The Church of Eleven22 - Stand Alone: Of First Importance

Episode Date: December 31, 2017

The greatest thing in which we can look back on and the greatest thing we can hope towards is the Gospel: the good news that Jesus Christ came to save sinners like you and me for the glory of God.

Amen, amen, amen. We love celebrating life change around here. If you're new, let you know one thing. I'm not the lead pastor here. I'm not that good looking. I'm trying. I'm working on it. My name's Ryan Stone.

I am one of our campus pastors, and I get the opportunity to open up God's word with you this morning, excited about that. And, man, for the saints at Bay Meadows, we just want to say hey to everyone. To San Pablo and Mandarin, to all the other campuses, man. Bay Meadows is going good.

and we are honored as a campus to be a part of this church and what God is doing across our city. And just even as we were getting ready for this week, I began to think about what God's been doing at Bay Meadows and really what God's been doing across all our campuses and just been looking back at this year of ministry and absolutely amazed. I mean, if we just look back to last weekend at the thousands of people who gathered, and just think about this, over 70 people surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ last week, right? That is unbelievable. I mean, there were guys showing up because they wanted grandma's sweet potato souffle. About halfway through the service, they realized, uh-oh, uh-oh, and they raised their hand and they

surrender their life to Jesus. They're going to get baptized in January. They're going to go on a mission trip for the next three years. And it's all because Grandma said, if you don't go to church with me on Christmas Eve, you don't get to eat. And now they're going to be eating at the king's table forever. It is unbelievable what we get to be a part of. And I'm excited about what 2018

holds for us as a church. And I'm a little bit giddy this time of year. Like, I love Christmas. We watched another Christmas movie last night, Gremlins. And so we've just been watching Christmas movies and singing Christmas carols. And to the point that I don't, I can't convince my four and six year old that it's now time to switch from Christmas carols to glory, glory to old Georgia. But we'll make that switch. But we love Christmas.

And I love this week. Like, I love the energy of Christmas. And then I love kind of this. anticipation of what this next year is to come. And I get wrapped up in all the list. I mean, like, like the top 10 most political stories of the year and the top 10 celebrities who died who no one cared about, but now they're dead. So we pretend like we care about them again. And, you know, my favorite, the top 10 catches of the year. I have just been wrapped up into, like, I've been into the depths of Twitter this week on the top 10 weirdest emergency room

stories of the year. I didn't know you could put some stuff some places. But I I know now a lot of things that I used to not know. And so I get excited about looking back and I get excited about what's to come and what's ahead of us and goals and themes for the year. And so as Pastor Jobi asked me if I would preach this New Year's Eve service, I thought, what's the greatest thing we could look back on and what's the greatest thing we could look towards? And we're going to end with the end of the final thought and then we're going to go and unpack that through scripture. But here's kind of my end of the year thought for us today. The greatest thing that we can look back on and the greatest thing that we can hope towards is the gospel.

The good news of Jesus Christ that he came to save sinners like you and me for the glory of God. And so not only do I think that, but there's this guy named Paul who is an apostle who wrote many of the letters of the New Testament. And in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, as he's ending this letter to the church in Corinth, Paul kind of draws this similar idea. And actually I drew my idea from Paul, and that's what we're going to study, is this idea of what we look back on and what we hope towards is the gospel. So 1 Corinthians chapter 15, Paul begins this. He says, now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preach to you in which you received and in which you stand. And much like what Paul is doing in the Church of Corinth today at the Church of 1122, we are going to remember the gospel. We're going to recalibrate ourselves and check our alignment as we end and celebrate one year and begin to hope towards the next year.

The greatest thing to look back on and look towards is the gospel. And so we are a Bible teaching church. We're just going to go verse by verse through this. And so we'll start right at the beginning. Now I, this is Paul, I would remind you. Like in the Greek, Paul is saying, hey, let me point something out to you. Now Paul knows his audience. He knows that he's writing to fellow.

Christians and they had heard the gospel and they had believed the gospel, but Paul knew that they needed to be reminded of something that they already believed. My hope today, for many of us, is that we would discover something we never knew to be true. And for many of us, my hope is that we would deepen our belief in something that we have already known to be true and believed. Now, I'll say this, there is a gentle rebuke here in Corinthians, for there's a group of them who had considered themselves knowledgeable and spiritual. Now, we are incredibly blessed at this church that I don't believe there's a large group of people walking around going, I'm knowledgeable and I'm spiritual.

And because of what I know about the Bible, I'm better than other people. You know why? Those people just don't last very long around here. They get offended and they leave and we just wave at them, right? But anyone who is maybe thinking, like, oh, another message of the gospel, let me just give you the gentle rebuke that Paul gives us. If your initial reaction to a sermon about the gospel is, hey, I've heard that, can we go deeper now? It is a telltale sign that you actually don't get the gospel. The gospel is not the diving board into the deep end.

The gospel is all of the water in the deepest end of the deepest pool in all the world. The gospel is not something we graduate from. It's something that saturates every part of our being. Paul is saying this, I would have you. you know, brothers of the gospel. It's good for us to be brought over and over again to something that we believe in and to have an intense interaction and focus on the gospel. Now, I want to make sure we're talking about the gospel and defining the gospel. And as we focus on the gospel, let's focus on the gospel. Here's what the gospel is. Very simply put, it's the glad tidings, or it's the good news

that refers to the saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross. John Piper, a really, really smart dude who loves Jesus, said this, the gospel is the news that Jesus Christ, the righteous one, died for our sins, and rose again, eternally triumphant over all his enemies. And so that here there is no condemnation for those who believe, but only everlasting joy. So we're going to do this for just a second. We're going to bounce down into the text into verse 3 because Paul's actually going to lay out the gospel for us.

So we're going to hop down in three. Paul is going to lay out the gospel and then we'll tarotina. We'll come back, I promise, right? Allow us to just bounce around. Paul is going to say in verse three, he says, for I, this is Paul, I delivered to you of first importance, what I also received for myself. Now, Paul's not delivering something that he's originated. Paul's not delivering a view that he had spent years working out.

And now that he feels that he understands it, he's compelled to share it. Paul is going to share a message that, one, he actually did not believe in. And two, he actually completely opposed until Christ revealed it to him. And so now Paul says, I've got to share this message to you. And this message that Paul is going to share is the central message to everything we believe. So if you're in here and you're checking out this faith, this Christianity, and you're not really sure what we're going to look at and what Paul is going to show us is this is what we believe as Christians. And if you do not believe this, you're not talking about the Christian faith.

And Paul is going to give us these four components or ingredients or pieces to the gospel. The first is this. The gospel is that Christ died for our sins. The good news, the glad tidings of the gospel is that Christ died for our sense. That Christ gave himself up for our sins. Literally, it says that Christ died on behalf of our sins. Our sins, we earned death. in Christ on behalf of what we had earned went to the cross.

Now, anytime there's good news, there's usually accompanied with it bad news. And the bad news is this, is that our sins were so destructive that the only remedy there was was the death of God. The only solution to saving us from our sins was the death of Christ himself. Now, sin is terrible. Terrible. It's costly. And here's a true statement.

and you and I are great sinners. Please do not let your ego deceive you. The number one obstacle to the good news of the gospel is not our enemy Satan. The number one obstacle to the gospel is the man or the woman that refuses to recognize or admit that the current state of sin has left them barren, broken,

and absolutely struck down. See, for us to get the good news and cling to the good news, we have to start by admitting that there is bad. bad news. That's why there's scripture like Romans 323 that says, for all have sinned. Now all is just really a very technical word in the Greek that means all, right? And so all everybody has sinned in midst of glory of God, the presence of God. And that's pretty bad news, but it gets worse. In Romans 623, it says this, the wages of our sin is death. That all of us have sinned, all of us have missed God's perfect will and because of that, we have earned for ourselves

death. So please do not let your ego begin to make you think that it is not as bad as it really is. It is terrible. And yet Christ came to save sinners. He goes on to say this, that Christ died for our sins. The second thing is in accordance with the scripture. So here and throughout all of Paul's letters, in fact, all of the Bible, it is pointing to the supremacy of Christ. That Christ did not die haphazardly on the cross. Christ died as a fulfillment of many promises. So much of the Old Testament points to the coming of Christ, from prophecies to Christophonies to the promised renewal of the kingdom with Jesus as king. From Genesis chapter 3, we see that Satan comes and Satan is going to be cursed. Then there's a covenant forged with Adam that Adam's offspring is going to be the blessing of all.

There's messianic promises throughout all the book of Psalms. As we get into the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are literally called the Gospels. And they are the story, the narrative of the coming of Christ through the Virgin Mary that Christ would come and was born at Christmas and would die at Easter for our sins. As we go through the book of Acts, we hear about this unraveling, this expansion of the church, the gospel of Christ taking roots in all parts of the world. And we end the Bible in the book of Revelation. where it says every knee shall bow and every tongue confess. From cover to cover, Christ's death was in accordance to the scripture that God would be glorified through the work of Christ on the cross. So first, Christ died. Second, the gospel is this, that he was buried. This is really important.

There is a tomb. Christ was dead enough to be buried in that tomb. Paul's asserting here both the reality of his genuine death and the reality of his authentic resurrection. Now Paul, he's arguing already. It's not the swoon theory. It's not fake news that Christ died. It's not that Allah saved him before his own followers could sail him. It wasn't merely a flesh room. Christ was in the grave, kind of dead, heart no longer beating. The burial is referenced in all four gospels. There is no way to deny that Christ fully paid the penalty of sin. The wages of our sins crush Jesus full. to the point of death. He was dead, left in his tomb to rot. But he did not stay there. In fact, it goes on to say this, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with Scripture.

You see, in the death of Christ, Jesus gives us victory over sin, that sin is no longer our master, and it is in his resurrection that Jesus gives us victory over death. He was fully dead in the grave, but he is dead no more. He has risen. and he's never going back to the tomb. It is still empty today. This is what sets Christ apart from any other religious leader in all of humanity and the history of the world. He said three days after I die, I'll come out. And that brother came out of the grave and he never went back.

No one can ever come close to the claim of a resurrected Savior. In fact, it's because Christ is no longer in the grave that you and I no longer fear death. Just imagine the freedom in which we live when we realize death has no sting because Christ has already taken it. Just imagine the freedom we get to walk in when we realize that there are no curses of death over the believer because Christ has already fully embraced the curse that we might embrace the blessing. It's because Christ is no longer in the grave that you and I no longer have to fear death. First he died, then Christ was buried, third he rose again, and finally Christ appeared and empowered all people.

Let's continue in the text, end of verse 5. He appeared to Cephas, which is just kind of an a.k.a. Peter. And then he went to the 12th. And then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of them who are still alive. Though some of them have fallen asleep, that's like dead, not like they took a nap. And then he appeared to James, and then to all the apostles. And last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. So Jesus appears to one, and then he appears to 12, and then he appears to 500.

It is a historical fact. In fact, Paul says, look, there's like 500 of these brothers walking around. If you don't believe me, go ask one of them. And all of those brothers and all of those sisters were willing to die for what they believe. You cannot argue with the historical fact that there was a man named Jesus, that this man named Jesus did go into a grave, and that grave is empty. And from Peter to Paul, and all in between, we hear this declaration. The gospel is for all people.

Peter was like one of the first followers. He was one of the first to identify Jesus as the Son of God. I mean, heck, the Catholics even elected him as first pope. Like Peter was the real deal, leader of the pack. He was not perfect, but he's done a lot of things. will never do. Like he's better at anything I've ever done. Now, Paul, on the other hand, Paul killed Christians. Not like hated him or sent them mean tweets. Paul had a contract to eradicate Christians. And Christ appeared to Peter and Christ appeared to Paul. And Paul's using

some language here to stress how undeserving he was. He says he was untimely born. Now that's really, really, really, really strong language. The phrase untimely born in the first century, meant should have been an abortion. Like Paul's saying, I should have been an abortion. I should have been untimely born. Now, this is strong language. And I believe Paul is using it on purpose. Paul's saying this.

Paul saying, he felt like he was an abortion to the faith family. He should have never even been born when it comes to being a follower of Christ. And yet Jesus came to him. Now, if you hear me say one thing across all our campuses today, It's just one thing. Please hear this. I know there's folks in this room and all of our campuses that feel like a mistake. Like you feel like Christ couldn't love you. I mean, the fact that you even found the strength to get into one of our campuses today was all the strength you could muster. And the entire time, people were singing. Grow men had their hands in the air. And you're like, I don't know what's going on here. I'm uncomfortable. I don't belong here. There's no way. If these people knew what I did last night, they would even let me sit next to him on the row. And let me just tell you this. That Christ loves you enough that he went to the cross. That Christ loves you enough that he stretched his arms out and died. That Christ loves you enough that he carried the weight of your sin into the tomb. And Christ loves you enough that he left the punishment of your sin in the tomb and rose again so that all people would know Christ as their Lord.

Lord and Savior. Yeah, come on. If we're going to clap for the gospel, it better not be a golf clap. Come on. Pretend like you're the Jags game. Let's do this, right? Guess what? If he loves you enough to die on the cross for you, he really loves you.

No matter what your story is, the work of Christ on the cross is for you. The gospel is that Christ lived, died, and resurrected. for all people. I've been praying this week. Really, I've been praying for a couple months because Pastor Jobi gives me like three months because it takes me three months to do what he does every week.

And so I've been praying for like three months for this sermon, and I've been praying this that we would never, ever, ever be a church that tries to get over the gospel. The gospel is not a subject matter that we master and graduate from. The gospel is the foundation by which everything that matters in our life

must be built on. The gospel is the thread that holds the fabric together of all of our existence. The gospel is the air in our lungs providing life-giving oxygen to every cell of our being. And the gospel is the truth that must saturate every part of our existence. The mission of the gospel is simple. The mission of the gospel is to declare that Jesus overcame sin and death to the glory of God. Now, I told you we're going to tear a Tina to this. We're going to hop back up the verse two, because now that we understand what the gospel is,

Paul's going to give us a few things of what we must do with this gospel. First thing we have to do with the gospel is the gospel must be proclaimed. Paul says up here, he says, now I remind you, brothers, of the gospel. I preached to you. The gospel is a message that once you hear it, you have to repeat it. Like, it's that kind of good news that when you get, you're like, I have to share this, right? Like, when you get pregnant, like for me and my wife, we had some issues getting pregnant

and we finally got pregnant. And when we got pregnant, my wife was like, let's just wait a few weeks, only tell close friends, let's pray it out, and then we'll make some announcements here in a few weeks once we know everything's working well. You know what I wanted to do? I wanted to get a billboard with my wife's picture on it because she fine, she mine, I knocked her up. If that offended you, my email is joby.

Martin at co. I wanted to tell the world why. It was the kind of news that once you get it, you got to share it, right? Like when you get the job that you've always wanted, or your kid finally passes a test, or maybe you get into the school that you wanted, or maybe something happened in your life. It's that good news that when you get it, you're like, I can't keep this in. I got to get it out. It's the kind of news that when you find out that your church gets to launch another campus, right?

If the news of Arlington is in you and it's not coming out of you, you, it's because it ain't in you yet, right? And so, guys, we're launching our Arlington campus next week. Are you excited about that? You should be. Man, hundreds of y'all from San Pablo, that's going to be your new home. And hundreds from Bay Meadows and, like, three from Mandarin, it's going to be your new home. And it's going to be amazing. And we're going to continue to be one church in many locations. And some of you're like, I just don't know if I can, like, go watch somebody on a screen. You're watching me on a screen right now, except for like two of you right down front. You'll be fine. We're launching Arlington. Are you excited? I am. You should be. It's that kind of news that when it's in you, you've got to get out.

I was thinking about this past Halloween, October 31st, we're walking around. My family were trick-or-treating, only taking snicker bars and Reese's cups because I don't want any of that other junk, right? Trying to keep my figure, and my snickers are my jam, right? And so we were just trick-or-treating, and my phone starts to ring, and I pull it out, and it's my brother, my younger brother. I'm like, that chump, he ain't got no kids. He don't know what's going on. It's trick-treat time. And then my phone's about to fall out of my pocket from the text and the phone calls, and I pull it out. And the next time, it's my mom. Now, you've got to know, my dad's been battling cancer for like 11 years now. And, like, he goes to the hospital about once every three weeks, just for fun. Something's bleeding where it's not supposed to be.

And so I get this call, and I automatically go into, like, oh, no, something's wrong with dad. I got something's wrong. So I try to, like, answer the phone call, and before I can, mom hangs up. And now I'm starting to get nervous. My dad starts to call me, to which I think. oh my good like what is going on and so I picked the phone up and I kind of drop back from the pack of kids and ravenous snicker bars and I say hey dad what's what's going on and he's like well Ryan have you heard it's like no tell me or I'm going to drive to Atlanta and slap you I can't handle

the suspense what's happening dad what's going on he's like very very important thing I need to tell you are you where you can talk yeah yeah what's going on he goes the polls just came out and that's the first college football polls and Ryan Georgia's number one Once you get that good news in you, you can't keep it in you. You know what I did? I said, Dad, I love you. I got to go. I got it off the phone.

The rest of the night, chirk or treat. I was like, go dogs, number one in the polls. We just beat Florida, so I also rubbed that into everybody who was in blue. You didn't have that orange on. Like, if you had blue one, one kid was dressed up like a police officer. It was like, go dog. They beat the gator. She's like, I'm going to go, right?

When you get that good news in you, it has to come out. And I'll tell you better than hearing about your team being number one in the polls or even better than launching a campus or getting a job or finding out you're pregnant after trying for so long greater than all those things is the message that God's redeeming work in Christ is for all people. And if it's in you, you've got to get it out and you've got to get it out often. And I'll just give you a general, I love you warning. If it's not coming out of you, it may not be in you.

Like if it's not oozing out. Now, if it's in you, let me just encourage you maybe a couple of ways that you can get it out. One is get baptized. If you have not been baptized as a believer, I would say it this way. The baptism is like the first act of obedience as a believer. It's just act in which we're thankful that Christ saved us. And so we want to publicly proclaim that. And that's what baptism is. It's going under the water and coming out and publicly proclaiming Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. That message is in me. I've got to get it out. And we're going to do everything we can do to walk with you through that process. In fact, at all of our

campuses after every service, we've got a baptism class and we'd love for you to go and ask your questions. And we're going to help you share and write your testimony and share your story about how Christ changed your life. And you're going to share that story on a video and somebody's going to be sitting in one of our campuses and hear it. And for the first time, they're going to get the gospel because the way you explained it, even though we explained it every single week here, you're going to say something on a video and it's going to change. That gospel is going to get out of you. And so we want to help you do that. Another way I'd encourage you to do this is if you've been baptized, do this.

Go and tell. It's like show and tell, but way better. Go and tell. Like go, like go next door, go on a mission trip, right? If this is your home, you've got like three years to go on a mission trip. And so this 2018 would be a great year to go. In fact, some of you're like, man, I really look for a theme or a word for 2018. I got one from you, from the Lord.

Go. That could be your theme for the year. Go. Go next door, go to the ends of the world. Go to a gym on purpose. Go to work on purpose. Go to your school on purpose. Wherever you're going, wherever you're hanging out, go on purpose.

And as you're there, develop relationships so that you can tell them about the greatest thing in the world. Share the gospel. Tell them the story of Jesus. Tell them your story. Tell them a way that they could attend church with you next weekend. I mean, just tell, tell, tell. And if you need help throughout this year, we've got these things called Share the Word. your faith classes, the next one's in February, you could sign up, and we will help you know how

to tell the gospel in a very simple and easy way. If it's not coming out of you, it's either not in you, or you're not thinking and dwelling on it enough and preaching the gospel to yourself to get it out. So as you go and tell, tell yourself, tell your neighbor. Tell people in Africa, and Jamaica, in India, and South America, get on a mission trip, and let's do it. go and let's tell. So the gospel has to be proclaimed. The second thing is this, the gospel must be received. Paul says this. Now, I remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached in which you received. To receive the gospel means this. It means to take for oneself. Or it means to allow the gospel to take over your entire life. It means to take into fellowship, to live day in and day out

with the truth of the gospel. I'm a nerd. I'm going to nerd out a couple times here tonight or today. You just got to get over it. But the verb here is the heiress verb form. And it means it's a decisive action. So when Paul says you've already received the gospel, he's saying it's a decisive action that when we surrender the gospel, we've already decided it. And it's not something we go back and forth on. It has been decided. Where I grew up, it'd be like saying it this way. Hey, boy, you done did, received it. You all need it again. Right? Some of y'all, you all. like, I know what he's talking about now, right? There's a difference in hearing the gospel and receiving the gospel. Here's how I would explain it. Let's say that there's a dying man right here and in my hand

is medicine. If I were to go to the dying man and the dying man would say, I agree that I'm sick. I agree that that medicine would help me, but the dying man never takes the medicine and never receives the medicine. The medicine does him no good. And there's many of us in and out of church every week who would agree. I think something's wrong with me. I think Jesus might be the answer, but agreeing that Jesus might be the answer and surrendering to the Lordship of Jesus Christ are two different things.

Agreeing is simply not enough. Receiving or taking for oneself or taking the gospel into all of our lives is the thing that changes us. So I'll ask us this. Have you received the gospel? Like not your grandma, not the cute girl who tricked you in a brunch,

brought you to church, but have you received the gospel? Have you taken fellowship with the truth of the gospel? Have you allowed the gospel to take over every part of your life? Your wallets, your computer screens, your language, your time with your family. If you let the gospel just saturate everything, simply agreeing that Jesus exists is not enough surrendering to him is worth everything. Now, I'll tell you this, by the grace of God, I was, he saved me in a very, very young age. and I've spent nearly my entire life running after Christ. And I'll tell you this, whatever you have to let go of will never compare to what you get when you cling to him and him alone. My testimony is this.

I've clung to him for many years and he has never disappointed. In fact, over and over again, he's given me more than I could ask, imagine, or hope for. A gospel must be preached. The gospel must be received. And the gospel must be stood in and clung to. Paul says, I would remind you of the gospel, brothers. I preached to you in which you received, in which you stand. Nerd Alert, part two.

The Greek here is so beautiful to me. The verb is the perfect active form, meaning the verb is in a constant completion from here on out. It's just talking about you stand in which you stand. It's just constant completion, meaning this. This is how we would literally translate this. You are perfected in your position before God forever. You are standing in the gospel forever. You are maintaining the positions you have being steadfast and upright forever.

It is so much more than an intellectual assent. Receiving and standing in the gospel is a permanent righteousness in which you stand before your maker. The work of Christ on the cross is more than we can imagine. You see, the work of Christ on the cross regenerates the dead man, breathing life into his cold black heart. The work of Christ on the cross gives faith to the doubter that he may see and trust the work of God. The work of Christ on the cross leads the sinner to repent and to turn from sin of his flesh and the patterns of this world. The work of Christ on the cross justifies us, imputing or putting on us the very righteousness of Christ upon making us fully and perfectly righteous in the sight of our creator. The bankrupt, now a billionaire.

the guilty now standing innocent. The work of Christ on the cross adopts us into the family of God, making you and I co-ares with Christ, not simply forgiving our sins against God, but forging us into his family forever. The work of Christ on the cross makes these things permanently and perfectly ours. We waver not in our standing before God because Christ did not waver in his pursuit of the cross.

cross. It's not our strength that holds our feet firm, but it's his strength to die on the cross that holds our feet firm to the foundation of the gospel. The oceans may roar around us, but he causes our heart to be still and our feet to be firm. The work of Christ on the cross allows us to stand in the permanence of the gospel. So let me remind you of the gospel. Christ died for you. Christ died for you. You. You and there's nothing you can do to stop that truth. Christ laid down his life so that your life might be stood up in his resurrection. Forever permanently. The gospel must be stood in and the gospel must be clung to.

He goes on to say, now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you by which you are being saved in which you stand and by which you are being saved. The reality of the ongoing work of salvation should create in us a state of safety. We've been saved by the gospel and we're being saved. We've moved from death to life, from enemy to air, and yet God is not complete with our transformation. You see, legally there is nothing left for us to change, but we are lacking in this conformity to the image of Christ. And God loves us so much that he patiently walks with us as we can change. continue to conform to what he has already declared to be true.

It's this process of becoming more and more like Jesus and our thoughts and our actions. And theologians call this process sanctification. And it's an assurance of our salvation. As we struggle with sin, Christ continues to overwhelm us. And the Holy Spirit continues to help us to walk in the manner worthy of the gospel. And it's the work of Christ on the cross that has saved us and the work of Christ on the cross that is saving us. Paul goes on to say this,

if you hold fast to the word that I preach to you. Think about this. Sanctification, looking more like Jesus, conforming to the image of Jesus, and perseverance, which means this, that once you're saved, you're always saved. You can't lose your salvation because you didn't earn your salvation. Christ earned it.

Therefore, he maintains the constant earning of your salvation. sanctification and perseverance are co-existing works of the Holy Spirit on our behalf. One does not exist without the other. Neither sanctification nor perseverance exists by the power of man. You and I do not preserve our salvation by our actions. We did not earn our salvation by our actions. The work of Christ on the cross has permanently secured your salvation forever. So if you have surrendered your life to Christ and the enemy comes,

begins to whisper, call him what he is, the father of lies. We cling to the gospel because the gospel has forcibly grabbed us out of the pit of hell. We were dead men walking in our own kingdom, clinging to sin, and Christ invaded our world. He came on a rescue mission by which he knew he would have to be the ransom for us. Paul goes on to say this. All these things are true unless you believed in vain. Now, to believe in vain means this, to believe haphazardly or without careful fault. Paul reminds us that the gospel is actually here to help us carefully think on the fact that Christ lived, that Christ died, and that Christ was resurrected.

Paul is warning the church in Corinth, and he's warning us, do not simply haphazardly think about what Christ did on the cross. it is too great of a deed for us to not dwell on and fascinate with and intently focus on. Now, Paul's not just saying this, that we have this mental action, this mental workout in which we think about the gospel. Paul is telling us this because in Romans, Paul tells us in Romans 12 that we would be transformed by the renewing of our mind. We're not transformed by trying to behave better. We're not transformed by trying to be better. we're transformed when our mind begins to dwell. As 2 Corinthians says, when we take every thought captive and make it obedient to the Lordship of Christ,

and as our mind begins to dwell on the truth that Christ lived, that Christ died, and that Christ resurrected and empowered all people that we would live, no longer fearing sin or fearing death, it's when our mind begins to dwell on these things, that everything in us begins to transform. Paul is pointing out to us that what you already believe, May what you already believe about the gospel saturate every thought you have. As we look back on 2017 and what the Lord did and as we look forward to what he hopes he does,

what he did and what he's doing and what he will do is all wrapped up for us in this truth, that Christ came to die for us, that we were sinners in need of a Savior, and Christ was that Savior who died, went to the tomb, and resurrected. I think it's this intense remembering of the gospel and is why Christ has instituted for us the sacrament of communion. And actually, across all of our campuses today, we are going to end our time together in communion. Communion began as a Passover meal in Christ and his disciples went into this room and sat in this room and they passed the elements around. And Christ took the bread and he took the cup and he told them, this is my body broken for you. This is my blood shed for you.

Christ is saying, I'm going to the cross. And communion is a gift to the church. Communion is a time in which Christ is saying, think deeply on the gospel. Carefully examine the work of Christ on the cross. It's a moment for us to carefully meditate on the resurrection of Christ and on the implications of the cross on every inch of creation. It's a chance for us to just for a moment to just pause from our hectic lives, to pause from all the busyness, to pause from all the distractions,

to pause from all the things left to do on our to-do list, and to take in our hands the bread, and to break the bread in our hands. To remember intently the breaking of the body, the heart of our king being broken for us. Jesus beaten and hung naked on a cursed tree. The moment for us to let our breath slow down, just as his did, as Christ gasped for air, even while you and I were grasping for our sin in our own kingdom.

To hear his breath is gasping for air, as he said, Father, forgive them, struggling to breathe as Christ willingly laid down his own body as a ransom for yours. A king dying for peasants. See, this bread is undeserved. His body undeserved yet crucified for us. Our sin heaped on him, the weight of our sin crushing his body into the cross. Communion is a gift that cries out for us.

stop and think deeply and remember intently what Christ did for us. This cup, his blood, his blood that gave life to the lifeless. We were dead in our sins, and the only way to give us life was for Christ himself to embrace our death. His perfect divine blood spilled on the cross, beginning with the whips to the back, with the thorns to the brow, he bled. He shouldered our cross beam, the splinters of the wood digging into the cuts on his back. As he hung on the cross, his blood began to dry due to the intense dehydration.

The one who holds all creation together in his hand chose to no longer sustain his own heartbeat. His heart stopped because of his heart for us. For the very ones who forced him to the cross, Christ willingly died. So as we close across all of our campuses, we're going to create this environment in which we can remember the gospel, where we can dwell on the gospel, where we can take communion and focus intently on the truth that Christ gave his body and his blood for me and you. Across all of our campuses, I'm going to ask us to do these four things. Very simple. Number one, I'm going to ask us to do this to think deeply on the cross. the broken body, the spilt blood, the salvation for all people that across all of our campuses

for these moments, we would just rest and do what the scriptures tell us to think about the thing of first importance. And we would think about it deeply. The second thing I'm going to invite us all to do in a moment when I pray, servers are going to be down front in all of our locations. I'm going to invite you to come and to take communion. And we're going to take by ripping and dipping. You're going to rip some of the bread off and you're going to dip it in the cup and take communion as we think about what Christ did for us, his body ripped apart, his blood spilled for us. The third thing I'm going to ask you to do is count the line as a blessing.

Like I know in our culture when you have to wait in line, you're like, they could have had a more efficient process. Yes, I'm not sure a king dying for peasants is efficient, but it's effective. And so as we stand in line, maybe we just count that as a blessing. As we stand, scriptures will be on the screen and we can pray. and we can rest, and we can spend the entire time in line coming to the cup, thanking God for what he's done, like a peasant begging from a king. The fourth thing I'm going to ask you to do is this is real important. I'm going to ask you, after you take communion, to return to your seat.

And maybe you can't actually physically get back to your seat because there's so many people moving and the rows are too long. Okay, return to a place. And let's worship together. Let's sing together. Let's not rush out of here. list and picking up your kids, we're not going to let anybody else take your kid, I promise. Just rest in this moment. Rest in the fact that we get to worship the one who died on our

behalf. So we're going to think deeply. We're going to come and take communion. We're going to reflect on the scriptures and pray as we wait for communion, and we're going to return to our seats and sing intently. Would you do me this favor across all of our campus? Would you stand? I'm going to pray. And when I say amen, we're going to take communion together. Lord, we love you and thank you for loving us. Father God, we ask you in these moments to just bless us. Bless our time, bless our thoughts. May all the distractions of this world just flee, just flee away as we rest and thank and dwell completely and holy on the cross. May we rest in the fact that you love us and love us so.

May we dwell on the fact that you died for us. May we remember that the resurrection is foundational to our faith, that the gospel crucial to our life. And Christ in these moments, may you point out to us what is of most important, that Christ you died for us, that you were buried in our grave, and that you rose to give us victory over sin, and over death. In your precious and holy name we pray.

Amen. Amen.