Redefining Normal Week 3

Grace

SONG:

How You Love Me

Trivia Questions:

Moses & Aaron’s Mom

2. Magician’s couldn’t take signs away.

REVERSE CHARADES GAME:

LESSON:

REVIEW:

Over the last couple weeks we’ve been talking about this idea of what is normal?

We are called to be holy, but that means we are separate for the world, not from it.

God has us here to use us to save those around us.

To be a blessing to others.

2 Corinthians 1:3-5 “3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.”

Last week we talked about the way we do that is through Grace.

Romans 8:1 “1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,”

This is the best gift we could ever receive.

The call then is for us not to fill our lives with so much stuff that we don’t leave room for God’s grace.

C.S. Lewis said, “God gives His gifts where He finds the vessel empty enough to receive them.”

May that be you and me. Always in need of God’s grace and not in need of more stuff.

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Main Lesson:

Tonight: We are going to discuss who God has created us to be.

How many of you can solve a rubix cube?

I can, Johnie can. It’s a fun thing to learn now days and I highly encourage you to do so.

The first step in solving it is understanding how it works.

*SHOW RUBIX*

What side of the Rubix is this?

This is the _______ side (whichever is the middle)

Show another and have them guess.

What side is this? Take a guess.

The sides of the Rubix never change because the middle color never changes.

Everything rotates around the 6 middle colors of the Rubix.

So you will flip and twist and rotate the outer colors alot, but never the center colors.

The reason is, again, because everything rotates around the center.

The center holds the line and affects everything on the outside.

Transition:

Being a blessing to others (like we talked about week 1)

Being empty enough to receive God’s grace (liked we talked about last week)

This all comes from this idea tonight that our identity is at the center of all of this.

Being holy is not something you can manufacture and identity with on your own.

You can’t force that in your life (that’s called legalism)

You also can’t just force more grace into your life (that’s called hypocrisy).

In both situations, we need to identify with who God says we are.

To say all of this differently let me say it like this.

Life isn’t about managing your outward appearances to others. Looking good, playing the part.

Life is about embracing who God says we are.

Allowing God to transform us into that person.

Example:

When does a basketball player become a basketball player?

When they reach a certain skill level?

Whey they have the right equipment?

No, they become a basketball player as soon as they choose to play.

The more they play, they more they embrace that identity as a basketball player.

When does a person become a high school student?

When they attend high school for the first time? or

When they drive a car, take Pre-cal or Trigonometry?

You become a high schooler the moment you start attending high school.

The classes you take and experiences you gain all stem from who you already are.

POINT: Holiness is not something we do on our own as much as it is something we embrace.

Like we talked about week 1, God makes us holy the moment we come to Christ.

Like the Rubix cube, When we come to Christ, Jesus becomes our center.

Everything else in life revolves around that identity.

Open your Bibles with me to Colossians 3:1-3“1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

Colossians 3:4 “4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

Set your minds on things above.

vs. 2 says “Set your minds on things above...”

What does that mean?

Where is your mind located? - Inside of your body right?

Is what’s in your mind right now external or internal to you? - internal.

So think about what that means then.

Paul is not saying here to look really good on the outside and look like someone who belongs in heaven.

He says, Set your minds on things above...

Whats going inside of you that nobody knows except for you… Give that to Jesus.

Here’s the problem.

We’ve got armies of people around us who look like they are heavenly bound…

But internally, they are focused on self, looking good, and playing the part.

Externally, they look good.

Internally, they are broken.

Externally, they may be claim to pursue Christ, but inwardly, they are a train wreck.

Another way to say this is if we are not transformed by Jesus, we may be informed or conformed to the wrong things.

If we can pause or a moment,

Let’s get together in groups for a moment and discuss this.

How does this change the way I think as a believer in Christ?

What’s the difference between transforming and conforming?

How have we made Christianity more about conforming than Transforming?

Being transformed to think like Christ doesn’t happen by accident.

Having a passion for Christ doesn’t happen by accident.

It starts with 2 things I’d say.

An appreciation for how separated from God we are in our sin.

A humble response to how redeemed because of Jesus.

If you cram for a test, you try to put as much information as you can into your short term memory so that you will get a good grade on a test.

Then you can forget it all.

I think sometimes this is how we treat God.

When a crisis comes, we look around and grab whatever information we can about God.

We hold onto whatever cliche gives us the most hope or makes us feel good.

But the problem remains.

Before the crisis, did was I passionate about Jesus? Will I be passionate about Him after the crisis?

When we really set our minds on things above…

We know exactly who we were before Jesus. Dead in our sins.

We know who we are because of Jesus and the miracle that is being a redeemed person.

You see, I don’t know about y’all, but I’ve never reached a point where I get tired of learning about how awful sin is.

The more I look at how evil and depraved humans can be, it makes me more and more amazed at how gentle, patient, and gracious God is to have offered salvation to any of us.

Colossians 3:3 “3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”

I am hidden in Christ…

why would a good God save any of us?

The more we see sin, the more we see the incredible grace of God to save any of us.

So let’s look at more sin just to see this a bit better tonight.

2. Run towards Jesus

Colossians 3:5 “5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.”

Call 2 volunteers up to the front.

Ok, Person A… I want you to turn around and face the doors.

Person B, just stand where you are.

Ok… Now person A I want you to walk towards the doors.

Once you get to the doors stop.

ASK: Ok, so where was person A moving towards?

Answer: The doors.

Great… but what was he moving away from?

Person B, the other walls, Old Georgia road, the windows… Any number of things you want to mention.

Any time we move towards something, we are moving away from something else.

We were created to move towards Christ.

We were created to walk with Him in the garden.

To love what he loves.

To enjoy what He enjoys.

Colossians 3:9-10 “9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”

As we put on the new self, we need to know that we are in Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:17 “17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

As a new creation, we are being transformed every day and here is ultimately what I think that means.

Live your life remember whose you are. You are Christs.

You were bought with the heavy price of the life of God.

Because of that, why wouldn’t you be transformed to loving what he loves and hating what He hates?

In Christ, we need to sit at the feet of Jesus every day asking Him to give us wisdom to think as He thinks.

This is getting more difficult.

Last night, we went to the library to check out some books for homeschool for Roman.

On the floor, they have these bins that are easily accessible for kids to grab and thumb through.

On top of one of those bins was a book about homosexuality.

It was literally a board book with maybe 50 words in the whole book.

Most of the pages were about non-binary parents.

2 dad homes or 2 mom homes.

And even one boy who didn’t know what gender he was.

Now… even more than just the face value of the book, you know what really bothers me?

I wouldn’t want a book about heterosexuality in easily accessible to my boys.

Evil doesn’t care about the innocence of children any more than it cares about your innocence.

Why does any kid under the age of 8 or 9 need any books accessible to them about sex?

Regardless of the context, that’s insane.

And trust me I know there are much worse books in your school libraries.

As we run towards Christ, we also look back and remember where we came from.

We look back and see sin. We see how lost we would be without Christ.

We see the chaos of evil all around us and we have two choices as believers.

We cave to the culture around us, realizing that we never really had Jesus in the first place.

Or

We stay at the foot of the cross and remain in Christ. We love what He loves and run from what he hates.

APPLICATION:

As believers, we need to know sin desires chaos.

As believers, our identity is in Christ!

Who Jesus says we are!

It’s in the awareness of how lost we are without Christ and how saved we are in Christ.

We must set our minds on Christ.

Love what He loves and hate what he hates.

Setting our minds on things above, we live for an audience of one.

We are reminded daily, Hallelujah, all this time how you love me.

We should never get over the grace of Jesus on the cross

and we should never get over the depth of hell we deserve.

Set your minds on things above.

Remember whose you are.

Run towards Christ.

COlossians 3:1-4 “1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”