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[inaudible]

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Well, Hey friends , I'm glad you're with us. If you're with us online today, or you're with us in the room, this is great. We've got a lot of people here today. I'm excited to see that. Let's keep it going, come on back. And then we have to add another service. So I'm looking forward to that adding the 11 o'clock service. And for those of you, some of you want to sleep in too . I get it. I get it. Those of you who are with us online, we're glad that you're joining us. And I really just want to say thank you for the opportunity to come into your space as well. I understand what a humbling imitation that is, where we can still work hard at connecting and being in community. And again, when you're ready, we're ready to have you back here. We're working hard on trying to create some spaces that are safe, that are comfortable for you to re-engage into physical community with others throughout this season. We're in right now. So we have been having a conversation or have called it a series called embracing the new right. And the new is what a lot of us are experiencing. New is what a lot of us experienced throughout life, whether we wanted new or we didn't want new. There are times that we are forced to, or really need to figure out how to engage into embracing what is new. And there's all of these beautiful things we see throughout scripture about how to embrace in with new things and how people connect with God and understanding the new things that he's doing in this ethos throughout scripture. Some of that stuff, it points to like different prophecies or prophetic art or ways in which stories are told or items point to God and who he is in the new things he's doing. And so as people are, re-engaging in this season and we're experiencing new things that are just a little different and adjusting and figuring out where we stand, where our place is and that we want to have a conversation about that. And some of that stuff kind of doing to do with the things that we look around and see, or feel, or experience. And so in this conversation so far last week, a couple of weeks ago, we kind of talked about this idea of seeing things, understanding what new things are taking place. Last week, we talked about a fountain that we have out in our lobby and rivers of living water, and that Jesus is doing new things in and with us. And so what water represents in the life that it represents and getting rid of stagnant things and pushing that through, and then this week, we're gonna be talking about a stump. Those of you who are been in our space, you see a stump that's out there. And I think this represents for a lot of us, this feeling of a stump where maybe we've been uprooted, right. And things have just kind of been shifted and they're changing, or maybe we feel literally cut off. And we're wondering like what new thing comes from this, or what growth comes out of this and a big season of lament and grief and loss or change and everything that, that means next week. We're gonna talk about

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Comfy chairs.

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We're going to, Oh, no, sorry, next week, we're gonna talk about a prayer wall. So we'll go down real quick. A farewell . We have a prayer wall at our bean Aisha campus. That's going to stay up through the rest of the year where we get to carry one another's burdens. We get to be there for each other in community. Whether , whether it's distance or proximity, like where it's close, but we get to see what's going on in other people's lives. And we get to walk by an experience. Not only put our own things out there where other can come, others can come alongside of us and carry this, but we get to gather other people's burdens or praises and celebration. So we'll walk through that and how that points to God and who we were created to be. And then we're going to talk about these comfortable chairs that you're in. If you're at the finish campus, you've sitting in more comfortable chairs. If you'd been here in the past, we have these hard

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Squeaky cold chairs.

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And so it's this new thing coming back and being cozy and comfortable. That's also mother's day. And so there's a bit we're going to connect to there and we're going to do some baby dedications. So that's going to be fun. So if you're a mom or, you know, someone who is a family that has a young child in this last year, they're ready to dedicate their child to the Lord. We would love to participate in that. You can let us know. And then we're going to wrap, go to see comfy chairs. Then once snacks, I think we're going to then our celebration, Oh, no taste and smell what it's good that one's going to be a fun one. Just warning. You want to be here in person. There might be snacks where we're going to taste and see that God is good and how that can point to who he is. And then we're going to wrap this whole thing up with something. I think it's a marker for us in this new life that we're in. We're going to have baptisms. So those are , you're interested in being baptized and taking that step in faith. And then also we're going to just do a whole day where we're just going to worship. So worship only baptisms a call to worship where we get to Mark this new thing that we've gone through. But for today, going back to this stump idea, there's an Isaiah 11, it's an old Testament. This is a prophecy. There is this picture that we get of everything that's just been cut away. That's been cut down and there had been thoughts and promises spoken of who God's people were and where they were going to go and what was going to happen. And they got to a point where it literally felt , and there was this image of a stump that had been cut off and they thought that this was the end. This is the end of the line that this is dead. And you know what it's going to happen? Is there going to be a Messiah in Isaiah paints, this picture, that out of this stump, a new chute came off a new growth, which then ultimately led to Jesus Christ in this line here. And so for us, there's this, this idea, this, this newness, or this idea that we can embrace something new that we could feel like everything's just been cut off or that we've been uprooted. But God shows us in points that even in the midst of just feeling totally pulled out or cut off that there is a new thing that God can do in us and is asking us to participate in a new growth, a new shoot off of that, where it might not be the same thing or the same exact tree that it had been, but it's a new, and even a better thing, perhaps for you, there have been times where you're missing what God is actually doing, because you wanted it to fit into your expectations of how things normally go, right? Maybe you haven't believed that something new could happen in your life because that's just not how it works. You've just pre decided . That's just not how it works. This new thing isn't going to happen, or maybe the redemptive movement of God and your life is to actually break your expectations and break down the barriers that have kept you trapped in the way that it works, right? To be able to see something new and to be a part of a new thing that God is doing.

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I think if

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We were going to summarize the gospel, if you were going to talk to someone, how would you summarize the gospel and this new thing that Jesus did in the new Testament and this new covenant, you can summarize it in these 30 words, it's this, that Jesus is God with us. And he's come with, to be with us to show us God's love. So he shows us God's love. Then he saves us from sin. He set up this new kingdom, God's kingdom and he's shut down religion. So this is, this is what you can say so we can share in God's life. So that 30 words we would say, Jesus is God with us, this new thing to come to show us. God's love to save us from sin to set up God's kingdom and shut down religion so that we can share in God's life. And I can't think of too many more things in the universe. That's more interesting than this, this shutting down religion, whether you're a believer or not, or whether you're spiritually seeking or you're curious or not. This is a fascinating conversation that the one time in all of religious history, in all of religious history, where the center piece of religion, the leader of this major world, religion says it's time to shut my own religion down. That's fascinating to me. Now we've said that in different parts of the gospel over time, we have these conversations, they meet our different fundamental needs as human. The needs that we have, for example, that God is with us, right? Jesus is with us equal security. This is what we want to know. We want to know someone's with us and have that security that we would feel from that to show us God's love. This would be a steam. This gives us the esteem that we're loved saving us from sin. This is the acceptance that the stuff that I've done, isn't too much, that there's a grace that's going on. That I'm accepted in, in God's kingdom. And also setting up God's kingdom. This setting of Gunn God's kingdom gives us this sense of purpose or place. And we get to participate and see a piece because that security that comes with that and having a purpose and in this fascinating part, shutting down religion where it's like this stump, that's this tree that's been cut off. This shutting down. Religion is actually this self actualization. Some of you are going, what is self actualization? Well, it's a psychology term as Maslow a well-known psychologist. He created this pyramid that's in most of that's about most of our basic human needs. And at the peak of this pyramid, it appears in most psychology textbooks is actually self-actualization. So self-actualization he said is ultimately what we're striving for, but what is self-actualization you already have this up here in a sense it's becoming, who were really made to be so self-actualization is the drive within every human being to become all that we were made to be, to transform, love that word again, transform all potential positive qualities into actual, not potential into actual positive qualities. So self actualization is actually the opposite of self potential it's actualized. And there's so much about us that when we were made or how to be in that, we were designed to live a specific way that we may or may not achieve in this life where we may underachieve in the way that we are created as an image bearer in the image of God. Some of us have skills to do certain things, but you know, that long abandoned thing that you say, like, they , you start doing and you just have to have that raw talent and you feel like it's good. And you just kind of figure one day, like I'll never make anything of that. Right? And maybe later in life, you get to a certain time where you look back and you look back and you gave up on it and you actually feel like to a degree, man. I wish I had pursued that. Like I wish I had pursued that because I kind of feel like I gave up on me in some certain areas of life. And what's interesting is that Jesus says that religion doesn't necessarily help you achieve who you are supposed to be, that it actually can hold you back. This idea of religion can actually hold you back from who you were actually created to be. And so he brings this thing called the new covenant, which is the end of the old and a launching into a whole new way of being that helps us become actually spiritually self actualized. And he actually has the audacity to teach this. So then later on, after Jesus has life, the apostle Paul follows up and we're going to look at this passage today that teaches us that the old Testament, the laws of God were right for that time. And they helped us grow to a certain point. But if we were to continue to use those, those same laws past their prime, that they would no longer actually be helping us at all. They wouldn't be helping us move forward to where we're supposed to be. That new thing that they would be holding us back from becoming who we are actually meant to be. It's almost like if you needed to have like a back brace or a brace that helped you for our , a brace for your legs, that if you are young and you're having trouble walking, that could support you and your muscles could grow the kind of brace that kept you balanced and gave you strength. So you could walk where it would be wonderful to a certain point, but when your legs finally get to the point where they can run, like you're supposed to, if you continue to wear the braces, it holds you back from the running that you were now made to do. There's a movie, you know, I kind of explained some of this. Who's checking this out.

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Miracles happen every day. Some people don't think so, but they do.

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I'm sorry . Just want to hurry up . [inaudible]

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So I think, I think the, you guys are proud of you guys are going to watch forest gum this week. Now I think the new covenant is Jesus saying, run Forrest run, be who you are made to be, right? This is him shouting, this, that what happened or what helped you these braces for a season, get you to a certain point in time that has now passed and that you need to take off these braces because it's actually holding you back. This is a great analogy of self actualization that is actually transferring from this old covenant to this new thing. So we get pointed out this way and say that we were made in the image of God to love like God, that's how the story starts, that we are made as image bearers of God and that the old covenant, it helped us live, but not to love. When you look back at the old covenant, it's this collection of rules and regulations and rituals and routines, that's given us, basically, it's given us this , this ability to keep us from killing each other and keeping us alive long enough to be ready for grace. But it didn't help us become who we truly are. It was right for a time, but now the new covenant, the new covenant helps us become ourselves. That God breathed into us, the ability and the freedom to make choices that are aligned with love, because we are made in the image of God, of love. So I want to talk to you about the apostle Paul and how he works it out in this passage. For us, you can turn with me. If you have your on your app, you can go into our app. Or if you have a Bible, you can turn with me to Galatians. It's in the new Testament, chapter three, we're going to go Galatians chapter three 22 through the end of that chapter. And then we're going to go a little bit into four. So verse 22, we'll start there. He talks about how this scripture has locked everything up, how he's locked everything up. So he says, but scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin. So that what was promised being given through faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe this idea that scripture had everything locked up under this control list . And he says , scripture imprisoned us in a sense, but in some sense, it was necessary for a time to keep us in different cages, in a sense to keep us from killing one another, walked us up. And if we just continue to go back to scripture without the new covenant motif, being our hermaneutic for our exit Jesus, without it leading us to Jesus. And when we're going to continue, then we're going to continue to be in prison in that way. That's actually the opposite of self-actualization. And so he fleshes this out now in verse 23, he says, before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until faith. That was to come would be revealed another way he goes about saying this. The law was specifically like our jailer. So we're in prison and it's our jailer. It's, it's holding us in for this specific time. And then he switches metaphors again, next verse in 24, he said, so the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, our guardian and translations, or some others might say a tutor. This is the word that we find in the Greek for nanny it's . Someone who within the first century would have functioned as a nanny, but specifically for a male child, that would have been like a caregiver. A teacher in the Greek word here is pedagogy . This pedagogy that we're going to see in verses it was here in 24. And in 25, we see this in chapter three, 24 and 25 that it talks about this twice is a slave who's appointed as a guard, or they were appointed as a guard and an educator of a young child specifically, then a male as a tutor or nanny that would help them to a certain point when they were ready to go and

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Rule or to lead themselves.

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And so he says, now that faith has come, we are no longer under a garden guardian that we had already served under this. And with this pedagogy, this nanny, or this tutor that had brought us along. So now in Christ, you are all sons.

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These are children of God through faith.

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You're going to notice here in this passage, that once more, the apostle tells us that we're under this new covenant that we get to become

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Sons of God.

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He says sons here specifically. And sometimes we just open up the passage and we might read this. And we like to say like, well, that's a bit sexist. Like we're always just talking about sons and men. And so what happens to women? Now, you have to understand that within this context , that this is actually the opposite, that this is radically equitarian that he's saying that within the culture, only males at this time, he knew got educated that only males would receive an inheritance that only males could end up making their own choices about what to do life and not just get passed on from father or VIN to the husband over the woman about all the decisions that were going to be made for them, that only sons received this type of responsibility, not daughters. So when Paul writes to this mixed group of men and women, he says under this new covenant, you all become sons that you all get the same rights

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As sons.

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He's actually saying something radically freeing in this moment that men and women, you're all going to have equal rights, equal privileges, equal opportunity

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Within the kingdom of Christ.

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Faith has come. We're no longer under this pedagogy. We're no longer with this tutor or this nanny. It's not what we're under anymore. That that's totally done. So that in Christ Jesus, you are all children of God. You are all sons of God through faith. For all of you who are baptized into Christ, have clothed yourself

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With Christ. I

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Think this is a beautiful, beautiful

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Image of baptism that we were plunged into

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To the water. It's symbolizes this spirit ,

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Plunging into Christ Jesus,

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Beautiful gifts that God has given us that we don't have to do this in order for our salvation to get saved. But it's a beautiful privilege.

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Sure . This red is to remind ourselves and others that we are delighting in our salvation,

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That when we are plunged in this representation of burial and resurrection into this new thing, into this new covenant, into this new thing, that Jesus gives us that we are delighting when we say yes to doing that and showing everyone around us through the act of baptism that we're delighting in our salvation. And if you've not been baptized, I'm going to encourage you not to miss this beautiful gift that God has given us. It's this perfect, beautiful gift that symbolizes

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This beautiful experience that we're being

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Spiritually plunged into Christ. And those of us who have been baptized into Christ have clothed

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Ourself with Jesus Christ. So maybe

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You're here today. And as you're kind of thinking through that of like, yeah, that's something that I haven't actually walked into it experienced or said like, yes, God

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Delight. I want to delight in what you've done for me and the grace that you've given me, we're going to do baptisms. I said, and just a couple of weeks on May 23rd and would love to do that in here with you. If you want to sign up for baptisms, you can text baptism one to nine four zero zero, zero. So you can do that online or throughout the service. I'll tell you about that a little bit more later,

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But he's switching this metaphor again. And he's saying, you're wearing Jesus all over. You're wearing Jesus all over. You've clothed yourself with Jesus. And it's the thing about clothing, right? Is that it covers you and it covers you clothes . It's the most intimate thing really that you wear all throughout your day. And we bring Jesus close to us. He's saying, Hey, look, it you're covered in him. This is this new thing. Verse 28. He says, there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free neither male or female. You are all one

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In Jesus Christ.

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Within that culture. In that context, there was a lot

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Stratification in society. At the time, there was a lot of division on every point that you could divide, certainly through gender. Like we just discussed what we've already been talking about. And you've seen this around the world, certainly through race, whether Jew or Gentile,

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Different races, couldn't just mix and match

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Certainly through status or socio economic status or

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Three different roles and how they kind of played out. And don't get this confused friends just as in this place here, even virtually online right now, as they

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Came together as the church, as they walked through the doors of that house, which is most likely, which they were meeting in ,

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They were this church together. And all of those other things melted away. All of the other things about society melted away. It just disappeared. Someone might've been a slave out in the world that would walk in the door and then be fellowshipping with the church, maybe participating as a deacon where he was an elder where he's a minister. At the very least, he was a fellow brother or sister where people could come in and then the spirit was given to women, not just men, they could come in and they just had this beautiful equitarian community that showing people

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A different way of living

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New thing, just for the sake of time,

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Let's jump to the beginning of chapter four.

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So he's continuing, he said , what I'm saying is that as long as an heir is under

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Age , there is no difference

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From a slave. Although he owns the whole estate, the air is subject to guardians and trustees until the time is set by his father. So also when we're under-aged , we are in the slavery under the mental ,

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Spiritual forces of the world,

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He then continues on and glacier .

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It's four , four through five. I don't have it up here for you guys, but I'll read it to you. It says,

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But when the set time had fully come. So you started out as just, you were in air , you ,

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You still were a toddler, a young

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Child. When the time had come for this new thing, when the time had fully come, it says, God sent his son born of

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A woman, born under the law to redeem those under the law that they might receive adoption to sonship.

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I think this is the full picture

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Of what salvation looks like.

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Salvation is both redemption and

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Adoption into community. It's both freedom to be

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Free from something and family salvation is from something, but also to something we enter into this beautiful brotherly sisterly relationship after we're freed up. And he says that when we were under the law, we just weren't experiencing the full rights and privilege of someone who is actually an image bearer of God, that this was necessary though, because we were toddlers, right? But when the time came, God changed that. And we're now grownups . We're children of God. And we're we're , we we're heirs . And he has made us to be that. But this new covenant brings us to this new time. In other words, when it was just the right time in history, God transitioned us from the old covenant to the new and the braces

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Came off and we get to run. Now you would ask

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What makes the time, right? I think every answer to every question will ,

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It's another question when you're talking about such an infinite topic as this. So Paul answers a lot of questions here,

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But he also raises new ones. Someone might ask, well, if God always wanted us to be followers of Jesus to be saved through Jesus, then why didn't he just go straight to the Jesus bit? Why did he wait so long throughout the old Testament? Well, one of the answers the apostle gives here is developmental answer. He says that because we weren't ready because we weren't ready. You like kids who actually needed rules and regulations, you needed the braces. You weren't fully developed. You were meant for more than this, always, but you weren't mature.

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You're enough to be able to handle it.

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So God gave us the law because we messed up. We're called to do something greater than this. Even in the garden. One of the very first things that you see with Adam and Eve is that he creates us in his image, in his likeness to rule over, to be the ones who represent the image as choice makers, to make decisions who are in leadership over to de to dominion over things. And we are, this is how we were created in the first place. And we're taking care of the place. We're responsible for the planets. We're representing God, who is as loving others, making loving choices for ourselves and our relationships to one another in our environment. But we mess that up. We went backwards instead of forwards. So on came the braces on came, the braces came the law, but God waited until we were ready. And some might say, don't you think God was like a little tardy getting around to the new covenant. I mean, look at all of this stuff and the old covenant and the old Testament that took place. I think as a fine question, actually, but I'll tell you the question I ask . I look over the last years of church history. And I think that God might have been actually a little too early. I don't know how ready we were for the covenant of grace. We started abusing it like right off of the bat. And it's not about the law. It's about, what's been done for you now. Grace has happened and we live this life of gratitude and everyone was like, great. I get to do anything I want to do. I get to send it any way. I can really just approve that. There's grace. And then Paul, you see right off the bat has to write this book of first Corinthians, for instance, right off the gate to say, Whoa , Whoa , Whoa. It's like the it's like the teenager who gets their license and you know, its own back roads. Let's go.

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But what's beautiful

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Is that he never retracts the gospel and says, all right, I guess we better go back to the law. We must

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The new, and sometimes we've got to kind of stagger through that, but the new has an important purpose.

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He reminds them who they are. He reminds us who we are. He says, that's who you were

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In first Corinthians.

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So you're living like who you were not who you were made to be. And he helps them self actualize to

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Actually become the people

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That they were meant to be. There's a new covenant ethics, this new thing, new covenant ex-US ethics is that we're not our own. That God does so much for us, that he gives us

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A new heart. A new

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Covenant ethic is that God gives us a new heart. He gives us a new spirit. He gives us a new spirit. He breezed this thing into us, the spirit into us. And it gives us the example of Jesus. And it gives us

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The support of the saints and friends. That's the church, that's the church.

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And he says, make loving choices. Self-actualized to be the person that made you be in the image of God, the person who has loved start making those choices. He says, I won't make you do it on your own. I'm changing your heart to be who you're actually supposed to be, who I created you to be. I'll give you a new heart. Those who are are different. I'm giving you a new spirit internally. And then the church. You , you have Jesus as your example, a mentor, a teacher, the support of the state saints, but now friends make the loving

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Choice. Under

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The new covenant, you are

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Changed. You are transformed. That was always prophesied in the old Testament. It was always the prophecy in Jeremiah, which we're going to go through in a couple of weeks,

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We read this, the days are coming declares. The Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel, with the people of Judea, they will not be like the covenant

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I made with their ancestors. It's not

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Just going to be a new covenant and a new 10 commandments. It's a new set of rules. ZQ 36 puts it this way. God is speaking through his prophet right here. I will give you a new heart. I will put in you a new spirit. I remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit in you to move you. He says, I'm going to put my spirit in

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You to help you.

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I'm going to recreate you. And my spirit is going to move you. But at

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Force, you, it's not going to force

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You. You have everything working from within you,

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Creator of the universe to help you and I,

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That we had to become the person, friends that we were made

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To be . And it's going to revolve loving, revolve around loving like Jesus, because Jesus shows us what the perfect human is supposed to be made in the image of God made in the image of love. Jesus, put it this way. He said, let anyone who is thirsty. We talked about this last week.

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Let anyone who is thirsty, come to me and drink for whoever believes in me as the scripture said, rivers of living

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Or we'll flow from them. This is from John seven 38. This is what we talked about last week.

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It says , after you come to me and drink, you'll have rivers of living water flowing from within you. Both of these

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Images are true. It's beautiful. First of all,

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See this double maneuver here. This double movement of all, you

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Get to move towards Jesus. If we're thirsty, he says, when you get to come to him and we drink that Jesus is the source of living water. But when he gives us this spirit, that's now within us, then we get to go away and we get to have that encounter of spiritual living water. That's bubbling up from within us. That we're changed. And there's something that's inside of me. That's guiding me in moving me in a direction of love towards other people, to be an agent of love. That I'm a different person that when I walk in Jesus, that I actually feel more myself, self actualized. I sense that there's two ways that we could fail to live in the fullness of this as people one, would it be that we go to Jesus, but we don't actually acknowledge the change that he makes in us. And we treat them like our new version of the old covenant. We say, just tell me what to do. Just tell me what to do. Give me the checklist. So I can like check the things off or tell me I need to come to church so many times or tell me to go and do this serve project or this mission thing or give to this. Just tell me what to do. And we build a religion out of this called the Christian religion, which had all refined in the Bible where we just come to our religious leaders. And we say, tell me what to do. Why is confusing? Just tell me what to do. I need rules and regulations. I need rituals and routines. Tell me what to do. And we keep it external. We don't acknowledge how we have actually been changed, transformed inside. And every time you come to a religious leader and say, Hey, tell me what to do. He's usually happy. She's usually happy to comply. And we love setting up systems right of salvation. So there's many people who have come to Jesus, but are not living out who they truly are. I want you to hear that again. There's many people who have come to Jesus to take a drink of the living water, but they're not living out who they actually are. Where do you land? I think in other way , we can fail this as to experience the fullness of this. And then actually we just missed the step altogether. We just skip it. We've join this like new age thing that says, just turn inward, get rid of this unorganized thing of community, just turn inward. And the truth is in there and you'll find it, you know, meditation, introspection , it's all in there. You have it. And we miss the beauty of truth and the good news of Jesus. And so we think first it starts with Jesus. He remakes us. Then we come a new people, a new way of living. And Jesus said, I'm going to be about love when you're a changed. We see that Jesus said a new commandment. I give you, I want you to love like Jesus, a new commandment, not just love God and love other people, but love as I have loved other people, this new thing, this is a huge love upgrade. He's guiding us into this new self-actualization becoming ourselves. And when we talk about love, we're talking about this friends, the choice to value someone in two things, an attitude, and an action. We can be pretty good about this one. We can be pretty poor about this one. We choose to value another human, another person in attitude. The way that we think, the way that we speak our intentions, our conscience, and an action to actually do something about this. Love is a choice to value someone in attitude in action. It's a choice, not just a feeling. It's a value. It's, it's someone, not just some thing. It's relational, it's personal. It's a personal concept.

Speaker 5 39:40

I knew that , uh , um ,

Speaker 3 39:42

I know that love mint action, but sometimes I actually fell the , remember that that also means an attitude of esteem for another person of value. Paul says it like this in first Corinthians 13, he says, I can do a lot of very loving things. I could even self sacrifice for the good of someone. And if I have not love, I am nothing. There's a kind of action. It's just another religious legalism I have to do good deeds. Right? That's an action. We do. We're just like, Oh, I'll do good, works good deeds. But love actually slows us down enough to say this person is valuable and I'm going to treat them according to that reality, that this person is valuable. And that actually includes myself, that I'm going to say, this person is valuable

Speaker 5 40:44

And I'm going to love

Speaker 3 40:46

Others as myself. And it starts a lot of times with loving me. Self-actualizing who I am created to

Speaker 5 40:54

Be. Let

Speaker 3 40:56

Me, let me share with you a final thought for the sake of time to wrap up and we can come back real quick to John seven. I think it's what Jesus says here. I think there's , there's more that we can dig into. And there's just this one passage. He says that anyone who is thirsty, come to me and drink. So I say, hold on a second. Anyone who is thirsty, I think right here, this reminds us that there may be people out there who are not thirsty.

Speaker 5 41:24

Now

Speaker 3 41:24

We all know everyone needs like the spiritual living water of Jesus. But some people made us not be aware of their first. So they're not thirsty. They don't perceive themselves as thirsty.

Speaker 6 41:38

This is the same as Jesus saying this for him. He says

Speaker 3 41:42

Those who have ears hear when he teaches us. He says, I'm not talking to everyone right now. I'm talking to those who are actually listening right now. So he says, this is for those who are thirsty. So I'll ask you as I wrap this up, is anyone thirsty? Ask yourself, are you thirsty? Are you ready to hear what Jesus is

Speaker 6 42:05

Calling us into this new thing that we needed to embrace?

Speaker 3 42:07

Can I suggest a few things that will keep us growing to actually self-actualizing as a new covenant calls us to do? I think these three things first is this know who you are. You are reborn. You are a reborn image of God with a new heart. You friends have been made new number to know whose you are. You are God's dear child eternally loved you are a , an air , a co-chair with Christ and number three to self-actualize in this practice, letting love lead practice, daily

Speaker 6 42:58

Practice, daily, the little things to prepare you for these big things that we experienced when you practice loving people, well friends, you're releasing the lover that's inside of you. That you've been made to be when you practice in the little thing, it actually trains you. This is what we spoke to us for a moan about last week, we were really good about trying things, but we lack the endurance or the energy, the will, whatever you want attach to it, to train things and how we become. Self-actualized what we were made to be who God created us to be as actually to train into that, to practice or an over and over again. How can I let love lead in the situation? Some of you have become followers of Jesus and you're filled with the spirit, but you just ignore it. You just ignore it. And so we don't grow. We don't listen to that thing inside of us. That's supposed to be bubbling out of rivers, of living water. And some of you say, well, I'm a follower of Jesus. I've experienced this life changing transformation that you're talking about, but then all of a sudden, you just feel chopped up. Like life comes at you hard and you feel knocked down or you feel uprooted. You know, you think about it this way. If you were going to get married to someone and ignore them for the rest of your life, your marriage, wouldn't also be radically transformed. Wouldn't be radically transformed. And it wouldn't radically transform your life. When you just go about your business, ignoring the spirit, you don't experience the transformation. This thing that changes you from the inside out. And instead, oftentimes we're not self-actualized because we're allowing the flesh to lead us instead of your spirit. I'd like to suggest one final piece of homework for you this week. This is it . I want you to train your spirit to love because when you do, you become more yourself this week, can you train your spirit to love you and say, well, how do I do that? Like, how do I train my spirit to love something else? Well, like a simple way, as you guys, most of you have a phone or some sort of alarm system. You can take your phone even today, this afternoon, and set an alarm, set an alarm for like every hour during your waking hours. This is crazy. This is a little extreme for some of you have to set an alarm every hour. And when that alarm goes off in your pocket, it's just going to readjust yourself a little bit, to be like, Oh, in the middle of whatever you're doing, is there someone that I could love right now? Is there an opportunity to love someone? You might be having a conversation with someone right that moment and all of a sudden it buzzes in your pocket. And then all of a sudden it shifts the way you're thinking, how did this , this person need to be loved? How can Jesus loved this person through me right now? How can I become more present? Maybe there's a word that I need to give them. Maybe there's this comfort that the spirit is actually trying to use me to care for someone else. Or maybe it's Oh, man, I actually need to send an email or this person popped up in my mind instead of just thinking like, Oh yeah, I was thinking about them this for a second. Or you might even connect it to, I was praying about them just for a second to actually then popping them a text or an email and say , man, you were just on my mind. Just want to say, I love you. I'm here for you and what's going on. And you know, sometimes the cool things that happens, Oh my gosh, you have no idea how much I just needed that right then and there. And that's training yourself to allow the spirit to work in and through you that this new shoots can come from the stump, this brokenness , this thing that feels cut down and uprooted, but we can actually self-actualize and train ourselves to live in the spirit and to let the spirit live through us, to be agents of love, to be image bearers of love. So this week, train yourself to love. That's like a little easy way that you could do it. That's a practical and tactical way in which you can do that. But if you allow God to do new things in you, he will. So I think in this moment, this is a good opportunity to respond to God about who he is about what he's doing and how much we care about that. So I wanna invite you all to stand or wherever you're at with us online. If you want to just take a moment, quiet yourself right now and respond in worship to this.