my life. That is a whole different way of living your Christian life. And even people that nod their heads and say, I get it. For many of those that nod their heads and say, they get
33:31 it, don't live that way. They still live in shame and guilt and fear and doubt and they're trying to work out all their problems, which I'll just save you time, you'll never change. You'll never change. But I'll tell you
33:42 this, the God of the universe, the Lord Jesus Christ, He can change everything about you. Everything about you, if you let Him. Because for some Christians, they get so frustrated and what they begin to say is, I guess
33:53 this is the way I'm always gonna be. I guess this is who I am. No, no, that's who you were. Don't let the devil lie to you. And here's how you know that you don't or do believe this. Every time we sin and
34:05 even as Christians when we sin, we feel conviction from the Holy Spirit. That's a good thing. That shows that you're in the faith. If you can sin grievously and like, that doesn't even bother me anymore. That's not a
34:15 good thing. That just shows that you're not saved. Because if you're saved and you sin, the Holy Spirit will show you conviction. But here's what happens when the Holy Spirit shows you conviction. We also have an enemy
34:23 that lies to us and here's what he says, man, you're a loser. God's mad at you. God's shamed about you. God's disappointed in you. God doesn't want to be around you. Hey, you better fix yourself up before you go to
34:32 church again. You better get right with God before you go pray to Him. You better do this. You better do this. If you don't realize who you are, you're gonna believe the lie rather than believing the spirit. Because if
34:41 you believe the lie, you'll start running back to your old ways trying to fix things up so you look good for other people. But if you know your identity, here's what you'll say, Lord, you got me. Lord, thanks for loving
34:49 me enough to convict me of my sin. Lord, thanks for your forgiveness for that. Lord, continue to do a work in my heart so I can live for you. Lord, I'm not buying the lie. I already know I'm completely forgiven, past,
34:59 present and future. I know I'm your son. I know I'm your daughter. I know you couldn't love me anymore. Thank you for your forgiveness. Help me walk out this new day. Thanks for being there for me and love me anyway.
35:07 That's identity. And we Some of you have louder voices in your head than others. I mean, got 3 kids, 2 of my kids, they took the same math test and failed
35:19 it. 1 of my kids would say, dad, that was the dumbest test ever. Nobody should have to take that. And my other child would say, dad, I'm the dumbest person ever.
35:31 I feel horrible about that. Here's what God wants you to do. When you sin, admit it, confess it, but also do it with your new identity. That's not who I am anymore. My sin doesn't define me anymore.
35:43 Christ in me defines who I am. And because Christ is in me, I am holy. I am righteous. I am good. I am beloved. That's who I am. If you will start declaring those truths about you because you've died to sin and
35:54 been resurrected with Christ, God will work out in and through you what he wants. And you'll experience him in new ways. He'll take you to different places. That's what it's about. So it starts with death. It works from
36:05 the inside out. Let me tell you this, it requires ongoing faith. It requires ongoing faith. If you're gonna consistently grow in this, it requires ongoing faith. Notice what he says, I've been crucified with Christ. It's
36:16 no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And notice what he says about this life he has now. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by what? Faith in the Son of God. I live by
36:28 faith. I live by faith. It's important that we know that we have to continue to take steps of faith. I've said it from this pulpit many times. The hardest step of faith that you will ever take is the next 1.
36:40 Because we as Christians think faith is a noun rather than thinking of it as a verb. So we'll say like, Joe has faith or Sally has faith. That's not how the Bible talks about faith often. Oftentimes the Bible uses it asShow more
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