All right, good morning. Good morning, good morning. Come on in. Grab some coffee. I'll stop yelling now. Thanks, Will. Come on in, grab some coffee. I think there's some cocoa. There is some tea if you're not a coffee drinker. All right, good morning, good morning. Let's open with a word of prayer and then we'll get started. Father, I thank you once again for the opportunity that it is to be here and to discuss your word, to dig into it, to learn from it together. I pray that your word would be active in our lives and in our hearts, that we would not just be hearers of the word, but that we would be doers. And as we talk about today, how we can apply things in our lives as new believers, because in some sense of the word, in light of eternity, we are all new believers. And so I just pray that this would be an active time for all of us discussing how we can apply this. I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. So we are back into the exchange, the exchange book. Raise your hand if you brought your exchange book. Perfect. I actually see Patrick's there. You've got it. Perfect. Okay, well that's all right. I kind of need to know who my volunteers can be, so sorry Boskies, you might be signed up a number of times as we read through some of this stuff. All right, we are in lesson eight. Lesson eight in the Living the Exchange book. Our current plan, without any disruptions, is to continue in the exchange until we finish this book. So right now, I don't believe that we have any other kind of side Sunday schools scheduled. And so you can feel comfortable if you already have the book to bring it over the coming weeks as we finish out the remaining lessons in this Living the Exchange book. As a reminder, this book, its purpose, the reason it was written, is for the purpose of early discipleship. That if you walk through the main, the exchange Bible study, that that's really evangelistic. And hopefully, prayerfully, we hope that that would lead someone to a saving faith. And from that moment forward then, what they need is discipleship. And so we need to bring them into the Christian living through God's word in a way that helps them understand what it means. Because often being thrown from salvation into the normal church population and the sermons that you might get on a Sunday or the Sunday schools you might get, you're probably going to miss some things as a new believer if you really have no understanding. For those who were saved maybe later in life and were not a part of a church-going family, you've probably experienced that, where you're like, I don't know these things. They're using terms. What does it mean to be washed in the blood of the Lamb? Like, what do these things mean? They're Christian-ese terms and or ideas and concepts we talk about that, for those of us who have been in the church 10 years plus, probably take for granted. And so that's the purpose of this book, and I don't want to lose sight of that purpose. At the same time, though, like I just said, In light of eternity, we're all new believers in some scale or other. And so returning to the basics in a way that shores up our foundation can be really valuable. I found it really valuable for myself as I go through these lessons together with my church body. And so it's a dual purpose that we're looking at today. We're thinking in terms of how would I use this, how would I get familiar with this material and use a resource like this in discipleship because we're all called to be evangelizing as part of our Christian walk. And so, again, in faith, I believe that God will use that effort that we put in and that we will see people saved. And thus, we will see people who need discipleship. And so we want to be familiar with this so that each of us have resources to walk that person through, to familiarize them with the Christian walk. So that's purpose one. Purpose two is we all also ourselves need this material. We need this information from God's word. We need to shore up these things in our minds because when we maybe have lost ourselves, and I've gone through these cycles, lost ourselves in eschatology or Calvinism versus Arminianism, these really high lofty concepts and deep theological wrestlings that people can go to seminary for 20 years and wrestle with, we can be tempted to lose sight of the basics. And the basics are what our Christian faith is built on. So as an introduction, that's what we're doing. So now in lesson eight, the title of the lesson is The Holy Spirit and My Changing Life. Really, we're going to be looking at what it means to be a spirit-filled Christian in a sinful world. And if you can think back to your salvation, if you have memories of when that was and when that transition occurred in your life, this should ring true, this wrestling with what does it mean to be spirit-filled as a believer, but living in a sinful world, surrounded by sin and having my own sinful flesh that I'm warring against, and what does that look like? And so that's really the purpose of this lesson that we're gonna be looking into, what that means to do that. All right, so now for those who have the book, I'm gonna read a little bit on page 183, part of the introduction here. So the exchange is the message of the gospel, the redemptive work of Christ accomplished on the cross and demonstrated through the resurrection. Jesus took your sin record upon himself and gave you his righteousness. That's the exchange, right? That's where the phrase exchange comes from. The transaction is complete and forever settled in heaven. But the work of the exchange continues. When you exchanged places with Jesus, you received him. All that Jesus is, he is in you. So the lessons we've learned in chapters one through three of the book form the foundation for living the exchange. Chapters four through eight laid out the internal dynamics of living the exchange. We learned that when we live in trusting surrender to Jesus as Lord of our life, he gives us strength to do his will. This is the grace of the gospel in action. And now, these remaining chapters of this book will begin to answer the question, what does this life of grace look like in everyday living? So that's where we are focusing. We understand that there are already and will continue to be changes in my life because of this path of sanctification that we're on. that I was saved, but at the same time I am being saved. That God is actively at work in my life in ways that in some ways I don't even understand. When I have new convictions towards sin areas or things in my heart that I wasn't aware of, I didn't come to that knowledge by my own effort. The Holy Spirit brought that to light in a way that caught me off guard. So these changes are happening and we need to understand, again, like a newborn baby who's thrust into the world, we need to understand what those things mean and how we're supposed to react to them. Make sense so far? Thank you for the response, I appreciate it. All right, so we're gonna look at five days with the lessons, because again, this is built like a daily Bible study that you would go through with someone. They would go through their five days, and then you'd get back together a week later and talk through those things. And so day one, which is on page 184, for those who brought the book, is all about embracing this internal change that we're talking about. All right, so hopefully everybody brought their Bibles at least, at least a device that can act as a Bible. Let's turn to Ephesians, and we're gonna stay, I'll probably just keep you in Ephesians if you don't have the book, because we're gonna be looking through a number of verses throughout all five of these daily devotionals. But we're gonna start in Ephesians chapter two. Again, if you have the book, these verses will be laid out and you can just follow along. All right, can I get a volunteer to read Ephesians 2 verses 8 through 10? Ephesians 2, 8 through 10. We do have a microphone, we'll run around. Ephesians 2, 8 through 10. Phil in the back, Braddock. Braddock, Phil, keep your hand up. Braddock's new at this, he'll get it figured out. I have faith. For by grace you have been saved. Through faith, and this is not of your own doing, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. Was it through 10? Yes, through 10. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Perfect, so Phil, keep the microphone, someone ask you a question. Based on this verse, and it's really in verse 10, how does God expect believers to walk? In his power. In his power. Right, in Christ Jesus for good works. That God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Yeah. Right, so that's the expectation placed on on us as believers, on new believers, on believers standing here who have been believers for 70 years. That's the expectation on us. five more verses in Ephesians. So again, if you're in your Bibles, I'll have you flip fairly rapidly. Can I say just one quick thing? Yeah, Phil, please. A thought came to mind while you were saying that. Looking at that verse, I almost think you could look at that as kind of a mirror. Even though it's God that planned these things for us in advance, it's really His work working through us. It's a checkpoint for us to say, whoa, I don't, maybe at times we feel like I'm not always, or very, I'm not walking like I really should be. So there could be a way for us to go back and seek his guidance and try to tap into his power. Yeah, I think that's really good advice to take a verse like this and go, let me do some self-evaluation really quick. Yeah, that's it. That's what I was searching for right there. Self-evaluation. I mean, it's a solid point because, yeah, if you read this and go, I'm doing really good. I feel really good. You probably have a pride problem, right? So we can take you to those verses. If you ever look at God's high calling for the Christian walk and go, yeah, I got this. we know your problem, and that's perfect, right? It was the appropriate mirror because it outlined the pride that you're probably struggling with, because I think verses like this are intended to identify our dependence, not our independence, right? They're there to show, oh, I can't do this alone. I cannot do this alone, right? I am created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand, and I'm just supposed to walk in those things. And hopefully, at the same time, it's not prideful to be thankful when you do see the working of God in your life, and be able to look at a verse like this and say, praise God, I can see the ways that he's set these steps before me, and seen how those works have been worked out in my life, and praise God. So it's not, I don't wanna make it sound too harsh, it's not boasting to see God at work in your life and be thankful for that. Anything else, Phil? On that? OK. Yeah, it was a really good point about that verse. OK, so we're going to look at five other verses in Ephesians. They're going to be in chapters 4 and 5. But what I want to look for specifically is the calling out in these five verses of a walk instruction. There's instruction on how we should walk in each of these verses. that I think starts painting a picture for us. So as we read through these, and I'll just go ahead and read these, I want us to just stick in our mind and start seeing a mosaic of these different walk instructions that we have. So starting in Ephesians chapter four, verse one, Paul says, I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you, now here we find it, to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called. Okay, now let's look at Ephesians 4, verse 17. Give you a second to get there. Verse 17, now this I say in testifying the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. Okay, now flip to chapter five, verse two. Chapter five, verse two, walk in love. as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. At one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. And then the fifth verse we'll look at is verse 15 of chapter five. Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise. So we start to see here this, this picture painted of what it means to walk, right? We read Ephesians two verses eight through 10 where it talks about these good works that have been prepared for us by God, that we should walk in them. And then Paul continues this language of this path that we're supposed to be on and what it means to walk that path. And so in the first verse we looked at, we must walk worthy of that calling. In the next one, we should not walk like the Gentiles walk in the futility of their minds. We should walk in love as Christ loved us, so modeling Christ's love. We are not of the darkness anymore, And so we are called to walk as children of light. And then finally, we need to walk in wisdom. We should not walk in an unwise manner, but walk wisely. These are instructions. These are markers on this path. If you think of Pilgrim on his progress towards the celestial city, these are the road signs that say path is this way. Any thoughts on those verses or this idea of walking and how we are to walk this path that God laid before us? All right. So now on page 185, I'm going to read a little bit that's written here at the top of the page. Another picture, that was one picture of the spirit-filled life, walking this path and what that's supposed to look like. Another picture of the spirit-filled life is that of taking off an old garment and putting on a new one. It illustrates your ability to walk differently from your unsaved counterparts. So those around you that are unsaved, this idea of putting off and putting on is to distinguish us from those around us. It's a marker that says, I once was lost and I now am found. I once was blind, now I see. It's that transition that should be a visible thing to ourselves and to those around us. Okay, I'll read Ephesians 4.22 to kind of demonstrate this. And yeah, you can turn there, you're still in Ephesians. Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires. So we're called to put off that which is corrupt and deceitful, which is our old self, the old life that we lived prior to salvation. I think it's important to note, and this may be jumping around a little bit, but he's giving this instruction to the church. And so I think we often can fall into thinking of this, put off the old self and on the new, as the moment of salvation, and then you're done. The old self is now off, you're good to go, and you have this new self and now you just walk. But he's instructing believers here. He's saying, you know, you could almost add a tense to this. Keep on putting off the old self because that old self will still attempt to jump back on you like a coat. And so you must continually be putting off and putting on the new self. But we have encouragement here in Romans 6, 6, I'll just read this. And that encouragement is this, we know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. So what happened at salvation is the slavery that we were under to sin has been broken. That doesn't mean that we can't choose to return to our master, our old master, sin. But it is that that slavery, that ownership, that control is what Christ broke at salvation. So now we have the ability to put off. We have the will, the desire, and the ability to say, my old self I set aside. My new self that Christ has brought in me is what I choose to live in. Make sense so far? OK. For those who have the book, can I get a volunteer to read the last paragraph on this page? The last paragraph on 185. And that'll wrap up day one as we think about this idea of old self, new self, put off, put on, walking in the path, not stepping off the path. this wrestling that happens in our spirit-filled walk. The last paragraph. I can start volunteering people, that's fine, I don't mind that. But I would love a volunteer. Okay, Braddock, right here. Francine. Right here. Just follow my finger and you're good to go. Red sweater. There you go. Okay, picture two drinking cups. When you choose your own way versus God's, you are in effect moving your straw from the spirit's cup to the flesh's cup. As long as you have your straw in the spirit, you will draw on his power and produce his fruit. The power of the flesh is strong, but it does not control you as your old self is, or unregenerate spirit did. You have been freed from its control, putting off the old self's embracing, excuse me, putting off the old self's embracing this truth and choosing not to follow the residual influence of your old lifestyle. Perfect, thank you. I found that picture really helpful in thinking about what does it mean? What's the practicality? And again, put on your childlike thinking. of a new believer. What's the practicality of wrestling with this? You know, Jake preached on it, it stuck with me. Paul, when he talks about, I do what I don't want to do, and I don't do what I want to do, and, you know, I don't think Paul is talking about his past unregenerate self. He's talking about, as a believer, I just, like, I am struggling in this, and this is a confusing path to walk. And so starting to make sense of that, I really like this picture of where are we drawing from? What's our source of strength that we are choosing to draw from? Am I drawing from the spirit? And in essence, that's the statement. Am I living in the spirit? Am I walking worthy of this calling? Or am I choosing to return to the, I like the phrase at the end of that, the residual influence of my old lifestyle, the residue, of my sin nature, because my old self was crucified, but the residue remains as long as I remain in this broken world. All right, any thoughts on day one? In day two, we're going to look at those sources that we choose to tap into. Any thoughts on day one? Braddock, where'd Braddock go? Over here, back to red sweater. Mrs. Sorensen. He probably shouldn't call you Red Sweater. It's OK. I was just thinking, walking in the spirit and staying in the word of God and getting it in your heart are hand in hand. If you let up on one, if you read all the time but aren't mindful of the spirit's work in that, even in what you're reading, then it won't do a lot of good to go out walking. Yeah. Yes, it's very true. I think that the hearing and the doing have to go hand in hand to be really walking in the Spirit. I've known many people, and to be fair, I have fit this description many times of those who read their Bible daily and do not walk in it. I can have all the knowledge in the world. And it is a clinging symbol. It doesn't mean anything. It's an obnoxious sound to have all the knowledge, but to not have, in that case, love, but to not have walking in the spirit and what that looks like. OK. Day two. This is page 188. So yeah, Ed Braddock. Yeah, you might want to just stay there in the middle of the room. When it's talking about putting off, as parents, many times we had to remove things from our home that were not beneficial to our family. But it wasn't just getting rid of them, we had to replace them with something that was more redeeming, more in line with what God's word was. So it's, the putting off is just the first step, but I'm probably gonna get into that too anyway, so. No, that's super true. I think the analogy I think of is, If it's really cold outside and I'm in a filthy winter coat, let's just say, T-shirt and jeans, and it's filthy, I have three options. I can layer on my nice winter coat on top of those dirty clothes. That's one thing that I think we are often tempted to do, to not put off but to try to put on. And all that's gonna do is it's gonna dirty what was clean, not the other way around. That doesn't do anything except maybe hide from those around me the filth that's underneath, but I am no more clean, and now I'm just ruining my nice winter coat. I can put off, take off those dirty clothes, At that point, I'm going to be pretty cold, right? I'm going to be pretty miserable out in the winter weather. But that's one option. Or I can fully put off the dirty garments, fully put on my new clean garments, and then be walking worthy of that calling in this winter world that we live in. I like the illustration at the end of day one, and I'm looking at the blue box on page 186. The first question, I think, is filled with hope, not that we would ever encourage new believers to catalog all the changes in their life as far as, look how good you are. But the question is, what are some lifestyle changes you have made since becoming a follower of Jesus and just celebrating those changes that God's made in their life? Like for instance, I'm having a Bible study with somebody who's discipling me through this. So even recognizing shortcomings or areas where they need to change. and maybe they're attending church, just capitalizing on that, saying, hey, look what God's already been doing in your life, and we're just gonna continue on this journey together. So that was very encouraging. Yeah, it is very cool. Actually, Nathan, go ahead and keep the microphone. All right, can you read page 188, day two, that first paragraph? First paragraph, 188. Everyone has a functional source. It's what we depended on for provision, stability, and control in our lives. The Spirit-filled life is living with Christ as our functional source. Even many who have known Christ for years are still not experiencing God's energy for daily living. What we are drawing on for our resources will eventually find expression in our thoughts, attitudes, words, and actions. Time plus stress reveals our functional source. you know, this is continuing on this analogy of what cup we are putting our straw into, where we are drawing from. I like the, when I first read it, it felt kind of woo-woo, but I do actually like the idea of the language used of God's energy. Are we experiencing God's energy for daily living? And I think what I came to in liking that is if I'm an appliance sitting on a counter I need energy to function, to function appropriately. I don't have a purpose outside of the plug and that plug having power that can run my operations. And so I like that idea of like, there's not an option to not plug in. You know, in the cups you could be like, I'm just gonna sit back and do my own thing. That's not an option. You either are plugged into your old self and trying to draw from a faulty energy source that comes out, as it says here, in your thoughts, your attitudes, your words, and your actions, or I am plugged into God's energy source, the Holy Spirit in my life, the spirit-filled walk, and thus that also plays out in my thoughts, attitudes, words, and actions. but there's not a third option of I'm just gonna not plug in. I can't function, I need energy to function and that energy is gonna come from my old self or my new self which is Jesus Christ in me. All right, let's read Jeremiah 2.13. Let me, I'll just read this one and then I have a question because God views, it's important to know that God views this decision of what source we tap into very seriously. So this isn't one of those like, it's most wise as a Christian to tap into God, but like, We're all unwise sometimes, it's not a big deal. It's a very big deal to think about where we are choosing to source our energy from. So Jeremiah 2.13 says this, my people, God speaking here, my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters. The source of energy, they have forsaken me and hewn out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. So you see this picture here that God is painting of, I am the living water. And instead of accessing living water, my people have tried to make themselves pots to hold their own water. They're saying, I don't need the living water. I don't need the river right next to me. What I need is to somehow produce my own water, and I'm doing it in broken pots that can never hold water. There's a futility in that, but that's God's accusation of Israel through the prophet Jeremiah is they forsook the living waters, but not only that. See, note that he says there were two evils. They forsook the living waters, And they tried to create for themselves their own water, their own source. That's two distinct decisions made. Not only will I reject God, I will look to my own ability to provide for myself. And that, hopefully, when worded that way, you can see how that's a decision that we have every day. You might look at someone in this situation and go, well, that's silly. You have the living waters. It's right here. You're good. You got the water. Why would you try to do this? But when we spiritualize it and look at it in our own lives, this is a struggle I have every single day. Am I looking to the living waters or am I looking to my own source of energy, my own efforts that, as it's described here, are so broken they can never hold water? But I try, and I try every day, and I keep trying, and I keep going back to that. That's the struggle that we're under in this Christian walk, this spirit-filled walk, looking at where we source our energy. Make sense so far? Cool. All right. Let's see. All right, I'm gonna go ahead and read at the bottom of 188, those two paragraphs there, because we start diving into this old self and new self, these two sources of energy, these two sources of power. Again, I'm not trying to woo-woo-ize it or crunchy-granola-ize it, but really getting into where I source the energy to walk the path that I'm called to walk. Before receiving Christ, your old self, or your unregenerate spirit, had complete sway over your soul. You were alive to sin, but dead to Christ. Your new self, or your regenerated spirit, was born in you at the moment of salvation. Until then, your only source was your old self, and as a result, you couldn't do anything that pleased God. Your new self is your connection to spiritual living, because you have been born again, created in righteousness and true holiness. These characteristics are divine in nature. Only God is righteous and holy. Your new self is perfectly right with God. It is God's seed planted in you, and his seed cannot sin. The new self is not the Holy Spirit, but it is born of the Holy Spirit and is indwelt and empowered by the Holy Spirit. What satisfies God satisfies your new nature. This is the new you, recreated in God's image. The reason you loathe the sin that you still commit is because sin clashes with your new nature. There is a lot of hope in this description, and I think, again, as believers who have been believers more than a few months even, we may lose sight of the significant hope here. I think, maybe it's just me, I'm tempted to think of myself as a single thing, an entity, a blob, a homogenous, a mixing of things. And so when I think about my sin life, that unfortunately is active in my life, and I think of the work that God's doing, I homogenize those. And I think we're probably all tempted to do this. We're tempted to go, well, am I more God and less this? Or like, I'm just trying to outweigh the bad, and I'm just trying to balance these things. And in homogenizing, we both lessen the severity of my sin and lessen the absolute glory and righteousness of what God's done in our lives. And so to keep these two separate, would be an accurate view of how God keeps those things separate, and in this case, gives us great hope. When we talk about my new self, this is my new self today, that I have, and that I have access to, that the Holy Spirit indwells, is perfectly righteous and holy, because God has made it me in standing and in position, perfectly righteous and holy. It is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and it is something that pleases God. What satisfies God satisfies that new self that I have. That new self loathes sin. And as I commit sins, it is at war with my new self. It's not a mixing. It's not a, I'm just kind of a mix of trying to do some good, trying to do some bad. I have two sources that are separate and distinct that I choose to operate from. My sin nature or the perfect nature of God in my life. And that brings me great hope because I have access to the perfect. Not that I will ever be perfect, but I have access to the perfect. Not that I have access to this muddy mess of like, maybe it's, maybe I can drink it. Maybe, you know, there's sites kind of cloudy, but maybe it's fine. No, I have access to the perfect living waters. Even as I struggle with my sin and wrestle and war with that, I have access to the perfect. And that should bring great hope to someone who is wrestling with things. Make sense? Okay, it's like I'm preaching a little bit. Here we go. All right, can I get a volunteer? There was just so much, I feel like other lessons that I've taught from this book, I've taken concepts and it's more theologically heavy and it's like, all right, I'll throw my own notes into it and kind of have side conversations. There's just so much in this that was like, man, I wanna read that and then I wanna read that out loud and then I wanna read that out loud. So I'm going to get some help in the reading. Can I get a volunteer to read? This is on page 189, the first main paragraph starting there. Every new Christian has blah, blah, blah. Get a volunteer. Nathan. Perfect. Close to Braddock. Every new Christian has had the following experience. Perhaps you recall doing something that was part of your old life—swearing, looking at pornography, yelling at your children. The list could go on and on. Maybe you remember feeling horrible and wondering, What is wrong with me? and thinking, What a horrible failure! That was a wonderful moment. Your new nature was making its debut in its lifelong pursuit of transforming your life into the image of Christ. That was not what I expected to read. And it almost makes me tear up at that way of thinking about it. Having the feeling of failure, when we fail, when we fall into sin, those questions, what is wrong with me? And what a horrible failure that that is a gospel moment in my life. That's powerful. And I had never thought about it that way. I mean, it probably, if we went into like a theological discussion, I'd probably get there through scripture, you know, that that is a reality. But I never felt it that way of like, oh, that means I'm warring. I'm not accepting my sin. I'm not happy with my sin. I feel like a failure in my sin. And that is God's work in my life. That's a powerful rewriting of that perspective. that says my failures actually point me to Christ in a way that displays the gospel to me and to those around me. I just think that was just really cool. That was a moment for me as I was reading this going like, ding, oh, I just never thought about it that way. That feeling of failure, again, if I wallow in it, If I wallow in the mire of despair, there's no purpose in that. That's not the gospel. But through the Holy Spirit, who grabs me out of that mire and says, here is the path, let me pull you back up onto the path, that that process is a powerful gospel reminder. And that's what we go through as our new self is at war with our old self. As we fail into the old, the new is there to pull us up, to pull us out, point us on the right path through the power of the Holy Spirit to continue that walk. Any thoughts on that? Am I the only one who hadn't thought about it that way? It's fair if that's true, but is that a different way of thinking about it for anybody else? I hear a couple of yeses, some head nods. For me, it was a unique, cool way of thinking about it. Now that you're talking about it, I do remember, so I became a Christian, asked Christ into my heart when I was like 12 years old. And I remember thinking, well, this is a real bummer. I used to be able to do naughty things and not feel bad about it at all. And now I feel guilty about any lie that I tell, any sneaky thing I do. And I do remember, I mean, what you're saying is very true. As a 12-year-old, if I'd have heard this, I don't know that I would have understood it. But I do distinctly remember when I became a Christian, I thought, well, this really sucks. I think I was happier as a non-Christian because I could sin and not feel bad about it. And now I feel bad when I do things. And I just thought, well, I'm not sure this Christian thing's that great, just from that perspective. Yeah, from a 12-year-old's perspective of trying to process what's going on. Yeah, and I think maybe that's my point, is it's often on the side of discouragement, right? Because this new life makes me aware of my sin, It can be this like, what can feel like this uphill trudge of like, oh, I screwed up again. Okay, I don't know if they keep going. Oh, I screwed up again. Okay, keep going. But to flip that again and see it as, you know, as he describes here, a wonderful moment that becomes the gospel, the gospel, the gospel. And it drives you to hope and encouragement. yeah, can kind of rewrite that perspective. One of the benefits of having you and Robert up for teaching is I get to rip off your quotes and put them in the margins. Sure. And I wrote down here what you had said, the feeling of failure points me to my need for a savior still. When I talk into new believers when they relapse into a sin, to be able to share with them I am so happy for you. I am so happy you are feeling this right now. And to explain scripturally what it is that they're—and taking them to the Scriptures to work through their emotions. And I really appreciated the statement because by that way of thinking, it's a familiar pattern to the new believers. Like, oh yeah, I was this way when I was lost. I felt conviction. I turned to Christ. I was gloriously saved. And it helps broaden the bigger picture of what salvation is. Like you kept mentioning the gospel. The gospel is not just a one-time event. It is a continual process of change to become more like Christ. And it does fill the individual with hope. Just seeing the expression on a new believer's face when they struggle and to share that with them was like this okay, it's not as hopeless as it seems, that God's not done with me, that he's still at work in my life. So that was a really good quote, and I appreciate that thought. I don't remember saying that, so I'm glad it stuck. That's perfect. All right, Braddock, Francine. Red sweater. I was just going to say, you're relating this to new believers, but I don't think it matters how long you've been a believer. You're going to experience those moments where you know you have failed God. You have not pleased Him in what you chose to spend your time doing or whatever. And I think that's really important to, even as a believer that's been a believer a long time, to not let Satan convince you, you know. There were certain things in my life that I thought, I'll never get through this. I'll never get better. I'll never ever get over this, you know, or I'll never get through this. And just now it's like God can show me something and it's like, thank you, Lord. I am so grateful. It just shows how much you still care for your child. You know, and I just think it should renew, just like the gospel does. We need the gospel every day. You don't just need it once and get saved and that's it, because that's a really important thing to realize, that we always need it. Amen. Here, Braddock, Braddock, right here, right here. Turn around. Hand up. And then over. I remember something too. When I was 12, after being saved, my mom was going to punish me and my younger brother and sister. And I told him, I said, just accept what mom's going to do. I said, instead of trying to change it the way you want it, because I said, It's not going to work. It won't work. And I said, all you're going to achieve is making mom angrier. They didn't listen. And they got, I told them later, I said, well, God gave you what you deserved because you didn't want to listen and just accept what was going to take place. There's a lot to be learned in that. I think in the Christian walk, when you fight against the goad, it does not go well. Yeah, just thinking about the wisdom of God to give us Romans chapter 7, a place to go and sit down with Paul and mourn our condition, but also find comfort and hope in the end. Because even Paul, a hero of the faith, warred against himself, had this internal battle that Oh, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?" And we can sit down with Paul and say the same thing and find great comfort in the struggle. And that's the overall point of Romans 7 at the end of the chapter, is to find that comfort. Because it is a perplexing thing when you find yourself failing over and over and over again. You can't figure out why you can't get victory. So, anyway. Yeah, and I think it gives it a new context to, when Paul writes in Philippians 121, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Right? We think of that because Paul had a physically difficult life. I think that's often how we interpret that verse. Like, he suffered physically throughout his entire ministry. And so there is this aspect of, like, I get it. There is a benefit to dying. That physical suffering would end, and you would just live in glory with your Savior forever. And I think that is true. I'm not trying to reinterpret Philippians 121. But I think in light of that physical struggle, the spiritual struggle as well, there is great gain in being reconciled in just our new self with just our Savior. and the relief of the war, that that will be for each of us. That we can each say, I am here for Christ's purpose, and it's a battle, and it's hard, and it's a struggle. And when will I be relieved of this old self? And Paul recognized that in large extent, at least in perfection, that will be relieved in death. in the physical self passing away and us reconcile with our Savior. And I think that, depending on your stage of life, that probably hits different. You know, me with young kids, that hits different. It's like, no, no, no, hold on. Not yet, not yet, not yet. That's how I feel about it. But I think when you reconcile that with the just daily struggle that this life should be, it should be a battle that we are engaging in, we are putting on the armor of God, We are going to battle. That has great purpose for Christ. That has great purpose for the gospel. But there is great relief to be found in the promised land. Great rest that will be found for each of us. So I just think, knowing that Paul wrote that in Philippians, that that hits a little different when you think about his personal warring with himself. He's like, this is exhausting. And that doesn't steal hope, but it does just recognize, man, eternity's gonna be great. And to your point, Francine, in light of eternity, we're all new believers. Whether that's 70 years or two months, we're all new believers, and so anything we talk about new believers, it's gonna apply, it should apply to each of us in new and unique ways. All right, how are we on time? We're good, I think we can finish out day two. All right, let's look at page 190. For those in your Bibles, let's go back to Ephesians chapter 2. And we're going to look and read verses 1 through 7. And what I want to do is note or kind of pull out, and this will be later in this set of verses, 1 through 7, the areas that changed the specific changes that Paul calls out here that took place the day I exchanged places with Jesus. So at salvation, there are some things described here that Paul describes that we'll read through that I think are important for us to recognize the loftiness, the incredible description of what changes when we are saved that is established in this new self that we have to bring us great hope as we go into war every day, as we put that armor on every morning. to know what the reality of this change already is in our life. I'm just going to read Ephesians chapter 2, starting in verse 1. You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world. Following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. Whew, okay, that's a rough description of our past life, but an accurate one. And then we find the beautiful phrase, but God. being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses. Okay, now I'm gonna pause there. From here out, we're gonna see some of these descriptions of what changed. We were dead in our sins, but God, in his love, here we find the first one, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. So He saved us by grace, and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. That is an incredible promise. That is an incredible work that God has already done. Christ is already raised up. Christ is already seated in the heavenly places. And in a sense, we are seated with him because we are in Christ and Christ is in us. When you feel in the mire and the mud of this life, remembering that greater eternal reality is a north star for you to go, okay, I'm just gonna focus here. And for anybody who's been in, physical pain. I had a kidney stone five weeks ago, and it lasted five days. It was the most excruciating pain I've ever had. It's the second kidney stone I've had. I think this one was worse. At least I remember it closer. But I spent five hours in the ER. in just blinding pain, and ignored. They were a little bit busy, and I think they probably thought I was drug-seeking or something, you know, a young-ish person walking in at like 4 a.m. in sweatpants and saying, oh, I hurt, I hurt. And so I wasn't getting a lot of compassion from anybody else. And so I felt like I was dying. Like, it, Anybody had a kidney stone? Anybody? OK. A couple people have experienced that. It should terrify you. I don't know how else to describe it. It's awful. And it feels like it's the type of thing you cannot escape. And it is this excruciating pain. And it was interesting. I say all this to say it was an interesting experience to go. I kind of clicked in my brain. I said, you know what? People talk about going to a happy place. Maybe I should try that. What would that look like? I'm like, oh my gosh, this is killing me. And so I would go through these cycles of, I'm in pain, I go, okay, all right. And like either passages would come to mind or hymns would come to mind, or I would just think of times in my life that were just truly beautiful and peace-filled. But that lasted like, Yeah, probably four seconds. And then I'd be ripped back to like, oh, okay, okay, okay. And it was this battle, moment to moment, realizing I'm not going to get relief any time soon. But how do I go through this? And for me, it just stuck out as this really unique picture of probably what our battle looks like, maybe as God looks down on it, our spiritual battle, of like, it really is and should be a moment to moment looking to the gospel, looking to Christ, looking to this promise that we are seated with him in the heavenly places so that he may show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards us. That that reality is something that we're probably drowning more than we think we are often and are struggling more than we think we are. And looking at that is a moment-to-moment encouragement in the pain of life, in the pain and the wrestling, as Paul talks about, this wrestling that I'm doing. What brings me out of that wrestling is a moment-to-moment tie to this picture of what God has done for me. And that is what brings me hope. That's why he can say in Philippians, I can't wait to die. That wasn't a hopeless statement. Some may say that from a place of hopelessness. Just kill me, like Jonah. We talked about Jonah last week. Just kill me. He says it three times. And it's like, okay, Jonah, take a breath. It's the hot sun. You're fine. You could have gone into the city and got some water. You chose to leave because you didn't like them. Like, just breathe, right? That's not what Paul is saying. That's not the heart that Paul is bringing out. He's saying it is actually better for me to die, to move into eternity because I see the promise that's there and that's my focus. So that as Paul is beaten and stoned and shipwrecked and bitten by a snake and everything that Paul went through, prison many times, his focus in that is on that eternal promise and on that look into eternity that he has. You know, he's in prison, and we get these pictures in Acts. Paul is in prison, and he's singing, and he's praying, and he's naked, beaten, you know, in shackles on a cold stone floor. And in that moment, he's doing I imagine what I was trying to do in the ER, which is focus on what matters, because this sucks. It's not like Paul was feeling great. He was probably miserable, and yet he was like, I'm just gonna focus over here, and I'm gonna focus on this eternal promise that I have, and I'm praising God because that's what matters, because for me to live is Christ, but to die is gain. That's where our promise lies. There I was preaching, I think. I think we got to the place of preaching in the last few minutes. Any thoughts or anything before we close? We are at time, but I proved last week we can go over a little bit, and we all survive. Any thoughts or questions or anything? Last call. All right, let's close in a word of prayer. Father, I thank you for these incredible encouragements from your word. I thank you that even as I struggle in sin, that that is a reminder of the power of your gospel. That the struggle itself is a promise that you are with me and that you have overcome. And Lord, I pray that you would help me and each of us here to always have a heart to see ourselves as a new believer, to see ourselves as someone ignorant and childlike, to see you as the person that we look to for strength, as our source of energy in the daily walk that we have. God, help us not to be legalistic or Pharisaic about our Christianity. The temptation is so strong. and so often is what we in our affluent culture are drawn to. Lord, help us to have a biblical early church view of who you are and who you intend us to be. I pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Thank you, thank you. Remember your book next week because we are definitely coming back to finish out lesson eight.