The Stopping of the Sacrifices

Good morning, church.

It's good to see you all this morning.

Our text this morning is Hebrews 10, verses 1 through 10.

Hebrews 10:1–10

Let me invite you to turn there with me.

It's page 1006 in the Pew Bible.

If you want to turn there, Hebrews 10.

Before I read this passage for us, let me pray.

God, indeed, we know that we are prone to wander.

So, Lord, we ask now that you would take your word and, again, call us forth to yourself.

God, grant us hearts that are receptive to hear what you are saying to us through your word this morning and by your spirit.

God, help us to see Christ in his beauty this morning.

In deeper and fresher ways, Lord, bind our wandering hearts to him and so to you.

God, we ask all this in Christ's name.

Amen.

Hebrews 10, 1 through 10.

Let me read this passage for us.

For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come, instead of the true form of these realities,

it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.

Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed,

would no longer have any consciousness of sins?

But in these sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year.

For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,

When he said,

When he said above,

You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings.

These are offered according to the law.

Then he added,

Behold, I have come to do your will.

He does away with the first in order to establish the second.

And by that will,

We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

I was in the laundry mat on Monday,

And there's a bulletin board there with advertisements for all sorts of local businesses.

Pet care, daycare, car care, you name it.

If you're ever in the wash tub on Monday morning, you will find me there.

One of the ads on this bulletin board was for a gym.

And it simply said in big letters,

If you're not working on yourself, you're not working.

If you're not working on yourself, you're not working.

Now it strikes me that the sentiment behind that ad is one of the great mantras of our time.

One of the beliefs that we nearly all hold is that the greatest project before each one of us is to fashion a self.

To construct my identity.

To work on my self.

To make a better and more true me.

And we're told that that is the way to authenticity and to happiness.

That self-expression and self-construction, well that's what it means to be human.

And if I'm not engaged in that work, well golly, what am I doing with my life?

If you're not working on yourself, well you're not working.

You're wasting your time.

You're doing nothing really productive at the end of the day.

Of course there are all sorts of other things that we could point to to get at this deeply held cultural belief of ours.

Think of the closing stanza of that 19th century poem Invictus, which was sort of made popular by the 2009 movie about Nelson Mandela and the South African rugby team with Matt Damon.

Here's how that poem goes.

It says,

It matters not how straight, that is how narrow, the gate.

How charged with punishments, the scroll.

I am the master of my fate.

I am the captain of my soul.

I am the captain of my soul.

It's up to me to determine what will become of me.

Now for roughly 200 years, this idea has been gaining ground.

At least since the Romantic movement of the late 18th century.

If you remember from English class, William Wordsworth, you get the idea, right?

And yet one has to wonder whether culturally, now, in our time, whether this idea is finally starting to run out of steam.

Whether we aren't starting to see, finally, how problematic it is.

Think on the personal level.

We've been told that happiness is found in self-expression, self-construction, and we've been trying to live that way.

And yet, are we happy?

Reports tell us that anxiety and depression, and tragically, even suicide, are at alarmingly high levels across the board.

College campuses, just to take one little slice of our culture, are seeing mental health needs rise every year.

And of course, there are multiple causes of these things.

I don't want to oversimplify.

But at one level, it's as if this drive to create myself, to be the captain of my own ship, has simply been a burden too great to bear.

We've handed ourselves the keys, and we simply haven't known where to go.

But if it's running out of steam personally, then it's also, I think, running out of steam perhaps culturally too.

As our public discourse becomes more and more divided.

As something like a common good seems almost an impossible idea.

After all, how can there be a common good if we're all creating our own destinies and identities for ourselves, right?

Personally, we're fragmenting.

And communally, we're fragmenting.

If you're not working on yourself, you're not working.

Perhaps by the time an idea ends up on a laundromat advertisement for a gym, the idea itself is no longer working.

But where do we go?

How do we find our way back out of the maze that 200 plus years have led us into?

If my life isn't meant to be lived as one giant self-construction, self-expression project, then how should it be lived?

What's the alternative?

What's the hope for us?

What's the hope for us?

What's the hope for us?

What's the hope for us?

What's the hope for us?

And Hebrews 10, 1 through 10, actually points us to the answer.

And shockingly to our ears, the answer is met in one who found his identity holy in the will of another.

And in so doing, achieved a perfect wholeness and holiness for everyone who stops trying to construct their own lives and who put their lives completely into his hands.

But before Hebrews gets to that answer, he's going to show us the problem.

Look again at verses 1 through 4.

Verse 1 says,

Now, as we've seen in our study of Hebrews, the law here is the law of Moses.

And in particular, he has in mind the sacrificial and ceremonial aspects of the law.

The tabernacle, the priesthood, the animal sacrifices, the cleansing rites.

And all of that, he says, even the sacrifices themselves can't make you perfect.

And perfect here means not necessarily without flaw, but complete.

To be perfect means that you lack nothing to be right with God and have free and intimate access with him.

Which, friends, is exactly what you and I were created for.

Could it be that in our search to create the perfect self, one that will express myself to the T and fulfill my being,

could it be that we've forgotten who we're actually created for?

And having excluded God from the picture, our hunt for perfection, for completion, still goes on and on and on.

We still try to become something, but it's become an endless and tireless search because we don't know where or what we're supposed to become.

And just like the law prescribed a continual stream of sacrifices every year,

don't you and I keep trying to continually reinvent ourselves in a continual stream?

Maybe I'll be a jock or a goth or a prep or a band geek, right?

Give it up for band geeks.

No, just kidding.

And then we grow up and it's maybe I'll be a lawyer or a policymaker or a doctor or a teacher.

Or a vagabond, you know.

Or maybe I'll be in this relationship and when that one doesn't work, I'll move to this relationship.

And when that one doesn't work, I'll move to this relationship.

Maybe I need to be more physically healthy.

Maybe I need to be more intellectually interesting.

Maybe I need to get religion.

And it keeps going and going and going and it never stops.

And because it never stops, doesn't that show us that it never actually works?

That we'll never reach completion that way.

And by giving the law 1,500 years before Christ,

God was trying to teach not just Israel but all of us some important truths.

God was trying to teach us something that we needed to know.

And first, what the law sacrifices were teaching us,

what it was showing us was a reminder of sins.

That's verse 3.

Every time a faithful Israelite came to the tabernacle or temple

and offered a sacrifice in accordance with the law,

he or she was being reminded of the sin that stood between themselves and God.

And because these sacrifices couldn't take away sins,

couldn't cleanse the conscience,

they couldn't ultimately put us right with God.

And for 1,500 years, God in his kindness set up this system

that every day reminded humanity that in their most important relationship

between themselves and God, a barrier of sin remained.

Isn't it a great kindness in God to show us so patiently for so many years

where the true problem lies?

You know, sometimes with my kids, I'm like, one strike and you're out.

Boom, timeout, done.

I've learned I'm not a very patient man.

Friends, how much unlike us is God?

That in his infinite patience, he would take such great lengths

to show us what we truly need

and to remind us again and again and again

where our real problem lies.

You see, friend, your desire and my desire,

our desire to find a self that's whole

and that feels fitting and right

is there because you were created in God's image

to know him and worship him and live him and reflect him.

And why are some of us so relentless to keep working on ourselves?

Is it not because deep down there's a sense that something's not right

and that all the work isn't actually working?

And we keep believing that maybe this next thing will finally make me right.

Maybe this next thing will finally make me clean.

Maybe this next thing will finally make me whole.

Friends, listen to what the law is telling you.

You were made for God

and your sin is what needs to be dealt with.

Now, of course, if that's all God was trying to teach us in the law,

it'd be a pretty bleak picture, right?

But look again at verse one.

The law is not just a reminder of sins,

but it's also a shadow of the good things to come.

And of course, a shadow isn't the thing itself, right?

But a shadow points you or shows you something of what that thing is.

And Hebrews is saying the law foreshadows the good things,

the very reality that's to come.

Imagine on this side,

the sort of bright sun of God's plan and God's future.

And then on this side, shadows that run the whole way to the wall.

Friends, stretching into the distance, that's the old covenant.

That's the Old Testament with its sacrifices and with its temple and with its priesthood.

Shadows cast.

But of course, the great question is,

who is it that's casting the shadow?

Who is the true form of those realities?

Who's the one upon whom the light of God's future and God's plan shines

that casts such a brilliant picture in the Old Testament?

Friends, it's Christ.

Christ, he's the one who stands at the center of what God is doing in the world.

The light is shining on him.

And cast its shadow back into the Old Testament.

So when you read the Old Testament, you're looking at four shadows of Christ.

Christ, he's towering across its pages.

And God has orchestrated all the elements of the Old Testament,

the prophets and priests and kings,

the temples and tabernacles and sacrifices,

the wisdom and the law and the narratives,

all of it as a foreshadowing of the true image to come.

And the question that Hebrews has for his audience and for us

is why in the world do we keep on living in the shadows

when you can turn and see the thing itself?

Let's read again verses 5 through 7.

Consequently, when Christ came into the world,

he said,

sacrifices and offerings you've not desired,

but a body you've prepared for me.

In burnt offerings and sin offerings,

you've taken no pleasure.

Then I said,

behold, I've come to do your will,

O God,

as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.

In other words,

what the law could not do

through all of its sacrifices,

Jesus does

by submitting himself wholly to the will of the Father.

The eternal Son of God,

one with the Father and the Spirit from before all time,

takes on a body,

a body in the incarnation

and lives a life of complete obedience to God the Father.

In Psalm 40,

the text that Hebrews is quoting here in verses 5 through 7,

it's a Psalm of David,

who you remember is ancient Israel's great king.

And in these verses,

the king is expressing his desire

to heed God's word

and to obey him.

Because it's over and over again,

what the Old Testament says is,

what God desires more than sacrifice,

his first people to trust him

and obey him

and to love him.

To obey is better than sacrifice.

And it's fitting

that Hebrews would put

this Psalm

on the lips of Jesus

as the words he says

upon entering the world

in his incarnation.

Because don't they summarize

the mission of Christ

perfectly?

Friends,

he is the utterly

obedient king.

Not a single sacrifice

was required for him

because he never sinned.

Even the great David

fell.

Even the best of us

in this room

are flawed

and fallen

and haven't trusted

and loved

and obeyed God

like we should

and like is right.

But friends,

not Jesus.

Jesus perfectly

obeyed God.

He had come

to do God's will.

In his earthly ministry,

do you remember

how Jesus summarized

God's moral law

in two great commands?

The first,

to love the Lord your God

with all your heart

and soul

and mind

and strength.

And the second,

to love your neighbor

as yourself.

And you know,

the truth is

none of us

have kept

these commands.

And in fact,

Christianity

is for people

who know

that they haven't

kept those commands.

So if you're here

this morning

and you're not a Christian,

we're really glad

you're here.

But let me tell you

a little secret

that's not so secret.

This room

is full.

I mean full

of sinners.

each and every

last one of us.

And you're welcome

here too.

You belong here

as well.

Because the glory

of what this

whole thing

is about

is that

into the sea

of sinful humanity,

Jesus came

and lived

a life

of complete

trust

trust

and love

and submission

and obedience

to the Father.

And that

perfect

loving

obedience

led him

to be

the most

compelling

person

who ever

walked the earth.

Crowds

gathered.

Outcasts

loved him.

Religious people

had no idea

what to do

with him.

history

can't seem

to forget

him.

And his

closest

followers

came to

believe

the ones

who had

the closest

view of his

life day

in and day

out

were the

ones who

finally came

to believe

that he

was God's

true

king.

But

shockingly

as Jesus'

submission

to the

Father's

will

continues,

it

eventually

leads to

conflict

and to

betrayal

and to

arrest

and to

abandonment.

And

finally

to

crucifixion.

And on

the night

he was

betrayed,

Jesus,

knowing

that he

was about

to drink

the cup

of our

death,

the cup

of God's

hatred

for our

sin,

says,

Father,

not my

will,

but yours

be done.

As Paul

put it in

the passage

we read

earlier,

he was

obedient to

the point

of death,

even death

on a

cross.

He had

come to

do the

Father's

will,

and he

did it

to the

end.

And

having

given his

life for

our sins,

three days

later,

God raised

him from

the dead,

demonstrating

to everyone

that the

sacrifice

was perfect

and acceptable.

And Christ

ascended to

the right

hand of the

Father where

he sits

right now

to present

his perfect

life and

his sacrifice

for our

sins for

all who

would believe.

And he's

commanding

all of us

to repent

and to

believe in

him and

to find

our life

in his

life.

Friend, I

wonder when

you think

about this

central claim

of Christianity

that Jesus

died on the

cross for

sinners, I

wonder how

you imagine

that in

your mind

when you

think about

God.

Do you

imagine an

angry father

in heaven

reluctantly

being convinced

to change

his mind

about sinful

humanity

because Jesus

just happened

to step in

at the last

minute?

The sort

of angry

father and

the willing

son.

Or do you

imagine the

son being

sort of an

innocent and

reluctant

victim, sort

of mistakenly

finding himself

caught up in

this plan of

a vengeful, of

a sort of

vengeful and

wrathful God?

Friends, too

often in our

thinking about the

work of salvation

we pit the

father and son

against one

another, but I

hope you see

from this text

that that is a

gross caricature

of what we

find in

scripture.

In fact, that

idea misses it

altogether.

The Bible

teaches nothing

of that sort.

Instead, what

we really find

is this.

The father

in love

planning a

work of

redemption for

sinful humanity

and the son

in love

accomplishing that

work and

even the spirit

going forth in

love to bring

that work to

its completion.

salvation.

And the

wonder of this

plan is that

God, father,

son, and

holy spirit

brings about

salvation for

sinners without

in any way

compromising his

holy character

or his loving

character.

Without rejecting

either his

perfect holiness

or his perfect

love.

Because in

holiness, he

condemns sin.

And in love, he

bears that

condemnation

himself.

Friends, every

other religion

will tell you

what you have to

sacrifice in

order to win

favor with God.

What you need to

perform.

Whether it's the

sacrifice of a

really moral,

scrupulous life,

or whether it's

the performance

of daily rituals

and prayers.

But at the

heart of

Christianity is

something totally

different.

In Christianity,

God makes the

sacrifice.

God does the

work.

What God

requires of us,

perfect human

obedience,

God provides.

The perfect

obedience of

Christ.

yours through

faith.

This is God's

will, as our

passage puts it.

His purpose,

his plan.

Do you see how

incredibly

generous and

loving that it

is?

How unlike

anything else

it is that

God would

choose to

freely forgive

and cleanse

everyone who

puts their

life into the

hands of the

risen Christ.

who died for

you?

You see,

friends, at the

end of the

day, there are

really only two

ways to live.

You can keep

trying to

work on your

perfect self.

Or you can

give your life

to the only one

who really is

perfect.

One is a road

that will lead

eventually to

darkness and

loneliness far

from the God

who made us

and loves us.

But the other

is a road that

leads to freedom

and joy in

his presence.

In fact, the word

that Hebrews uses to

describe it in verse

10 is sanctified.

sanctified by his,

that is by God's

will at his

initiative, because

it's his plan,

because he loves,

by God's will,

we who have

trusted in Christ

have been

sanctified through

the offering of

the body of Jesus

Christ once for

all.

Now, sanctified has

got to be one of

the most religiously

sounding words in

the planet, right?

But it means to

make something

holy.

To be sanctified

is to be made

holy.

And sometimes in

the New Testament,

this word

sanctification

describes an

ongoing process

of progressively

becoming more

and more like

Jesus after you

become a

Christian.

But sometimes

in the New

Testament, this

word sanctification,

being sanctified,

is used to

describe not an

ongoing process,

but something

that's definitively

true.

A position,

a status that

you have before

God because

you're in Christ.

And that's how

Hebrews is using

it here.

He's saying that

when God looks

at us in Christ,

he sees us as

holy, as clean,

as complete.

Because Christ

did all that the

law required for

us, fulfilling

its commands,

paying its

penalties.

Now there's

nothing lacking.

That's what

perfect means.

There's nothing

lacking for us

to be fit for

God's presence

and God's

purpose.

When God looks

at you in

Christ, he's not

looking around for

the better version

of you.

He's not sizing

you up to decide

whether or not

you'll make the

cut.

Oh, Stan, he

needs to hit the

gym.

Mmm, that

one better do

some more

penance.

No, friends.

He's made you

holy.

You're in.

You're clean.

You're complete.

Now, yes, he's

going to do

everything in his

power to see that

you actually grow

and change and

actually share

his holiness

actually in your

life.

We'll get to

that in chapter

12.

Buckle your

seatbelt.

But the reason

he's doing all

of that hard,

glorious work in

you is because

he already

accepts you.

Because he's

already made you

holy in Christ.

And all this

means three things

and then we'll

close.

First,

having been

sanctified in

Christ, it

releases us

from our guilt.

Verse 2 said

that the law

could never deal

with our

consciousness of

sin.

No matter what

we did, no

matter how many

sacrifices we

made, no

matter how hard

we tried to be

a good person,

or how hard we

worked at

constructing the

authentic me,

deep down things

still weren't

right.

And there was a

residual sense of

guilt and shame.

And many of us

never even knew

why we felt that

way because we

didn't even believe

in God in the

first place, but

it never went

away.

And our

psychotherapist

told us to go

have more sex,

so we did it,

and that didn't

work either.

The preacher

just said sex

from the pulpit.

But now, you

see friends, but

now that Christ

has made us

clean through

his perfect

life, now

that we're in

him, united

to him through

faith, our

past can no

longer accuse

us.

we're free

from our

guilt.

Look, I

know that

some of us

in here have

done things

that if you

knew someone

else knew what

you did, you

would never

come back.

But friends,

let me say to

you that

whatever it is,

if you're in

Christ, it's

done.

That's not you

anymore.

it's been

cleansed through

the offering of

his body for

you.

You've been

sanctified.

You've been

made holy.

And if you're

someone who's

afflicted by a

guilty conscience,

remember your

baptism.

Yeah, we've

got this big

box up here.

Do you

remember how

after coming to

faith in Christ,

you stood before

the church and

professed your

faith in the

Lord Jesus?

And do you

remember how

you stood in

that water and

went down and

came back up?

Friends, that is

God's way of

saying something

to you.

Are you

listening?

That through

your faith in

Christ, you've

been cleansed.

That your sins

died with Christ

on the cross and

that your new

life began with

him in his

resurrection.

Baptism is

Jesus' gift to

you.

It's his way of

taking that

spiritual

reality and

shouting it

into your

heart.

You're clean.

You're new.

You're mine.

And he does it

publicly, right?

We get up in

front of people

and we do this

thing so that

everyone can

remind you of

it when you

start to doubt.

And so that

whenever anyone

else gets

baptized, like

we'll do this

morning, you can

be reminded

that it's

for you

too.

Here's how the

Heidelberg

Catechism put it

nearly 450 years

ago.

Christ

instituted

this outward

washing and

with it made a

promise that

as surely as

water washes

away the dirt

from the body,

so certainly

his blood and

his spirit have

washed away my

soul's impurity.

that is all

my sins.

Friends, do you

see what they're

saying?

They're not saying

that this water

actually does

anything to you,

but they're saying

it's a promise of

Christ, that He's

speaking something

to you, that as

surely as you've

gone down and

up, so surely

your sins have

been washed away

through faith in

Christ.

So when your

conscience is

troubled and your

inner accusations

come, remember

your baptism.

and in so doing

remember Jesus'

work for you.

The Puritans

used to say,

for every one

look you take

it yourself, take

ten looks at

Christ and who

He is and what

He's done for

you.

Now of course

this sanctification,

this release from

guilt doesn't mean

that as Christians

we'll never feel

conviction for sins

that we commit

after becoming

believers because

the Holy Spirit

lives in us, we

definitely will feel

conviction.

And doesn't Jesus

teach us to pray

that we would have

to forgive each

other just as

God has forgiven

us.

So clearly

there's still a

place in our

Christian life for

confession of sins,

for continual

repentance in our

Christian walk.

So friends, if God

is laying something

on your heart this

morning, confess it

to Him.

If it's something

that you've done

wrong to another,

confess it to them

and seek forgiveness

and reconciliation.

reconciliation.

But know that if

we've confessed our

sins, then He is

faithful and just to

forgive us our sins

and to cleanse us from

all unrighteousness.

Your conscience at long

last is cleansed and

you're released from

your guilt.

That's one side of

having been sanctified or

made holy in Christ,

being released from

guilt.

But you know the

other side of it is

that it releases us

for good works.

You see, when

something was

sanctified or made

holy in the Old

Testament, it wasn't

just considered pure or

clean, but it was

also set apart now for

a special task.

It had a noble purpose.

It was consecrated for

God's service, for

God's kingdom.

Do you remember what

Jesus says to His

disciples?

You are the salt of

the earth and you

are a light of the

world.

You're a city on a

hill, so let your

light shine before

others that they might

see your good works and

give glory to your

Father who's in heaven.

Paul says in Ephesians

2.10 that we've been

created in Christ Jesus,

that is recreated in

Christ Jesus, for good

works.

not by our good works,

but for good works.

And if you don't

understand the difference

between those two,

friend, come talk to me

after the service.

Because that is the

difference between

religion and

Christianity.

So you see, when we

come to trust in Christ,

His perfect life makes us

holy in God's sight, and

suddenly a massive shift

takes place.

We no longer have to

work on ourselves and

obsess about ourselves.

Suddenly we're freed from

the tyranny of centering

our lives on ourselves.

Think about it.

Before we became

Christians, why did we

even do good things?

Well, partially because

we wanted to help.

We had a natural sense of

pity.

But largely because we

wanted to be a good

person.

We were doing good,

largely, for ourselves.

But when Christ cleanses

us, we stop needing to

live for ourselves.

Because He's already

done that.

And He did it a lot

better than I could do

it for me.

And now we can start

living for others.

Friends, one of the

strongest forces for

good in the world are

local churches who know

that in Christ they've

been sanctified, they've

been made holy, not

because of what they've

done, but because of

what Jesus has done.

Imagine not just two or

three people living like

this, freed from self,

to serve others.

But friends, imagine

whole communities,

congregations of

hundreds of people

covenanted together in

membership to love and

serve one another and to

be salt and light in the

city where they live.

In our school and in our

workplaces, in our

dorms and in our

neighborhoods, living as

people who are finally

off the hamster wheel of

self and who have eyes to

see and hearts filled

with love for those

around them with a love

that Christ has shown to

them.

Friends, if you can

imagine that kind of

community, then that's the

church.

That's our call.

Again, it's hard not to

make the connection to

baptism here.

You see, when someone is

baptized, that is the

church identifying that

person as a genuine

believer in Christ, as a

member of Christ's

kingdom, as one who's

been set apart for that

noble purpose of being

Christ's ambassador in

the world.

Just as these waters

represent our cleansing

in Christ, they

represent our calling in

Christ.

To go and to live new

lives in the church for

the world to the glory of

God.

Christian, I wonder, does

your life speak of this

cleansing and calling you've

received?

Are you still living for

yourself?

Or are you living in the

freedom from self for

others that Christ has won

for you because he has

sanctified you?

After the service today, over

lunch, in coffee hour

downstairs, maybe talk

together about ways in

which God has positioned you

personally in your work, in

your neighborhood, to do good

works that glorify his

name.

Who has he put in your

life to share the gospel

with?

Certainly that's the

greatest good you could do

for anyone.

And consider as well, who

might you meet up with

regularly?

Someone who's in your

church family here for

encouragement, for prayer,

for discipleship.

And what other needs are you

seeing?

In the world around you, and

how has he gifted you to

meet them?

And who else shares this

passion and this concern?

What avenues for gospel

speaking and gospel doing is

he placing on your heart?

And what practical steps

could you take, even this

afternoon, to see some of

these things start to take

shape?

Friends, what I know is this.

If in Christ we have been

sanctified, set apart for his

purpose.

It's not a question of whether

God has good works for us to

do.

He's already set us apart for

his kingdom, and he's already

prepared good works for us to

do.

It's simply a question of where

we'll begin.

He has released us for good

works.

Third and last, having been

sanctified by God's will through

Christ, it releases us from

guilt for good works to trust

God's will for our lives in his

word.

Friends, if everything we've been

saying is true, then notice you

see that God certainly has your

ultimate good in mind.

If the Father would plan from all

eternity, and the Son would

accomplish in history your

redemption, your cleansing, through

the horrible death on a cross, if

he's done all that for you, then

surely you can trust him.

If by that will you've been

sanctified, then certainly by that

will you will also find continual

freedom and life and joy.

And where do we find God's will?

Friends, again, the graciousness of

God, we find it in his word.

Instead of trying to fashion our

lives and create our identities

according to our own desires, we can

now gladly shape our lives according

to God's own word.

After all, the one who created us

knows us best.

And he knows how best we ought to be.

And he knows how best we ought to use

our money and our bodies and our

status and our privilege and our

position so that we might flourish.

And so that others might flourish

too.

And he's not just our creator, but as

we've been saying this morning, he's

our cleanser.

He's our redeemer.

He's the one who loved us and

cleansed us.

Now surely his commands are not

wasted, but they're for our good.

Now make no mistake, a life shaped by

God's word might not be one filled

with ease or wealth or worldly status.

You might not actually get your best

life now.

But friends, it will be one of increasing

freedom and joy and hope.

So this is the answer to our problem.

As we've gotten lost in the maze of

making our own selves and fashioning our

own identities, Christ has come and done

something completely off the map for us.

He's lived a life in radical obedience

to his father so that we might share in

his perfection, in his sanctification, in

his wholeness.

And it's there in giving our lives to him and

letting him shape our lives that we find true

freedom and joy.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you this morning for Christ.

God, thank you for giving us in him the perfect

cleansing that we need and the calling to go

forth and to love you in freedom.

God, take these things and impress them deeply in our

hearts today.

Lord, help us to see in the days to come how we can

start living in line with the truth of this good news.

We pray all this in Christ's name.

Amen.

Well, as I've been mentioning a lot this morning,

we are having two baptisms this morning,

which is a great joy for us.

In Matthew 28, the resurrected Jesus says,

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to

me.

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the

Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe

all that I've commanded you.

And behold, I'm with you always to the end of the

ages.

So, friends, baptism is something that we do in

obedience to Christ's command.

It's the way in which disciples of Jesus, who've placed

their faith in him, make a public profession of that

faith.

And as we've said, what baptism is, it's a powerful

portrayal of Jesus' own death and resurrection.

That he's gone down into the grave and come up in newness

of life.

And baptism also says that we, through faith in Christ,

have also died and come to new life in him.

That our sins have been cleansed.

That our new life has begun.

So I wonder if Lee and Laura would come up at this point.

It's been a great joy for us as pastors to get to know, come

on up, guys.

Laura and Lee.

Laura's been here for how many years, Laura?

Four and a half.

And Lee's been coming for about a year, right, Lee?

Is that?

Yeah.

So, since summer.

So, they're going to share their testimonies with you all.

And we're going to rejoice with them.

So, Laura, why don't you come up and share?

Good morning, church.

I think for a lot of people, baptism comes together with a new faith.

And for me today, baptism is just one more sign in a long, long list of signs

of God's faithfulness to me.

In sustaining me through all kinds of hardships.

And refining me, sanctifying me, as we heard in the sermon.

And I became a Christian 12 years ago when I was a freshman in high school.

After a time that I had really rebelled against the Lord for many years.

I was raised in a Christian home.

But during middle school and high school, I started thinking that maybe I knew better than that.

And I started following the ways of the world.

And I can tell you that rebellion only led me to a place of pain and hopelessness.

Toward hatred, toward people who wronged me.

Left me feeling like a burned out house with no room for emotion.

No hope, no love.

Even thoughts of suicide.

And in that time, I thought back to when I had been a young child.

Praying to the Lord as my parents had taught me.

Having an innocence and a hope in him.

Knowing that he was my father, that he loved me, that I could trust him.

And I began reading my Bible again regularly.

I began praying.

I began asking God to help me come back to him.

To change my heart.

And it took a couple months.

And he brought some people into my life who helped me recognize how I was still holding on to some sins that had become very strong in my life during that rebellion.

And helped me to turn from them and repent to them and to truly give my life over to Jesus.

And I remember one night I was praying and reading the word.

And I just felt his presence in a completely unmistakable and unprecedented way.

And I just knew that I was his daughter.

That he was my father and he had saved me and he would never leave me.

And that he had changed my heart so that I wouldn't leave him either.

That he was holding me strong and that nothing could separate me from his love.

And since that night, there have been so many times that he has been faithful to me in other ways.

That he's brought me through hardships and trials.

Both things that are a product of the fallenness of this world.

And also things that are part of my own fallenness and my own weakness.

And my own tendency to sin.

And to disobey the God who loves me so much and gave everything for me.

Who rescued me from feeling worthless like so many girls in high school do.

To helping me recognize that lie that I'm not worthless.

That the God of the universe loved me enough to die for me.

When I was still rebelling against him.

When I was still hating him and spitting in his face.

He came and he died for me.

Not because I deserve it.

But just because he's good.

And because he's loving and wonderful and beautiful.

So as I mentioned, I was brought up in a Christian home.

I was brought up in a Presbyterian church.

And I was baptized as an infant.

So though I've been a Christian for 12 years, I'm getting baptized today.

And that again is just through God's faithfulness and patience with me.

And working in me.

That he's led me to attend churches that really helped me to think about what the scripture does say about baptism.

To challenge my views on that.

And really dig deep into the word.

And ask God to reveal his will to me.

And so I had some time to really devote my study of the word and my prayer to this question of baptism.

And the Lord did show me how this is what he wants for us.

That this is his design in baptism.

For us to be repentant.

And to accept this baptism as a gift.

Knowing that we have been saved.

So I'm accepting the believer's baptism this morning.

And as I said, for me it's another sign of his faithfulness.

And the joy for me today is just the simple joy of hearing my Lord's voice and obeying.

Just having the pure and simple satisfaction and joy of following him wherever he calls me.

And I'm so thankful that he has allowed me to see this part of him.

And for all the ways that he will continue causing me to grow and love him more in the future.

Good morning.

My name is Lee.

And I'm just going to tell you a little bit about my journey of faith.

In February, I heard Pastor Nick say that the Bible is filled with stories of people who don't deserve God's grace.

But they receive it anyway.

Fortunately for me, that has been the case in my life.

I grew up in New Jersey where I lived with my mom and my dad and my older brother.

Both of my parents are wise and generous and loving.

And my mom's probably crying already.

When I was four years old, my mother got saved.

So I knew about Jesus from a very young age.

And I was taught that we're all sinners.

And we need to believe that Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins.

Okay, fair enough.

Jesus was my savior.

I never doubted this.

Church was definitely a big part of my life from a very young age too.

My mom would take my brother and me to a Baptist church every Sunday.

But church was not close to my hometown.

So Sundays were long and tiring, especially as a kid.

As I got a little bit older, I grew resistant to the long services and the long drives.

I hated going to church.

But if I didn't go to church, I was grounded.

My mom would say, if you don't have time for God, you don't have time for your friends.

And although I might steal that line and use it on my own kids one day, at the time I really hated it.

But reluctantly, I continued to attend church every Sunday.

But when I got to middle school, I only grew more resistant.

I was becoming resentful of the rules that were implemented on my life.

I wasn't allowed to listen to certain kinds of music.

I couldn't read certain books or watch certain movies.

I viewed Christianity as a list of everything that I couldn't do.

By the time I hit high school, I had a strange relationship with Christianity.

I felt like my faith made me different, and I was embarrassed by it.

Still, I never doubted that Jesus was my Savior.

From the time I was in kindergarten, this was all that I'd ever heard.

And by that time, I had also become vaguely aware that Jesus was the person that I would talk to in my head all day.

And I thought that that was enough to make me Christian.

But that was the extent of my relationship with Jesus.

I didn't want him to invade the other parts of my life.

As far as I was concerned, Jesus was seriously cramping my style.

And so I was still resisting God's word and God's love.

When I graduated from high school, I felt like my parents had equipped me with strong values and a good moral compass.

I was ready to go be an adult.

And in the fall of 2007, I enrolled at Quinnipiac University.

And now that I was living on my own, it occurred to me,

I don't have to wake up early on Sundays and go to church anymore.

So I enjoyed my newfound freedom, and I didn't bother to find a church in Connecticut.

Like most 18-year-olds, I thought that I knew so much about life and how to live it well.

And I probably was better prepared than a lot of my peers.

But the truth is, college is going to throw a whole lot of craziness at you that you were not prepared for.

Maybe some of the college students in the room might agree.

You're going to be faced with curveballs that you couldn't have expected.

And college is full of scenarios that are going to test your faith and challenge your morals.

I thought that I knew how to handle everything that came my way.

But of course, as sinners do, I made a mess of things.

I dug myself into some pretty deep holes that I wasn't sure how to get out of.

In a time where so much is uncertain, and you're still finding your way,

and you're trying to figure out who you are and who you want to be,

wouldn't it be nice to have a friend who's always going to have your back,

who knows everything that's going to happen to you,

and who's going to hold your hand through the entire thing?

I didn't realize it in college, but that's actually the perfect time to rely on God.

Unfortunately, many college kids don't.

I didn't.

But I wish that I had.

It would have saved me from a lot of stress, worrying, pain, and heartache.

In the summer of 2013, two years after I graduated from college,

I met a new friend here in New Haven, and he was attending Trinity Baptist Church.

I was inspired by his close walk with God,

and I recognized it as something that I needed in my life, too.

It had been too long since I'd been in church.

I was curious to find out if this Baptist church was like the ones that I went to growing up.

So I started coming here in July, and I joined a small group here, too.

What I found was a welcoming and warm and uplifting experience every time I walked through the doors.

One Sunday morning last August, Pastor Greg was preaching about God's pursuing love.

And I sat in my pew, and I had a moment of self-reflection.

I looked back on the past several years of my life and the mistakes that I had made

and how I'd distanced myself from God, especially in college.

I thought about how I'd been resisting Jesus for years, probably my entire life.

And I thought to myself, if I were God, I probably would have given up on me by now.

I'd been resisting God for 24 years, but he'd been pursuing me for 24 years, too.

And in God's perfect timing, in a roundabout way, I had found myself sitting back in church, in that pew right there.

And I sat in that pew, and I began to sweat, and my breathing became erratic, and my eyes welled up with tears.

And I felt strongly that I was sitting in church that day for a reason.

I guess I always knew that God had been working in my life in some abstract sense.

But in that moment, that was the first time that I could really feel it.

And it wasn't that God hadn't been working in my life before.

Sadly, I think I'd just been ignoring him for a really long time.

But as I was having this realization, I heard Pastor Greg say,

God could have given up on me, but he never did.

And those words echoed in my head, and I realized that God never gave up on me either.

And I cried in that pew for like 20 minutes.

Needless to say, these were good tears.

And it wasn't that I had received any new information.

I always knew that Jesus loved me, but this was the first time that I could really feel it.

And it's one thing to have the technical knowledge of what salvation is,

but it's another thing for the lens in which you view your whole life to actually change.

And so while that was certainly a pivotal day for me,

I know that salvation is not just one fleeting experience,

but it actually brings a permanent change in your life.

And last summer was when I finally stopped resisting God's love.

After 24 years of God softening my heart,

the desire to obey God and do things his way has finally come naturally.

My parents are much like my parents.

I know that if God sets guidelines for us to follow,

it's only because he loves us and wants to protect us from harm or pain or heartache.

He wants us to experience all of the blessings that he has in store for us.

So today, just a few days before my 25th birthday,

I'm very excited to be celebrating a new chapter in my life by getting baptized.

And when I'm submerged under that water, two things are going to happen.

One, I'm going to ruin a perfectly good hair day.

And two, I'm giving my life to God and I'm doing things his way from now on.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you.