The scripture reading comes from 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
Please follow along in your bulletin or on the screen.
From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh.
Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
The old has passed away.
Behold, the new has come.
All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them,
and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ.
God making his appeal through us.
We implore you on behalf of Christ to be reconciled to God.
For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
This is the word of God.
Thanks, Jefferson, for reading our passage today.
Can everyone hear me okay?
Yeah.
Okay.
Ed can always hear me.
Good morning again.
If you don't know me, my name is Oscar, and I serve as one of the elders here at Watermark.
It's great to see people back from holiday and also to see some new faces here as well.
Now, before I give today's sermon, I'm going to pray what we call the pastoral prayer.
And I would love for all of us to pray this prayer together.
Jesus said there's an amazing power when two or more are gathered in his name to pray.
So as I pray, please don't zone out.
Please focus your hearts and minds and let us pray this prayer together.
Father in heaven, Holy Spirit, Lord Jesus, we give you praise this morning.
We worship you.
We adore you.
You are the sovereign God, the most high, the great I am.
There is truly no one in this world or in heaven that can compare to you.
You are our creator, our provider, our sustainer.
But then you also gave your life for us while our backs were turned firmly against you, God.
You died for us.
Thank you, Jesus.
This morning, God, we want to pray for the leaders here at Watermark, our staff, elders, and community group leaders.
Above all the practical day-to-day responsibilities and duties,
I pray, God, that our first love will be our Lord Jesus.
May the awe of God and the love of Christ drive the way we serve and lead.
And help us understand what it means to be a true servant leader.
Please give us humble hearts that are soft and willing to admit mistakes, faults, and sin,
because we realize that Jesus has already paid the price for all of these things.
And I pray for unity among our leaders, that with one heart and one mind may we labor together to disciple and build up your body.
And Father, we also want to remember the people who have been affected by the flooding in Indonesia,
the volcanic activity in the Philippines, and the fires in Australia.
We pray for those who have lost their homes or even family members.
Oh, God, would you please comfort these people.
Show them your tender love.
And would you protect those who are now exposed to polluted water or polluted air or toxic ash.
Oh, God, have mercy on them.
And may your common grace fall upon all those affected in these countries.
And Father, as we consider the sermon this morning, we ask that you speak to us from your word and by the power of your spirit.
As we continue learning about the gospel of Jesus this morning, would your spirit teach us, rebuke us, correct, and train us in righteousness
so that we would be equipped to do your work.
Help us to see the depravity of our sin.
But would you also open the eyes of our heart to see the beauty of Christ.
And would you cause us to be in awe of you.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Anyone know where this picture was taken from?
No, it's not a Sunday morning worship service here at Watermark.
It's not a Bruno Mars conference.
Did someone say retreat?
Our retreat?
Nope.
This picture has nothing to do with Watermark at all.
This picture was taken from the Masters of the Century Seminar,
held last October in Singapore.
And at this event, over 5,000 people came from all over the world,
paying up to 12,000 Hong Kong dollars a person
to listen to a number of so-called celebrity motivational speakers speak
about how to become better versions of themselves.
I'm very tempted to give my opinion on this conference,
but I will refrain from doing so, at least up here this morning.
Ask me later.
But what I will say is that when I read about this conference,
two things came to mind.
The first is that many people are desperate to become better versions of themselves.
Usually the goal is to make more money,
which I think was the theme of this conference in Singapore.
But we also desire other things as well.
We want to improve our relationships.
We want more discipline.
We want to be in better physical shape.
Think about all your New Year's resolutions.
You probably made and broke already.
Generally, we desire to be better versions of ourselves.
And second, many people will look to the teaching of a person
or a group of people to help further this goal
of becoming better versions of themselves.
Now, if you've been with us since the beginning of the year,
you'll know we started a new teaching series called Watermark Essentials,
talking about what we believe as a church and why,
talking about our core values,
which are gospel, community, and mission, right there.
Kevin kicked us off over the past few weeks on the gospel,
while we must continue to teach and preach the gospel as a church,
while we must continue to bathe ourselves in the gospel as individuals,
and how the gospel changes us.
And this morning, we'll be continuing to focus on the gospel,
but perhaps from a slightly different angle.
Whereas last week, Kevin spoke about how the gospel changes us,
today, as we consider this passage from Paul's letter to the church in Corinth,
we'll look at the process of this change,
the process, and what this looks like day to day.
And to do this, we'll slowly walk through this passage from 2 Corinthians
to try to extract what God's word is trying to tell us.
That's where we're going this morning, in case you're wondering.
Now, a little background on Corinthians and this passage.
Around AD 50, when the Apostle Paul planted the church in Corinth,
Corinth was a thriving, cosmopolitan city in Roman-controlled Greece.
As you can see on the map, because of its strategic location,
on a narrow strip of land connecting the southern peninsula to the Greek mainland,
Corinth controlled sea traffic from both the east and the western seas,
and was therefore a hub of trade and finance, kind of like Hong Kong.
And so Corinth attracted people from many different socioeconomic,
cultural, and religious backgrounds.
There were wealthy Greeks from the mainland, there were Roman nobles,
but there were also poor immigrants from Egypt and Syria as well.
Temples of worship to both Greek and Roman gods stood side by side in Corinth
and were probably in close proximity to the church that Paul planted.
And the church that Paul planted was also probably a microcosm of broader Corinth
with people from all different kinds of backgrounds.
But the problem with the church in Corinth was that instead of being a light to the city,
instead of influencing the city, the church in Corinth was being influenced by the city.
And when we read Paul's letters to the Corinthians, particularly the book of 1 Corinthians,
we see Christians whose lives are pretty out of whack with the teachings of Christ.
Disunity and division were widespread among congregants.
Disculpting and divorce were encouraged.
And there was very little care for the weak and the helpless within the community.
And when we read Paul's letters, we can sense his pain.
After planting the church, he left after 18 months to continue planting churches around the region.
But when he heard about how the church in Corinth was living deeply out of step
with the teachings of Christ, he wrote to them a number of times,
encouraging them, but also challenging them in the gospel.
Paul says to them, hey guys, we're saved by the very blood of Jesus Christ.
We're saved by his grace.
We can no longer think and act like how the world does.
Our lives must fundamentally be different.
And looking at today's passage, Paul starts off by saying, if we can turn to verse 16,
from now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh.
One of the struggles Paul had with the church in Corinth,
at least at the time of writing this letter of 2 Corinthians,
was that the church was being influenced by false prophets, false teachers.
And as a result, some in the congregation were saying of Paul,
hey, look at him.
Look at Paul.
Look how weak he is.
He has no money.
He's so poor.
He's always getting thrown in jail and getting persecuted.
How can Paul be a true apostle of Christ?
Shouldn't a real apostle be wealthy, have a nice slick hair or white teeth and a fancy car?
Those that slandered Paul were valuing or judging him according to the flesh,
i.e., based on their worldly perspective.
But what Paul is saying is that when we become followers of Christ,
we no longer judge or size up people according to worldly standards.
People are no longer put into the categories of wealthy or poor,
Republican, Democrat, blue or yellow.
You know, we've heard churches in Hong Kong where community groups,
small groups have broken up because of such extreme political views.
Paul would say that's crazy.
He spent one and a half chapters in 1 Corinthians rebuking the church
for putting their pride ahead of their love for their brother and sister in Christ.
For when we see people through the lens of Christ,
we see them for who they truly are,
broken and in desperate need of a Savior.
Look at how Jesus interacted with people when he walked this earth,
whether it was a Roman officer or a wealthy Jewish Pharisee
or the woman caught in adultery.
Jesus cared and loved every single person that he met.
For to Jesus, we're all the same.
We're all inherently messed up, unable to save ourselves.
The gospel really is the great equalizer
because we're all broken and in desperate need of a Savior.
But if our lives are in Christ,
we're all equally and lavishly loved by God.
And this relates to those we love, those we hate,
and those that we're indifferent about.
It's easy to love those we love, right, by definition.
It's much harder to love those we hate
or those to whom we're indifferent.
So next week at that Chinese New Year dinner
when you're seated next to that annoying uncle
who's lecturing you about something random,
remember, he's broken and in desperate need of a Savior.
Remember that.
And that waiter or waitress who's serving you
that you may ignore or maybe you're being rude to
because she's a bit slow,
remember, she's broken and in desperate need of a Savior.
Paul continues and says in the second half of verse 16,
Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh,
we regard him thus no longer.
What Paul may be referring to is perhaps his own experience
prior to his conversion.
In his former life, Paul believed that the teachings of Jesus
were a threat to the standing of Judaism
and so Paul persecuted many who followed Christ.
But when Paul says here in this verse,
we once regarded Christ according to the flesh,
he may also mean that your understanding of Jesus
is either too narrow or totally wrong.
Paul is saying the way you live your life reflects this.
You say you love and follow Jesus,
but your pride and arrogance causes you
to slander your brother behind his back
and to gossip about your neighbor.
He says you say you love Jesus,
but you remain indifferent to the poor.
You hoard all your wealth to yourself.
So how do we view the person of Jesus Christ?
Is he a moral teacher?
He taught us, he can teach us some good values
or how to be better versions of ourselves.
Or is Jesus like the genie in the bottle
where we pray to him when we're desperate for a new job?
Or we're lonely, want a relationship?
Or do we see Jesus for who he truly is?
The son of God.
The one who formed the earth with his very breath.
The one who was both king on his throne
ruling over heaven and earth,
but also the one who died
and gave his life for sinners like you and I.
The one from whom if you lost everything in this world,
you would still have tremendous hope, peace, and joy.
Because the truth is,
if Jesus really is who he says he is,
the savior of the world, the Messiah, God himself,
our lives must be fundamentally changed forever.
And so, for those of us here
who have put our faith and hope in Christ,
those of us here who call ourselves Christians,
our outlook, our worldview, the way we live and act
must be radically different from that of the world's.
Paul says in verse 17,
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,
he is a new creation.
A new creation.
The old has passed away.
Behold, the new has come.
Nicky Cruz was a hardened gang member.
Born in Puerto Rico,
Nicky was beaten as a three-year-old boy
by parents who practiced witchcraft.
His mother even called him the son of Satan.
At the age of 15, Nicky moved to New York City
where he joined a violent street gang,
eventually rising to become their leader.
He committed numerous violent crimes
and was caught up in both drugs and alcohol.
But one day,
a young pastor by the name of David Wilkerson
from Indiana
started preaching to Nicky.
He shared with Nicky about God's love.
At first, Nicky threatened to kill David.
He spat at him and said,
Don't come back.
I'm going to kill you.
But David persisted.
Day after day,
he went back to Nicky
sharing about God's love.
And after a while,
Nicky's heart softened
and he confessed
that he had messed up.
That he was messed up.
And he gave his life to Jesus Christ.
And for the past 60 plus years,
Nicky Cruz has traveled all over the world
sharing his testimony
to over 50 million people.
Countless others have been dramatically,
have been inspired
and their lives have been changed
by God's testimony
through Nicky's 17 books.
Nicky's life,
his testimony,
is an amazing example
of what the power of the Holy Spirit can do.
Right?
An example of someone
whose life has been dramatically changed
after giving his life to Christ.
But what about those of us here today
who are already Christians?
Those of us here
who are already supposedly new creations?
Why don't we feel so new?
Why do we still struggle
with the same old habits and sins?
Why do we feel shame?
Why do we feel like we're never good enough?
Well,
Paul didn't say,
hey, listen to this, right?
Paul didn't say that
if today our lives are in Christ,
we are a perfect creation.
He didn't say that, right?
He says,
if anyone is in Christ,
he is a new creation.
For those of us here today
who have given our lives to Christ,
we aren't perfect,
but it's okay.
The day we confessed,
repented,
and professed our faith in Christ,
we started a new life from zero.
And we don't go to 100 overnight.
What did Jesus say?
Jesus said that we were born again.
Think about that analogy,
like babies, right?
What do babies know
when they're first born?
Nothing.
Right?
We have two babies.
They're going to fall 100 times
before they can walk.
They have a lot to learn.
And so do we.
And then Paul says,
the old has passed away.
Behold,
the new has come.
In some ways,
this is a prophetic statement,
referring to the future
when the old will really pass away.
The old world,
the world as we know it,
and our old bodies,
our existing bodies,
will be exchanged
into a new earth
and our new glorified bodies.
And Christ says the same thing
in Revelation
when he says,
I am making everything new,
referring to the new heaven
and the new earth,
where there'll be no more death
or mourning
or crying
or pain
for the old order of things
will be passed,
has passed away.
If today our lives are in Christ,
one day
we will
be perfect.
But
between now and then
we will remain imperfect.
But not stagnant.
When Paul says
the old has passed away,
behold,
the new has come.
He's also referring to
this process
in this life
of sanctification,
of constant
heart renewal,
of becoming more and more
like our beloved Jesus
over time.
And how does this happen?
This happens
when our love
for Jesus deepens.
As we go more in love
with him
and as the gospel
gets deeper
into our hearts,
our old habits,
our old ways,
our old addictions
are left behind.
But it's a constant
continual renewal process
which happens
over the course
of our entire lives.
It's like when a snake
sheds its skin.
Snakes shed their skins
to promote growth
and to remove parasites.
But they don't just do it once.
Snakes shed skins
many times a year
and many,
many more times
throughout the course
of their entire lives.
I've been a Christian
since I was a child.
But if I'm honest,
as a teenager
and into my 20s,
I don't think I had a clue
about the gospel at all.
My thought as a Christian
was that it was
what I needed to do.
It was about my hard work,
my holiness.
I needed to work hard
to be a good person.
It wasn't about
what Christ
had already done for me.
And it wasn't until
I came actually here
to Watermark
and I learned about
gospel-centered teaching
that I realized
that actually
I was much worse
than I thought I was.
But I was much more loved
and cherished
and precious to God
than I had realized.
And in this process
of confessing sin
and growing more in love
with Jesus,
I have seen a newness
in parts of my life.
Many years ago,
I struggled with
an addiction
to poker.
It sounds funny,
but it was actually
pretty bad.
I loved Texas Hold'em.
I would play in casinos,
I would play in poker clubs
in New York and Hong Kong,
I would play in people's homes,
I'd even have games
in my own home.
I loved the competitive
aspect of it,
the strategy,
trying to outwit
your opponent,
bluffing.
I would go online
and listen to YouTube videos
of professionals
to get better,
I read books,
I knew all the odds,
mathematical odds
of poker
to gain an advantage.
But looking back now,
I can admit that
I loved poker.
I was so deeply invested in it,
I was so focused on it.
I loved poker
more than I loved Jesus.
It was an addiction.
It was an idol.
But it wasn't that
I woke up one day
at rock bottom
where the only direction
I could go was up,
and it wasn't like
I had some amazing
God moment.
It's that over time,
as I became aware
of my own depravity,
I realized I needed
Jesus' death on the cross
more than I'd realized.
And then as my love
for Christ grew,
my appreciation
and love for Him grew,
there wasn't space
in my heart
to love this poker.
And so that love died.
And even in recent years,
as my love for Jesus
has grown,
stuff that was so important
to me in the past
just isn't anymore.
I used to think
that life was about
doing well in school,
getting good grades,
getting a great job,
winning tennis matches
along the way,
and moving up the food chain
to the top
so I could make
a lot of money.
And in recent years,
as I've loved Christ more,
my drive to succeed
in these worldly things
has sort of diminished.
Don't get me wrong,
I still work hard
and I still respect work
and I appreciate it,
but I guess what I'm trying
to say is here
that its former place
that was up here
has been de-elevated.
It's now down here.
Because I think
as our love for Christ grows,
God's Spirit gives us
a bigger heart
to love what He loves
and who He loves.
He wants us to love
our families,
our wives and our children well,
to cherish them.
He wants us to love
our community here
at Watermark,
to sacrifice for them.
He wants us to love
our neighbors.
He wants us to love
strangers.
He wants us to love
widows and orphans,
the poor.
But also,
as our love for Christ grows,
there is no room
to love that which
Christ hates.
And what does He hate?
Idols,
addictions,
and sin.
Whether it's an addiction
to poker,
to alcohol,
pornography,
the idol of our kids'
education,
the idol that money
can give us happiness,
these things diminish
when our love for Christ
increases.
This is what happens
when the gospel
gets deeper into our hearts.
We become constantly renewed,
a new creation,
so that today
we're more like Christ
than we were yesterday,
and tomorrow
we'll be more like Christ
than we are today.
This is the power
of the gospel,
as Paul says
in Romans 1, right?
And we're not renewed,
right,
by some wise words
or some celebrity
motivational speaker
that says how to live
or how to think
or act, right?
We're renewed
by the very power
of God,
by His Spirit.
But again,
we're not yet perfect.
And in case you had the view
that I'm some sort of saint,
well,
you should ask the elders.
Better yet,
ask my wife
or daughter.
They know me well.
I'm not sure
if I shared this story.
Late last year,
Celeste and I
were driving
to my cousin's wedding
in Kuntong.
We were already late
when I took a wrong turn
and I went down
a one-way street
and I was stuck.
Excuse me,
one second,
excuse me.
So I was stuck
down a one-way street
and the only way
to get out
was to turn around
the way I came.
But the only way
to turn around
was to reverse
into this driveway
of a car park.
And there's one
of these orange cones
blocking the driveway
so I got out
of the car,
picked the cone up,
put it to the side,
but as I got
back into my car,
the manager
of the car park
picked that cone up
and put it right back
in the middle
of the driveway.
So I'm like,
dude.
Well, I didn't say dude.
I said, sir.
I just need
a couple seconds
to reverse
so I can get out
of here.
You can see
I'm stuck, right?
Obviously,
he knows I'm stuck, right?
And he goes,
sorry,
no one can come in
unless they pay.
I said,
I don't need to pay.
I don't need to come
into your,
I don't need to park.
I just need a couple seconds
to reverse
so I can get out
of here.
I'm late for my cousin's
wedding.
Come on,
have some pity on me.
He looks at me
with arms crossed.
No one comes in
unless they pay.
And so I flipped out.
I yelled at him.
I didn't curse,
I didn't swear at him,
so just make sure
you understand that.
But I definitely
wasn't gracious,
I wasn't kind.
I yelled at him
and I'm not proud of it.
I'm not proud.
My voice was raised
and my anger burned
at him.
I still have a lot
of renewing to do
over the course
of many years.
But thankfully,
God has made a way
for my heart
and for your heart
to be continually
renewed.
And this renewing
is only possible
because God
has reconciled us
to himself
through Jesus Christ.
Let's look at
verse 18 and 19 now.
And Paul says,
all of this is from God,
referring to being
a new creation,
who through Christ
reconciled us
to himself
and gave us
the ministry
of reconciliation.
That is,
in Christ,
God was reconciling
the world to himself,
not counting our trespasses
against them.
The fact that
reconciliation is needed
indicates the fractured
relationship we have
with God
because of sin.
Paul writes in Colossians
that apart from Christ,
we are enemies of God.
God.
In Ephesians,
he writes,
we are aliens
and foreigners
to God's household
because of sin,
because of our trespasses.
We absolutely cannot be
in the presence
of God.
But God himself
has made a way.
Notice Paul writes,
all this is from God
who through Christ
reconciled us
to himself.
See,
we can't reconcile
with God.
It isn't like
when we husbands,
you know,
say something mean
to our wives
and, you know,
in an attempt
to win them back,
so to speak.
We buy them chocolates
or flowers
to win them back,
right?
It doesn't work
this way with God.
We cannot reconcile
with God.
There is nothing
we can do
to reconcile
with God.
It's only through
Christ's blood
poured out on the cross
that you and I
are reconciled
with God.
And being reconciled
means we have
a relationship
with Almighty God.
We can know him.
We can commune
with him.
Even now,
during this service,
we are communing
with God
as he speaks
through the songs
or through the scripture
or through the message.
We respond to him
in confession,
in worship,
in adoration.
And then,
in verse 21 here,
Paul ends
with one of the
most significant statements
in the entire Bible
explaining how it is
that you and I,
if our faith
and hope
is in Jesus,
we can be reconciled
with God.
Verse 21,
for our sake
he made him
to be sin
who knew no sin
so that in him
we might become
the righteousness
of God.
This is the gospel.
Jesus' death
on the cross
enables us,
Jesus' death
on the cross
enables us
to be reconciled
with God.
The cross
is the bridge
which provides
a pathway
to God,
a pathway
to know God,
to be in a relationship
with him.
But the sacrifice
of the cross
cost Jesus
everything
and his death
reveals three
fundamental points
at the heart
of the gospel.
The first point
is that sin,
the sin in our hearts,
the darkness
that resides
in each
and every
single one
of us
is much worse
than we
understand it
to be.
If you think
about yourself,
perhaps you've
never committed
murder
or robbed a bank,
but I imagine
every single person
here has burned
with anger
against someone.
Maybe your boss,
maybe your parents,
maybe the manager
of a car park.
You may have
never committed
adultery,
but I imagine
most if not
every single person
here has lusted
after someone
who they weren't
married to.
I know I have.
But Christ
was very clear
when he said
that the sin
we commit
in our heart,
that secret sin
that no one else
knows about,
he knows,
and that's still sin.
And the second point
is that God
is much holier
and just
than we understand
him to be.
In fact,
I would be remiss
to think I can even
find the word
to describe
God's holiness.
But one implication
of his holiness
is that God
absolutely
cannot stand sin.
And I don't just mean
murder and grand larceny,
I mean all those sins
that you and I
commit in our hearts.
There is not one
single sin
that will go unpunished
by God.
God demands justice
for each and every sin
because of his holiness.
So yeah,
if our sin wasn't that bad
and if God
wasn't that holy,
then sure,
in that pretend
parallel universe,
maybe we can get a pass
for our sin.
So when Kevin and Claire
were considering
moving from Cape Town
to serve here
at Watermark,
they came on a brief
trip to Hong Kong.
And on one of those days,
my wife Celeste and I
took them out
on a sightseeing tour.
We were heading
towards Causeway Bay,
but I missed the exit.
And so I made the quick
and wrong decision
to cross a double line
to make the exit.
And of course,
very soon after that,
the police,
the lights were flashing
in my rear view mirror.
I was getting pulled over
by the police officer
asking me for my license.
But somehow,
miraculously,
by the grace of God,
the police officer
just said,
don't do this again.
And he let me go.
Amazing, right?
I got in the pass.
But it doesn't work
this way with God.
The God of the Bible,
whom we worship,
cannot give a pass
to anyone.
Every sin must be punished.
Every evil thought
and action
will be accounted for.
But,
the story doesn't end there.
If it did,
it's pretty depressing,
isn't it, right?
It doesn't end there.
The beauty of the gospel
is that God
didn't just give us a pass.
Instead,
he made a way
to satisfy his own wrath
through punishing himself.
I mean,
who does that, right?
He made him to be sin
who knew no sin.
Jesus Christ,
who was equal to God
in every way,
the radiance of God's glory,
the one who never sinned,
and the one who was perfectly holy,
became sin.
That is to say
that the sin of the world,
your sin,
and my sin,
were literally put
on the shoulders
of Christ
so that Christ
became our substitute.
Instead of you and I
facing the just punishment
of God,
Jesus on the cross
hung in our place,
bloodied
and bruised
and facing
the terrible wrath
of God.
And he did this
for us
because he loves us.
And through his death
on the cross,
the perfection
of Christ,
his righteousness
has been given to us.
It has been imputed
to us.
We now have
Christ's righteousness
if we confess
and repent of our sins
and put our faith
and hope
in Christ.
When God the Father
considers us,
when the almighty,
powerful God
looks at us,
he doesn't see
our sin,
he doesn't see
all the nasty thoughts
in our hearts,
he doesn't count
against us
all the times
that we have messed up,
he doesn't see
our addiction,
our greed,
our pride,
our lust.
What he sees
is he sees
Jesus Christ,
the perfect,
unblemished Christ.
When God considers us,
he sees Jesus.
And what this means
is that God
doesn't just
put up with us.
He doesn't just
sort of like us
but wish we'd go away
like an annoying
dog.
He loves us
deeply
because he loves
Jesus.
Remember in Scripture
when Jesus
was baptized,
God the Father
said about Jesus,
this is my Son
whom I love,
with whom
I'm well pleased.
The Father
loves the Son
and yet put him
on that cross
for us.
And through the cross
and only through
the cross,
when God considers us,
he sees Jesus,
the one he loves.
And therefore,
he loves us.
And here we come
full circle.
When the gospel
of Christ
gets deeper
into our hearts,
the implications
are huge.
We aren't perfect today
but we absolutely
cannot be
the same person.
That is why
Paul says,
if anyone is in Christ,
the old has passed away,
behold,
the new has come.
As our love
and appreciation
for Jesus grows,
our hearts become
constantly
and increasingly
renewed
because in Christ
we are
a new creation.
And what freedom
this gives us.
What a release.
No more shame.
No more
having to
hide all your
secret sins.
No more
having to be,
no more
holding bitterness
against our brother
in our hearts.
Instead,
we can confess
our sins.
We can say,
sorry.
Can we make up?
I messed up.
We can be sacrificial.
And in this process,
God renews
our hearts.
Let me close.
Brothers and sisters,
our hope
is that
this year
and for many more
years to come,
the message
of Jesus Christ
and his gospel
will sink deeper
and deeper
in our hearts.
It doesn't matter
whether or not
you don't know
Christ today.
It doesn't matter
or not
whether you have
been a Christian
for 90 years.
The gospel of Christ
must get deeper
into our hearts
as every day
goes on.
For his message
is not from some
celebrity motivational
speaker
who's here today
and gone tomorrow.
And this message
of the gospel
is not from Kevin
or from me
either.
This gospel
is the very power
of God.
the good news
of Jesus Christ,
the one who is
eternal,
the one who always
has been,
the one from everlasting
and the one
who has proven
his love for us
beyond any shadow
of a doubt
on the cross.
And the gospel
of Christ
is our ultimate
hope in this world.
And as it sinks
deeper into our heart
and as our love
for Christ grows,
we are compelled
to be continually
renewed.
We're compelled
to love people
that aren't lovable.
We're compelled
to shed old habits
like a snake
sheds old skin.
And yes,
we're still imperfect.
We will still mess up.
And we all need
community around us
to sharpen each other,
to encourage
and challenge each other
in the gospel
like how Paul cared
for the church
in Corinth.
And that is why
we exist as a church
in Hong Kong,
to grow each other
in mutual faith,
to make disciples
of Jesus Christ
who impact Hong Kong
for the glory
of God.
So let us walk
this journey together
with joy and hope,
always pointing each other
to Jesus Christ.
Let's pray.
Oh Father,
thank you so much
for Jesus,
for sending him
into this world
all those years ago
to live a perfect,
unblemished life,
a life of holiness
and perfection,
and going to the cross
to die in our place
as our substitute.
And thank you God
that as a result
of the death of Christ,
we now have
his righteousness,
God,
and that we can live
freely in Christ.
And I pray God
that your Holy Spirit
would continue
to do a great work
in our hearts, God,
to cause us
to hate our sin
but to love,
cause us to hate our sin
but to love you deeply,
Father.
I pray for revival
in our hearts, God.
We need revival, God,
in our hearts.
And for those of us
here today
who have not yet
given our lives
to Christ,
I pray that you
would speak to them
today, God.
The message
that only you
can speak, Lord.
Reveal yourself
to them.
Tell them how much
that you love them
that you always have
so much so
that you died for them.
Help us all
today, God,
to see Jesus
for who he really is,
Savior of the world,
our Messiah,
the one who loves us.
Open up our eyes
to see him.
To see him.