NIL | Pastor Robert Bradow | Week 3

Well, good morning and welcome to the Orchard Online service today.

I'm so excited that you've joined us today.

This is going to be a great day, a great message.

This is actually the culmination, the grand finale of NIL, the little series that we have been in.

For the last couple of weeks, we've been talking about three words that have become very commonplace in collegiate athletics, even high school, and that is NIL, name, image, and likeness.

And we've discovered that long before NIL became a part of sports, God had already established something so much deeper about his NIL, his name, image, and likeness.

That is very clearly that we are called to live under his name because he is the name above all names.

We are given his image.

We are created in the image of God.

And ultimately we have the responsibility as Christians to reflect his likeness.

That brings us to the word for today, likeness.

Because God created us in his image in the beginning.

And if we belong to him, we bear his image.

But there's a huge question that presents itself to us today.

What are we becoming in his image?

Because there's a difference in bearing an image and then trying to conform to the image that he has created in us.

Let me give you a little picture of this.

Since we've been talking football, if you can imagine a freshman who is walking onto a college football team, he's got not going to know everything.

He's not going to know the offense.

He's not going to know the defense yet.

He's going to have the helmet.

He's going to have the image.

He's going to be a part of them.

He's going to take the name of the team, but he is going to have a process of conforming to the image of the team.

He's going to have to develop the instincts.

He's going to have to develop the strength.

There's going to be some times of discipline in his life.

He's going to get coached.

He's going to be trained.

He's going to be pushed.

He's going to be corrected.

And that's just a beautiful picture of who we are in Christ.

When we receive his name, the name above all names, when we understand that we have an image, there's a process that begins that we call spiritual formation, where we simply means that we're becoming the image of Jesus Christ.

That's where we're going to go today.

And this formation isn't going to be about I wear a jersey or I have the name Orchard on the back of my jersey.

It's not simply that I serve in all the different ministries here or that I know the Bible.

It's not even that I just belong to Jesus, but the image of Jesus is being reflected in my life because I'm beginning to bear his likeness.

God has begun to work in you and the moment that you gave your life to him.

The moment of that transformation, that new creation, he's forming you, he's shaping you, he's challenging you, and he is teaching you.

And this is where the culture we live in today gives us a completely different message than what the Word of God gives us.

You see, the world tells us, become whoever you want to be.

It tells us define yourself, express yourself, build the ladder of success for your own identity, build your own N-I-L.

But the gospel tells us something else.

You don't have to create yourself.

If you belong to Christ, God is forming you.

So the question isn't who do I want to become?

The deeper question is, who am I becoming?

Because whether we realize it or not, something is forming in every one of us.

Culture sets a framework that we are all pushed to be to live in.

Culture is forming us, our friends are forming us.

The habits that we have are forming us.

Entertainment is forming us.

Social media is forming us.

Relationships are forming us.

So the question becomes what are we becoming?

What likeness are you being formed to reveal in your life?

Well, that leads to the big idea today is this the goal isn't to become the best version of ourselves, the goal is to simply become more like Jesus.

And that's why I want us to look today at one of the most beautiful descriptions in all of Scripture of what God is doing inside of the follower of Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Paul lays out in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, he's talking to this church.

2 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

And if you know anything about the church at Corinth, man, they had lots of problems.

They were not a church that had everything figured out.

They were believers in Christ, but they were struggling to say the least.

They were divided, they were arguing over leadership, they were comparing themselves to one another, and they were trying to figure out what this means to be a follower of Jesus?

What does this transforming process look like, the spiritual formation?

And Paul spends a lot of time in this entire letter helping them understand what it looks like to be a follower of Jesus Christ.

And then we get to chapter three, and he begins talking about something that happened roughly 1,400 to 1,500 years earlier, as he's given reference to Moses.

You remember Moses, God chose him to lead the children of Israel out of the bondage of Egypt.

He was a guy at the burning bush, and then there were the ten plagues.

God gave him the staff.

He leads them across the Red Sea, and then they enter into the wilderness for 40 years.

And in that process, we know that Moses went to spend some time with God on the mountain.

And when he came back, something amazing happened.

His face was glowing.

I hope you heard that today.

When we spend time in the presence of God, there is something about your countenance that people will see.

But when Moses' face was glowing, the people were scared.

It tells us they were afraid.

And Moses realized this.

He couldn't see what was on his face, but he realized what was happening.

And he pulls a veil over his face.

And Paul says that the problem wasn't that Moses had a veil over his face.

Paul says that there's another kind of veil.

And it was a veil that was over their hearts.

And that brings us to one of Paul's most beautiful descriptions of spiritual formation, the transformation that takes place, and I believe it's one of the most beautiful movements of transformation in the entire New Testament.

Let's read this in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, verses 12 through 18.

2 Corinthians 3:12–18

He says these words, Since then we have such a hope, we act with great boldness.

We're not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from gazing steadily upon the end of the glory of what was being set aside.

But their minds were hardened.

For to this day, at the reading of the old covenant, the same veil remains.

It is not lifted because it is set aside only by Christ.

Did you hear that?

That veil has been set aside by Christ.

Verse 15, yet still today, whenever Moses is read, the veil lies over their hearts.

But whenever a person turns to the Lord, I love this, the veil is removed.

And now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

We all with unveiled faces are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image, from glory to glory.

This is from the Lord who is spirit.

So in this text, Paul gives us this beautiful little phrase that I want you to hold on to.

He says, From glory to glory.

And in this process, from the glory that's here to the glory that is to come, that is a picture of transformation.

That is a picture of what we call spiritual formation.

But it's important to see that Paul didn't say we transform ourselves.

He says we are being transformed.

And today I want you to see this beautiful process because I want to be very careful because the Apostle Paul does a great job of preaching this.

So I'm going to let him preach as we go through this verse.

Because that's the difference that we see that we struggle with today.

And it's that contrast between having religion and having a relationship.

You see, religion always says that we have to try harder.

But the gospel says that all we need to do is surrender deeper.

Religion says that we have a responsibility to work hard to try to make ourselves better.

It's a lot of work.

But the gospel says, let the Spirit make you new.

Let the Spirit do the transformation.

And here's why this matters is that God is not asking you to pretend that you are already like Jesus.

God is inviting you to a process where from glory to glory, this process is before us where the Holy Spirit does the work that we can become more like Jesus.

And there's three movements in here that I want to share with you today.

It's laid out so beautifully because what we're called to do is simply behold him.

We become like him, and then we allow ourselves to be led by him.

So let's start with the first thing that Paul tells us to do.

He says, Behold him, because what we behold will always shape what you become.

So in Exodus 34, Moses goes to Mount Sinai, spends time with God.

He's in his presence, his face is shining, the presence of God is all over him.

The people see Moses, they're afraid to come near him, so he puts a veil over his face.

And Paul picks up the story in 2 Corinthians 3.

He says, something now has changed.

You see, Moses experienced God's glory in a particular way under the old covenant.

But now through Jesus Christ, we know that when he died upon Calvary's cross, he said those words, it is finished.

We know that the veil was torn.

Look at verse 16.

It says, Whenever a person turns to the Lord, when we're saved, that veil is torn.

It is removed.

And then verse 18 says, We all now have unveiled faces.

So we know under the old covenant that there was a barrier, but through Jesus Christ, that barrier has been removed.

We do not have to stand at a distance from God because of what Jesus Christ accomplished.

We don't have to hide from his presence because of the great work that was accomplished on Calvary's cross.

We don't have to wonder what God is like because Jesus has opened the way and now that veil is gone.

And now Paul says, We all with unveiled faces, here's that first movement.

He says, We are looking.

He says we are not just looking, but one translation says we behold.

And this is where I really want to slow down.

Because it's important you understand, Paul is not simply saying, we all have unveiled faces.

He says, with our unveiled faces, we're not complacent, we're looking.

So what does it mean that we are looking at the glory of the Lord?

Glory to glory.

What does that mean?

Well, the glory of God is the weight, it is the greatness and the beauty, the splendor, the majesty of who God is.

And it's God revealing himself of his true identity.

And then Paul says, look at that.

He says, behold that.

Fix your attention upon that.

Let the attention that you are giving it begin to dictate your life.

Turn your eyes toward him, but more importantly, turn your heart toward him.

Be so fascinated with him.

Because here's what we know in the culture in which we live, this has been proven time and time again.

What you always look at, what you gaze upon, what you behold always shapes what you become.

Man, we see this everywhere.

If you watch somebody long enough, you will start picking up the habits of that person.

If you spend enough time around a person, you will begin to do the things that that person does.

You'll start adopting their attitudes.

You will start looking like them.

You'll start sounding like them.

So what has your attention is always forming you.

Because there's something that's always discipling our eyes.

Maybe it's our phone.

Maybe it's the content that we're looking at that is discipling our eyes.

Maybe it's your favorite influencers and what they say that disciple us.

Maybe it's entertainment or culture, but we will become what we behold.

And whatever continually captures your attention, eventually it begins to shape your affection.

And whatever shapes your affection will always begin to give you your direction.

So the question we have today is what are we beholding?

Because we can say, I want to become like Jesus, but then we spend hours and hours and hours every week beholding the things of this world.

You see, we consume everybody else's opinion.

We know what our favorite athletes say, we know what our favorite influencers say.

We spend time studying the lives of people that we admire, but very few of us spend time beholding the words of Jesus Christ.

And then we wonder, man, I'm living for Jesus.

I'm trying to do the right thing, but we're not beholding him.

And Paul says we should be looking at the glory of the Lord because what you look at, it shapes what you become.

And that's exactly where Paul takes us next, because when we behold him, something begins to happen inside.

When we gaze our eyes upon him, when we focus on him, when we give him our attention, this leads to number two, we become like him.

You see, we become like him.

You are being transferred from glory to glory.

So in verse 18, Paul says, We are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory.

So Paul says, Behold him, fix your eyes on him.

And now he tells us what happens when we do that.

We are being transformed.

Of course, we know to be like him.

Man, that little phrase is loaded with hope because Paul doesn't say that you need to transform yourself.

Nowhere in here does he tell us that we need to try harder to be a better Christian.

He doesn't say that we got to fix ourselves.

He says you are being transformed, but the prerequisite is we're going to be transformed into what we behold.

So God's doing something inside of you that you can't do yourself.

I love this word transformed because in the original Greek it's the word metamorphoo.

It's where we get our word metamorphosis from.

And I'm not saying that you're becoming a butterfly, but the process that the caterpillar becomes the butterfly clearly applies.

It's kind of like that caterpillar that he puts himself in this secluded place.

He gets quiet in the place that he is.

His surroundings are shut off from the world around him.

And over time, he is fixated on this transformation process.

And eventually we know from the inside out a radical change happens and he becomes the butterfly.

Something totally different.

You see, God isn't simply changing what you do, he's changing the person that you're becoming.

He's changing your desires, he's changing your attitude, he's changing your thoughts, your reactions, your priorities, your character, even your relationship, but most importantly, he's changing the way that we respond.

And he does this increasingly until our life looks like Jesus.

But you've got to notice the word that Paul uses here.

He doesn't say that we are transformed.

He says we are being transformed.

In this context, he is talking about the present tense in the moment right now.

It is a process that is taking place in our lives.

And man, that's really good news for me.

And that's good news for you.

You see, because sometimes we look at ourselves and we think, man, I'm not where I need to be.

I'm still struggling with this.

I keep making the same mistakes.

Why am I not more patient?

Why do I get so angry?

Why do I still struggle to forgive people?

Why doesn't my life look more like Jesus?

And Paul gives us this beautiful phrase that helps us solidify this in our minds.

He says, From glory to glory.

Remember that.

From glory, the beginning, when the glory of Jesus Christ that was displayed upon Calvary's cross becomes a part of our life.

It begins.

And too glory is when we get to be with Jesus one day.

You see, we've already experienced the glory of knowing Christ because we've been sealed by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Sealed in the Holy Spirit, yet we are not yet totally conformed to Him.

So the Holy Spirit is continually working in us, changing us and shaping us and conforming us into the image of Jesus Christ.

It's from one degree of glory to the full culmination of glory, that which is to come.

From that point that we are sealed by the King with the power of the Holy Spirit until the moment that we breathe our last breath and we see Jesus Christ, that's from glory to glory.

I can't wait for that day when we get to experience that glory, when the finished work of Jesus Christ will come to fruition in our lives.

Can I share with you that the Apostle Paul shares this for us?

He tells us this in Philippians chapter 3.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

It's a beautiful poem of what he was experiencing that you are experiencing today.

He says these words in verse 12, not that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.

Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, listen to this, forgetting those things which are behind and straining forward toward those things which are ahead.

He says, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

And then he says, Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk as you have us for a pattern.

Do you see?

That's the movements, that's the process.

That's a picture that we are seeing in this text in 2 Corinthians chapter 3.

2 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

And then when you read verse 20 of that same chapter, he says, For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will, here you go, transform our lowly body, that it may conform to his glorious body, that's the glory, according to the working by which he is able even to subdue all things to himself.

Listen, we all have areas that need work in our life.

But it's important to know that even the Apostle Paul was struggling this, but he came to the realization that there was a work that was beyond what he could do.

The Holy Spirit was going to accomplish this in him from glory to glory.

And in this process, from glory to glory, we are becoming more like Jesus.

And as we draw to the last part of this verse, this presents the final question.

Here it is.

If I can't transform myself, if God is transforming me, how does he do this?

How does he accomplish this?

So he takes us to the third movement of this process that Paul lays out.

And that is that we not only behold him, we don't just belong to him, but now we be led by him.

Because the Holy Spirit is the one doing the work in us.

So Paul doesn't leave us guessing here.

He finishes verse 18 by telling us exactly where this transformation comes from.

He says these words This is from the Lord who is spirit.

And this is where this becomes incredibly personal.

Because when the Holy Spirit enters into our heart, he begins the transforming process.

You, as a Christian, you begin to notice things that you didn't notice before.

You begin to feel things differently, you begin to experience things differently.

You begin to hurt over things that maybe you were once comfortable with.

That's the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Now, when the Holy Spirit is residing in us, you cannot become uh uh comfortable with this fight between the flesh and the spirit inside of you.

You sin and there's something inside of you that says that wasn't right.

You used to lie and it didn't bother you, but but now you're not comfortable with that.

If you gossip, something inside of you says you need to stop doing that.

Uh you used to hold bitterness, but now the spirit is telling you that you need to forgive.

You used to watch something, say something, and maybe you would do something and even think about something, but now there's this holy discernment that you have inside of your heart, yet it is a discomfort.

Listen to me, that is not condemnation.

What that is, is that is conviction.

That is the leading of the Holy Spirit.

And I know today that many of us live in a place where we feel like we are condemned.

Can I remind you the greatest verse that we read in all of Scripture?

John 3.16.

We know that for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

Man, we know that, but we miss the very next verse in verse 17, where Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, says, For he did not come into this world to condemn the world, but through him that the world will be saved.

You see, Paul tells us we are being saved.

It is a process, and it is not his desire to condemn you.

It is his desire that through the working of the Holy Spirit to expose the sin in you, to destroy it.

That's how he works.

He convicts us and he works in our life.

He exposes us because he loves us.

He loves us way too much to leave us where we are.

And that's why following Jesus can sometimes feel uncomfortable.

That's why sometimes when we look into the mirror of the Word of God, that it's uncomfortable for us.

And if we take a long, honest look, we can see those areas of our life where we don't look like Jesus.

He's not condemning you, he's transforming you.

He's saying, that area that I spoke into your life, let me work in that area.

He's saying, Let me change this, let me heal this, let me fight this, let me take this from you.

Because ultimately he's saying, Let me make you more like me.

More like Jesus Christ.

You see, maybe there's an area of your life right now that you're saying it doesn't look more like Jesus.

Listen, he's not finished with you yet.

He's transforming you.

You see, because the evidence that the Holy Spirit is working in you isn't that you have arrived, the evidence is that you are responding, it's that you're being led by the Holy Spirit.

And that's where we bring it all back home to this entire series N I L name, image, like.

Where we begin to understand that He is the name above all names, we just have to stop living and promoting our own name.

We understand that we were created in the image of God in the very beginning.

And if you remember from last week, we've got to give God back what is God's.

We've got to stop living for our own image and start living for his image.

And then when we understand that our likeness isn't what the world says we should become, we should embrace the work of the Spirit being transformed into His likeness.

And we allow the Holy Spirit to do that in us.

And when we embrace this powerful process that the Apostle Paul lays out so beautifully, when we see it come to the fulfillment of this entire series, we get back to our takeaway, which was the big idea in the very beginning.

You see, when we surrender our pursuit for our own name, image, and likeness, we begin living in the joy and the freedom of His.

I love what the Apostle Paul says.

And what I love about the teaching of the Apostle Paul is that you can get a totally different epistle, a totally different letter to a totally different church, and you can see where he backs up the same truths over and over and over again.

And in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verses 9 through 13, I want to read something that he laid out that to me takes this whole series and brings it to a place that we can take home.

1 Corinthians 12:9–13

It gives us a hope to live and allow the Holy Spirit to do the work in our lives.

Listen to this.

He says, verse 9, for now in part, and we know in part and we prophecy in part.

He says, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.

This is where we're at.

He says, When I was a child, I talked like a child.

I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child, but when I became a man, I put the ways of a child behind me.

And here he's back to that mirror.

He says, For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror.

That's now, then we shall see face to face.

Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even if I even when I am fully known.

It's a beautiful picture of glory to glory.

So rest easy in this world, rest easy in the peace and find the joy and the freedom that we don't have to live for our own NIL.

We can live in His.

If we will simply behold Him, become like Him, and be led by Him.

And realize this that our goal is never to become the best version of ourselves.

No matter if the world tells us that, our goal is to become more like Jesus.

Let me pray.

Father, thank you, God, for this time that you've given us through this series.

God, I thank you for the word of truth that we can apply to our life.

And God, I just want to pray specifically for those that are listening today, God, that those are in the middle of this sanctifying process being transformed from glory to glory.

And God, that we will embrace the power of the Holy Spirit.

God, that we will allow the conviction to come in.

And God, realize those moments and those places where we are not reflecting the image of you.

So God, I pray now for your spirit to just manifest itself powerfully in and through these words into the hearts of people.

God, that we can not live for our own NIL deal, but God, we can live for your name, image, and likeness and prof pro just project it powerfully, God, to the world, that they can see the good works that you're doing in us, that they can see that you are the one who saves.

We love you, God, and we praise you in Jesus' name.

Amen.