WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.280 Okay, just for a few minutes this morning, we are going to look at 2 Corinthians 5, particularly 00:00:06.280 --> 00:00:14.080 one verse, but really the theme that that verse speaks of covers that passage. 00:00:14.080 --> 00:00:19.359 And also the passage in Ephesians we read, which I'm going to dip into, parafrastically, 00:00:19.359 --> 00:00:24.519 we're going to paraphrase some of the truths in that as we go through. 00:00:24.519 --> 00:00:29.439 So it's really verse 17, you may have guessed it already on the first day of the year, the 00:00:29.439 --> 00:00:34.840 theme is, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the oldest passed away 00:00:34.840 --> 00:00:35.840 and the new is coming. 00:00:35.840 --> 00:00:40.280 Now we know that's true of the year, but it's also a great truth spiritually for us, 00:00:40.280 --> 00:00:42.439 and not a once for all truth. 00:00:42.439 --> 00:00:47.679 Well, it is a once for all truth, but it's also a day to day truth for us in our Christian 00:00:47.679 --> 00:00:48.679 lives. 00:00:48.679 --> 00:00:52.239 And obviously, today's a great day to be highlighting. 00:00:52.240 --> 00:00:59.719 You probably, well, all have got new things in the last few days at Christmas, and I'm 00:00:59.719 --> 00:01:04.000 sure the kids up the back would have got some lots of new things at Christmas. 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:07.920 I tend to get clothes at Christmas time. 00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:13.120 Don't buy clothes any other time of the year, but get lots of, no, not lots of clothes, 00:01:13.120 --> 00:01:17.560 but enough clothes to keep me going during the year, which is great, it's always good. 00:01:17.560 --> 00:01:21.840 But it's not very exciting anymore, because you usually have to go shopping for the clothes 00:01:21.840 --> 00:01:25.640 first, so that, you know, your wife doesn't get you a horrendous thing that you'll never 00:01:25.640 --> 00:01:30.640 wear, or you get the wrong size, so you have to go shopping with them, and it kind of loses 00:01:30.640 --> 00:01:36.560 the magic of Christmas a little bit for us. 00:01:36.560 --> 00:01:41.320 And it's a good thing to do, and it's a nice thing to get new clothes. 00:01:41.320 --> 00:01:45.120 But I always think about when you get new clothes, and particularly new shoes, particularly 00:01:45.120 --> 00:01:46.760 when I get new shoes. 00:01:46.760 --> 00:01:51.080 It's actually a nightmare in some ways, when you go with the shoes that you're very happy 00:01:51.079 --> 00:01:56.359 with, and they're extremely comfortable, and you've had them for a while, and you take 00:01:56.359 --> 00:02:00.599 them and you go to the shoe shop with them, and then the guy comes along, in fact, I was 00:02:00.599 --> 00:02:08.039 in a shoe shop before Christmas, we were just looking, and I saw the assistant just taking 00:02:08.039 --> 00:02:15.840 one disgusted look at my shoes, and turning away, and then this guy really needs new shoes. 00:02:15.840 --> 00:02:19.400 We didn't get any, but what's worse is when you sit down and you've found a pair that 00:02:19.400 --> 00:02:25.240 you really like, and you have to try them on, and it's only then that you realise how 00:02:25.240 --> 00:02:32.960 dirty and scruffy and useless the pair that you're quite comfortable with looks like beside 00:02:32.960 --> 00:02:34.560 the new ones. 00:02:34.560 --> 00:02:42.040 And immediately you see the difference between the two, and usually the shoes that you're 00:02:42.040 --> 00:02:48.400 getting rid of that you've worn for a long time, though they're comfortable and familiar, 00:02:48.400 --> 00:02:53.680 they've become tatty and ugly, and also not fit for purpose because you walk out in them 00:02:53.680 --> 00:02:59.040 in the rain, and they leak, and your socks are wet before you've left the end of the 00:02:59.040 --> 00:03:00.040 street. 00:03:00.040 --> 00:03:05.840 And I think there's a comparison there, sometimes with who we are as Christians, because we're 00:03:05.840 --> 00:03:13.360 new creations, and we continue to be new creations, and it's important for us as Christians not 00:03:13.360 --> 00:03:21.200 to settle for our conversion experience, 30, 20, 10, 5 years ago, whatever it might be, 00:03:21.200 --> 00:03:24.840 and not to settle for familiarity at one level. 00:03:24.840 --> 00:03:30.480 I know there is a way in which we do that God is unchanging and always familiar and 00:03:30.480 --> 00:03:39.600 increasingly familiar, but what I mean is not settle for the familiarity of half-heartedness 00:03:39.599 --> 00:03:45.639 and comfort spiritually, not moving forward, just, well, I was a Christian last year, and 00:03:45.639 --> 00:03:49.799 I was a Christian this year, and it's a new year, and I'll be a Christian over this year, 00:03:49.799 --> 00:03:56.079 but not pushing the boundaries of your Christian faith, and being content with a kind of half-hearted 00:03:56.079 --> 00:04:03.919 faith where you feel you're almost going to just... you've got a once-removed relationship 00:04:03.919 --> 00:04:05.439 with Jesus Christ. 00:04:05.439 --> 00:04:11.759 It's not vibrant, and there's not a newness about it, and you know that for yourself, and 00:04:11.759 --> 00:04:16.839 I know... I can't answer that for anyone other than myself, and neither can you, but you 00:04:16.839 --> 00:04:18.000 know what it's like, don't you? 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:22.159 That sense of, just, well, I know these things, and I'm living this life. 00:04:22.159 --> 00:04:26.240 No, I'm aware that we need to persevere, and there's a sense of perseverance within the 00:04:26.240 --> 00:04:32.439 Christian life, but the great thing about the perseverance is not persevering with boredom 00:04:32.439 --> 00:04:39.079 or with dullness or with dryness, it's persevering into newness all the time as Christians, and 00:04:39.079 --> 00:04:45.399 remembering that the Spirit of God in us strikes a willingness to change and a willingness to 00:04:45.399 --> 00:04:50.680 grow and a willingness to push the boundaries spiritually in our lives. 00:04:50.680 --> 00:04:55.680 Whether you've been a Christian here today for 70 years or just for seven minutes, it's 00:04:55.680 --> 00:05:00.720 very important that we have that mentality of being new creations, and that's hard for 00:05:00.720 --> 00:05:01.720 us. 00:05:01.720 --> 00:05:06.360 It's really hard, we talk about the new year, but it's already an old year, and we're already 00:05:06.360 --> 00:05:10.720 in our routines, and we're creatures of habit. 00:05:10.720 --> 00:05:16.080 And so it's difficult for us to break moulds, it's difficult for us to break bad habits, 00:05:16.080 --> 00:05:25.080 to break sinful thoughts, to break selfish and careless attitudes, and to break that 00:05:25.080 --> 00:05:30.040 way of living that isn't progressive and developing and maturing. 00:05:30.040 --> 00:05:35.879 So I think it's important to remember who we are, that we are new creations, and Paul 00:05:35.879 --> 00:05:40.680 is making that clear to the church in Corinth, he says that we are new creations. 00:05:40.680 --> 00:05:42.640 Therefore anyone in Christ is a new creation. 00:05:42.640 --> 00:05:45.080 The old is past and the new has come. 00:05:45.080 --> 00:05:48.160 It's a very striking language that he's using. 00:05:48.160 --> 00:05:55.439 He's saying that in your life, the old way of thinking where God is not on the throne 00:05:55.439 --> 00:06:01.000 and where Christ is not your Lord has been put in the bin, it's no longer part of your 00:06:01.000 --> 00:06:02.000 life. 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:05.199 You know what you do with all the stuff, all the wrapping paper at Christmas, you put 00:06:05.199 --> 00:06:07.279 it away, you get rid of it. 00:06:07.279 --> 00:06:14.639 And we have to keep that ongoing reality in our mind and hearts as Christians that we 00:06:14.639 --> 00:06:22.720 are dead to a way of thinking that leaves God out of the throne room of our heart. 00:06:22.720 --> 00:06:32.080 It's so easy for us to keep our old self-centered control near to our hearts. 00:06:32.080 --> 00:06:36.480 And it's recognizing that there's an absolutely fundamental shift. 00:06:36.480 --> 00:06:42.360 In verse 15 he speaks about that, he says, Christ died for all so that those who live 00:06:42.360 --> 00:06:47.920 might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died because he says, 00:06:47.920 --> 00:06:53.640 in Christ he died for all, therefore all have died, so a death has taken place in our life, 00:06:53.640 --> 00:06:57.199 a spiritual death, and that's hugely significant. 00:06:57.199 --> 00:07:04.759 So it's much more for us than simply going to church on a Sunday. 00:07:04.759 --> 00:07:10.720 It's much more for us than simply knowing about gospel truth and knowing about the Bible. 00:07:10.720 --> 00:07:13.680 It's not less than that, but it's much more than that. 00:07:13.680 --> 00:07:18.879 It's that Christ in every thought, taking captive as it says, every thought to Christ, 00:07:18.879 --> 00:07:25.879 that Christ becomes Lord of our lives, Lord of our hogmoney, Lord of our first of January, 00:07:25.879 --> 00:07:32.879 Lord of our birthdays, Lord of our funerals, Lord of our weddings, Lord of our workplaces, 00:07:32.879 --> 00:07:37.439 Lord of all that we are, Lord of our illness, Lord of our health. 00:07:37.439 --> 00:07:43.660 And that is a complete newness about who we are therefore because of an ongoing newness. 00:07:43.660 --> 00:07:50.200 Since then John, when John speaks about Jesus in the gospels and in chapter two of the gospels, 00:07:50.200 --> 00:07:57.560 particularly of his gospel, rather, he speaks about Jesus being like new wine, he speaks 00:07:57.560 --> 00:08:02.520 about Him building, a new temple, he speaks about new birth, new kind of water, living 00:08:02.520 --> 00:08:03.520 water. 00:08:03.520 --> 00:08:10.280 There's a real freshness and a vibrancy that comes from recognizing and knowing who Jesus 00:08:10.279 --> 00:08:14.559 Christ is in our lives. 00:08:14.559 --> 00:08:19.399 And so we do all experience newness at different levels, whether it's a new job or a new year 00:08:19.399 --> 00:08:22.479 or a new home or a new adopted family. 00:08:22.479 --> 00:08:28.759 And we see that when these big things in life happen, they do affect us, they do change us. 00:08:28.759 --> 00:08:36.839 How much more as we are recreated with the indwelling Holy Spirit of God and recognize 00:08:36.839 --> 00:08:37.839 that. 00:08:37.840 --> 00:08:43.560 And this may be particularly for this audience today, most of whom I know and many of whom 00:08:43.560 --> 00:08:47.680 I reckon would have been brought up in a Christian home. 00:08:47.680 --> 00:08:50.320 It's easy for us to take that truth for granted. 00:08:50.320 --> 00:08:57.639 Or it's easy for us to forget about that, the radical reality of what it means to be 00:08:57.639 --> 00:08:59.120 a new creation. 00:08:59.120 --> 00:09:03.800 And you know, I think what we really need, we really need to see people coming to faith 00:09:03.800 --> 00:09:06.960 to remind us of that again. 00:09:06.960 --> 00:09:10.280 We need to recognize the truth and apply it. 00:09:10.280 --> 00:09:12.160 But it would be amazing. 00:09:12.160 --> 00:09:17.639 And we pray that for this year, to see people for whom it's a completely new thing. 00:09:17.639 --> 00:09:22.240 And I don't think, maybe sometimes you don't grasp how different it's going to be for them. 00:09:22.240 --> 00:09:26.160 If they've been drug addicts or if they've been homeless or if they've never gone to 00:09:26.160 --> 00:09:29.000 church, have never had a routine, have gone to church on a Sunday, if they've never read 00:09:29.000 --> 00:09:32.639 their Bibles, maybe they're not even that good at reading, it's going to be a radical 00:09:32.639 --> 00:09:34.759 transformation for them. 00:09:34.759 --> 00:09:41.159 And we need to be part of that, and we long for that among us new creations. 00:09:41.159 --> 00:09:42.159 And that's what we look for. 00:09:42.159 --> 00:09:43.159 So we're new creations. 00:09:43.159 --> 00:09:48.600 And just to say one or two things about what it means to be a new creation, I think it's 00:09:48.600 --> 00:09:53.200 clear that it speaks about having, therefore, a new heart. 00:09:53.200 --> 00:09:59.360 In verse 12, it speaks about, we are commending ourselves to you again by giving you cause 00:09:59.360 --> 00:10:02.759 to boast about us so that you may be able to answer those who boast about an outward 00:10:02.759 --> 00:10:06.039 appearance and not about what is in the heart. 00:10:06.039 --> 00:10:14.480 Now, there's a real indication of newness, because what do we spend a lot of our time 00:10:14.480 --> 00:10:16.480 thinking about? 00:10:16.480 --> 00:10:21.080 Thinking about what other people think about our outward appearance. 00:10:21.080 --> 00:10:24.120 And I don't mean by what we look like in the mirror necessarily, although that might be 00:10:24.120 --> 00:10:25.120 part of it. 00:10:25.120 --> 00:10:28.840 But it's how we present ourselves outwardly. 00:10:28.840 --> 00:10:30.960 And that becomes very important to us. 00:10:30.960 --> 00:10:35.680 Even drive sometimes our attendance at church, maybe you're only here today, because you 00:10:35.680 --> 00:10:37.560 thought, well, it'll look good. 00:10:37.560 --> 00:10:43.000 Or I don't want to not be here, because people might speak about it. 00:10:43.000 --> 00:10:44.879 I don't think they will. 00:10:44.879 --> 00:10:50.920 But again, we're hardwired to that outward appearance thing. 00:10:50.920 --> 00:10:57.960 And yet the newness is recognizing that all that we seek to be and all that we seek to 00:10:57.960 --> 00:11:01.440 are life stems from having a new heart. 00:11:01.440 --> 00:11:05.400 Now, if any of you are your relations, your friends, or you personally have had a heart 00:11:05.400 --> 00:11:16.080 bypass or stents put in, you know how it can just give you a new lease of life almost immediately? 00:11:16.080 --> 00:11:18.400 And that's an amazing truth. 00:11:18.400 --> 00:11:24.160 How much more, if that does that for you naturally, how much more does it do that for us when 00:11:24.159 --> 00:11:29.399 we recognize that we have a new spiritual heart? 00:11:29.399 --> 00:11:34.159 You know Ezekiel 11, 19 speaks about that so beautifully. 00:11:34.159 --> 00:11:38.279 And the newness of it, I will give them one heart and a new spirit I will put within them. 00:11:38.279 --> 00:11:42.959 I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh. 00:11:42.959 --> 00:11:50.319 And that's just a spiritual truth that's reminding us that there's a...we're not stony and cold 00:11:50.319 --> 00:11:52.439 in our relationship to God. 00:11:52.440 --> 00:11:58.520 But there's a...I love that heart of flesh because what other kind of heart can you have? 00:11:58.520 --> 00:12:01.600 That's the only kind...you know, a heart of stone is not going to beat. 00:12:01.600 --> 00:12:08.120 But this picture of a heart of flesh which is a living, relational loving reality that 00:12:08.120 --> 00:12:15.440 we have with the living God and knowing that the source of all living, the creator of all 00:12:15.440 --> 00:12:22.240 the universe comes to dwell in us, Galatians 2, 20 speaks about that also. 00:12:22.240 --> 00:12:27.360 I have been crucified with Christ, I no longer...it's no longer I who live but Christ who live, 00:12:27.360 --> 00:12:29.200 Christ who lives in me. 00:12:29.200 --> 00:12:35.080 So you have very ordinary bunch of people this morning, not so. 00:12:35.080 --> 00:12:39.160 Because Christ Himself, if we are Christians this morning, dwells in us. 00:12:39.160 --> 00:12:41.560 And the life I live, I now live in the flesh. 00:12:41.559 --> 00:12:45.639 I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. 00:12:45.639 --> 00:12:50.319 So that is...no one who's not a Christian can say that. 00:12:50.319 --> 00:12:57.119 No one who is not a Christian understands that because it's a radical transforming power 00:12:57.119 --> 00:12:59.479 that's happened in our lives. 00:12:59.479 --> 00:13:09.319 And so I hope we find when we remember that and the grace and love behind that, that we...we 00:13:09.320 --> 00:13:17.200 want to move away from trying to serve God grudgingly with a kind of heart of stone, 00:13:17.200 --> 00:13:24.640 ritualistically, or trying to appease Him or please Him by doing the best thing we can 00:13:24.640 --> 00:13:25.640 ourselves. 00:13:25.640 --> 00:13:29.280 It's a completely new way of thinking and of living. 00:13:29.280 --> 00:13:32.560 It's starting...you know, Jesus talks about that. 00:13:32.560 --> 00:13:39.280 I've kind of gone on a wee bit in the last week while about a series you can get on Netflix, 00:13:39.279 --> 00:13:44.120 and not Netflix on your app called The Chosen, which is an amazing...I'll not go into the 00:13:44.120 --> 00:13:48.679 detail, but it's just the story of Jesus, an eight-part series initially, and they're 00:13:48.679 --> 00:13:53.199 hoping to make more right through to the whole of history. 00:13:53.199 --> 00:13:58.000 And it's pretty accurate to the Gospels, and it's very well done. 00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:05.480 But it's a fascinating episode where...and in the first...I'm not gonna...I'll not do 00:14:05.480 --> 00:14:06.480 spoilers, you're okay. 00:14:06.480 --> 00:14:11.519 But in the first eight series, Nicodemus plays up quite a big part. 00:14:11.519 --> 00:14:18.399 And there's such an interesting episode when Nicodemus goes to meet with Jesus, and Jesus 00:14:18.399 --> 00:14:21.000 talks about him needing to be born again. 00:14:21.000 --> 00:14:25.159 And it's just...it brings it very much to life, and the confusion that Nicodemus had, 00:14:25.159 --> 00:14:30.759 well, kind of, man entered again into his mother's womb and be born again, and how weird 00:14:30.759 --> 00:14:36.399 a concept it was for him, and how it's probably been misunderstood in so many ways now, or 00:14:36.399 --> 00:14:40.799 misappropriated in some ways, that whole phrase of being born again. 00:14:40.799 --> 00:14:46.199 But yet Jesus used that because we are new creations, and He says, we're born again. 00:14:46.199 --> 00:14:51.039 And you know when a baby's born, and maybe you'll be with cousins or grandchildren or 00:14:51.039 --> 00:14:55.679 whoever over Christmas, and you see them, you remember again, they have to learn to eat, 00:14:55.679 --> 00:15:00.279 they have to learn to drink, they have to learn to walk, and they have to learn to talk. 00:15:00.279 --> 00:15:02.960 And it's a long process. 00:15:02.960 --> 00:15:07.400 And that's descriptive of what it's like for us as Christians. 00:15:07.400 --> 00:15:13.800 It's that ongoing process where we're needing to learn a whole new language as Christians. 00:15:13.800 --> 00:15:18.440 We need to think in a different way, we act in a different way, we talk in a different 00:15:18.440 --> 00:15:24.120 way, we eat in a different way with thanksgiving, and we live in a different way, we're new 00:15:24.120 --> 00:15:25.879 creations. 00:15:25.879 --> 00:15:31.840 And that brings for us a life of tension in the here, and I think I've got this verse 00:15:31.840 --> 00:15:35.759 as well, Romans 7, 17, I think that's the last of the verses. 00:15:35.759 --> 00:15:40.120 Yes, sin, so now long is not longer I do, but sin that dwells within me, is that sense 00:15:40.120 --> 00:15:50.920 of battle with newness and with the remaining, defeated, dying old nature that we have. 00:15:50.920 --> 00:15:55.040 And it's a battle for, you know, in verse, we didn't read this, but in verse 2 of that 00:15:55.040 --> 00:16:00.000 chapter, chapter 5 of Corinthians, it said, for in this tent we'd grown longing to put 00:16:00.000 --> 00:16:01.480 on our heavenly dwelling. 00:16:01.480 --> 00:16:08.840 I think for movies as you get older particularly, you grow in a lot more. 00:16:08.840 --> 00:16:14.200 Which is sad because when your kids are so happy and cheerful and laughing all the time, 00:16:14.200 --> 00:16:16.560 but when you hit 21 you just start growing. 00:16:16.560 --> 00:16:24.320 And we do grow in, we grow in as Christians, but I think there's a right growing and a 00:16:24.320 --> 00:16:25.960 wrong growing. 00:16:25.960 --> 00:16:33.560 There's a longing for heaven and a longing to be no longer in the battle. 00:16:33.560 --> 00:16:38.320 But there's also a moaning, which I think is different from that, where we're moaning 00:16:38.320 --> 00:16:43.960 at God and not recognizing that we have the Holy Spirit and the Spirit is our deposit and 00:16:43.960 --> 00:16:44.960 our hearts have changed. 00:16:44.960 --> 00:16:48.000 And we do love God, we do love God. 00:16:48.000 --> 00:16:50.680 And it's good to think about that in your relationship. 00:16:50.679 --> 00:16:59.120 Don't you love that reinstatement of Peter after he had betrayed his beloved Savior? 00:16:59.120 --> 00:17:01.120 Peter, do you love me? 00:17:01.120 --> 00:17:02.120 Yes, Lord. 00:17:02.120 --> 00:17:03.599 Peter, do you love me? 00:17:03.599 --> 00:17:05.279 Yes, you know I love you. 00:17:05.279 --> 00:17:06.919 Peter, do you really love me? 00:17:06.919 --> 00:17:08.559 Yes, I love you. 00:17:08.559 --> 00:17:23.720 There's a sense of Peter's failure, but yet his authenticity of it, it was love, it was 00:17:23.720 --> 00:17:28.240 a broken love, but it was, yes, Lord, I do love you. 00:17:28.240 --> 00:17:31.200 And we sense that tension as well. 00:17:31.200 --> 00:17:33.240 We love the Lord, but we want to love Him more. 00:17:33.240 --> 00:17:40.519 So it's a new heart, it's also a new head, verse 20 of the chapter we read, a great verse 00:17:40.519 --> 00:17:44.039 which says, therefore we are ambassadors for Christ. 00:17:44.039 --> 00:17:46.279 God make him as a pupil through us. 00:17:46.279 --> 00:17:51.640 Now ambassadors are always people who kind of think differently because they're not just 00:17:51.640 --> 00:17:56.480 thinking for themselves, they're thinking as ambassadors of the country that they represent. 00:17:56.480 --> 00:17:59.240 And that's the image that's given to us here. 00:17:59.240 --> 00:18:05.680 And the newness in us is that as we live our lives, now I'm very conscious of it even more 00:18:05.680 --> 00:18:12.480 so maybe sometimes as a minister that you're representing the church that you belong to, 00:18:12.480 --> 00:18:15.920 you are representing Christ, but you're also representing the church. 00:18:15.920 --> 00:18:20.720 But all of us as Christians represent Christ, we are Christ's ambassadors. 00:18:20.720 --> 00:18:26.400 That means in our living, in the steps we take, the walks we do, the places we go, the people 00:18:26.400 --> 00:18:29.840 we're in contact with, we're always representing Jesus. 00:18:29.840 --> 00:18:32.560 Isn't that an amazing thought? 00:18:32.560 --> 00:18:36.000 And it's an amazing change of attitude. 00:18:36.000 --> 00:18:40.960 It means that we don't close the door and leave Jesus on the other side. 00:18:40.960 --> 00:18:45.600 There's not places we go or things we do or attitudes we have or behaviors that we engage 00:18:45.600 --> 00:18:49.600 in where Jesus Christ is not being represented. 00:18:49.600 --> 00:18:54.280 We're either shaming Him or we are His ambassadors. 00:18:54.279 --> 00:18:56.720 And that's a new head in us. 00:18:56.720 --> 00:19:00.119 It's a new way of thinking. 00:19:00.119 --> 00:19:05.720 As Christians, our go-to thought is developing along the lines of, am I representing Christ 00:19:05.720 --> 00:19:06.720 well in this? 00:19:06.720 --> 00:19:09.759 Am I living the way He would want me to live? 00:19:09.759 --> 00:19:13.319 Am I dependent on His grace and His help? 00:19:13.319 --> 00:19:25.679 And so I think a good attitude in our thinking is living for His glory in 2020. 00:19:25.679 --> 00:19:31.559 Our task to bring a flavor of heaven into every situation that we're in, because heaven 00:19:31.559 --> 00:19:38.480 is our home and He is our, we are His ambassadors, into the brokenness and darkness and lostness 00:19:38.480 --> 00:19:41.359 of the world in which we live, which we interact. 00:19:41.359 --> 00:19:42.359 Go anywhere. 00:19:42.359 --> 00:19:44.559 I'm saying to you, go anywhere this year. 00:19:44.559 --> 00:19:45.919 I don't care where you go. 00:19:45.919 --> 00:19:46.919 Go anywhere. 00:19:46.919 --> 00:19:48.719 Go into any place. 00:19:48.719 --> 00:19:54.479 But go with the flavor of Christ and go with the grace of Christ and go as ambassadors 00:19:54.479 --> 00:20:04.639 of Christ and make it our privilege and our joy to bring the grace, the beauty, the values 00:20:04.639 --> 00:20:10.240 and the principles and the flavors of God's grace to wherever we are. 00:20:10.240 --> 00:20:11.559 That's a great reality. 00:20:11.559 --> 00:20:12.559 New head. 00:20:12.559 --> 00:20:19.399 And I think also in you eyes, verse 16, therefore from now on we regard no one, we regard or 00:20:19.399 --> 00:20:23.079 we look at or we see no one according to the flesh. 00:20:23.079 --> 00:20:26.720 In other words, we look differently at people. 00:20:26.720 --> 00:20:36.960 How easy is it for you and for me to judge people on appearances or on their belief system 00:20:36.960 --> 00:20:45.920 or on their brutality or on their hurtfulness, but we're not to judge on worldly, fleshly 00:20:45.920 --> 00:20:47.640 terms. 00:20:47.640 --> 00:20:54.519 But as broken image-bearers healed by Jesus to love and to serve and to share Jesus Christ 00:20:54.519 --> 00:21:00.160 with others who are broken and need the healing of Jesus in their life, we don't, when we 00:21:00.160 --> 00:21:03.880 share our faith, we're not just sharing propositional truth. 00:21:03.880 --> 00:21:06.840 We're not just sharing facts. 00:21:06.839 --> 00:21:11.720 It's not a magic formula. 00:21:11.720 --> 00:21:15.759 If I say the right words, boom, they'll become Christians. 00:21:15.759 --> 00:21:17.000 We're sharing our lives. 00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:18.759 Paul reminds us of that. 00:21:18.759 --> 00:21:23.439 We share our lives and we share our attitudes and our humility and our grace because of 00:21:23.439 --> 00:21:26.799 what has happened in our own lives. 00:21:26.799 --> 00:21:30.559 It's the ultimate putting ourselves in another man's, another person's shoes. 00:21:30.559 --> 00:21:33.639 That's what Jesus did in the incarnation. 00:21:33.640 --> 00:21:41.759 And recognizing their needs and being gracious and kind, seeking their good, their healing 00:21:41.759 --> 00:21:44.240 and their renewal. 00:21:44.240 --> 00:21:49.200 And that's a huge different way of thinking for us. 00:21:49.200 --> 00:21:58.400 So I'm just going to close with paraphrasing some of the thoughts that lie behind Ephesians 00:21:58.400 --> 00:22:04.200 4, the second passage we read, because that's entitled, A New Life. 00:22:04.200 --> 00:22:12.440 And it's really, the epistles are great at just putting into words a little bit of what 00:22:12.440 --> 00:22:15.120 the character of Jesus looks like in our lives. 00:22:15.120 --> 00:22:18.840 And it's very challenging for us. 00:22:18.839 --> 00:22:30.959 So it's 1 Corinthians 5, 17, you're a new creation explained in many ways, Ephesians 00:22:30.959 --> 00:22:32.559 4, 17 to 30. 00:22:32.559 --> 00:22:37.199 And if you want, make it, can you make it an all year round kind of read? 00:22:37.199 --> 00:22:38.679 I'm not a great one for resolutions. 00:22:38.679 --> 00:22:40.679 I always break them by the third. 00:22:40.680 --> 00:22:51.960 But it's a great thing to seek to live the kind of life and the characteristic of Ephesians 00:22:51.960 --> 00:22:55.200 4, 17 to 30, which is a new life. 00:22:55.200 --> 00:23:01.920 Live it all year, make it a year long, new year resolution as it were. 00:23:01.920 --> 00:23:08.840 Because you know, in anything, there's no, there's not any growth if we don't know how 00:23:08.839 --> 00:23:13.919 to grow, or if we don't know in which direction to grow, if we have no vision for growth, 00:23:13.919 --> 00:23:18.720 if we don't see areas of growth, and if we don't see where we ought to be in Christ, 00:23:18.720 --> 00:23:23.720 or we'd love to be by grace, then we're probably not going to grow terribly much. 00:23:23.720 --> 00:23:27.119 It's a great question at the beginning of the year. 00:23:27.119 --> 00:23:29.399 What are my goals? 00:23:29.399 --> 00:23:31.399 Spiritual goals as an ambassador of Jesus. 00:23:31.399 --> 00:23:32.959 Where do I need to change? 00:23:32.959 --> 00:23:34.459 What attitudes? 00:23:34.459 --> 00:23:35.559 What thinking? 00:23:35.559 --> 00:23:37.559 What behavior? 00:23:37.559 --> 00:23:38.799 What language? 00:23:38.799 --> 00:23:40.799 What relationships? 00:23:40.799 --> 00:23:48.799 And how can I walk in grace with Jesus more as a new creation? 00:23:48.799 --> 00:23:55.759 So very much Ephesians 4 is from verse 17 is an exposition of being a new creation. 00:23:55.759 --> 00:23:58.000 So don't do what unbelievers do. 00:23:58.000 --> 00:23:59.319 Don't be separated from God. 00:23:59.319 --> 00:24:04.159 Make it your duty, and I'll make it mine, to not be separated from God this year. 00:24:04.160 --> 00:24:09.120 Whatever difficulty you find prayer and walking with Him, keep doing that. 00:24:09.120 --> 00:24:11.720 Keep praying, don't harden your heart. 00:24:11.720 --> 00:24:13.080 Make it soft. 00:24:13.080 --> 00:24:16.080 Take all your doubts and fears and struggles and battles. 00:24:16.080 --> 00:24:22.279 Take it all to God in prayer, and make that your day-to-day living. 00:24:22.279 --> 00:24:25.920 Consciously put off your former way of thinking. 00:24:25.920 --> 00:24:30.240 Take responsibility for your heart and life, because you're the Holy Spirit and you're 00:24:30.240 --> 00:24:32.040 empowered to live a different life. 00:24:32.039 --> 00:24:37.839 You know when you go to bed, if you're fit and healthy, you go to bed, you go to bedtime, 00:24:37.839 --> 00:24:42.639 you're fit and healthy, you take off your own clothes to go to bed, and you put on your 00:24:42.639 --> 00:24:44.799 pajamas or whatever you wear going to bed. 00:24:44.799 --> 00:24:46.440 It's your own responsibility. 00:24:46.440 --> 00:24:49.879 You're not going to stand there and wait for people to do it for you. 00:24:49.879 --> 00:24:53.599 It's your own responsibility, ordinarily, in bed. 00:24:53.599 --> 00:24:55.279 And the same is true spiritually. 00:24:55.279 --> 00:24:58.200 We have to consciously put off the old self. 00:24:58.200 --> 00:25:01.839 It's an image of taking off clothes and putting on new clothes. 00:25:01.839 --> 00:25:04.000 That's what we're asked to do. 00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:05.000 No one else will do it. 00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.399 Yes, we need the Holy Spirit and we need God's help, but we must do it. 00:25:09.399 --> 00:25:19.079 You know, if you're in a illicit relationship, if you're an alcoholic, if we're deliberately 00:25:19.079 --> 00:25:24.199 aggressive against someone unfairly, no one else has got to change that behaviour. 00:25:24.200 --> 00:25:34.319 Because we have the responsibility to put on grace and to put on the reality of God. 00:25:34.319 --> 00:25:37.799 We're to recognise that we're to be holy like Him. 00:25:37.799 --> 00:25:48.880 We're to value truth greatly and not lie within the Christian community and not lie at a broader 00:25:48.880 --> 00:25:49.880 level. 00:25:49.880 --> 00:25:55.480 Truth matters just because we're endowed by the Spirit of truth and truth matters. 00:25:55.480 --> 00:26:00.480 We're to deal with anger issues, with temper issues. 00:26:00.480 --> 00:26:03.520 It's not going to be enough for us as we go into the New Year to say, well, it's just 00:26:03.520 --> 00:26:04.520 the way I am. 00:26:04.520 --> 00:26:07.040 I've got a bad temper. 00:26:07.040 --> 00:26:09.360 God says, you know, don't let the sun go down in your anger. 00:26:09.360 --> 00:26:10.600 Deal with it. 00:26:10.600 --> 00:26:13.680 Even if it's just rage, deal with it. 00:26:13.680 --> 00:26:18.760 It soon becomes sinful in the lives that we are and recognise that. 00:26:18.759 --> 00:26:21.599 Don't be lazy, don't steal. 00:26:21.599 --> 00:26:25.960 But we're to be hardworking and generous in our day-to-day living. 00:26:25.960 --> 00:26:29.359 Your wage packet at the end of January. 00:26:29.359 --> 00:26:31.879 Remember it's the Lord's. 00:26:31.879 --> 00:26:34.799 That's going to be hard, isn't it, at the end of January. 00:26:34.799 --> 00:26:40.119 But remember that He has given us every good gift and that the first fruits of all we are 00:26:40.119 --> 00:26:42.359 and all we have are to be His. 00:26:42.359 --> 00:26:46.920 And we're to give generously to those, especially those who need, reminding ourselves that we, 00:26:46.920 --> 00:26:54.160 in humanly speaking, we're in the top 0.5% of the richest people in the universe, in 00:26:54.160 --> 00:26:55.640 the Western world. 00:26:55.640 --> 00:27:03.519 So being a new creation is not a kind of religious, a pious religiosity. 00:27:03.519 --> 00:27:04.640 Who cares about that? 00:27:04.640 --> 00:27:07.039 It's not pious religiosity. 00:27:07.039 --> 00:27:15.759 It's tough love and it's recognising the need to change what's weak in our lives. 00:27:15.759 --> 00:27:23.519 Not to excuse what's weak in our lives and look proudly at others who are, not look at 00:27:23.519 --> 00:27:29.680 what's strong in our own lives and look proudly at those for whom that particular characteristic 00:27:29.680 --> 00:27:31.200 might be a weakness. 00:27:31.200 --> 00:27:38.799 But it's to recognise our own weaknesses and to deal with them and to be generous in the 00:27:38.799 --> 00:27:42.200 way we mimic Jesus Christ. 00:27:42.200 --> 00:27:48.160 Deal up others with what we say, don't knock them down, don't grieve the indwelling Spirit 00:27:48.160 --> 00:27:51.120 of God who's the guarantee of life to come. 00:27:51.120 --> 00:27:52.120 Don't grieve Him. 00:27:52.120 --> 00:27:53.920 And that's a very personal term. 00:27:53.920 --> 00:27:57.400 The Spirit of God is not an impersonal force. 00:27:57.400 --> 00:28:00.880 He's an individual and we're not to grieve Him. 00:28:00.880 --> 00:28:05.400 You don't want to grieve the people you love. 00:28:05.400 --> 00:28:13.480 Be kind and compassionate to one another because God was kind and compassionate to us. 00:28:13.480 --> 00:28:18.519 And I think as we work through that in our community, in our church, in our family, in 00:28:18.519 --> 00:28:28.720 our lives, I do believe we will see deeper beauty and a deeper attractiveness about one 00:28:28.720 --> 00:28:34.360 another and about our community and about our faith. 00:28:34.359 --> 00:28:38.559 And the great thing about this picture of the new life in Ephesians is that it's not 00:28:38.559 --> 00:28:40.399 a to-do list. 00:28:40.399 --> 00:28:44.079 It's not a list that we have to tick off or try and do in our own strength. 00:28:44.079 --> 00:28:51.559 We have the indwelling power of Christ Jesus as new creations to live His way and all His 00:28:51.559 --> 00:28:54.839 forgiveness when we fail and fall. 00:28:54.839 --> 00:28:56.879 And He's only too willing to forgive. 00:28:56.879 --> 00:28:57.879 Isn't that great? 00:28:57.879 --> 00:28:59.399 It's a great message. 00:28:59.399 --> 00:29:00.399 Let's pray. 00:29:00.400 --> 00:29:04.920 Father God, we thank You for who You are. 00:29:04.920 --> 00:29:11.440 We find it so difficult to understand grace and to be new creations. 00:29:11.440 --> 00:29:20.680 We're always scrabbling around so often anyway in the dark or having been freed from the 00:29:20.680 --> 00:29:34.200 prison of unbelief and darkness, how often do we find ourselves crawling back there in 00:29:34.200 --> 00:29:39.080 sadness and in unbelief? 00:29:39.080 --> 00:29:44.880 Help us to breathe the great fresh air of the Spirit of God and of the freedom of knowing 00:29:44.880 --> 00:29:52.640 who we are in Christ, our identity in Him, our forgiveness, our friendship with God, 00:29:52.640 --> 00:30:02.760 our belonging to His family, His plans for us, His amazing future which reminds us of 00:30:02.760 --> 00:30:09.360 the compulsion of knowing Christ in us and the great future which no eye has seen nor 00:30:09.359 --> 00:30:16.799 mind has conceived of, which you can't even imagine is beyond our limited capability to 00:30:16.799 --> 00:30:21.039 understand or imagine what He has prepared for those who love Him. 00:30:21.039 --> 00:30:29.559 The depth of His generosity, the depth of Your provision, the assurance of Your future 00:30:29.559 --> 00:30:38.399 purposes of a people from every nation, tribe and tongue and generation will be together 00:30:38.400 --> 00:30:40.320 in a glorious new creation. 00:30:40.320 --> 00:30:48.480 And Lord, we pray that we would put our hope more firmly and more securely in You as we 00:30:48.480 --> 00:30:56.600 enter this new year, knowing that it is a year of Your grace and a year that is known 00:30:56.600 --> 00:30:58.840 absolutely at every level to You. 00:30:58.840 --> 00:31:04.200 We pray for our nation, we pray for the world in which we are apart, we see the environmental 00:31:04.200 --> 00:31:12.720 crisis, we see the crisis of humanity fighting one another, killings, deaths, we see the 00:31:12.720 --> 00:31:19.319 raging forest fires in Australia with all the harm and heartache and misery and the 00:31:19.319 --> 00:31:28.319 droughts and all that reminds us, along with all the gifts and the goodness of a broken 00:31:28.319 --> 00:31:31.600 world needing redeemed and renewed. 00:31:31.599 --> 00:31:37.399 So help us to live clearly with clear vision this year for Jesus' sake. 00:31:37.400 --> 00:32:02.160 Amen.