Genuinely New

He is risen. That's it. Let's pray together for the

proclamation of God's word. Lord.

We have gathered to celebrate our risen Savior, to proclaim him,

to praise him, to pray to him, to fellowship with

his people, and receive the encouragement that you have for

us through one another. And Lord, as we gather this morning,

we open up our mouths to bring praise.

Lord. We don't want to just.

This isn't just a time for you to hear from us.

It's also a time for us to hear from you.

And so we asked that we would. But as we

open up your word, would you open up our ears?

Would you open up our hearts and send your word

to its place, that it would eat us, that it

would hit the heart of your people and provide food

and encouragement and challenge and conviction.

Lord, Would you bring us all of the challenge and

the instruction that you have for us this morning, that

we would receive it, not just in some mental frame

of mind, Lord, that we would receive it spiritually, as

only you can accomplish.

By the power of your spirit. And so it's in

Christ's name that we ask that you would do your

work in your people through your word in Jesus name, amens,

Grab our bibless, grab our bibles and turn to Second

Corinthians chapter five.

Thank you, honey, appreciate that Second Corinthias five.

If you don't have a Bible with you, oh, I

call her honey because I'm married to her. By the way,

just clear that up for any guests. If you don't

have a Bible with you, raise your hand. We're passing

those out. If you need a bible or a pen

or a bulletin or anything like that, just raise your

hand and get the eye of one of our ushers

and we'll get you whatever you need. Just leave your

hand up for a little while. We'll find you eventually,

and turn with me to sewod Corinthians chapter five. We're

going to be in verses sixteen and following, and this

is probably a good time for me to remind you

to please fill out a connection card. We ask everybody

to do that every week. Whether you're a member here

or maybe this is your first time, or you're here

with someone else. It's just a really important pastoral tool

for us that we know that you're here by name,

and certainly if you're a guest, you can leave some

contact information. We'd love to follow up with you and

explain how you might become a part of this local body.

We'd love to do that, or simply to encourage you

and blow us you in whatever way that we can.

If you are new here, there's a table out in

the lobby called Step one and we'd love to connect

with you there and just help you along to the

next step of becoming a part of the life of

this church.

Also, please, there's a room, there's a player.

Place for prayer requests on that card, and you've got

the whole worship service to fill that out. We've got

a whole team of men and women who will be

praying for your requests, with you and for you throughout

the week. So please please tell us how we can

pray for you. Second Corinthians five, Starting in verse sixteen,

I'm gonna read through twenty one. Let me just read

it for us, and then we're gonna spend some time

just chewing on some of the central truths of this

passage of God's word Second Corinthians five sixteen. From now on,

therefore we regard 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 intrusting 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, be reconciled to God.

For our sake. He made him to be sin, who

knew no sin.

In him, we might become the righteousness of God.

This is God's word. As we.

Start this morning, I want to begin by telling him

about the first house my wife and I lived in.

It was patrocious.

It was literally rotting away underneath our feet. It was

a little duplex in this little spot in Austin, Texas,

where most of the houses in.

That neighborhood were rotting away, and it was tiny.

We had to squeeze past each other in almost every room.

It was dilapidated that the yard was just weeds.

And I know I could have done something about that.

I didn't need the landlord to do anything about that,

but it is hopeless. I would sprint from my car

to the back door where I parked in this little

gravel spot. I had sprint so that I didn't get

chiggers on.

The way home.

And one day, one day my wife called me from

while I was at work, and she she called me.

She said, Honey, the air conditioner fell out of the house.

And that's what it happened.

It was just one window unit for this house. I

mean this these rooms, and the screws that had held

the window unit into the window frame they just pulled

right out of the rotting wood and the thing just

fell into the bushes. And I don't know that we

ever heard from the landlord on that. We might have

fixed it ourselves.

It was old.

And last summer, my wife and I went to Austin

for some trip or another.

I can't remember why.

We did a little you know, we lived in Austin

for the thirteen years, so we did a little tour

of you know, kind of places we'd been and we

went to visit that old, dilapidated house, and it wasn't

there anymore.

And I don't mean it had just blown away.

I mean somebody had torn it down poured a new foundation,

because what was there was a three story house with

an attached garage. There was no backyard anymore. It's just

all house, new foundation, and everything the old had passed away. Behold,

the new had come. This morning, I want to give

you some good news and and love you enough.

To tell you how important it is. This morning.

I want you to see that the apostle Paul is

saying that something like that happens to those who are

united to Christ by faith. Paul is writing this letter

to this church of the Corinthians. The Corinthians were big

on exteriors. They were the kind of folks that love

a flashy paint job and probably would have repainted this

house as opposed to tear it down to the ground.

They were also those who liked their old ways of living.

So in this community of Corinthians, I'm sure there were

some who were genuinely in the faith, some who weren't,

and some who.

Even though in the faith, really.

Kind of just continued to live in their own moral dilapidation.

And then there were those even who misunderstood the faith altogether.

To them, the message of grace that Paul had preached

to them, they had misunderstood as more of a spiritual

do it yourself project, instead of God tearing down their

lives and rebuilding something new, demolishing the old and instead

giving them a new creation. They thought of Christianity as

sort of like a well, if I have sort of.

The Bible's moral code.

Then I can just sort of like carry that around

with my own hammer and nails and sort of like

start to fix things up around here. And so Paul

writes this into that group of people, who I'm sure

are not wildly different than this group of people. I

wonder how much we need to understand like they did,

that those in Christ are genuinely new. If you're here

this morning as a non believer, you're a non Christian

here this morning, and maybe you're here with your family,

or it came with a guest, or you are curious

considering Easter might be one of those times where you

come to a church and we are.

Thrilled that you're here.

As I said at a service earlier this week, we

love for you to be here at Eves drop on

this family meeting, and we'll talk very frankly about the

resurrection of Christ, not only as central to the Christian faith,

but also to real change, genuine newness for Christians.

We'll ask what if you could be genuinely new? If

you're here this.

Morning as a Christian, We'll ask, am I new in Christ?

But living as if I'm not like those Corinthians who

genuinely had received the grace of God, genuinely received the

grace of God.

It came in, they under stood it, they placed their

faith in Christ.

They had been made a new creation, but they still

continued to live in the footprint of a dingy duplex,

as opposed to the three stories of love and joy

and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness

and gentleness and self control and holiness and righteousness.

That God has constructed for us. Or maybe maybe you're

here this morning and.

You've been calling yourself a Christian, but you've really been

approaching anything about the Christian faith more as a spiritual

do it yourself project, trusting in your and your work,

your hammer and nails. We're going to consider all those

things and at the end of this message. Let me

just warn you'll just heads up ahead of time. The

end of this message, we're going to spend some time

in prayer, private prayer where you're at. I'm gonna be

asking you to bow your head and actually spend a

few moments alone with God together in this room, so

all of those questions may be considered before him. So

let's progress this way. I have three what I'll call

framing questions that we'll use to deal with this passage.

Three framing questions that will move us through our time

this morning. Here's the first question, the first framing question

for our message.

Number one, Is there.

A way to be genuinely new? Is there a way

to be genuinely new? Well, the answer to that is

that's what Scripture says verse seventeen. Paul puts it this way.

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old has passed away, the new has come. So

whatever Paul is talking about here, he's using language like

new creation and the old has passed away the whole

the new has come. Behold like this is we're talking

about genuine newness. We're talking about truly new.

And you may ask again Why are we talking about

me right now?

Why are we talking about me becoming new or being

new or us being a new creation? I thought this

was Easter. I thought, well, this was resurrection Sunday. Why

aren't we talking about him? Why are we talking about me? Listen,

this is about him. This is totally about him. I'm

not off topic. I'm wearing my purple. This is resurrection Sunday.

The thing is, the resurrection of Christ isn't just about him.

It's significant for you. That's what verse fifteen is about.

Like those who live might no longer live for themselves.

Verse fifteen says, but for him who for their sake,

do you see it, died and was raised.

This is about him.

This is about him dying and the fact that he

was raised for.

The sake of those who had trust in him.

That's a good place for an amen being in him.

Him being raised means that you can be new, You

can be from the ground up new foundation, the foundation

that is Christ himself be rebuilt. Romans eight says, it's

the same power of God that raised Christ that is

at work in those united to him. He said, Okay,

isn't that all just sort of metaphorical.

When we talk about resurrection, don't we mean newness as

in sort of like you know, refreshment.

I mean it's spring, the flowers are blooming, We've got

new green growth.

Aren't we talking.

Resurrection and newness and the old has passed away? Kind

of more of in a metaphysical, sort of metaphorical sense

like that, not notcally what I'm made new, not like

like Christ is alive. Well, that's exactly what Paul is

saying in verse sixteen.

Is not the case.

He's saying, from now on, therefore, we regard no one

according to the flesh. We don't regard anyone like we

used to humanly. We used to regard Christ according to

the flesh, Paul saying, Look, some of us used to

regard Christ as a person and just a good teacher.

Paul would say, I regarded him as a bad teacher.

But either way, we regarded Christ according to the flesh

as a person who would live and die, and that

was it.

But we no.

Longer regard him that way at all. We now know

that Christ was God in the flesh, and that when

he died, he died for sins. When he was raised

he rose.

For us. So now that we recognize that.

Human considerations have to be completely reconsidered. We can't think

like that anymore. God has blown our categories, and in

blowing our categories about Jesus, he's blown our categories about us.

And one is possible.

If God becomes a man, dies a criminal's death, is

buried in a tomb, and risen from the dead, then

everything's on the table, y'all.

So is there a way to become genuinely new? Yes?

According to Scription, maybe the better question is do you

want to be genuinely new?

Do you want.

A genuinely new way of living your life? Do you

want a genuinely new way of approaching your death? Do

you want a genuinely new way of living joyfully under

submission to God's will? Do you want a genuinely new community?

Do you want a genuinely new allegiance to Jesus? Do

you want genuinely new battles not just against bad habits,

but now you're ready to fight sin to the death.

Are you ready for genuinely new loves? Yeah, there's a

way to be genuinely new, But do you want it?

Is a better question because there are many who just

want They just want mere improvement, not demolition. Pained, because

then I have control. If God is gonna tear me

down to the ground and build what he wants out

of my life, then I don't have control.

He has control.

If God is gonna tear me down to the ground

and rebuild a completely different life for me, that means

that the sin that I have treasured I can no

longer keep. I won't even have those old rooms to

keep it in. What God offers is demolition and reconstruction.

Do you want it?

You say, well, maybe before I go through a demolition

like this, I would like to hear from some of

the people who have gone through it themselves.

Not a bad idea.

That leaves this to framing question number two. Framing question

number two is this, have others been made genuinely new?

Have others been made genuinely new? That's what Paul says

in verse eighteen. He's like, I'm speaking from experience, y'all.

He says, all this is from God, who through Christ

reconciled us to himself. He said, this is what's happened

to me, me and my ministry team. And we know

the story of how Paul was demolished and rebuilt. And

when he was when he met the living Christ and

came to trust him and regard him according to the flesh,

no longer then, it was said of him all around

the man, the man who once persecuted this church, is

now preaching the faith he tried to destroy.

He was demolished.

And rebuilt. A proclaimer happened to the disciples. The disciples

were huddled together in a locked room, terrified that what

just happened to Jesus was going to happen to them.

They didn't want the authorities to come in and find

them there. They were terrified, and they met the risen Christ.

They put their faith in him, and before long they

were spreading all over the world this news that you

you're not gonna believe it, y'all. Jesus is risen from

the dead, and he has remade us. We've been demolished

and we've been rebuilt. Bold happened to James, the brother

of John. James, the brother of John, thought Jesus was crazy.

Check it out at mark four, Mark three, and Jesus

is teaching. He's teaching about his being the son of God.

He's doing miracles. But James his response is sorry, about Jesus.

He's out of his mind, and you would say the

same thing if this was your brother. He doesn't stay

that way. James regarded Jesus according to the flesh, and

then before long he met the risen Christ, and he

was demolished and he was rebuilt, the leader of the

Jerusalem Church. You could hear from Augustine. Augustine who, in

his desire for sin, formed habits that he could no

longer break.

Until they became chains.

And he came to wrestle with what all the Bible

says about the truth of sin in a person's life.

And he loved his sin, and he hates his sin.

The sound familiar until he finally realized he had chains

that he could not bear with. And he was demolished

as a sinner, and he was rebuilt, is rebuilt as

one who continues to this day to call Christians to

holiness throughout the centuries. You can read about it in

his book The Confessions. You can hear from John Newton.

John Newton, who wrote of his conversion. He wrote the

book he wrote about his conversion is called an authentic narrative.

You know it's you know it's rough. When you have

to title your conversion story. This is a true story, y'all,

And how God hounded him and hounded him and pressed

him in his sin until he turned to the Lord.

He was demolished as a slave trader, and he was

rebuilt as a preacher.

You could hear from C. S.

Lewis, who called himself the most reluctant convert in all

of England. You could read this in his book Surprised

by Joy, and he describes his wrestling with the truth

about God as a chess match in which God demolished

all of his pieces and all of his positions, until

he came to the unavoidable fact, as much as he

tried to avoid it, that there was in fact a

living God, and that he was in fact a sinner, and.

The truth was undeniable.

And he says in his book, I still don't know

what exactly happened at the last moment. This is over

the course of years, he says, but I still don't

know what happened at the last moment. I was walking

to the zoo, and all I know is that when

I left for the zoo, I did not believe in

the Lord Jesus Christ.

And by the time I got to the zoo I did.

He was demolished as an atheist, and he was rebuilt

as the author that you know.

You could hear from me. Hounded for years until one.

Day, committed as I was, to living my own way

and writing my own story and coming up with my

own philosophy of life. Somehow I came to my senses

and I could see around me the moral and spiritual,

dilapidated dump of a duplex I lived in spiritually, and

just prayed a prayer as simple as this, You've got

me God, and I was demolished.

And rebuilt.

I say all of that, and I point to all

of these people so that we could see this isn't

just a one kind of person thing. This isn't all

kinds of people thing. And that's exactly what Paul says

in verse nineteen. In Christ, God was reconciling the world

to himself, which is to say, all kinds of people

all over the world, Jews, Gentiles, Corinthians, san Antonians. Furthermore,

he says, all of this is from God verse eighteen.

All of this is you can kind of imagine his

hands getting kind of thrown up in the air. All

this is from God. I mean, all of us are

familiar with human change, but we're talking about change from God.

You see, God isn't calling you to merely and elevate

code of conduct. He's calling you to his very self.

He's calling you to Himself. That's the most essential and

profound rebuilding that can.

Be done, that you would be with him.

That's what he means in his shift of language from

God made us a new creation to God, reconciling us

to himself. He's talking about the same thing in different terms.

The newest, the most remarkable thing, the most astounding thing

about being in Christ is being reconciled to God.

That's the essence of having a.

New house, reconciled to God Verse nineteen. Not counting their

trespasses against them.

To be imperfectly good standing.

Before the judge of the universe, who judges all the

thoughts and words and motives.

And intention of every heart.

To stand before him with a perfect record, that would

be a miraculous work of reconciliation. That would be reconciliation

on the order of reconstruction. And that's what the death

and resurrection of Christ makes possible.

He did your dying for you. He who knew no sin.

Verse twenty one says was made to be sin so

that we might become the righteousness of God, reconciled, reconstructed

in Christ. God promises to make you genuinely new. Don't

settle for your old life. Don't settle for a do

it yourself project. Don't settle for living in the old

ways all the others who have gone before you. You

know what we all say. We say along with verse

twenty God is making his appeal through us. We implore

you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. You

want to hear for some people who've been through it.

That's our message. That leaves us with the last framing question,

last framing question for our time this morning, is this.

Where do you stand with it? Where do you stand

with this? Maybe you maybe you need to be reconciled

and reconstructed.

Maybe you know that. Maybe you're here and God has

shown you the dingy, dilapidated duplex of a moral life

that you inhabit, And you would say, sitting right here,

as much as I've resisted it, man, I'd give anything

to be genuinely new. Good news, bad news. The good

news is it's free. The bad news is it'll cost

you everything. When Jesus has died, those united to him

have died as well, so that we might live again.

What he's calling you to is demolition. What he's calling

you to is faith. What he's calling you to is

his grace. What he has for you is a life

that is a new creation, and you can receive it

by faith. No one but sinners, No one but sinners,

repentant sinners who are trusting in a resurrected savior.

It could be yours.

It's free, It just costs you everything. Maybe you are

of a different sort. Maybe you this morning are someone who.

Has been playing at Christianity.

That, like maybe one of our Corinthian brothers here, has

heard the grace of God but has.

Heard it wrong, has heard it in.

Vain, and has continued to move forward as if the

Christian life is really a do it yourself project.

Do you think that your.

Hammer and nails and paint are actually going to reconstruct

something that only Jesus can do, only God can do.

Only God, through the power of his death, resurrection, his

grace can transform your life.

You can't do it.

Maybe you are like Verse the very next verses Here

in chapter six, the very next verses verses one and two,

say this, working together with him, then we appeal to

you not to receive the grace of God in vain.

Don't misunderstand it.

Don't don't don't don't receive the message of the grace

of God and not get it. For he says, in

a favorable time, I listened to you, in a day

of salvation.

I have helped you.

Behold now is the favorable time. Behold now is the

day of salvation. And just as Paul implores on behalf

of Christ those who need to be reconciled to God,

he is also making his appeal together with God, to

say this. If you thought this was just a moral

clean up project, that you're trusting, not Christ, but trusting

yourself with a moral code from the Bible, don't receive

the grace of God in vain. Make that change today.

Today you can abandon hope of reforming your life with

your own hammer and nails and self righteousness, and put

all of your trust and all of your faith in

Christ alone. Lastly, maybe you're those who have been made new.

You're a new creation in Christ. You are a three

story house but you've been living like you're still in

a dingy duplex. You're still only living on the first

floor and a half of it at that. The Bible

says this in the very next chapter, chapter seven, verse one,

look at it. So since we have these promises, beloved,

let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit,

bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

Paul saying, if you've been made a new creation.

Christian, live in it, live in it, bring holiness to completion,

trusting him, following him in joyful allegiance and obedience.

Christ is calling you to explore all of the rooms.

So the fruit of the spirit and righteousness.

And holiness that He has for you, you.

Don't have to live like you want. Did?

I told you at the outset, we're gonna spend some

time in prayer, and we have a few minutes to

do that. So here's what I'd like to do. I'm

gonna ask us all to bout our heads. The band's

gonna come up here and prepare to lead us and

worship here in just a moment. I'm gonna ask us

all about our heads. I'm gonna get us started in prayer,

and then after I've started us in prayer, I'm just

gonna I'm gonna go silent so that you can pray

right where you're at. And you say, well, that's weird,

is it really, though? Is it weird to pray in church?

Let's take a moment. Are you one who needs to

be reconciled to God? You can talk to him. Are

you one who has been playing the game of Christianity?

Are you one who's been living.

As if you haven't been made new?

Whatever the case is, and wherever you're at in your

own conscience, and you say, well, I'm not sure exactly

where I'm at. You can ask God for wisdom in

that right as well. We can talk after this service.

You can spend some time in the Letter of First John,

which is specifically written so that you would know these things.

But in this moment, right now, this moment, let me

encourage you to go to the Lord in good faith,

lifting your heart to him.

Let me get us started.

Heavenly Father, you know exactly where we're at, every single

one of us.

But you know.

Whether we need to be reconciled to you. We need

to start living as one reconciled to you. And so

this this morning we just we bow our heads and

we bow our hearts, and we lift our prayer to you,

Hm as those made in your image, just pray, Pray

for a moment, Pray for a little while. Father, we

acknowledge that you've given us this moment, like you've said

in your word today, behold.

Today is the day of salvation.

And so in this moment, we don't want to take

it to just tune out or let our mind wander.

We actually want to bring who.

We are to you, and we ask that you would

grant us your grace in Jesus Christ, that we would

be and live as new creations in Jesus name.

Amen, Let's stand and sing