Hey all, Pastor John here. Thanks for tuning
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Now let's dive into this week's message. Well,
we're in week two of our Made for More series,
and we're walking through what it means to be
a Christ -honoring disciple. And there are four
steps in this journey of discipleship. The first
one, last week we covered, rooted in Christ.
And today we're going to be talking about being
renewed in grace. And next week we'll be shaped
for a purpose. And the final week we'll be sent
to serve. And so we kicked it off last week talking
about rooted in Christ. And we said that the
Christian life starts with Christ. Not with trying
harder. Not with earning, not with behavior modification,
not Christ plus anything else. But it begins
with receiving Jesus Christ as Lord. Amen? Amen.
Woo! Sorry. We celebrate the small things around
here. Paul says in Colossians chapter 2, just
as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue
to walk in him. And we talked about roots and
how Roots aren't flashing, man. They're not getting
any Instagram likes or they're not walking down
any runway show, right? You don't see roots anywhere,
right? They don't get a lot of applause. They're
under the ground. They're out of sight. But roots
determine the fruit. Amen? Because when your
life sinks deep into Jesus, when your life and
the roots of your life sink deep into Jesus,
he holds you steady when the storm hits. He nourishes
you when life runs dry. And he produces in you
what no self -help plan could ever do. And those
roots, those roots in Christ, they grow through
his word. They grow in prayer. They grow through
community, being with one another. And they grow
as we walk in obedience to Christ. Every time
that you've opened your Bible and you read or
every time you pray or every time you stay faithful
when it's easier to walk away, you're feeding
those roots and they're taking shape and grounding
you in Christ. And so this week we move from
rooted in Christ to renewed in grace. And our
anchor scripture today is out of 2 Corinthians
5, verse 17. 2 Corinthians 5, 17. You can turn
there if you would like. There are also some
Bibles under some of the chairs around you. If
you want to grab one of those, you can grab that,
use it, and take it home with you. It's our gift
to you. Just want to get the word of God out
and in your hands. But it reads in 2 Corinthians
5. And this is one of my favorite. If it's okay
to have a favorite scripture, this is one of
my favorite scriptures. Now, all the other scriptures
are my favorite too, but this one is my favorite
favorite. My favorite favorite favorite, right?
Here we go. It's short. You guys ready for it?
Are you ready for it? Amen. I'm ready. Here we
go. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is
a new creation. Old has passed away and see the
new has come. Come on, someone, someone say amen.
That's good news, amen. That's good news. And
that means your past doesn't define you anymore.
That means your sin doesn't get the final word
in your life. That means your shame doesn't get
center stage because Jesus didn't come to just
give you a spiritual tune -up, did he? No, he
came to make you brand new. Jesus changes everything.
That's going to be kind of a refrain we say today.
Jesus changes everything. Can you tell your neighbor,
Jesus changes everything. I don't think your
other neighbor needs to hear it too. Jesus changes
everything. Jesus changes everything, not some
things, not church things, not Sunday things.
He changes everything. Amen. He changes who you
are. He changes what you desire. He changes how
you walk through pain and how you look at other
people. He changes how you handle failure and
how you find freedom. Because discipleship isn't
just learning to do more for God. It's learning
to let God do more in you. And it's the Spirit
of God untangling your sin, healing your wounds,
silencing your shame, and setting you free to
actually live the kind of life that Jesus died
to give you. That's what it means to be renewed
in grace. To live as someone who's been forgiven,
healed, restored, and set free in the context
of a gospel -centered community that helps you
stay free. You know that about your brothers
and sisters around you? You need one another
because you help one another stay free. You remind
one another that's not who you are anymore. That's
not who you are in Christ. You've been set free
from that. We need one another. to stay free.
And so we're going to look at renewing grace
with three movements or three ways that grace
changes everything. The three ways are grace
frees us from condemnation, grace heals our wounds,
and finally grace empowers us to walk in freedom.
When grace takes over and sin loses its grip
and shame loses its sting and the spirit of God
begins to breathe in your life and places in
your life that you once thought were dead begin
to come alive again. Dead things come alive,
amen? And by the end of today, my prayer is that
you'll be able to say with full conviction, I'm
not who I was. I'm not what I did. And I'm not
what was done to me. I am a new creation in Christ.
Why? Because Jesus changes everything. Amen.
Number one, grace frees us from condemnation.
Listen to what Paul says in Romans about this
new life that we have in Jesus. He says, therefore,
there is now no condemnation. for those who are
in Christ Jesus. Therefore, there is now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus. And notice
what Paul didn't say. He didn't say less condemnation.
And he didn't say condemnation stored up and
delayed until heaven. He said no condemnation,
zero, none, not guilty, case closed. And that
word condemnation in a courtroom, it's like a
courtroom term, and it's the gavel coming down,
right? Coming down. Guilty. It means guilty and
sentenced. And the truth is, apart from Jesus
Christ, we were guilty. Every one of us, Romans
3 .23, says all have sinned and fall short of
the glory of God. Romans also says that the wages
of sin is death. If you're outside of Christ,
if you're not living in him, if he's not Lord
and master, then that gavel is still raised over
your life. But the wildly crazy good gospel news
is this, that if you are in Christ, the gavel
has already fallen. It fell on Jesus himself
at the cross. The gavel has fallen. He took the
sentence. He bore the penalty for your and my
sin. And grace, well, grace means that God gives
us what we could never earn and withholds from
us the judgment that we deserve all because of
Christ. And so the judge doesn't look at you
anymore and say guilty if you're in Christ. He
looks at you through Christ and what he has done.
And he says to you and me, righteous. free, no
condemnation, case closed. Amen? That's good
news, eh? When you came to Christ, your old record
was wiped clean. Your old identity was buried
in the ground. Your old shame was nailed to that
rugged cross and you are not who you used to
be. You are new because Jesus changes everything.
A lot of Christians though, maybe even some in
this room, are walking around like spiritual
zombies. Walking around like spiritual zombies,
alive in Christ, and yet still acting like they're
dead in sin. Jesus opened the door to the prison,
but some people still sit in the cell, clinging
to, hugging. You know, getting on their calendar
and appointment to date the very chains that
held them bound, right? The very chains that
Jesus already broke. And the call to you, if
you're there, is to stop living like you're still
on death row when the blood of Jesus has already
set you free, amen? Well, some of us here, the
accuser. Satan, the devil, the accuser of the
brethren, whisper in our ear, remember, remember
what you did. You'll never change. God can't
really forgive that thing. And instead of walking
out free, we stay chained to guilt and shame.
Pastor Tim Keller once said, the gospel is not
advice to be followed. It is news to be believed.
And the news is that we are free. You got to
believe it though. That's the heartbeat of grace.
Whatever sin says about you, whatever shame shouts
to you, whatever the enemy accuses you of, grace
says it louder. No condemnation. So I'll ask
you, what guilt? are you still carrying that
Christ has already nailed to the cross? What
label are you wearing that no longer belongs
to you? What shame are you listening to that
Jesus has already silenced? Because friends,
if you are in Christ, you are not condemned.
You are free. And this isn't just some sort of
positive thinking, you know, manifest it in your
life kind of thing. This is not try harder so
that you can feel forgiven. This is something
wholly, completely different. This is God's legal
declaration, his verdict over your life, not
just a pep talk, but a final verdict, not guilty,
done. And grace, undeserved favor, undeserved
merit frees us from condemnation. It doesn't
just stop from freeing us from the guilt and
pardon us for sin. Grace also then begins to
move into the broken places in our lives to bring
healing. And that points us to number two, grace
heals our wounds. Sin doesn't just make us guilty.
Sin also makes us sick. Shame doesn't just accuse,
but it also infects our whole person. And wounds
that we've incurred and scar tissue that we have
don't just hurt for a season, do they? Some of
them shape how we see God, how we see others,
and how we see ourselves. It's important to hear
the words of the psalmist out of Psalm. chapter
34. He said, the Lord is near to the brokenhearted.
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and he
saves those who are crushed in spirit. I tell
you, our world is full of people who are crushed
in spirit. Sometimes our church might be full
of people who are crushed in spirit. Some of
us smile on the outside, but we are bleeding
on the inside. We know all the right Christian
phrases to say, right? Morning, brother. Morning,
sister. How you doing? I'm doing blessed. Doing
blessed. Blessed. I don't know if you do blessed,
but be blessed. Are blessed. I'm blessed, right?
We know the right thing to say, but we're still
carrying around that pain. The pain of abuse,
the pain of betrayal, the pain of loss or regret.
And the enemy would love to keep us there, wouldn't
he? To convince you that you're too damaged or
too dirty or too far gone from God to be healed.
But hear me, the same grace that forgives your
sin also can mend your soul. And Jesus didn't
just come to set you free from the penalty of
sin. He came to heal the very effects of sin
in your life. Jesus stood in the synagogue and
read from the scroll of Isaiah and he said, the
spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has sent me
to heal the brokenhearted and to proclaim freedom
for the captive. He heals what sin has broken.
The enemy's strategy is very simple. Keep you
isolated, keep you ashamed, keep you silent.
And you know, Satan works day and night to keep
the children of God from believing the promises
of God and knowing who they are in Christ. You
know what Satan hates? You know what the deceiver
hates? He hates confession. And confession is,
like we've tried here at Village over the pattern
of our time together, we have tried to normalize
confession in our lives. Oftentimes during our
prayer time that Nick leads weekly, he'll invite
us to confess. He did this morning to maybe confess
an area. Confession is an agreement with God.
Confession is a way for us to align with God
to say this thing in my life or the way that
I'm feeling or the way that I'm acting or even
our hurts and our pains to bring them before
God and lay them before him and say, I agree
with you about this. It's not a negative thing.
It's not something to be run away from. It's
not something to hide from. It's a beautiful
thing because through confession, we are dragging
our sin or dragging our hurt and our pain into
the light and Satan loses his leverage the moment
your stuff gets in the light. And some of you
have been bleeding in secret, man, smiling on
Sundays. But dying on the inside, Monday through
Saturday. And grace says, bring it into the light.
Bring it into the light and let me heal you.
James actually talks about this in chapter five.
James 5, 16 says, therefore confess your sins
to one another and pray for one another so that
you may be healed. Confess your sins to one another
and pray for one another so that you may be healed.
And notice it says healed. It doesn't say forgiven.
It doesn't just say forgiven. Confession and
prayer bring things into the light so this grace
can do its work on it. And some of us have tried
to heal in isolation. We hide our wounds. We
manage our pain. We smile through it, hoping
it'll fade away. But grace, man, grace flows
best in the light, doesn't it? And the church
is meant to be a hospital for sinners. It's meant
to be a place where we confess to one another
and pray for one another and a healing takes
place week after week after week, day after day.
Augustine once said that the confession of evil
works, the confession of our sins, is the beginning
of good works. It sets us on the path to be renewed
in grace and useful in God's hands for good works.
When we're honest before God and others, when
we bring our wounds to the surface, God begins
to apply his healing touch. But there's more.
Because God also never wastes a wound. Amen?
You know what I'm talking about? God never wastes
a wound. Elizabeth Elliot, who I believe was
the wife of Jim Elliot, who died at the hands
of a tribe he was trying to minister to in South
America. Elizabeth Elliot, who had gone through
many hurts and pains in her life and endured
a great suffering, she said, God never wastes
a hurt. He heals us so that we might bring his
healing to others. He heals our wounds so that
we might bring His healing to others. And that's
what's so profound about your story. If you just
think for a moment about your story, your story
matters. Your story matters because God has been
at work in your story. And the place where you
were once crushed, the place where you were once
brokenhearted may become the very place that
God uses to comfort someone else. The place where
you were wounded may become the place you minister
from. And so where are you hurting? What's the
wound that you don't talk about anymore because
it still stings? What lie do you still believe
when the lights go out at night? Grace can reach
there. Grace can meet you in the dark. And here's
the beauty, grace doesn't flinch when it sees
your ugly scars. Healing begins when you take
that courageous step, when you open up to someone,
when you confess sin, when you bring it into
the light. And the gospel is not just the power
to forgive sins, it's the power to heal sinners
and those who are affected by sin. And that's
what it means to be renewed in grace. Grace frees
us from condemnation and grace heals our wounds.
But it doesn't stop there because grace also
empowers us to walk in freedom, to live a new
kind of life by the power of the Spirit. And
so number three, if you're taking notes, grace
empowers us to walk in freedom. If the first
movement of grace frees us from condemnation,
and the second, heals our wounds. The third shows
us grace empowering us to live free. Because
grace is not just pardon, it is also power. Paul
says in 2 Corinthians 3, now the Lord is spirit,
and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is
freedom. The Lord is spirit and where the spirit
of the Lord is, there is freedom. And he also
says again in Galatians chapter five, for freedom,
Christ has set you free. For freedom, Christ
has set us free. Stand firm then and don't submit
again to a yoke of slavery. It is for freedom
that Christ has set us free. And notice what
Paul doesn't say. He doesn't say, for freedom,
Christ sets you free, so now go and do whatever
you want, does he? He says, stand firm. Christ
has set you free. For freedom, Christ has set
you free. Now stand firm in the freedom that
Christ has won for you, has bought for you. Freedom
is not a license to sin. It's power to live differently.
Freedom is not the absence of restraint in our
life. It's the presence of the right master in
our life. The world defines freedom as I get
to do whatever I want. But if we're real, man,
doing whatever we want, that's what got us into
the mess in the first place, isn't it? We were
in Uganda, me and my wife, a couple of weeks
and a half, two weeks ago, something like that.
I'm really bad with time, so it could have been
a year ago. I don't know. We were in Uganda and
we had an opportunity to work with a orphanage
there and potentially explore a future missions
partner for a village so that we can begin to
support and help and send folks over there to
do some work. But one of the things about Uganda
and one of the things that we noted and all of
us on the team talked about is the condition
of their roads. And I think I mentioned this
last week. The condition of their roads. Unfortunately,
their roads, if they're not dirt, they're gravel.
If they're not gravel, they are paved roads,
but they are in disrepair, let's just say. There
are a lot of, we would call them, I don't even
think it's right to call them a pothole. Like
if your whole bus could fall into it, is that
a pothole? Or is that like a cliff or something,
right? In the middle of the road, all over the
place, as you're driving down, there are all
kinds of potholes. One of the other things that
we noted is that there are really no rules. Like
no rules, it's all just do whatever you want,
right? And so cars are veering in and out of
traffic. Motorcycles are going up on the hillside
and then coming down in front of you. And if
you don't like the lane you're in, well, you
can just get into head -on traffic. And they'll
move eventually, hopefully, maybe possibly as
the lights are coming towards you, right? And
so we're in the van, we're in the bus, and we're
just like, hey, eyes down or eyes forward on
the person in front of you, but do not look out
the front window because it's terrifying, right?
But it's something that I was thinking about
because one of the things I also noted is while
there are no rules for driving there, or maybe
there are rules, but there's just no enforcement.
There's no rules for driving there and you can
pretty much do whatever you want. But something
I noted is as a result of that, everyone's driving
a lot slower. Like the max speed I think we ever
made on that bus was maybe 45 miles an hour.
And some of that is because people are literally
coming head on toward you and you have to hit
your brake and kind of get out of the way and
move. Other times it's because you're coming
up on one of those massive chasms, those potholes,
and you don't want the bus to fall in and so
you have to slow down to five miles an hour and
inch over it. We were on a whole stretch of gravel
road probably for 50 miles and I think our bus
driver was trying to, get a land speed record
on this gravel. He was going way faster than
you should. We got gravel roads where I live,
but man, we're like 20, 25 miles. And I think
he was hitting that 45 mile mark, right? But
you don't drive very fast. And so it's kind of
an odd thing. There's less restraints. There's
more freedom. But look at what it does. You don't
get as far. It's not as efficient. We went from
Jinja all the way to Fort Portal. And if this
was I -5, we would have made it in two hours,
two hours and a half. It took us nine hours to
get there. And not because we were stuck in five
hours of traffic. That's just driving nine hours.
Maybe we stopped for 30 minutes to eat some chicken
on a stick or something. I think it was chicken.
I don't know if it was chicken. Let's not talk
about that. Yeah. I didn't know my chickens had
little paws. It tasted like chicken, but everything
does. No, but you realize that, yeah, oh, freedom.
We think freedom is unrestrained, no bounds,
but we're parents. We have found that our kids
have thrived when we put boundaries around them.
That's when they thrive. That's when they excel.
That's when they can run and go. A parent who
never says no to a child or a parent who never
puts boundaries around them, well, you're going
to end up with a child who doesn't go very far
in life. Seen it happen before. But with restraints,
you know, we see it all the time here. Maybe
it's too fast here, but you put a couple of guardrails
up, you put some lines on the road and you put
some CHP out and we can go 70 miles on the freeway.
65, 70. 85, 90. True freedom. Man, true freedom
isn't the ability to say yes to every desire
that you have. It's the ability to say no to
the very things that will destroy you. That's
true freedom. And that's what grace does. Grace
doesn't just break your chains. It gives you
new desires, new wants. The spirit begins to
produce in you a new power to walk away from
the things that once owned you. And that's why
Paul says that the law of the spirit of life
in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law
of sin and death. The law of the spirit of life
in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law
and sin of death. It's not the law of guilt anymore.
We live in the law of life. And when you walk
in the spirit, you are walking in freedom. Some
of you will remember the story in the Old Testament
about the Israelites coming out of Egypt. God
set them free from Pharaoh in a single night.
But it took 40 years to get Egypt out of them.
They were free, but they didn't yet know how
to live free. And that's us. Jesus has broken
the power of sin, but we're still learning to
walk in the freedom that he's purchased for us.
And that's why Paul says, stand firm because
freedom must be guarded. Freedom must be practiced.
Freedom must be lived out. And grace gives us
the power to walk in freedom, not just once,
but daily every day of our walk with Christ.
Pastor John Piper put it this way. Grace is not
simply lenience when we have sinned. Grace is
the enabling gift of God not to sin. Grace is
power, not just pardon. Grace doesn't just break
your chains, it changes your heart. It doesn't
just clean the record, it changes your story.
And grace gives you a new want to, a new power
to walk away from what once held you bound. Dallas
Willard said that grace is not opposed to effort,
it is opposed to earning. Effort is action, earning
is attitude. In other words, grace doesn't make
you passive, it makes you truly alive. You don't
work for God's acceptance anymore. That was never
the case. Remember, grace is a free gift. By
grace you have been saved through faith. And
this, not of yourselves, it is a gift of God.
Not by works, so no one can boast. You don't
work for God's acceptance. You work from his
acceptance, already received, already yours.
You're not striving to get free. You're walking
in the freedom that's already been won for you.
Amen? For freedom Christ has set you free. Stand
firm then. And do not submit again to a yoke
of slavery. And so I'll ask you, what's still
enslaving you, friends? Is it the approval of
others? Is it that secret sin that whispers you'll
never be free? Is it fear or addiction or anxiety
or anger? Because the spirit is giving us power
to say, man, that used to be me, but that's not
me anymore. Man, I want to fly. I want to run.
I want to go. I'm done with these chains. And
when you're tempted, remember, you're not fighting
for victory. You're fighting from victory. The
victory is already won. The verdict has already
come down. Christ is king and he rules and he
has won. And now you need to walk in that freedom,
walk in that victory, walk in the freedom that
the spirit brings because the same spirit that
raised Jesus Christ from the dead is alive and
at work in you. Amen? Man, freedom isn't just
a goal. Freedom is a blood -bought inheritance
for the children of God. So grace frees us from
condemnation. Grace heals our wounds. And grace
empowers us to walk in freedom. And this is what
it means to be renewed in grace. To live as new
creations. To no longer be enslaved to the past.
But to live and be alive in the spirit of Christ.
And so let's kind of land this plane. Talk about
what it looks like in conclusion. To be renewed
in grace is to experience the ongoing, transforming,
healing work of God's spirit in every part of
your life. Because discipleship isn't behavior
modification. It's heart. It's not about trying
to act better on the outside. It's about being
made new from the inside out. And the Spirit
of God is still doing that work today. He's still
freeing people from shame. He's still healing
hearts that have been crushed. He's still empowering
men and women like you and me to live free from
what once enslaved us. Little teaser, next week
we're gonna hear one of those stories. We're
gonna have one of our tell the story videos next
week. And so you'll get to hear a testimony of
someone here at Village that God has worked in
and been renewed in grace year after year, day
after day. So come next week, we'll show that
at the beginning of the sermon. But if you are
in Christ, you are not the same person you were
when Jesus found you. And you will not be the
same person tomorrow if you keep walking with
him. Romans 8 .1 says there's no condemnation,
but Romans 8 doesn't stop there. It keeps going.
It says that the mindset on the spirit is life
and peace. It says that you did not receive a
spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but
the spirit of adoption is yours. Life and peace
and adoption and freedom, that's the new reality
of grace. You also may notice also something
with this, that none of these are meant to be
experienced alone. You can't walk in wholeness
in isolation. You can't heal in hiding. You need
gospel community. Tell your neighbor, you need
gospel community. Tell that to your other neighbor,
they need to hear it. We all need people, people
who will remind us who we are when we forget.
People who will pray for us when we are falling
and people who will speak truth when the lies
get too loud in our ears. At Village, the way
we kind of express the second point in our discipleship
framework being renewed in grace, our expression
on a corporate level is through small group ministries.
Because small group ministry is all about that.
It's about finding a place where you can be you,
but understand that God won't leave you there.
It's where you can be reminded of who you are
in Christ Jesus and live life with a group of
folks who can help you when you're struggling
or pick you up when you're falling. Remember
James said, confess your sins to one another
and pray for one another. Confess your sins to
one another. And pray for so that you may be
healed. Healing happens in the context of radical
truthfulness, gospel community, and the faith
that we have to pray and to bring our requests
before a loving father and to trust him with
his answer. That's where healing happens. Jesus
changes everything. And he does it through his
word and he does it through his spirit and he
does it by his people. I once heard someone say
that grace is like water. It flows downhill and
pools in the lowest places. And that means if
you're low down today, if you feel stuck, if
you're broken or ashamed, you're in the perfect
place for grace to find you. Maybe today you
need to receive grace for the first time to step
out of condemnation and into Christ. Maybe you've
believed in Jesus in the past, but you've been
living like a prisoner in a cell that's already
been unlocked. Maybe there's a wound that you've
carried for years that God wants to begin to
heal today. And the good news is that you don't
have to fix yourself first. You come to Jesus
as you are. Because grace doesn't wait for you
to be whole. It makes you whole. Grace found
me when I was lost. Grace lifted me when I was
down. Grace healed what I couldn't fix. Grace
freed what I couldn't break. And grace keeps
changing me every single day. You were made for
more. And his name is Jesus. And Jesus changes
everything. Amen.