Latest / HBCWestminster / uncomMen

Transcript

uncomMen · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  You know, while on one hand, we're not supposed to think of ourselves more highly than we ought, right? Like, that is definitely true. But on the other side, we're not supposed to think of ourselves as lowly worms that are just worth nothing. You know, we've been placed just a little lower, you know, above the angels. The angels are lower than us here. And that's because we're made in God's image. We're not a separate creation like angels.
• 0:22
  And that's an amazing gift, right, that God has given us, being made in that image. That's such a great point, Lance. I really like that, that when we're made in God's image, we need to reflect then God as part of that duty that we have, being made in God's image. Good. All right, so the next verses we're going to talk about being new creations in Christ and what that looks like. So this is Romans 6.
• 0:50
  and we're actually going to go through verse 11. I know I only put verse 6 there, but I think it's worth going all the way up to 11. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
• 1:20
  We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. So when you become a believer, the old is put away. It's not just put away. It's killed.
• 1:51
  Death, death to the old self. And new life in Christ takes its place. So now it might get a little more personal with this question. So here, Bob, is where you might want to go back to the other one and just stay on that discussion. But the question is, how have you become a new creation? And what old ways are difficult for you to forsake? Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies to make you obey their passions.
• 2:40
  And the good news, too, look at this. I haven't even been talking, and I'm terrible.
• 2:53
  The good news, too, is that God has actually given us gifts in order to live this life as a new creation. And that's what we find in our next verses. So if you go over to 2 Timothy 1.7, I'm going to take a look at this one. So 2 Timothy 1.7. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God gave us a...
• 3:32
  So if you write down power, love, self-control in those blanks, those are gifts given to us as believers. Power, love, and self-control. And as I was thinking about these things, I thought about the opposite of them.
• 3:54
  how easy it is to let those rule our lives and to revert back to that old creation by letting that be like the inverse of those gifts that we've been given. And so when I think about power, I think instead about weakness. And this is the one, if I were to answer this question and sit down over here like I did earlier and answer the question that I gave you all, I would say this is the one I struggle with the most.
• 4:24
  I've always found it very, very easy to slip into following the crowd, into going along with whatever's happening around me and not holding firm in my identity in Christ. And that's a struggle that I have. And that might not be for everybody, but that's the one that I continue to bump up against. Like, oh man, my co-workers are talking about this. Well, I want to be liked. I want to be like them.
• 4:52
  I want to be, you know, accepted by them. So I better do the same thing that they're doing. And that's just the easiest thing for me to do. And I need to fight against that. The next one, love. I think the opposite of that one you can think about is hard-heartedness. And think about that for your life. Are you hard-hearted? Do you find it hard to love certain people? Do you find it hard to reach out and love those around you?
• 5:23
  and to see them as being created in God's image, just as you have been? Is that what you struggle with? Or is it the last one, the opposite of self-control, which I see as anger and a quick temper? And that might be something that you have a problem with, where instead of being self-controlled, having that gift that we've been given of self-control, snapping quickly and jumping to conclusions and getting all over somebody.
• 5:52
  And I struggle with that too. So when I said that weakness is the one I struggle with most, it's the one I struggle with most. I do all the other ones too. Just the worst of all the bunch is that first one for me. So think about those gifts that we've been given and the opposite of those. So the gifts are power, love, self-control. And then think about those opposites. Weakness, caving to peer pressure, hard-heartedness.
• 6:21
  and anger and a quick temper. What are some of those ways that your brothers in Christ here could lift you up in some of those areas? Or maybe strengthening you in some of the things that you don't have in power and in love and in self-love. We're going to look at, instead of common sense qualities, usually we talk about common sense, these are uncommon sense. Because what we're talking about is really counter-cultural, right? Having an identity in Christ,
• 6:52
  and not in ourselves or our powers and our gifts, that is really countercultural. That is so different from what we see all around us, right? People measure their worth in number of followers that they have on Twitter, right? Or number of Facebook friends. Or how much wealth and property they have.
• 7:18
  cool experiences they've gathered over their lifetime. Hey, I've been to Thailand. I've been to Cambodia. I've been wherever. Those things are how the world measures their worth and sees themselves and defines their identity is through those kind of things. This is countercultural, uncommon sense qualities. And so what I want to do is have you go to Philippians.
• 7:45
  And half of your table, why don't you look at Philippians 2, 1 through 18. And now it's going to be totally quiet, so no talking. You're just going to be reading that thing. And the other half of the table, or if you're an uneven number, you know, whatever percentage of the table it ends up being, I want you to look at Philippians 4, 4 through 7, and then also 1 Peter 2, 9. So half the table, look at that first.
• 8:13
  set of verses. The other half, look at that other two set. And then what I want you to do kind of as you're looking at those is write down words, qualities and key words that should make up our identity in Christ that you find in yourself. Oh my goodness, this is a giant list I'm creating. How in the world am I going to be able to do all this? How do I make this happen in my life? But then I thought about the lyrics to a song and it's one that we sing.
• 8:42
  occasionally on Sunday mornings, which goes, I will not boast in anything, no gifts, no power, no wisdom, but I will boast in Jesus Christ, his death and resurrection. And that is the key to freeing us and enabling us to cultivate these qualities. Because if we're boasting in Jesus Christ, he is perfection. He's already won. He's done the work.
• 9:13
  We can put to death, just like he died for our sins, so that we can put those to death. And he promises to enable us to do those things. And that's the glory, that's the hope that we can have in Jesus Christ when we're boasting in him. Not in what we can do, not in ourselves, but in Jesus Christ. So what I want to do as we close out tonight is...
• 9:41
  First, we need to identify a tool that we're going to put into this box. And this box is legitimate. Like, I got greasy fingers from reaching in there. So we've got to find the right tool for this particular biblical identity that we were talking about tonight. All right? So does anybody have any nominations? You've got the planer. Okay. Rough.
• 10:14
  There you go. Taking off the rough edges in our life, right? That's good. I like that. All right. The planer. So let's put her up in here. What do you have over there? Oh, I love it. You knock off the bad stuff, form something new and beautiful. That's a great one. I love it. That's good. That's fantastic. What you got there, Chris? You got a wrench. Why is that? Oh, love it. Good stuff. Love it.
• 11:01
  All right, so what I want to do before we close in prayer is just issue a challenge to everybody. I would love it, brothers, if you could invite somebody for next week and think about somebody who's younger than you as you're thinking about mentorship and how you can encourage somebody. Think about somebody younger than you. It doesn't matter how much younger. So, for example, Tim Sinks.
• 11:33
  is literally three weeks younger than me. So I could invite Tim Stinks, who's not here tonight, you might notice, and that would be legitimate. That would count. Oh, he's back there? Oh, okay. He was just ditching. He knew I was teaching, so he's like, I'm out of here. All right, so let's close in prayer, brothers, and thank you so much for reading, opening the scriptures tonight with me, and let's pray. Lord Father, we're so grateful.
• 12:04
  That you loved us so much that you sent your son. And that through his death, we have new life. And that new life enables us to shed our old self. And that we can take those new qualities, Lord, through your power. We know that it's only through your power that we can be who we are meant to be as men in Christ, Lord. Lord, thank you for this evening. So may we pray.
• 12:35
  Amen.