Gospel Orthodoxy - Redemption

The scripture reading comes from Romans chapter 3 and 1 Peter chapter 1.

Romans 3 · chapter mention 1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

Please follow along on the screen, the bulletin, or your own Bible.

In Romans 3 verse 21, we read,

Romans 3:21

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law,

although the law and the prophets bear witness to it,

the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.

Then, in 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 14, we read,

1 Peter 1:14

Amen.

Great. Thank you so much, Janet.

Good morning, everybody.

On behalf of Claire and myself, I know it's the 10th of January,

but I want to just welcome you to 2021 and say Happy New Year.

I really wish that we could do this face-to-face.

I wish I could see you and give you a big hug,

look you in the eye, and wish you the best for this next year.

But I guess doing it through the screen, it's just not quite the same.

But really, all the best for this new year to each and every one of us.

And I have been praying for us.

The elders have been praying for us as a church.

Many of you, we've been praying for you by name over the last couple of weeks.

And we really are trusting that this year,

despite all the challenges that we face,

will be an outstanding year for us.

A year in which we walk deeply with Christ.

A year in which we experience His grace in a whole new and profound way.

And so really, just trusting for a fantastic year as we walk with God together.

We want you to know that we love you.

We're so grateful to be able to walk this journey called life and ministry

and following Jesus together with you.

And so a warm welcome to you.

Will you join us as we pray together?

I am very excited for this morning.

I have been praying so much for this morning's message.

And I'd love for you to join me as we pray together.

Let's ask God to speak to us from His Word.

So Heavenly Father, as we come to Your Word this morning,

God, we say this so often,

we're not in the least bit interested in hearing the opinions of man.

We are not in the least bit interested, God,

in what I have to say or think.

We want to know what the truth of Your Word is.

We want Your Word, God, to arrest our hearts and to set us free.

And God, this morning as we look at this incredible teaching of Your Word,

how You died, Jesus, to set us free,

God, I pray that that will happen.

I pray, God, that You really, by the power of Your Spirit,

will be at work in our hearts.

And so I pray, God, may Your Word come alive to us this morning.

May You bring healing and restoration,

redemption to our hearts and our lives, God.

I pray, God, by the power of Your Spirit,

won't You be at work?

God, I pray, let us hear and take stock of only that which You want us to hear.

God, come and glorify Your own name.

Come and speak to us this morning.

We want to hear from the living, risen God from Your Word.

And so we ask that in Your powerful and Your gracious name.

Amen.

Amen.

When I was growing up, I grew up in South Africa.

We had a lot of space.

And our family loved playing sports.

I had two brothers, an older brother, a younger brother.

And we were forever playing sports, cricket, rugby, soccer.

And I had a very happy childhood in many ways.

But one of the challenges was that my dad had a bad back.

The lower vertebra of his back were damaged earlier on in his life.

And so even as he would play sports with us, cricket and soccer,

we were always very aware of the pain in his back and his lack of mobility,

his lack of ability to move.

When I was about 10 or 12 years old, somewhere around there,

my dad had another back operation, I think his third or fourth operation.

And finally in this one, what they did was they took the three vertebra,

the lower part of his back, they put bone in the middle,

cleaned out the disc, and then they put titanium rods

through that kind of new infrastructure and fused these vertebra together.

And thereafter, my dad's back was rock solid, as strong as you could imagine.

After that, he went hiking to Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest peak of Africa.

He hiked to the base camp of Mount Everest in the Himalayas.

He's gone on motorbike trips and camping trips.

And today my dad is almost 70, and he is as strong and as healthy as most 50-year-olds.

That operation brought a freedom to my dad that I had never seen in the years growing up before that.

Now I'll tell you that story because we're doing this series called Gospel Orthodoxy.

And the word ortho in the beginning of orthodoxy means straight or upright or correct.

And it's the same word that is in the word orthopedics.

An orthopedic surgeon is somebody who is concerned with the skeleton, the bone structure of your body,

to make sure that your body is healthy and strong.

If a body has a healthy or strong skeleton, especially a spine, a backbone,

it gives incredible freedom and mobility and ability to the body to do all sorts of things.

But when your skeleton, when your backbone is damaged, it's broken,

when it's not working well, it restricts you in incredible ways, just like my dad experienced.

In the same way, just like a human body needs to have a strong and healthy skeleton,

needs to be straight and upright and correct,

so our belief structure, what we know and understand about the Gospel,

about who God is, about who we are in God,

needs to be correct and straight and upright

in order for our spiritual lives to flourish, to be healthy and strong.

As any doctor will tell us, that if our bone structure, our skeleton,

is out of joint or damaged or we have a bad posture,

it can really affect us for years to come, often later down the road.

In the same way, when we've got a crooked orthodoxy,

a crooked understanding of who God is and what the Gospel is all about,

it will lead to spiritual disease and decay and apathy in the years to come.

And so that's what this series is really all about.

And so last week, Chris helped us, we looked at the biblical doctrine of justification.

And justification says that if you are in Christ, you're given a new status before God.

You're no longer under the category of condemned, you're under the category of the righteous.

No longer under the category of guilty, under the category of grace.

Grace.

And this is not because of what we've done, it's because of what Jesus has done.

Christ's righteousness is given to us, credited to us.

You may remember that amazing verse in 2 Corinthians.

It says,

And friends, to the degree to which we understand and know this incredible truth will change your life.

To the degree to which we understand this will be the degree to which we experience freedom,

freedom from condemnation, freedom from guilt, freedom from performance,

freedom from having to worry about whether God loves us and accepts us.

To the degree to which we know this will be the degree to which we experience deep security in God's love and acceptance of us.

Most Christians functionally live as if our acceptance of God is based on our performance.

The gospel tells us that our acceptance before God is found on Christ's performance, on the cross,

and that that is credited to us as if it were our own.

This is the scandalous good news of the gospel.

So that's justification which we looked at last week.

This morning, I want us to look at this another amazing doctrine which is the doctrine of redemption.

Redemption.

If justification means freedom from guilt, redemption means freedom from slavery.

Now when we hear of slavery,

we might think in our minds have this image of 18th century transatlantic slave trade,

where people, many from Africa, were kidnapped, trafficked into slavery,

sent across the ocean to work in the new American colonies.

But actually slavery in the ancient world was very different.

It was not nearly as brutal as that.

It was far more common in many ways.

And slavery in the ancient world,

people found themselves in slavery for a variety of reasons.

It could have been because of warfare or battle.

People were taken as the spoils of war.

But actually a very common form of slavery was

when people got into financial difficulty or debt,

they would often, as a form of indentured servanthood,

submit themselves to a kind of slavery in order to pay off their debt.

In the ancient world, often people put themselves into slavery,

whether voluntarily or involuntarily,

to pay off a debt that they earn.

And yet unlike the 18th century slave trade in North America,

generally speaking, a slave in the ancient world could purchase their freedom,

either through they themselves or someone else paying off their debt

by paying what was called a ransom.

And so what would happen is someone would get into financial difficulty,

maybe debt,

and they would either sell a property of theirs

or maybe themselves into slavery in order to pay off that debt.

And then they would work for a period of time,

a couple of years perhaps,

to work towards their freedom.

But often what would happen is a family member would come

and pay off their debt for them

or buy out their freedom

in order to either restore that property

or restore them to a state of freedom

by paying this ransom price.

And that act of paying money to buy someone's freedom

was called redemption.

And so redemption really means to be released

or set free or restored by way of payment,

to be freed by way of ransom.

In the New Testament,

the word ransom and the word redemption are almost identical.

They have the same Greek root word.

And so having been taken captive or enslaved,

upon the payment of some price,

your freedom was restored.

You were redeemed.

Now, in the Bible,

there's lots of stories or imageries that illustrate this.

One of the best ones is the story of Hosea.

You might know the story,

but Hosea was a prophet,

a well-respected man of God in ancient Israel.

He was given a message by God to speak to God's people.

And one of the ways he delivered this message

was through dramatization,

through acting it out.

And God calls Hosea to marry a lady called Goma.

The trouble is Goma is a prostitute.

And so just as today the case was in the ancient times,

many people found themselves in prostitution,

not by way of career choice.

They found themselves there because they were forced into it.

They were often owned by a pimp,

some kind of master.

And they were maybe sold into prostitution

because of a family debt.

A family member maybe sold someone into prostitution.

Maybe they put themselves into prostitution

because of a debt or poverty that they came across in their lives.

Maybe they were taken as a spoil of all.

But however it happened,

Goma finds herself trapped,

enslaved in the world of prostitution.

And God calls Hosea to marry her.

In order to do so,

he first needs to go and redeem her,

to buy her out of slavery.

And so Hosea goes down to the marketplace,

to the town square,

and he says,

I want to marry Goma.

And her owners say,

okay,

well,

that's going to cost you.

And so Hosea brings a sum of money,

15 silver coins,

350 liters of barley,

a massive amount of harvest of barley.

Together,

it comes to 30 pieces of silver,

the price for a common slave.

And he hands it over,

and he buys Goma out of her slavery.

He redeems her,

and he brings her home.

This time,

not as an object of lust and abuse,

but as his wife.

He brings her home,

not just to satisfy himself,

but to pour out his love upon her.

Hosea wasn't just buying her out of prostitution.

He was redeeming her humanity,

her personhood.

Friends,

can you imagine how Goma must have felt

when she hears that here comes another man

that wants to take her for himself.

Here's going to be another man

she must have thought

is going to treat me like everyone else.

And yet,

unbelievably,

incredibly,

she finds that

Hosea is not going to abuse her and use her.

Hosea is redeeming her

to pour out his love upon her.

Redeeming her

to bring her home

as his wife.

Friends,

you know,

this is what Christianity

is all about.

Christianity is not a self-improvement project

and attempt to be a better person

and attempt to become a more moral person.

Christianity is not a philosophy

about how to get in touch with your inner self

or how to become a more spiritual person.

The declaration of Scripture

is that apart from Christ,

outside of Jesus,

we are lost.

We are enslaved to our sinful nature.

We are enslaved to our sinful habits

and to the power of Satan.

And yet,

Christ Jesus is our Redeemer,

a Deliverer,

one who has come to buy us out of slavery,

buy us out of captivity,

to set us free,

to buy us out of the controlling influence of Satan,

out of the destructive patterns

of our sinful nature

and addictions,

and to bring us into freedom.

Colossians chapter 1 says this,

Colossians 1 · chapter mention

He has redeemed us

out of the kingdom of darkness

and transferred us

into the kingdom of His beloved Son.

In Jesus,

we have a Redeemer,

one who has come to pay the ransom price,

the redemption price,

not just 30 silver coins,

but with His life.

Remember that great passage

that Janet read to us earlier.

It says this,

you were ransomed,

you were redeemed,

not with perishable things

such as silver or gold.

Jesus didn't come and say,

okay,

let me come,

I got a billion dollars,

I got 50 billion dollars,

how much do you want?

Jesus ransomed us,

Jesus redeemed us

with His precious blood,

with His life on the cross.

Mark chapter 10,

Mark 10 · chapter mention

Jesus says this,

the Son of Man has come,

not to be served,

but to serve,

to give His life as a redemption,

as a ransom for you and I.

So there's this great hymn

Francis Light wrote

hundreds of years ago,

Praise my soul,

the King of heaven,

to His feet thy tribute bring,

ransomed,

healed,

restored,

forgiven,

who like thee

His praise should sing.

Friends,

this is the gospel,

this is Christianity,

this is what

the entire Bible is about,

how we were lost

and enslaved

to our sinful nature,

to the forces of Satan,

but Christ has come

to redeem us

and to ransom us,

to buy us out of slavery

and bondage,

ransomed,

healed,

restored,

forgiven,

this is the gospel.

Now,

the question is,

what exactly

has Jesus

ransomed us from?

What does Jesus,

in what way

does Jesus redeem us?

I mean,

not many of us

are walking around

with chains

tied to our ankles

or our feet,

so what exactly

does it mean

when Scripture says

that in Him

we have redemption?

Well,

that's a brilliant question.

redemption.

This morning,

I want us to look

at how the New Testament

speaks of three ways

that we have redemption

in Christ.

In Christ,

we have freedom

from the penalty of sin,

we have freedom

from the power of sin,

and thirdly,

freedom from the very

presence of sin.

Let's look at the first one,

freedom from the penalty

of sin.

Look at me,

look with me

at Romans chapter 3,

Romans 3 · chapter mention

and this is what

Janet read to us earlier.

Paul writes this.

We looked at this

last week with Chris.

Paul writes,

For all have sinned

and fallen short

of the glory of God,

but are justified

by His grace

as a gift

through the redemption,

there's our word,

that is in Jesus Christ,

by His blood

to be received

by faith.

In Galatians chapter 3,

Galatians 3 · chapter mention

Paul says it this way,

he says,

Christ redeemed us,

there's our word,

from the curse

of the law,

by becoming

a curse for us.

Christ redeemed us

from the curse

of the law.

Now,

what on earth

does that mean?

What it means

is that Christ

has redeemed us,

brought us out of slavery,

out of bondage,

from the charge,

the curse,

that was hanging

over our heads,

on account of us

having broken

God's holy law.

So picture this with me.

Imagine you are

traveling in some

foreign country,

you go somewhere

for work,

and you've been

there two weeks,

you've done some work,

you're on your way

back to the airport

to come back home

to Hong Kong.

And while you're in the taxi

on the way to the airport,

you're minding

your own business

and you hear

all these sirens,

these police sirens

and motorbikes

coming up behind you

and you think,

oh, that's interesting.

And the next minute,

they pull in front

of your taxi

and they steer your taxi

off the road

to a standstill.

And the next minute,

these policemen

jump out of the car,

they open the taxi doors,

they pull you out,

tie your hands

behind your back,

they arrest you

and put you

in a police vehicle.

And you say,

what on earth is going on?

And all they say is,

you have the right

to remain silent.

Anything you say

can and will be

held against you.

You go to the police station

and you say,

what's going on?

And you find out

that you've broken

some law

of the land,

some very serious law.

Friends,

you are under the curse,

the charge,

of having broken

the law.

You are detained

as you face

the charges

of the law.

Friends,

look at what Paul says here.

He says,

all of us have sinned

and fallen short

of God's standard

of glory.

All of us have come

under the charge

of having broken

God's holy law.

All of us have lived

for ourselves.

We've exalted ourselves

and honored ourselves

rather than Christ

and God our maker.

We have pushed him aside

and we've worshipped ourselves.

We've neither loved God

nor loved others

more than ourselves.

We have broken

God's holy law.

You've done it,

I've done it,

we've all done it.

And the result is

that we are under

a charge,

under a curse

of having broken

God's law.

And so look at

what Galatians says.

He says,

Jesus Christ

redeemed us,

brought us

out of

the bondage

of the curse

of the law

by becoming

a curse for us.

By taking on

that curse himself.

Jesus brought us

out of bondage

by suffering

the consequences

of our guilt

in our place.

Jesus had his life

taken from him

on the cross.

He paid the price

that we deserve

so that we can be

set free

from that charge

that is leveled

against us.

The price has been paid,

the debt has been settled,

the charge of guilt

has been nullified

and removed.

The charge sheet

has been torn in two

and has been cast aside.

Ephesians 1

says it like this,

In him we have redemption.

There's our word.

Through his blood

the forgiveness

of our sins.

Friends,

this is the great news

of the gospel.

Now,

as a sidebar,

the New Testament

says something

very interesting

because it says

that Christ

has also redeemed us

from the power

of Satan.

Now,

in what way

has Jesus redeemed us

from the power

of Satan?

One of the ways

that the Bible

says Satan

torments

and makes life

difficult

for followers

of Jesus

is through

his accusation.

In fact,

the book of Revelation

Satan is called

the accuser.

And Satan

often comes to

believers

and he says,

How can God

love you?

You're such a sinner.

Do you really think

that God loves you,

that God accepts you

when you've done

this and this?

How on earth

can you think

that God loves you?

And he accuses us

and he reminds us

of our sin.

But friends,

in the gospel,

Jesus has dismantled

that accusation

of Satan.

He's taken

his primary weapon

and he's disarmed him.

Look at how

Colossians says it.

Having forgiven us

our trespasses

by cancelling

the record

of debt

that stood

against us

with its legal demands

through his self-offering

at the cross,

Jesus disarmed

the rulers

and the authorities

and put them

to open shame.

Jesus took

the very weapon

that Satan uses,

they're accusing us

of our sin,

and he disarms him.

He renders him

a void.

David Mathis

says it like this,

The decisive weapon

the demons had

against us

was accusation

of our unforgiven sin.

But when Jesus

poured out his blood

in our place

to forgive us

of our sins,

he freed us

from captivity.

He redeemed us

from Satan

and the record

of debt

and legal demands

that stood

against us.

See what's happened there?

Friends,

if you are in Christ,

if you've come to him

in faith and repentance,

Satan comes to you

and says,

You're such a miserable sinner.

How do you think

God could ever love you

or accept you?

And do you know

what you do?

At first,

you start to feel condemned.

You feel guilty.

You feel like,

Yeah,

I'm such a terrible Christian.

How could God

ever love you?

And then suddenly,

you go to CG

or you go to church

and one of your brothers

or sisters

reminds you of the gospel.

They read something

in the scripture

and suddenly you realize,

I've been free.

I've been set free.

And so you say to Satan,

Satan,

shut it.

The debt has been paid.

I have been justified.

I've been redeemed,

ransomed,

healed,

restored,

forgiven.

You preach the gospel

to yourself

and you say,

Jesus is my redeemer.

He has canceled

the record of debt

that stood against me

with its legal demands.

It is finished.

It has been paid

in full.

Friends,

Jesus redeems us

from the penalty

of sin.

Now,

as wonderful

and as powerful

as that is,

in many ways,

that's transaction

that takes place

in the heavens.

But for those of us

that are in Christ,

our record has been settled.

The debt has been paid.

But how does Christ's

redemption work

actually help us today

or tomorrow

or this week?

Well,

that's a great question.

Secondly,

Christ frees us

from the power of sin.

I wonder how many of us

feel like the death

and resurrection of Jesus,

as wonderful as it is

for our past

and as good news

as it is for our future,

has very little bearing

on our lives today.

And yet,

we couldn't possibly

be more wrong.

The New Testament

tells us again and again

that the death of Christ

has ransomed us,

redeemed us,

set us free

on account of His death,

not only from the record

of sin of our past,

but also from the power

of sin in our present,

today.

Look at how

the Apostle Peter says it.

Janice read this

to us earlier.

He says this,

As God's children,

do not be conformed

to the passions

of your former ignorance,

but as He who called you

is holy,

so you also be holy

in all your conduct.

Since it is written,

You shall be holy

for I am holy.

So let's just pause it.

Just think about that.

God is saying that

it's His will

that as Christians,

our lives reflect something

of Jesus' nature

and character.

Just as God is holy,

we ought to be holy.

God doesn't want us

to live

in the way

that we lived

when we were ignorant

about the gospel

and who God is.

He doesn't want us

to live as if

we don't know

who Jesus is,

we don't understand

the gospel,

we don't know

about the holiness

of God.

Friends,

if you're a Christian,

we shouldn't say,

Well,

Jesus died for my sin,

I can just carry on sinning,

it doesn't matter,

it's all forgiven anyway.

God is holy

and He wants our lives

to reflect His holiness.

Just as it is written,

You shall be holy

just as God is holy.

But then He says,

Knowing that,

so there's something

that we should know

or understand,

something we need

to believe

that's going to help us

to live lives

of holiness.

Okay?

Knowing what?

Knowing that you were

ransomed

from the futile ways

inherited from your forefathers,

not with perishable things

such as silver or gold,

but with the precious

blood of Christ.

Friends,

you see what Peter is saying?

Jesus' death on the cross

wasn't just to forgive us,

wasn't just to pay

for the penalty of sin,

as wonderful as that is,

Jesus' death on the cross

also redeems us

from the futile ways

that we live naturally,

that we inherit

from our forefathers,

the futile ways of life

outside of the gospel.

What Christians

in previous generations

called our besetting sins.

Those sins that keep

on plaguing us

and tormenting us

that we struggle

to get free from,

Jesus died to set us

free from that.

Friends,

I wonder what areas

of our lives

don't reflect

the holiness

and the beauty

of Jesus.

Don't reflect

the redeeming,

ransoming power

of Christ.

Friends,

when you look

at your life,

what patterns,

what behavior

keep on tripping you up?

Things you just can't seem

to get the better of.

Friends,

what sinful patterns

of behavior?

What sinful patterns

of thought?

What destructive

coping mechanisms?

What toxic relationships

do you find

you keep going back to?

Friends,

what addictions

do you find yourself

trapped in?

Addictions that you hate

but you just can't seem

to get the better of?

Friends,

what idols

do you find yourself

trusting in again

and again

out of fear

or insecurity?

Christ's death

on the cross

was meant to ransom us,

redeem us,

even out of those

patterns of our life.

In my life,

over the last couple

of years,

I've become aware

of just how

enslaved I am

to people's approval

and affirmation

of me.

I find it

often very difficult

to say no

to people.

I find it very difficult

to disagree,

extremely difficult

to disagree

with anyone

in authority.

Often I find it

difficult to say no

to requests

that are made of me.

Even if I know

it's not a good idea,

I will go along

with it.

I often find

that I hate

making people

feel uncomfortable

or awkward.

I find that

this leads me

from time to time

to being less than honest.

I find myself

talking to someone

and even though

I disagree with

everything that they're saying,

I find myself

nodding my head

and saying,

yeah,

I agree with you.

All out of this fear

of what will people

think of me

if I disagree with them

or what will

out of this fear

of

people not

approving me

or affirming me.

I find that

I get myself

in situations

I don't want to be in

or because I'm afraid

to disagree with people

or say what I really feel.

And as I've thought

about this

over the years,

one of the things

I've realized

is that actually

in a very deep

part of my heart,

I love

and treasure

and value

the approval

of people

actually more

than I value

and treasure

God

and who He is

and what He has

to say about me.

In many ways,

there's this idol

that's deeply rooted

in my heart

that is the idol

of I find security

and comfort

and peace

in people affirming me

and people approving me

even more than I do

in who God is.

Now,

I'm sure I'm not

the only one

that feels like this,

but one of the things

I found fascinating

is that even though

I hate it,

even though

it has this controlling

influence of my life,

every year,

at New Year's,

I make a New Year's

resolution.

This is the year

I'm going to be courageous.

This is the year

I'm going to be bold.

This is the year

I'm not going to give in

to people pleasing.

And yet,

a couple of weeks,

months down the road,

I find that I'm

controlled by this

and I find myself

giving in to it.

And the besetting sin

of people pleasing

seems to have this

hold on me.

And even though

I hate it,

I feel incapable

of breaking free from it.

A couple of months ago,

I realized this

and was processing this

and praying through it

and I realized that

I had to confess

that this controlling

influence of my life

is not just because

of my personality,

it's not just because

of my culture,

it's not just middle

child syndrome

or some other

psychological thing

I want to blame it on.

Actually,

deep in my heart,

in my psychology,

I guess,

there is an idol there

that treasures

and loves

to prove with people

more than God.

There is an idol

that I've set up

that I trust

and hope in

more than Jesus.

And so over the process

of a couple of weeks,

I really felt like

I did deep confession.

I started to hate

and despise this idol

and bring it into the light

and started to do

deep repentance

as I brought this

before God

and said,

God,

I'm so sorry

that actually

in my heart of hearts,

I often love people

more than I love you.

God,

I'm sorry,

won't you forgive me?

And as I did

the deep soul work

of confession

and repentance,

I started to discover

the most amazing thing.

I started to discover

a freedom

that I had not experienced

for years

and years

and years.

Now,

I can't pretend

that I've got it all sorted

and that it never rears its head.

But friends,

for the first time

in years and years,

I've experienced

this freedom

from this deep-seated

hold

and idolatry

in my life.

Now,

look again

at what Peter says.

He says,

As children of God,

do not be conformed

to the passions

of your former ignorance,

for He has called you

to be holy,

since it's written,

you shall be holy

as I am holy,

knowing this,

that you were ransomed

from the futile ways

inherited

from your forefathers,

generations,

not with perishable things

such as silver or gold,

but with the precious

blood of Jesus.

The Apostle Paul

says it the same way

when he writes it

to Titus.

He says this,

Our Savior,

Jesus Christ,

gave Himself for us

to redeem us,

there's our word,

from the lawlessness

and to purify for Himself

a people

for His own possession.

Galatians tells us

that Christ redeemed us

from the curse of the law,

the charge that hangs

over our head

that says guilty.

Paul tells us

in Titus

and Peter

that Christ has redeemed us.

What?

Not just from the charge,

but from the futile ways

that have a bondage

over our life,

that control us.

Christ has redeemed us

to set us free

so that we can become

the people

that He's called us to be.

We sang it earlier,

What can take away my sin?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

What can make me whole again?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Friends,

the gospel is not just

that Jesus died

to take away your sin,

but now you've just

got to suffer

and live as if

one day you'll get to heaven

but it has no bearing

in your life.

This day,

this week,

Christ's power

of overcoming the grave

is given to you

to set you free

from the besetting,

controlling,

addictive,

powerful sins

in your life.

Friends,

for those of us

who are in Christ,

addiction is an

illegitimate master.

It's a trapment.

Scripture says

it is for freedom

that Christ has set you free.

Stand firm then

in your freedom

and do not be enslaved

by a pattern of slavery.

Friends,

your freedom

has been purchased.

The price has been paid

by the power of the Spirit.

Christ says,

walk in the freedom

that He's purchased

for you.

Freedom

from the penalty of sin,

freedom

from the power of sin.

Thirdly and finally,

this will be quick,

freedom

from the presence of sin.

One day,

Jesus is going to return

and He's going to

take us home.

And when we get

to be with Him

in glory,

there will be

no more brokenness,

no more sin,

no more defection,

no more anything

that's wrong

with our lives,

our hearts,

our bodies,

with our souls.

We will be completely,

finally,

and fully redeemed.

In Luke chapter 21,

Luke 21 · chapter mention

Jesus is talking

to His disciples

and He's telling them

about the time

when He's going to

return again.

and He says this,

when you see

these signs

beginning to take place,

straighten up,

lift up your head

because your redemption

is near.

Now,

He's not talking

about your salvation.

That happens

the day you put

your faith in Christ.

He's talking

about this other redemption,

this full and final

redemption

that's going to take place

when Christ returns

and He takes us

with Him to glory.

We sang it earlier,

there we will rise

to meet the Lord,

their sin and death

will be destroyed.

This final redemption

that's coming.

So Romans chapter 8

Romans 8 · chapter mention

says like this,

We know that the whole

of creation

has been groaning together

in the pains of childbirth

until now.

It's talking about how

our world is broken,

our own bodies are broken,

we feel the effects

of sin in our life.

Sorry,

someone's just trying

to call me there

on my iPad.

Okay,

Romans 8.

We know that the whole

creation's been groaning,

not only creation,

but we ourselves,

our own bodies

feel the effect of it.

We who have the first

fruits of the Spirit,

we groan inwardly

as we await eagerly

our adoption,

the redemption

of our bodies.

And so this Christian life

in many ways,

there are these various stages.

There's the day

you put your faith in Jesus,

you become a follower

of Jesus,

you are redeemed

from the penalty of sin.

There's this day

in the future

when our bodies

will be redeemed

from the defective

effects of sin

in this world.

No more cancer,

no more anxiety,

no more depression,

no more COVID,

no more hunger,

no more anger,

no more worry.

But then in between

this Christ's redemption,

redeeming power

is at work

in our lives

as He starts

to redeem us

from even the effects

of sin in our life

and from the power

of sin.

Friends,

Jesus has come

to do this for us.

This is the power

of the gospel.

Let me close

with a personal story

of when I experienced

the redeeming power

of God in my life.

It's a story

I haven't told

to many people

so if we can just

keep it between

the 300 of us

that would be great.

I say that jokingly.

But it's a story

I haven't shared

with many people

but I grew up in,

as I said,

the most amazing,

wonderful family.

The best family

you could ever

hope and wish for.

And I had a very

happy childhood

in many ways.

When I was 17,

someone who was

not a family member

but somebody

that I was very close to,

there was a breakdown

in the relationship

and this person

said a whole bunch

of things to me,

words to me

that were very hurtful

and harmful

and for some reason,

I'm not sure why,

but for some reason,

these words

lodged deeply

in my heart

and they went

deep inside of me

and they kind of

stayed there.

They're almost like

the tentacles

of these words

put roots

deep in my heart.

And for the next

couple of years,

I would go through

these seasons

where these words

would just ring

in my mind

and I would

absolutely hate myself.

I'd go through

these seasons

where I just felt

useless and miserable,

a pile of nothingness.

And so for the next

couple of years,

I would go through

these seasons

where for two or three

weeks at a time,

I would wake up

and the very first thought

I had in the morning,

before I knew

what day it was,

what time it was,

where I was,

while I was still

trying to wake up,

I'd have this thought

in my mind,

I'd hear this voice

that was as clear as day

and I would say

these things like,

Kevin,

you're such an idiot.

You're so useless.

You're such a disgrace.

And I was kind of

half awake.

I didn't even know

what day it was

or what time it was,

but absolutely

I knew

that I was a disgrace.

I was useless.

And so I'd go through

a couple of weeks

of just where

this voice in my mind

just controlled me.

And throughout the day,

I would just feel

beaten up.

And then it would

dissipate

and a couple of months later,

I'd go through

one of these seasons again.

And I couldn't

break free from it.

And so for four

or five years,

this happened.

And eventually,

one day,

I was about 21, 22,

I was on a mission trip

in Lesotho.

Lesotho is a small

African country

next to South Africa.

I was there

with a bunch of friends

and I was in one

of these funk stages.

And I remember

one morning,

I woke up

and I didn't even know

where I was,

but one thing I knew,

I was an idiot.

I was a disgrace.

I was useless.

And I was convinced

that nobody and nothing

could ever love me

or accept me.

And later on that day,

we were in a church service

and there's a time

of sung worship

and I was just

feeling miserable

and I heard this voice.

It wasn't audible,

but it almost

could have been audible.

It was so clear.

I heard this voice

and the voice was God

saying to me,

and this is what he said.

He said,

Kevin,

my power is in this place.

What do you want me

to do for you?

And I remember

I crossed my arms like this

and I said,

God,

I want you to set me free

from hating myself.

And in an instant,

I felt the love of God

in a way I've never felt it.

I felt the power of God

in a way I've never felt it.

And friends,

from that day,

I have never once

gone through one of those stages again.

Not once in the last 14 years

has that ever come back.

I was set free.

I was redeemed

in a moment

by the power of God

from the effects of sin

and other people's sin

in my life.

Friends,

I tell you that story

because Jesus Christ

is our great Redeemer.

He's gone to the cross.

He laid down His life.

He redeemed us

from the penalty of sin.

That's true.

But He also has come

to redeem us

from the power of sin.

The power of sin

in our own life,

but also the power

that other people's sin

have over us.

Friends,

one day Jesus will redeem us

from the very presence of sin.

Friends,

this week I've been praying for us.

I've been praying for many of us

by name.

I've been praying

and I really do believe

that God wants to set

some of us free today.

For some of us,

it's from the power of sin

in our own lives.

It's addictions that hold us

and we just can't feel

that we can ever get free from it.

Friends,

the Bible says that actually

the way to be free

and the way to start

the redemption process

is actually through confession

and repentance.

Without confession and repentance,

there is no freedom.

And so even the smallest step

requires us just to

confess and acknowledge,

God, I need you.

I'm so sorry.

In my own life,

the idolatry of people pleasing it,

God has broken the power of that

as I've taken the small step

of confessing and repenting that.

Friends,

I wonder how many of us

this morning

need to be free

from destructive patterns

of sin in our own life,

destructive patterns

of behavior.

Friends,

will you come to Jesus

this morning

in confession and repentance?

Will you come and acknowledge

there's this idol

that out of fear

or insecurity

you just hold on to?

Confess it.

Christ wants to set you free.

Friends,

for some of us,

we need to be set free

from bitterness

and resentment

and forgiveness.

For some of us,

it's anger

in our hearts.

It has this controlling power

over us

that we just can't get free

and we excuse it

and justify it.

We use all these arguments

why we justified.

Friends,

it's idolatry.

It's sin.

Jesus wants to set us free

from it today.

Friends,

for some of us,

it's sexual addiction,

pornography.

Friends,

for some of us,

it's people pleasing.

Some of us,

maybe it's other addictions

like comfort eating,

spending money uncontrollably.

It's greed.

It's these other things

that hold us

and we can't be free from it.

Friends,

will you come to Jesus

your great redeemer?

He wants to set you free.

Friends,

for some of us,

it's not so much

the sins of our life.

It's those that have

sinned against us.

It's hurts and wounds

of the past.

It's words that people

have said over us.

Friends,

Christ,

the great redeemer,

wants to come

and set us free.

Friends,

for some of us,

it's the words

of our parents.

It's the lack of love

that they showed us.

It's the affirmation

we long for

and we never get.

Friends,

Christ,

your redeemer,

who went to the cross

not only to pay for your sin

but to break the power

of sin over your life.

Jesus died

to set you free.

Can I ask you

to stand with me

if you're comfortable?

Maybe if you don't

want to stand,

you might want to get

on your knees.

Maybe you want to lift

up your hands

and

will you join me

as we pray together?

I'd love to pray for us

that Christ,

our great redeemer,

will set us free.

Let's pray together.

Lord Jesus Christ,

awesome and magnificent God,

the sovereign God of the heavens,

you who are seated

on the throne,

you rule and you reign,

but God,

you are not just transcendent

and distant,

you are intensely

near and imminent,

you are personal

and close.

God,

I pray for us

this morning,

I pray for myself,

I pray for my brothers

and sisters across Hong Kong.

God,

for those of us

that are in Christ,

I pray that you will come

and set us free.

God,

I pray

that you set us free

from

patterns of sin.

God,

from idols in our life

that have controlled us

for too long.

God,

from the accusations

and the lies

of the devil,

where Satan has come

and told us

that we will never be free,

it's just who we are.

God,

where Satan has told us

that you will never love us

and accept us,

that we're just mediocre.

Christ,

I pray that the power

of the Spirit

will break into our lives

and set people free now.

God,

come and do that,

I pray.

Set people free,

God.

God,

I pray for those of us

that feel enslaved

and trapped to anger.

Christ,

set us free

as we confess that

and repent it.

God,

where there's addiction

to sexual sin

and pornography,

Christ,

set us free

as we confess that

and admit the reality

of that.

Jesus set us free.

Christ,

for those of us

that feel trapped,

enslaved,

by the sins

that have been

sinned against us,

words spoken of us,

beatings,

physical abuse,

emotional abuse,

psychological abuse,

Christ,

I pray

by the power

of the risen God,

that Jesus,

you who died

and rose again

to conquer

the power of Satan,

God,

once you set your people free,

Jesus,

come and have your way.

God,

just as you set me free

all those years ago,

I pray that you'll do that

for my brothers and sisters

today.

God,

I pray tomorrow morning

we'll wake up

with a new sense of life

and freedom

and joy

and power in God

because we've experienced

the living God.

Oh God,

we need you.

God,

we stand secure

in our justification

and the fact

that the penalty

has been paid.

We are free from it.

We stand secure.

God,

now we pray,

come and make us free

that the power of sin,

the power of Satan,

will have no

hold effect

in our lives.

We experience

what it means

to be

sons and daughters of you.

You pray this,

God,

in your powerful name.

Friends,

as we continue

to worship

and sing songs

of adoration,

I urge you,

take whatever posture

you want.

You can stand,

you can jump,

jump.

If you need to

shout it out,

if you need to say something,

if you need to just

lie flat on the floor,

do whatever you want.

But friends,

come to Christ,

your great Redeemer.

He died to set you free.

He's given you

the spirit

to set you free.

Galatians 5 says,

it is for freedom

that Christ

has set us free.

Stand firm then

and do not allow yourself

to be yoked again

by a spirit of bondage.

Friends,

Jesus,

come to set us free.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.