Someone Entirely-Other-Than

[0:00] so you'll have to patiently wait one more week i hope for me to be in the new book of the bible that we're going to go in and i am going to go ahead and tell you what it is so that if you'd like you can begin reading through that just devotionally if you'd like get familiar with it and there's so many things that i'm already ready to say about it but i've got to wait i got to make myself wait we're going to be in colossians again today because i want to offer you a wonderful reminder based on what i said to you last sunday but the book of the bible that we'll go to next is jonah the book of jonah i don't know if you've ever heard any sermons about jonah but it's got a lot more to do than with just a big fish that swallowed a man and by the way i do believe that's true i believe that's a historical fact and a reality and i'll mention this to you when we get to the book of jonah i don't have any problem at all in my mind spirit and heart believing that the god who said let there be light and there was light and let there be a sun and a moon and stars and let there be water and dry earth and made all the animals i don't think he would have one bit of trouble creating a fish big enough to swallow a man and keep him alive in that fish for three days i don't have any trouble with that at all there are other places in jonah that i struggle with that's not one of them so when we get to jonah we'll be able to talk together about some of the more challenging aspects of the text that have to do with repenting from sin and the pride and selfishness of our hearts that can drive us to say and do some of the most heinous things on the planet and that that lives within each one of us and so we need god's grace the title of my message for this morning is someone entirely other than you can turn to colossians we'll be in chapter one and this is one of those rare occasions where i'm going to make an attempt at least to kind of do a summary of chapter one for you hitting some of the highlights to remind you of this wonderful truth regarding the title of my message you are someone entirely other than if you have come to christ in faith trusting in him alone for the forgiveness of your sins now brothers and sisters let me begin by rehearsing for you a familiar story at least part of it many many many people are familiar with the story of dr jekyll and mr hyde how many of you have actually read stevenson's book on jekyll and hyde anybody just a couple of you okay it's right and then how many of you have seen some type of movie rendition yeah a lot of us exactly most of us are familiar with that upon drinking a potion that he made for himself the mild-mannered kindly and good dr jekyll transforms into mr hyde a beastly hideous heartless murderous creature and he goes on rampages and does terrible terrible crimes against humanity but what most people don't know is that the author robert lewis stevenson based his tale on a true story he based his tale on a real life character now i'm not going to say that this character was perhaps as quite as uh depraved and bad as maybe a jack the ripper but pretty bad pretty bad stevenson's story concerned the real life exploits of one william brody also called deacon brody in brody's infamous trial captured headlines around the world in the late 1700s now lewis was born and raised in the late 1800s so roughly a hundred years after this incident stevenson was reading about it it was probably still being talked about and it inspired him it happened in stevenson's hometown of edinburgh scotland is andy here no i was going to pick on him a little bit but he escaped deacon brody was a cabinet maker sorry doug he was a cabinet maker he gained a reputation as a solid respected skilled professional any any community would have been proud to call deacon brody one of their own he was actually so well liked and respected in the community that he was given a seat on the city council and what this did was it put him in contact with those in the upper circles of social life the movers and the shakers the decision makers the wealthy so wealthy people all over edinburgh gave brody keys to their homes and properties so that brody could go in and do his work for them when they were not there can you imagine now to get a grip on this you have to understand something of the cultural milieu that was going on at that time people in that day and age especially among the higher class the wealthy really really treasured their treasures it was a big big deal for these people to put a lot of stock in what they had because that was so much of their status does that sound very different from today not really right but in victorian england man this was a huge huge deal in fact people feared theft more than they feared murder so enter deacon brody brody was also a locksmith a very good locksmith so what did he do he secretly copied their keys now why would he do that why would he do that well by day brody was the perfect gentleman as i said he was an upstanding councilman he was a trustworthy friend but by night very different story he was stealing these people blind he was using the treasures he stole from them to finance his many many sickening vices such as gambling and womanizing now just that's the pg virgin all right i had to think about how to make this at least pg if you want to know more about deacon brody you you go read about him that's about as much as i can tell you but this will give you an idea about how bad he was brody was eventually exposed tried and hanged they killed him because of the wickedness of his crimes and they were scared to death of him this rocked the world it didn't just rock edinburgh scotland it rocked the world to find out that somebody could actually be like this i'm amazed at it well the dual life of the good guy by day and the bad guy by night is what stevenson then seized on gave him his idea for jekyll and hyde and i say all of that in the way of introducing you to the bible's own version of a jekyll and a hyde and i don't know if you were aware that that was even in the scripture but it is all i would say to stevenson was why didn't you just read about the life of paul you don't have to go to brody just go to the bible and it's right there the bible tells a similar story of dr saul and mr paul doesn't it it does but the differences in the two stories are the most significant issue in the biblical story about paul human salvation from the beast within works in exactly the opposite way of jekyll and hyde we don't go from good to bad as if we're born good and then made bad by some outside force that was the case with jekyll and hyde mild-mannered jekyll the good upstanding citizen would drink the potion and something that went in would corrupt him and make him hide make him bad but that's not at all the way the bible describes the issue of the beast within not at all i want to show that to you so if you turn with me to mark chapter 7 i'm going to have it up here on the screen for you as well so hold your finger in colossians 1 and we'll go to mark 7 now we've turned to this passage in previous gatherings to remind ourselves of what this is if someone were to ask you where does sin come from this would be a wonderful passage for you to turn to and give them the definition now i'm going to read through it i'll begin in verse 18 of mark chapter 7 jesus is answering the disciples here and jesus said to them are you so lacking in understanding also do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him well so much for jekyll and hyde now here's where we pick it up in verse 19 i want you to look at the emphasis i've made here on the screen as you follow along why does it not defile him when it comes from the outside and goes into him because it does not go into his heart but into his stomach and is eliminated thus jesus declared all foods clean at that point and then jesus was saying that which proceeds out of the man that is what defiles corrupts pollutes the man for from within out of the heart of men proceed the evil thoughts fornications thefts murders adulteries the deeds of coveting coveting and wickedness as well as deceit sensuality envy slander pride and foolishness that's pretty inclusive list all all these evil things proceed from within and defile the man so these things are already in us and they work their way out we don't have to put them in they're already there if you'll turn back to colossians with me sin lives in our hearts so that we're all born sinners we're born as sinners in this world and so sins like pride and greed and murder and mayhem that all lurks in the recesses of our own hearts folks friends please hear this it really doesn't make any sense or sound very glorious when we talk about the different doctrines of salvation like regeneration and justification and propitiation when we extol those wonderful doctrines of our salvation what we need to do is first understand that the greatness of those doctrines is built on the reality of our need for those doctrines we have to first understand how sinful we are and once we understand the dilemma that we're in in sin it makes these doctrines all the more glorious that god would rescue us from such a pitiful and terrible and terrifying reality such as sin to have sinful hearts we have to be spiritually transformed please let that word sink in this morning we have to be spiritually transformed into kindly and good human beings in the true image of our only savior the lord jesus christ so what's what's the issue the issue is this hide already lives within you he's already there he's just waiting for an opportunity to get out let me ask you a question how many of you in here are parents let me see right how long did you have to wait to see hide come out of your precious little soul those little thing that you that was born to you and you were so and you made the eyes over how long did you have to wait six months a month a year it didn't take long did it and hide came out right and then as they grew more of hide came out when you look back on your life right as a christian you look back prior to did you see hide there and nobody had to teach you that nobody has to teach us how to sin the spiritual transformation that you and i enjoy because of the lord jesus christ is truly a radical transforming of one being into a another being the old self made into the new self and throughout the new testament we are exhorted encouraged admonished to live in the new self while putting off the old self be what we have been created to be it's helped me to know that paul wrote colossians as a sinner transformed by god's grace in order to tell us that in christ alone there is hope for spiritual transformation through his forgiveness of our sins one of the reasons that obviously i love saying this preaching this and i chose to preach this today is because it allows me the opportunity to brag on jesus as i present to you the heart of the gospel the good news that in jesus christ alone there is hope hope for spiritual transformation that we all don't have to live as hides and we don't live as jeckles either what do we live as we live as jesus jesus because he's our hope so as you think of colossians chapter one and we move down through this think once upon a time i was dead in sin i was rotten in sin i was rebellious in sin but jesus christ changed me by making me someone entirely other than and we want to just kind of hit on that so let's look at colossians chapter one together he says paul an apostle of jesus christ by the will of god and timothy our brother to the saints and faithful brethren in christ who are at colossi grace to you and peace from god our father we give thanks to god the father of our lord jesus christ praying always for you since we heard of your faith in christ jesus and the love which you have for all the saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven of which you previously heard in the word of truth the gospel which has come to you just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of god in truth just as you learned it from epaphras our beloved fellow bond servant who is a faithful servant of christ on our behalf and he also informed us of your love in the spirit for this reason also since the day we heard of it we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the lord to please him in all respects bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of god strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience joyously giving thanks to the father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light now we'll read more of that as we go but zero in again with me on this paul an apostle of jesus christ by the will of god all right i want to talk to you then and springboard into a few other passages that will give you this idea formerly formerly applied to paul paul because he couldn't always as an adult man as a scholar as a theologian as a quote-unquote follower of god he couldn't always write what he wrote to these people in this introduction paul an apostle of jesus christ by the will of god that that springs out the idea of formerly what he was before what he is now an entirely different person so i'm going to have you do a couple of things with me if you would and follow along i'm going to turn back a couple of books to the book of galatians and just let you rehearse this i hope this will be very encouraging to you as you are reminded of this great work in the gospel that god's done in your life folks and i'm going to remind you of what i said last week to you you are normal when you walk out of these doors and walk out there you're walking into the abnormal that out there may seem normal because so much of our world is built on it and looks like it and sounds like it but that's not normal you're normal and i want to rehearse that with you and encourage you and remind you of that so stay normal don't let them suck you back into being abnormal they need to see what normal really is it's spelled j-e-s-u-s right so galatians chapter one if you look at verse 13 with me this is paul speaking about himself for you have heard of my former formerly see manner of life in judaism how i used to persecute the church of god beyond measure and tried to destroy it and i was advancing in judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions that sounds like paul's bragging doesn't it it sounds like he's throwing out his jewish credentials before everybody and kind of bragging but that's not what's happening not at all look down at verses 22 through 24 i was still unknown by sight to the churches of judea which were in christ but only they kept hearing he who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith which he once tried to destroy and they were glorifying god because of me what a difference here's a guy who was persecuting the church and killing christians and now christians are glorifying god on account of paul what a transformation many of us don't think of our transformation in christ in such dramatic terms perhaps because on a physical level we don't we don't look back and see such a a physically dramatic change you know i wasn't a drug addict i wasn't a murderer i wasn't a serial adulterer whatever the kinds of things you know i i was just a person and i just you know i came to know the lord but folks this is radical spiritual transformation one person dies and another person is brought to life in you you are brought from being abnormal and an enemy of god to being made normal if you will and made a friend of god jesus comes to take up residence in you it's radical paul said this about himself in galatians look at this to the corinthian church put galatians up there for you to the corinthian church paul referred to himself as listen to this the least of all the apostles and not even fit to be called an apostle because he persecuted the church of god that's first corinthians 15 9 i'm the least of all the apostles i don't even deserve to be called an apostle because i tried to eradicate the church wow he told the ephesian christians that he was the least of all the people of god now he expands it not just among the apostles am i the least but among all the people of god i am the least of them on the earth that's ephesians 3 8 and then in first corinthians 3 10 he proclaimed that by the grace of god i am what i am it's only by god's grace that you see the man now that you see and it's very interesting to me that he does that see paul measured and understood himself according to god's undeserved favor for paul i'll say more about this in just a minute but my goodness if you had paul now hear me carefully if you had the apostle paul right now in our modern day in any given quote unquote christian recovery group oh my goodness there's as many recovery groups as there are types of dogs it's incredible you go into this situation and you sit down and you all i've done this so i'm not i'm not talking to you out of something that's been told to me i've done this i lived this for many years and you sit down in this quote unquote christian environment and you all sit there and basically rehearse your sin if you do talk about the cross or you mention jesus you only do it as a springboard to get to the psychology what you really want to talk about now i'm not throwing off on them i'm telling you the facts if paul had walked into one of those groups and started this kind of stuff i'm the least of all the apostles i'm the least of all the people of god i am what i am only by the grace of god you'd have people saying oh brother we need to work on yourself's theme you've got some issues brother you don't think highly enough of yourself you've got to get a better view of yourself come on this is what's wrong this is why you're struggling right now and while they might mean very well and i do believe that i believe many of the people who do this i used i was one of these people this is what i was trained to do i led all kinds of recovery groups making peace with your past i did all of that divorce recovery all this stuff and again for me i love jesus but i didn't understand i truly didn't understand the sufficiency of scripture and the power the true power of the gospel i didn't realize that that's all i needed to be able to help these people be what jesus would have them be in him i thought i had to have jesus plus all this other stuff that would help them then become what they needed and what i did was i betrayed my lack of confidence in the sufficiency of god's word and in the sufficiency of jesus christ but paul doesn't need to be told that he needs to boost his self-esteem that is exactly the opposite message that the bible is teaching here why because paul understood if you'll allow me to bring it into our time paul understood the jekyll hyde dilemma paul understood that hyde already lived within him it didn't have to be put in him it was already in him and paul saw one hope to deal with it just one and it had nothing to do with his self-esteem paul saw his self-esteem as the problem this is why he's saying not in self-pity but in truth i am the least of this is this is tantamount to what john the baptist said when he said i must decrease he must increase talking about jesus that's not a self-esteem problem that's looking at yourself biblically and that's what we need that's why i'm preaching this message this morning i want to counter some of this nonsense that's coming out especially in light of all of the gender mess that's going on around the planet it's not in just in the united states it's everywhere and we've been conditioning ourselves for this gender debate for so long now again i say to you friends paul measured and understood himself according to god's undeserved favor for paul god's grace now paul didn't measure paul didn't understand himself according to his past please hear this he did not understand himself or measure himself about his past his abilities his intellect his successes his education his heritage or ancestry which he could have done his accomplishments his failures his sins or by comparing himself to others we have to be careful about that or even by some internal or intrinsic standard of self-worth no so what would paul tell us again that he measured and understood himself by well he answered this in every single letter of the new testament that he wrote and i'm just going to give you several examples so i'm i'm still sitting here in galatians i haven't turned back to colossians yet so i'm just going to read from galatians as he does his intro listen to this paul an apostle not sent from men through the agency of man but through jesus christ and god the father who raised him from the dead that's his introduction what would i write today if you know i'm writing a letter jeff saved thank god born again living by faith in christ by the grace of god turn if that's galatians i go to the next one ephesians paul an apostle of christ jesus by the will of god wow okay go to the next one what's the next one philippians paul and timothy bond servants of christ jesus you see how he's doing this over and over colossians paul an apostle of jesus christ by the will of god this is this is paul can't talk about paul without talking about jesus it's paul by jesus it's paul because of jesus it's paul by the will of god now let me ask you do you think about yourself like that do you live like that you just use your name and then fill in by the will of god do you understand what you're saying when you say that that's powerful what a declaration jeff by the will of god you see before that i had to say it this way jeff by the will of jeff and i'm just being what i want to be i'm doing what i want to do is my life my my my in a few minutes i'm going to tell you about me and i'm going to tell you the problem with that paul understood himself by grace through faith but i'm not finished first timothy chapter one first timothy chapter one this is another one i want you to have and verses 12 beginning in verse 12 here again right at the beginning of the letter he's speaking about himself and he says i thank christ jesus our lord who has strengthened me because he considered me faithful putting me into service even though i was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor yet i was shown mercy because i acted ignorantly in unbelief and the grace of our lord was more than abundant with the faith and love which are found in christ jesus it is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that christ jesus came into the world to serve and save sinners among whom i am foremost of all you see that i was formerly this all these things i am foremost in the category of being a sinner yet for this reason i found mercy so that in me as the foremost sinner of all jesus christ might demonstrate his perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in him for eternal life paul becomes your example and so you can say biblically i can't out sin paul nobody can paul's the greatest according to scripture the greatest sinner that ever lived and and god saved him and paul he says here he saved me for the reason of showing that as the foremost sinner of all jesus christ might demonstrate his patience as an example to all of you that's the god that you serve that's the god that saved you that's the god that keeps you saved that's the god that you walk with every single day moment of your life my question to you is can you relate to that testimony is that your testimony too i was but now i am and now everything that i am i am for the example to other people that jesus lives and loves sinners jesus lives and he loves sinners he loves to save people listen i'll go ahead and tell you the whole book of jonah the entire book of jonah is all about god's compassion on undeserving wicked people and jonah won't have it i'll be careful i'm gonna start preaching jonah because it's all in here think about this paul was a man that god used to write 13 of the 27 books of the new testament gospel of grace the foremost center of all if you look at verse 17 of timothy 1 first timothy 1 now to the king eternal immortal invisible the only god be honor and glory forever and ever amen first timothy 1 17 what a declaration god deserves and god designs for your heart to cry out with this same praise and devotion folks again as i read that to you and i read verse 17 out loud and we see that on the page first timothy 1 verse 17 that is the normal christian life to live to the glory of god in all things that becomes the rhyme and reason for your existence once you become a christian you will spend whatever remains of your life every minute of every day seeking to live to this reality now to the king now because now i'm in christ now i know god now i've been brought near whereas once i was far away now to this king he wasn't my king before he was my enemy now he's my king and i bow to him in all of my life i want to give praise and honor and glory to this immortal invisible eternal beautiful wonderful king whom i love and i only love him because he first loved me and now i'm a changed human being i'm a transformed human being if nothing else i want you to walk out of here today just step in a little bit higher not because you're all that but because jesus is in you he lives in you and he's commissioned you some of us will say jeff i wasn't saved as a persecutor and violent aggressor i wasn't a murderer i didn't have all those things in my background again i can only remind you that spiritual transformation is as radical in the person who didn't do all those things but is a sinner at enmity with god as it would be for the person who did do all those things it's the same transformation it's the same jesus it's being transferred from darkness to light don't sell yourself short in terms of what god's done in your life to bring you from death to life paul says in colossians 1 paul an apostle of jesus christ by the will of god jesus christ transformed paul into someone entirely other than who he formerly was so paul's new identity his new purpose in life were based on him being spiritually remade into a servant of jesus christ that's the miracle of being born again people will say you know this again is the world trying to get into the wisdom of god they don't mix i have been saved to be the best me that i can be do you hear anything wrong with that i gave it away with my inflection but but do you understand do you guys understand that there's that is that is so much the heartbeat and mantra of of what passes for christianity today and the church has in many ways unfortunately wholesale just swallowed it oh i got saved and now i can be the best me that i can possibly be that sounds really good when you're sitting in a group of people who are thinking like that and they're they're living and breathing on that you're all agreeing that sounds great you're all applauding each other and everything or you say that in a church full of people that that live on that and they all jump to their feet and start hollering yes you know that i've seen that have you not seen this it's everywhere it's not true you were not saved to be the best you that you can be don't believe that don't let that lie capture your heart here's what you were saved to be a servant of the lord jesus christ you have been saved not to be free unto yourself but to be free not to sin and to live for the glory of almighty god now to the king eternal invisible immortal our beautiful lord and savior to him be all the glory that's a lot different than me standing there going yeah i've saved to be the best me i'm going to tell you in a few minutes you don't want me and i don't want you you want jesus in me and i want jesus in you that's what makes black white red yellow green purple rich poor big small come together and offer one voice and one heart and one mind and one baptism all to the praise of almighty god and so we don't go out and preach ourselves as better selves we go out and preach jesus who saves and brings hope it's this being remade into someone entirely other than a violent aggressor a hateful man a zealous persecutor of god's people that's what makes this god-given gracious act so astonishing in the life of paul and here right here in the depths of this profound mix of god's grace and paul's ongoing humble response to it we find the reason for paul's single-minded focus in his godly life we find the reason for his steadfast unswerving faithful heart for god that we all read and marvel at god made paul someone entirely other than that's the not so secret secret and paul lived as that new man hear this being renewed in god's love he lived as a new man being renewed wow it's not just a one-off i get saved and then i live like i want to live we'll see all through the new testament we were not saved to be free like that free to sin free to do what i want so we're told don't use your freedom for yourself but use it to serve one another in the spirit of christ paul's life echoes the heart of job here's what job said what is man that you make so much of him that you are concerned about him amen king david what is man that you are mindful of him but here's the beauty in reality almighty god is mindful he is he does care and friends in jesus christ god is mindful of and god cares about you in jesus he does so while on one side i have to say biblically it's not about you i have to hurry over to the other side and say jesus loves you jesus is mindful of you only let that humble you and help it help it allow it to bring you into greater service and obedience to jesus out of a heart of devotion and gratitude and love you're motivated and spurred on by that thankfulness in your heart and you say i never want to get over that christian brothers and sisters each of you matter to god each minute of each hour of each day of each week of each year of your life deeply matters to god god gave his only son the lord jesus to purchase each of those moments hours days weeks and years of the life that you now have and he did it as your his gift to you he also gave you eternal life where you'll live all of this without sin and so we look at if you will colossians 1 and we bring this bring this home and although you now we're going to get really personal and although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind engaged in evil deeds yet he has now reconciled you in his fleshly body through death in order to present you before him holy and blameless and beyond reproach if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven of which i paul was made a minister paul serves christ and paul serves the gospel he is a servant of the truth of god and so what do we have a final point here that i want to hit formerly formerly applied not to paul now but to you to you it gets personal doesn't it the power of formerly refers to the salvation in christ by the transforming power of christ substitutionary death on the cross in your place you see it up in what chapter 1 verse 20 and through him to reconcile all things to himself having made peace through the blood of his cross that's our hope that's our peace jesus christ changed paul into someone entirely other than a rebellious sinner because christ died for paul and paul was spiritually crucified with christ what does that have to do with you well the very same formerly that saved the apostle paul and transformed him into a new creation gave him a new nature that is the same formerly that saves you transforms you gives you a new nature the formerly is the work of your savior jesus christ on your behalf that's the substitutionary part folks this is the gospel i'm just telling you the gospel over and over and over again isn't it wonderful it's life transforming it's life giving it's the greatest message on earth it's what we have been left here to proclaim and to live so i'll say it this way for you as a christian god's gift of your new spiritual nature is expressed by your i'm calling it new natural here's what i mean that is the natural expression of your new nature your transformed nature your godness it's based on this now to the king eternal immortal invisible the only god be honor and glory forever and ever that was once not true of you that was once nothing you were he was not your king you didn't care about his glory now your entire life is being lived to go to greater and greater degrees of expressing him as your king to greater and greater degrees of making sure that he receives see you're all consuming concern now as a christian is that god get the glory from your life it should be now if you're sitting here going yeah not so much all right there's hope because every person in this room starting with me experiences that yeah not so much and yet what what keeps us moving forward it's the same thing i just told you about paul it's it's the constant need of god's grace and god giving that grace and the power of the holy spirit and paul responding to it responding to it all of our life is a response to god all of it every detail so you and i as christians are constantly learning how to respond to the grace of god in our lives more and more faithfully whereas maybe yesterday i didn't respond so well in this context to the grace of god in my life and i did some selfish stuff i repented i'm aware of that god's helped me with that and now today i can look at that and i can i can say okay here here's what i can do differently today that's part of my repentance my turning away from sin and embracing christ by faith and trying to live now more obediently so i'm striving in the power that god is working in me this isn't i'm not gutting it out i'm simply trying to put into motion and into practice what god is putting in me by grace through faith that's what you're learning to do every day of your life as a christian it's why you gather and listen to sermons it's why you go to bible studies it's why you have devotionals on your own you're seeking to learn to love your god more faithfully every day to grow in that now when you die here and you go to heaven you won't have that anymore you'll be made complete you'll be glorified so there's no more levels and you're there you're with him you're receiving your reward it's it's wonderful isn't it here is another i might call it new man expression new man expression of your your new nature here's another one look at this one now i rejoice in my sufferings oh you didn't used to do that did you but now in jesus you can you should i dropped a should on you now i i read now see look at this now we got we read the bible carefully and ask why is that word there every one of them is important right marivi she's teaching that melanie's teaching that now that's formerly put formerly formerly i didn't do this now i do it and the difference is jesus not me that's not me being my best me that's me denying myself and taking up my cross and following jesus before this is over i'll find 50 ways to say that because that's what the scripture does it's a beautiful reality let me give you another one or two of these new nature confessions these new heart realities about our about our life that's one how about uh chapter one uh verse 15 how about this confession can we all say this this morning with a sincere heart he jesus is the image of the invisible god the firstborn of all creation there was a time in my life i could have cared less about that for by him all things were created both in the heavens and on earth oh that means me i'm in the earth visible and invisible whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things have been created through christ and for christ jesus is before all things and in him all things hold together what's that again jesus is before all things and in jesus all things hold together he is also head of the body the church he is the beginning the firstborn from the dead so that he himself will come to have first place in everything wait a minute time out who's supposed to have first place in everything jesus who holds everything together jesus for it was the father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him and through him to reconcile all things to himself having made peace through the blood of his cross now hold on the phone you mean i'm not the center of the universe you mean i'm not the center of everything you mean everything in my life and in my world doesn't hold together because of me nope the reason that it's fallen apart in my world is because of me so i need to turn to jesus and get over myself there's one other that i just i'm i have to do this one chapter three many of the people here who've known me for many years know that colossians chapter three i often turn to and it's one of my go-to passages in scripture and he begins chapter three this way therefore since you have been raised up with christ keep seeking the things above jeff where christ is there's your treasure jeff there's where your glory is jeff there's where your heart is jeff it's with jesus so keep seeking the things above where jesus is seated at the right hand of god that is your lord and savior is seated at the hand of the seat of honor so live like it set your mind jeff on the things above get your mind off the things that are on earth do not focus your life and define yourself by those things but set your mind in other words jeff be heavenly minded grow in a heavenly minded perspective on life verse three for you have died jeff and your life now is hidden with christ in god folks do you see there's there's no best me in that verse i have died and my life is hidden with christ in god so much so and this is what i want when christ who is our life is revealed then you also will be revealed with him in glory that's what you want i want to be so connected to jesus that when jesus comes back and ascends again into glory bringing those who love him with him i want to be one of those i want to be with him because i'm in him i have to be with him because i'm in him i'm union to him and i cannot be ununion disunion friends your new normal your new natural the natural expression of your redeemed heart and life as a believer is that you can live in ceaseless praise prayer thanks and worship of god in christ because your new natural springs forth from your new nature in him i can say it this way and shorten it up jesus christ is your new normal now i'm tempted to say amen but i'm not gonna i'm gonna keep going a little bit more because i want to read this to you i think we might have read this last week i don't remember for sure for he rescued us god rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption the forgiveness of sins colossians 1 13 and 14 you have been spiritually transferred you have been transported by god's power from one spiritual domain which was the domain of death and hell into another domain and as such god has made you someone entirely other than formerly what you were and god has done this for you in the gift of his beloved son and so you see folks look at this we never outgrow our need of the gospel of grace where god forgives us redeems us reconciles us those are such beautiful words every minute of every day just like paul we use our new identity and new life in christ to do what to proclaim him not me him admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom so that we can present every man complete in christ paul lived and died for jesus because jesus first lived and died for paul and that was the measure of paul's life he lived for jesus and didn't measure himself by himself or by some worldly idea regarding his self-worth this paul just was not i am so amazed as i read the scriptures and think about this particular topic that none of the biblical writers were concerned with self-worth they were concerned with getting over themselves and again my friends not to harp on it but just to put a little bit of a finer point we hear a good bit of this kind of thing today this is what we hear that you you are important simply because you are you in other words i'm now listen to my language i'm me and there is only one me i'm unique therefore i'm special valuable i'm inherently worthwhile why because i'm me i totally understand what they're trying to do there but they're missing it that's deception not truth so please allow me to use me please allow me to tell you about me jeff everything that i'm about to say i can say only because i'm trusting in jesus christ alone for the forgiveness of my sins and because following in paul's good example god has made me a new man in jesus so i have hope but i'm not hoping in me now now here's why just listen to the way if you will i do this because i want to talk to you about me this me thing apart from jesus christ i am nothing good nothing so i can say with sincerity that i am actually thrilled that there is only one me i would never wish another me on you for anything in this world this world is not a better place because of me and the issue of me only adds to the problems of this world i would save you from me and warn you to avoid me at all costs as brutal or unfair or unkind or unsophisticated as that assessment sounds that is all true about me because me without jesus christ is not a good man any true goodness in me now is the good that god has worked in me through my faith relationship with his son jesus christ so i can say it this way jesus is my good i'm not my good jesus is formerly describes the change in me which jesus works and i want you to follow along with this as i read it so that you can see the emphasis that i'm making and why i'm saying it the way i am now look at this with me formerly describes the change in me which jesus works so that the most important thing about me is that me was crucified with christ and it is no longer me who lives but christ lives in me and the life that me now lives in the flesh me lives by faith in the son of god who loved me who loved me and gave himself up for me i am no longer the me i was jesus christ has made me someone entirely other than he lives in me only god could do that and the question i have is why would he want to do that do you feel that way too why would he glorious and beautiful and sinless want to live in me filthy horrible horrid because he loves me he loves me that's what you need to take out of these doors that's what you need to live this week that's what your neighbors are desperate to know that's what your co-workers and your friends and your family are all desperate to know only maybe they don't even know it well i'll just hasten to finish let's bring you into this just real quickly and i'm done but please let me finish this we bring you into this because you and i are in the same spiritual boat when it comes to this me thing i'm not the only me in the room if you could live a thousand lifetimes at the very very highest and best version of you that you yourself could rise to you would be by god's measure deserving of death and a devil's hell for all eternity now how's that strike you you see you can't earn god's favor or save yourself and you can't become more like jesus and less like you without jesus salvation and spiritual growth have to come from god through christ men cannot give it to you religion cannot give it to you good works cannot give it to you you can't buy it or barter for it or steal it there are no add-ons there are no shortcuts so i want to ask you a question i'll put it up here what makes you you is it jesus how do you understand who you are do you know yourself by what jesus says about you and how do you measure yourself as a person do you measure yourself by yourself do you measure yourself by others or by your past your upbringing your successes your failures or whatever and are you assessing yourself by what jesus is for you and by what he has freely given to you in himself friends who are you there's not a person on earth who deserves god's forgiveness not a person not me not you not the best person you know so what i want to ask you is this is your life is your life a clear example of the undeserved favor of god at work in you so if i ask you to stand up where you are right now and i said to you i'm going to limit you but i'm going to give you 30 seconds 30 seconds or less to sum up who you are at this very moment what would you say just think about that for just a moment what would you say who are you how would you tell us all who you are in 30 seconds or less well i pray that each one of you could say something like this about the me that is now you i hope you could say maybe this god delivered me from the domain of darkness and transferred me to the kingdom of his beloved son in whom i have redemption the forgiveness of my sins i can tell you that i am forgiven in jesus christ that take you about 15 seconds and every bit of that would be perfectly true if you're a christian or or you may say this although i was formerly alienated and hostile in mind engaged in evil deeds yet jesus has now reconciled me in his fleshly body through death in order to present me before god holy blameless and above reproach and that might take you 15 20 seconds and you're done now you say that's who i am by the grace of god i am what i am that's what paul meant how do we know that because that's what he wrote in every letter that he penned that's what he wrote friends rejoice in and never forget what god did in his son the lord jesus to make you someone entirely other than let's pray together dear god in these sobering moments as we reflect on your goodness and what it cost you to make us each one of us someone entirely other than i'm i'm aware that every time i preach the gospel every time i ascend this pulpit it might be the last time that i get to say anything to your people before you bring me to heaven so i pray that you would take these words to the degree that they have been reflective of your truth and burn them into the souls of your people so that they will be helped to better understand and own the truth about who they are and how that truth should be transforming them because jesus lives in them and loves them and i ask almighty god that you would help us as we leave this place to carry with us the sobering echoes of this message that jesus at the cost of his own life has given himself to make us someone entirely other than what we were so that we can live to your glory and exalt you as our king and to bring you honor in everything that we say and do and i ask that you would forgive us lord that so often we fall short and fail and stumble we struggle along in this earth and so we hasten to add that we are grateful that you are mindful of us and know that we are but dust you because you are our god and you made us you know our frame help us lord continue to be gracious to us and shed your loving kindness abroad in great quantity in our hearts so that we will confidently step forward in humility and a teachable spirit to receive that grace implanted and imparted to us in the truth of the lord and live it out that people will see jesus in us and glorify your name we must decrease so that you may increase and this is the thankfulness and joy of our heart in jesus name we pray amen us again and you will be