The End of ‘Prove Yourself’: How the New Covenant Frees Us from Performance

[00:00:01] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:01] Good morning Summit family at all of our locations. Open up to 2 Corinthians chapter 2. What a great morning in the house of the Lord. I know a bunch of our campuses are doing baptisms this morning celebrating new life in Christ. Always love that. We're diving back in. We're in week 5 of a series going through 2 Corinthians. Week 1, Pastor JD opened up, hit chapter 1. Week 2, Pastor Brian hit the first half of chapter 2. The last two weeks, Pastor JD jumped forward to
[00:00:31] chapters eight and nine, as we talked a little bit about the stewardship identity of what it looks like to be a disciple. And now we are back in chronological order for all you type A people.
[00:00:40] We're going to finish out chapter two and stay in that and finish out chapter three. So second Corinthians, as you are turning there, I actually want you to take a look at this picture. And I
[00:00:53] want to ask you a question. What do you think these four people have in common? They're famous, great answer. Top left, you got Maya Angelou, famous author, poet, integral part of the civil rights movement alongside the likes of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X. Top right, of course,
[00:01:11] Tom Hanks, one of the most loved and accomplished and awarded actors of our generation, much greater than Nicolas Cage, but that's neither here nor there. Woody Forrest. Bottom left, you got Michelle Obama, the historic first lady of the United States. And then the bottom right, that's a little
[00:01:28] tip of the hat to all my ATLians out there. That is Andre 3000, one of the greatest to ever grace a microphone, part of arguably the greatest rap duo of all time in OutKast. So you've got four
[00:01:42] of the most accomplished, that's the loudest amen he's going to give me the whole morning.
[00:01:46] You got four of the most accomplished, influential, and memorable human beings in their own right.
[00:01:54] And yet just listen to some of these quotes from their very own mouths.
[00:01:58] Maya Angelou said this.
[00:02:01] She said, I've written 11 books, but each time I think, uh-oh, they're gonna find out now.
[00:02:09] Tom Hanks, and I quote, when is everyone gonna discover that I am in fact a fraud and take everything away from me?
[00:02:19] Michelle Obama, that feeling that you shouldn't take me that seriously, honestly, it never goes away.
[00:02:26] I mean, really, what do I know?
[00:02:29] And then Andre 3000, one of the most creative lyricists of our generation, said, I've never totally dedicated myself to anything because I've always been a jack of no trades.
[00:02:41] I've always seen myself as less than everybody else.
[00:02:47] You have four of the most successful and lauded people in history, and yet every single one of them deals with the oh-so-familiar imposter syndrome, which begs the question, if the people at the top feel like frauds,
[00:03:04] what does that say about the rest of us who are constantly trying to climb?
[00:03:09] I mean, just by show of hands at all of our locations, who here has ever dealt with some form of imposter syndrome?
[00:03:14] Raise your hand.
[00:03:15] Mine's up for a reason, all right?
[00:03:17] See, I think the reason imposter syndrome hits so hard is because deep down, we all know we're running the exact same race.
[00:03:23] The race to prove that we're competent, the race to not fall behind, the race to prove that we're worth it, the race to prove that we're spiritual enough, the race to prove we belong.
[00:03:37] And see, that pressure to prove, man, it's not just a career thing.
[00:03:40] No, it actually bleeds into our relationships, it bleeds into our parenting, it even bleeds into our walk with God to the point, you know this, that we can end up exhausted, not necessarily from what we did this week,
[00:03:52] but simply from the role that we felt we had to play this week.
[00:03:55] And so the way this works itself out, I mean, you go to work and you constantly try to justify your seat at the table or your spot in the room to the point that you're wondering, have I proven that I belong here? For some of you
[00:04:08] students, you don't just go to school. I mean, you show up to class and you're trying to manage your reputation like every single hallway is a comment section, wondering, have I proven that I'm worth noticing? For some of you parents, some of you especially stay-at-home parents, man,
[00:04:23] you carried the pressure to never drop a ball, to try to prove yourself. And so you're waking up and you're getting the kids up and trying to get them dressed with their shirts on forward. And
[00:04:30] you're getting breakfast and you're getting lunches and trying to get them to school and then trying to get them home. All the while you're trying to schedule doctor's appointments and running errands while you've got kids screaming every 14 seconds, mom, can I have a snack? Mom,
[00:04:41] can I have a snack? While just trying to make them not feral little children and get them to brush their teeth and bathe once or twice a week. And the whole time, even though you're doing all those
[00:04:49] things, you're wondering, have I done enough to prove that I'm actually a good mom? It's this pressure to prove. See, that's exactly the struggle that the apostle Paul steps into in our passage today in 2 Corinthians. When he writes to this church at Corinth, he's not weighing in on some
[00:05:08] distant theological dispute. No, he's speaking straight to that inner critic inside of every single one of us who's constantly whispering, you're not enough. You've got to prove yourself.
[00:05:23] So just by way of reminder, the apostle Paul actually planted this church at Corinth all the way back in Acts 18. That's where you can read about it. But he planted this church and got it
[00:05:31] up and running. Then he continued on his missionary journeys. And since he's been gone, the church at Corinth has actually been introduced to a number of new Christian leaders. And these new Christian leaders, man, they're more impressive than Paul. They're more put together than Paul. They're
[00:05:44] wealthier than Paul. They're better speakers than Paul. And so some of the Corinthians at this point are saying to Paul, they're like, Paul, why should we listen to you? Like, man, you're not impressive.
[00:05:53] You're not wealthy. In fact, your life and ministry are full of suffering. You're not powerful in any meaningful way. In other words, what they're saying to Paul is, Paul, we need you to prove yourself.
[00:06:03] Prove that you belong. But see, instead of defending his resume or flexing his credentials, Paul decides to turn their criticism into a classroom.
[00:06:13] He's actually gonna use this as a teaching moment to show them how his God delights in turning broken, weak, inadequate vessels into living billboards of his redemption, his grace, and his glory.
[00:06:26] Instead of jumping on the hamster wheel of proving himself for others, Paul's gonna show us a different way to live.
[00:06:32] And so look at how he does it.
[00:06:34] Pick me up in 2 Corinthians 2.
[00:06:36] We're gonna pick up in verse 14.
[00:06:40] Paul says, but thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.
[00:06:52] First off, Paul says that God leads us in a triumphal procession.
[00:06:56] You could read that, that God leads us in essentially a victory parade.
[00:07:00] Paul is playing on something that his entire, the Church of Corinth would have been really familiar with back in the days of Rome and conquer, when the Romans would go in and conquer a city,
[00:07:09] the commanders would come back into town in Rome and they would throw these massive, look at how awesome we are, parades.
[00:07:16] And in these parades, they would kind of have all their spoils on display with all the captives in tow.
[00:07:20] And so what Paul is saying is he's saying, hey, just like those Roman triumph parades, he's saying, thanks be to God who in Christ gives us victory over sin and the devil.
[00:07:32] But instead of a parade to show off his amazingness, he says the way that God spreads word of his conquering gospel victory is actually through us.
[00:07:42] He says, when you place your faith in Jesus and you're transformed by the gospel, God now uses you, this is how he says it, to spread the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.
[00:07:53] When you read that, church, what that means is that God wants to use you.
[00:07:59] That's why Paul says in verse 15, look at it.
[00:08:01] He says, for we are the aroma of Christ.
[00:08:05] We've talked about this, how in the Old Testament, they would offer burnt sacrifices to God, which were pleasing aromas before him.
[00:08:11] But now in Christ, in the New Testament, we no longer have to offer those sacrifices, but because of Jesus's sacrifice, you and I now are the pleasing aroma, look at it, to God among those who are being saved
[00:08:24] and among those who are perishing, verse 16, to one, a fragrance from death to death, to the other, a fragrance from life to life.
[00:08:31] See, during these Roman parades, they'd be spraying perfume and waving incense everywhere.
[00:08:35] And so to the victors, that smell was the smell, it was a sweet smell, right?
[00:08:40] But to the captives, it was the smell of defeat.
[00:08:43] And Paul's saying it's the same way with the gospel message.
[00:08:46] The gospel, the message that God sent his only son, broke the barrier between heaven and earth by sending his son wrapped in flesh to live the life that you and I were supposed to live,
[00:08:56] then went on to die the death that you and I were condemned to die, but he didn't stay dead.
[00:09:00] He rose again three days later from the grave, proving victory over sin and death.
[00:09:05] And now you and I, and anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved to the point that now God sees us as perfectly righteous.
[00:09:13] We get to share in his inheritance and this awesome gospel victory parade, we get to share in the spoils and riches of God for all of eternity.
[00:09:23] And what Paul says, he says that message, that fragrance, that incense, that perfume, when it goes forth, He says, to Christians, that gospel message is a reminder of the very wonder of salvation.
[00:09:37] It's a fragrance from life to life.
[00:09:39] If you've been saved, when you hear the gospel, you say, praise God.
[00:09:42] But on the other hand, to non-Christians, the gospel is simply a reminder of divine judgment and terror.
[00:09:49] It's a fragrance from death to death.
[00:09:53] And so then look at what Paul says next.
[00:09:55] He says, so who is sufficient for these things?
[00:10:00] In some ways, he's asking this rhetorical question.
[00:10:02] And he's saying, hey, who in the world feels qualified enough?
[00:10:06] Who feels righteous enough?
[00:10:07] Who feels gifted enough?
[00:10:08] Who feels adequate enough to carry the weight and the responsibility of spreading that incredible gospel message?
[00:10:15] And Paul asked this rhetorical question to really emphasize the gravity and the responsibility of spreading the most precious truth in history.
[00:10:24] And when he asked that, who feels adequate?
[00:10:26] We feel the weight of it because we know that in our own human ability that we are deeply insufficient for being carriers of the gospel and ministering in that task.
[00:10:35] Now, at least I know I feel insufficient and I'm a pastor, okay?
[00:10:39] And I also know most of you do because 99% of the membership interviews I do with y'all when I ask you how you wanna grow as a disciple, we say there's five identities of a disciple,
[00:10:48] a worshiper, family member, servant, steward, witness.
[00:10:50] 99% of you say that you wanna grow as a witness.
[00:10:54] You wanna grow in your ability to evangelize and speak about the very things God has done in your life.
[00:10:59] And so when Paul asked this question, and who is sufficient for these things, we all instinctively answer, not me, not us, unless God steps in to help.
[00:11:13] So that's why Paul says in verse 17, he says, for we're not like so many peddlers of God's word.
[00:11:20] He's saying, we don't preach for profit.
[00:11:22] We're not here to hustle spiritual goods, but instead as men and women of sincerity, we have been commissioned by God in the sight of God, and we now speak Christ.
[00:11:33] He says, you and I, we spread the gospel because God calls us, God sees us, and Christ empowers us, which summit is the entire theme of this series, the fact that God works his power
[00:11:44] through weak, cracked, broken human vessels like us.
[00:11:49] See, Paul ends chapter two by saying that he's refusing to play this game.
[00:11:54] He's refusing to prove himself.
[00:11:56] He's not out here trying to prove himself to God or to others.
[00:11:58] He's not performing or selling a version of himself to win people over.
[00:12:02] No, Paul decides to step off the treadmill of self-validation.
[00:12:07] And so now what he's gonna do is we move into chapter three.
[00:12:10] He's gonna show us how even though he stepped off that treadmill, he's gonna show us how you and I tend to step back on it.
[00:12:17] Paul's gonna pull back the curtain and he's gonna expose three ways that we all fall back into this type of prove yourself life.
[00:12:25] We do it by trying to carry a pressure we can't hold, by chasing a glory we can't keep, and by attempting a change that we can't create.
[00:12:35] Three ways that you and I tend to exhaust ourselves trying to do what only Christ can.
[00:12:40] And he starts in the very place that most of us live with the pressure we can't carry.
[00:12:47] I was thinking a lot about this.
[00:12:49] I'm doing this kind of leadership development thing with a little cohort of guys.
[00:12:52] And the guy who's leading it has us do a bunch of, he calls them constructs.
[00:12:56] So kind of just workshops and different things.
[00:12:58] Some of it's personality test stuff.
[00:12:59] Some of it is thinking back over your life stuff.
[00:13:01] And a few weeks ago, he had us do one where he said, I want you to write down every single job you've ever had in your life, no matter how small, no matter what it like, think back all the way to
[00:13:10] like middle high school days of like cutting grass during the summer, that kind of stuff.
[00:13:13] And so I started thinking about it, but then I was like, I feel like I'm forgetting some. So I pulled up a resume, an old resume. Well, I mean, I've worked here for over like 15 years. So it's
[00:13:23] been a long time since I pulled out a resume and literally pulling up my resume. I started cracking up because I realized, you know, like on resumes, we try to make ourselves sound more important than
[00:13:31] we actually are. And so I started reading this. This is not a joke. I've told you guys, I worked at a golf course right out of high school. I worked in the pro shop. Okay. This is literally a copy
[00:13:42] paste from my resume. What I put on there in the pro shop. This is what I wrote. Utilized T-sheet demand management and supplied generation strategies. You know what that means? That It means I scheduled tee times, okay?
[00:13:57] I answered the phone and I scheduled tee times.
[00:14:00] This was another one, kid you not, copy-paste.
[00:14:03] Handled escalated member guest service issues in a prompt and effective manner.
[00:14:09] I dealt with obnoxiously drunk golfers.
[00:14:11] That's what I did, okay?
[00:14:11] I called, sometimes I called cabs for them.
[00:14:14] Like I got them out of the pro shops.
[00:14:15] That's what I did.
[00:14:17] At some point I updated it.
[00:14:18] I think it was for like school or something.
[00:14:20] I don't remember what it was, but I added, the first role I ever had here at the summit was I was Pastor JD's kind of weekend intern.
[00:14:27] And so I did some research for him and then I'd be with him kind of on the weekends.
[00:14:30] And this was a copy paste from Pastor JD's weekend associate, kid you not.
[00:14:35] Provided leadership and oversight of vital backstage area.
[00:14:41] That means I stocked Mountain Dew for Pastor JD.
[00:14:43] That's what that means.
[00:14:44] I handed him mints after services to, you know, so he could talk to you guys.
[00:14:48] And it got me thinking like just how ridiculous, I remember writing one down at the golf course at verizon people would come in all the time you know just kind of drop the resume i'd be like hey
[00:14:57] in case you guys are hiring i'm looking and i'll never forget one that came in this came in this is what it said this guy comes in like completely unkempt just throws his resume he's like hey man
[00:15:05] in case you're hiring and i'll look at it and kid you not he has this line handled financial transactions for a multi-billion dollar corporation and i look at i'm like bro you were a cashier at mcdonald's like you didn't handle financial transactions for a multi like you
[00:15:22] you're a cad like that's a respectable job but still like you didn't handle financial transaction for multi-billion it's just like it was so it's so comical because the reality like we work so hard to sound impressive and make ourselves sound important because deep down we are all terrified
[00:15:39] that who we are actually won't be enough and so we load ourselves up with this pressure to prove ourselves. That's why Paul opens up chapter three by naming that very instinct that we all have.
[00:15:53] Look at verse one. He says, are we beginning to commend ourselves again? He's like, do I need to prove myself to you again, Corinth? He says, do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you
[00:16:05] or from you? Like you realize the early church couldn't call or text or email one another. And so when an unknown Christian leader or preacher would come in, they would carry around letters of recommendation to prove that they were actually legit.
[00:16:19] And Paul's like, you want me, the apostle Paul, who started your very church to have a letter of recommendation?
[00:16:25] Look at verse two.
[00:16:26] He says, you yourselves, Corinth, you are our letter of recommendation written on our hearts to be known and read by all.
[00:16:36] Paul's like, you want a letter of recommendation?
[00:16:38] Look in the mirror.
[00:16:39] Like I helped start the church.
[00:16:40] You yourselves are my letter of recommendation.
[00:16:43] Verse three, he says, and you, Corinth, show that you are a letter from Christ.
[00:16:48] Christ started the church, but it was delivered by Paul, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts.
[00:17:01] All right, for the rest of chapter three, here's what's about to happen.
[00:17:03] Right here, what Paul's doing is he's kind of blowing the proverbial pool whistle, signaling that it's adult swim time, okay?
[00:17:10] All kids out of the pool, but fret not, I'm a certified theological lifeguard.
[00:17:14] So we're gonna nerd out a little bit and we're gonna go in the deep end with Paul.
[00:17:18] So grab your noodles, grab your goggles and let's go.
[00:17:21] In verse three, Paul introduces the tablets of stone.
[00:17:27] What he's referencing there is back to Exodus 24 when God called a man named Moses up on a mountain where he would meet with him face to face to establish what we know as the old covenant.
[00:17:38] In that old covenant, he gave Moses stone tablets with the law and the commandments on them written and those commandments ultimately revealed what God would require of his people.
[00:17:49] The Old Covenant was kind of like God handing Israel, his people, a packing list as they would embark on this journey of following him.
[00:17:55] However, as the Old Covenant was holy and good, it was, the problem with the Old Covenant is it could never give them the power to actually follow all the laws and the commandments.
[00:18:05] They couldn't follow the law in their own strength because the law, as good as it was, the law itself was powerless to actually change anybody's hearts.
[00:18:13] And so what Paul does is he contrasts that old covenant in the stone tablets with what's called the new covenant that was promised by the prophets Ezekiel and Jeremiah.
[00:18:24] In Jeremiah 31, 33 and Ezekiel 11, 19 and 20, we read about a new covenant that God says he's gonna make with his people.
[00:18:32] One where he promises to put his law not on tablets of stone, but to actually put his law in his people and write it on their hearts.
[00:18:42] which is why Paul says in verse three, it was written not on the tablets of stone, but on the tablets of human hearts, because only then will God's people be able to follow his decrees
[00:18:52] and be careful to keep his laws, which is another part of the new covenant promise back in Ezekiel 36.
[00:18:59] See, when Jesus himself took on flesh, when Jesus came and died for our sin, when Jesus rose from the grave, Jesus himself became the mediator of the new covenant, as Hebrews would say.
[00:19:10] and ultimately Jesus fulfilled every new covenant promise that was made in the Old Testament.
[00:19:17] In Jesus, God not only satisfied the standard of the Old Covenant, because Jesus perfectly obeyed all the things we couldn't, but then when Jesus ascended to heaven, he sent his spirit now to empower and live inside of every single one of us
[00:19:33] so that we could now live out the very thing that Christ has secured for us.
[00:19:38] This old covenant was full of laws and commandments.
[00:19:41] It essentially said, do this and you will live, where the new covenant consists of entirely of promises.
[00:19:48] It's God saying, hey, I'm gonna do this and now this is how you shall live.
[00:19:54] But see, even, here's the irony.
[00:19:56] Even with all this new covenant power and promise, the problem is a lot of us still walk around dragging the old stone tablets as we try to follow God.
[00:20:07] We try to live like we're under the pressure of this old list when God has already given us the power of a new heart.
[00:20:16] Think about like this.
[00:20:18] A few weeks ago, kind of right as fall kicked off, my wife and I, we took all four of our kids on a family trip up north.
[00:20:24] Have a buddy who has a house up in Conway, New Hampshire.
[00:20:27] It's just absolutely gorgeous this time of year.
[00:20:28] And so he said, hey man, you guys can go up, spend a few days there.
[00:20:31] And so we've taken a few of our kids on planes before, like two at a time or so, but we've never traveled with all four of them.
[00:20:37] Like my oldest just turned 11, so 11 and under, four kids, family of six, traveling, we had to fly into Boston, then we drove the rest of the way.
[00:20:44] And you learn really quickly, like when you travel with little kids in the airport, there's two types of people in the airport, okay?
[00:20:50] There's those that sympathize with you, you know, those that are smart, they're like, I remember you're doing great, mom and dad, keep at it, awesome, how can we help?
[00:20:56] Can we get your coffee?
[00:20:57] Those, so there's people that sympathize, then there's people that despise you, that's it.
[00:21:01] There's no in between, there's people that look at you like you have ruined their day, You were the bane of their very existence, which is wild because like I do a lot of travel, like I've got clear and pre-check all that stuff.
[00:21:11] I know what I'm doing in an airport.
[00:21:12] I guarantee you, we got through security and we're not inconvenient to anybody.
[00:21:17] I like, I guarantee I got all six of us through security just as fast as it was six adults.
[00:21:21] But just because it's kids, people are so annoyed.
[00:21:24] That actually has absolutely nothing to do with my illustration.
[00:21:26] Just thought I would share that with you, okay?
[00:21:29] So before we were heading on this trip, my wife and I are both planners, but when it comes to traveling, She is, I mean, planner plus, like meticulous planner.
[00:21:38] To the point, this is not a joke.
[00:21:40] She prints out lists, like packing lists for each one of our kids.
[00:21:44] She basically laminates them, she hands it, and she's like, here's your bag, here's your packing list, go item by item, make sure you have all this stuff, right?
[00:21:51] Because when you travel with kids, you gotta take like half your house, it's insane.
[00:21:54] So the day before we leave, we had our oldest, my oldest daughter, she's 11, and our youngest, my son, who's five, we were having them share a bag.
[00:22:01] And so the night before, I was like, hey, Avia, my oldest daughter, I was like, Avia, go throw your bag in the car just so it's kind of ready and I'll organize it.
[00:22:08] So she goes and grabs it and she's like, oh my gosh, like, dad, what is in this bag?
[00:22:12] I'm like, I don't know, you and buddy packed a bag.
[00:22:14] She's like, no, this thing is so heavy.
[00:22:15] And so I walk over and I unzip this bag that's just bulging like this backpack.
[00:22:20] And I'm like, what in the world is in here?
[00:22:22] Well, my wife had put like on the packing list, like Elijah, you can take, you know, one action figure.
[00:22:28] Y'all, I pull out like, here's Spider-Man, here's Batman, here's Hulk, here's Vin.
[00:22:32] I'm like, what are all like, what?
[00:22:34] Elijah, you can take one, right?
[00:22:36] He's like, I don't know which one.
[00:22:37] So then she's like, you can take one lovey.
[00:22:39] You can take one little stuffy that you can sleep with.
[00:22:41] Man, I pull out Raphael, Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, so like the whole gang, right?
[00:22:47] There's like a box of pizza.
[00:22:48] Like, how'd that get in there?
[00:22:50] And then the most insane is, I don't know what this is.
[00:22:53] Like if you have young boys, especially, you know this.
[00:22:55] Y'all, I just start pulling out rocks.
[00:22:57] Y'all, like, what's up with little boy?
[00:23:00] And they're not like cool rocks, right?
[00:23:01] They're just like random rocks that he found on walks and stuff.
[00:23:04] He's like, that's my special rock.
[00:23:05] I'm like, there ain't nothing special about this rock.
[00:23:07] He's like, it's my special rock.
[00:23:08] I needed to go on the airplane.
[00:23:09] I'm like, buddy, this is like, you're just pulling out rocks.
[00:23:12] And we laugh.
[00:23:13] Y'all know exactly what I'm talking about if you have young boys.
[00:23:15] It's insane.
[00:23:16] Like he had loaded up his sister's bag with a bunch of the things that were not on the list, which listen, caused his sister to carry a weight that she was never meant to carry.
[00:23:30] She was carrying around a weight that someone else created for her.
[00:23:35] And then it hit me.
[00:23:37] This is exactly what you and I do all the time.
[00:23:41] We carry around these weights of expectations, feeling like we have to be the perfect parent or the perfect spouse or the perfect student or the perfect Christian or the perfect leader or the perfect friend.
[00:23:55] We carry around the weight of comparison and image management thinking we need to curate this exact way how we need to appear before everybody else so they don't see any other cracks while we simultaneously scroll through social media
[00:24:08] thinking that everybody else is doing way better, that they're way holier, that they're way more disciplined, that they're way more successful than us.
[00:24:16] We carry around the weight, we even come into church and we carry this weight of religious performance thinking that God is disappointed in us unless we are just crushing our Bible reading in our prayer every single day.
[00:24:28] Some of you have been carrying around this weight of past mistakes.
[00:24:33] You've been dragging the shame with you everywhere you go into every new season of life and every new relationship when that was never a weight you were meant to carry.
[00:24:44] And these weights, these pressures crush us, y'all, because they were never supposed to be ours to carry in the first place.
[00:24:52] Under the old covenant, in some sense, prove yourself was the whole system the standard was absolute holy perfection which was an impossible standard to meet which is why israel was constantly buckling under that pressure
[00:25:06] but the good news of the gospel is that god has not only given us a new heart and a new spirit he's done that through a new covenant which is one built not on our performance but on his power
[00:25:19] It's no longer do this and live.
[00:25:22] It's simply believe in him and be saved.
[00:25:26] Yet the tragedy is that you and I constantly drift back into the old covenant, stuffing our lives with the old weights and the old pressures of trying to prove ourselves, trying to impress God, trying to prove our worth to others,
[00:25:38] trying to measure up.
[00:25:39] And we end up carrying a pressure and a weight that listen, the gospel has already lifted.
[00:25:46] Where are you carrying a weight that you are no longer meant to carry?
[00:25:54] Whatever that weight is for you, expectations or comparison or religion or performance, I wanna tell you this morning, that pressure is not from God.
[00:26:08] Listen to how Paul speaks to that burden in verse four.
[00:26:12] He says, such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God.
[00:26:18] Verse five, not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything is coming from us.
[00:26:23] No, but our sufficiency is from God.
[00:26:26] For it's he who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, that's the old covenant, but of the spirit, new covenant.
[00:26:34] For the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.
[00:26:37] Paul's whole point is that the Christian life was never meant to run on your own power.
[00:26:44] It's that everything that God calls you to in being a minister of the new covenant, he's gonna supply you for.
[00:26:52] Pastor Vance Habner said it this way, I love it.
[00:26:55] He says, our efficiency without God's sufficiency is only a deficiency.
[00:27:03] See, that's exactly why the new covenant is so much greater because it's a covenant, it's a promise powered by God, not pressured by us.
[00:27:11] Like you realize we don't ever minister for God out of our own strength.
[00:27:16] No, we minister to God out of God's very strength once we have emptied ourselves, submitted our lives to Jesus, and he's filled us and empowered us with the Holy Spirit.
[00:27:26] Y'all, you will mature so much in Christ when you realize that Holy Spirit power does not flow through self-reliance.
[00:27:34] It flows through surrender.
[00:27:37] The most empowered Christians are not the most gifted ones.
[00:27:42] They are not the most efficient ones.
[00:27:44] They are the most submitted ones.
[00:27:47] They had emptied themselves of themselves in order to be filled by God and used by him.
[00:27:54] So that's the first way that we slip back in to kind of this prove yourself life by carrying a pressure that we were never designed to hold.
[00:28:01] But see, if we don't give up that pressure, then Paul says it's gonna lead us into a second trap, which is chasing a glory that we cannot keep.
[00:28:10] There's a glory that you and I cannot keep.
[00:28:13] Now to make his point really stick here, what Paul does, he reaches back and illustrates this by going back to one of Israel's most iconic moments when Moses went up on the mountain, look what he says in verse seven.
[00:28:25] He says, now, if the ministry of death, which was carved in letters of stone, that's the old covenant, came with such glory, it did have glory, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses's face because of its glory,
[00:28:37] which was being brought to an end.
[00:28:40] He says, will not the ministry of the spirit, new covenant, have even more glory?
[00:28:46] Now, again, this is Paul referencing back to Exodus chapter 34.
[00:28:50] At this point, Moses has gone up on the mountain.
[00:28:52] He's met face-to-face with God.
[00:28:54] God's given him the tablets of stone.
[00:28:55] But then when Moses came down from the mountain after meeting God face-to-face, he was so full of God's glory that his face was literally glowing from God's glory.
[00:29:06] It was glowing so bright that the people couldn't look at him.
[00:29:08] So he covers his face with a veil.
[00:29:11] His face was kind of like one of those, I set this Thursday night and somebody brought me one of these this morning.
[00:29:15] You remember these like glow-in-the-dark things?
[00:29:18] Remember these little glow-in-the-dark toys?
[00:29:19] They're like the longer the light flashed on them, then when the light would turn off, they would shine bright, right?
[00:29:24] The longer the light was on it, the brighter it would shine.
[00:29:27] However, the longer it was away from its light source, it would begin to fade.
[00:29:34] And see what Paul says is that that same fading pattern shows up anytime you and I try to create our own glory.
[00:29:43] Look at verse nine.
[00:29:45] He says, for if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, that's the old covenant, the ministry of righteousness, new covenant, must far exceed it in glory.
[00:29:53] Indeed, in this case, he says, what once had glory, old covenant, has come to have no glory at all because of the glory that surpasses it.
[00:30:00] That's the new covenant.
[00:30:02] For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, old covenant, much more will what is permanent have glory, new covenant.
[00:30:10] In other words, he's saying, if the fading glory of the old covenant really was real, which it was, he says, just try to imagine a glory that never fades.
[00:30:22] He says, comparing the old covenant glory with new covenant glory is like comparing a child's glow in the dark toy with the glory of the sun.
[00:30:31] They both produce light to some degree, but one pales in comparison with the other.
[00:30:36] And again, what Paul is saying is that self-produced glory is just like that today.
[00:30:41] It's like a puny kid's toy compared to the awesomeness of the son.
[00:30:46] He's trying to show us the insufficiency of this old covenant, prove yourself way of life while simultaneously pointing us to the new covenant glory that's not only greater, but it's also a glory that does not depend on our performance.
[00:31:03] Think about how incredible that is.
[00:31:05] I mean, just imagine the confidence that is not tied to your best week.
[00:31:10] Imagine a transformation that isn't built on your own ability to pull yourselves up by your bootstraps and prove yourself and discipline yourself constantly.
[00:31:19] The point he's making is, hey, you might be able to produce a little glory for yourself and it might last for a little while, but he says, if it runs on your own strength, that strength is eventually gonna run out.
[00:31:31] So he says, you can get people to be impressed with you for a little bit, but that glory fades the moment that their opinions change.
[00:31:37] he says you can get glory and accolades and achievement to some degree right but when that high wears off you're back to the hamster wheel of looking for the next one that glory fades i mean even like as parents you can you can probably kid your kids into
[00:31:55] you know convincing them that you're strong and put together and awesome and that you're this perfect parent but that glory is going to fade the moment that life gets chaotic which is right around 6 30 p.m at night when it's time to try to get those little suckers to go to bed amen
[00:32:08] Like you can feel the warm glow of God's presence when things are going well, but the moment that you hit a rough week, the moment that you miss a few days in your quiet time,
[00:32:18] the moment you fall back into that old habit or that old sin, that glow and that glory starts to fade.
[00:32:26] Because the reality is that if you manufactured the glory, then it's on you to maintain it and you can't do it.
[00:32:35] Your effort and your consistency and your impressiveness might produce a temporary shine, but it's not a glory that you can keep.
[00:32:44] Because the only way to keep it is to keep piling on more pressure, which actually sends you right back into the very first ditch of trying to prove yourself.
[00:32:52] So that's the second way that we drift back into this prove yourself life.
[00:32:56] First, we carry a pressure that we can't keep.
[00:32:58] Second, we chase a glory or a pressure we can't hold.
[00:33:00] We chase a glory we can't keep.
[00:33:02] And then third and lastly, we attempt a change that we cannot create.
[00:33:08] There's a transformation that you and I cannot create.
[00:33:12] Up to this point, if we boiled it down, the apostle Paul has largely been making one point, that any change that you try to build on your own is always gonna feel like pressure and it's eventually gonna fade.
[00:33:24] But now what he's gonna do is he's actually gonna turn the corner and show us the only type of glory that doesn't fade because it's also the only glory that can transform us from the inside out.
[00:33:36] And so look at verse seven or verse 12.
[00:33:39] He says, since we have such a gospel hope, we are now very bold.
[00:33:45] He says, we're not bold because we're impressive.
[00:33:47] We're not bold because we're missionaries.
[00:33:49] We're bold because God's spirit in the new covenant lives inside of us.
[00:33:53] And that means that we have a hope that does not fade.
[00:33:56] We're bold, he says, verse 13, not like Moses who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end, but their minds were hardened.
[00:34:08] For to this day, he said, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted because only through Christ is that veil taken away.
[00:34:18] Again, under the old covenant, people could see the glow, but they couldn't see the God behind the glow.
[00:34:24] Their hearts were still covered.
[00:34:26] Verse 15, then he applies it to today.
[00:34:28] He says, yes, to this day, whenever Moses, whenever the Old Testament, whenever the old covenant is read, a veil lies over their hearts.
[00:34:37] Let me apply that to you today.
[00:34:39] If you can come week after week to the Summit Church and hear the gospel proclaimed, hear the gospel sung, watch people stand in that baptismal proclaiming new life in Christ, and you can walk out of here
[00:34:51] without it ever affecting your heart, without you ever truly submitting your life to the lordship and salvation of Jesus, there is a veil over your heart.
[00:35:01] There's a veil over your eyes, but you don't have to stay there.
[00:35:06] Praise God, look at verse 16.
[00:35:09] Look how simple it is.
[00:35:11] But when one turns to the Lord, praise God, the veil is removed.
[00:35:17] Friends, that is the experience of salvation in one sentence right there.
[00:35:21] Turn to Jesus, not clean yourself up, not prove that you're worth it.
[00:35:25] Turn to Jesus, veil removed, sight restored, glory revealed, transformation begins.
[00:35:31] I've told y'all before that my wife, when she got saved, she walked in church one person, God ripped out her heart of stone, replaced it, new covenant, heart of flesh.
[00:35:40] The veil was removed from her eyes and the way she describes it, she says, when I walked out of that church, got into the parking lot, I looked up and she said, it was like the sky was blue
[00:35:48] for the very first time in my life.
[00:35:50] She said, it was like the grass was green.
[00:35:52] She said, these scriptures, these truths that I had been hearing my entire life, all of a sudden they started to make sense even though I had heard them and known them.
[00:36:00] You know what happened?
[00:36:01] The veil was removed.
[00:36:04] She didn't clean herself up and come to church begging God to save her.
[00:36:07] She just turned to the Lord and the veil was removed.
[00:36:12] And then when you do that, listen, verse 17, because the Lord and the spirit work in conjunction where the spirit of the Lord is, what you find is not condemnation, you find freedom.
[00:36:22] Freedom from performing for God, freedom from trying to prove yourself to others, freedom from your past, freedom from shame, freedom from any sin you have ever committed, freedom from the old list, freedom from the old laws, freedom from the old pressures,
[00:36:38] freedom from the old covenant, freedom from thinking that you need to measure up to this perfect religious list in order to be accepted by God.
[00:36:45] No, you simply turn, the veil is removed, the heart of flesh is given to you, the spirit of God comes and lives inside of you, and now you walk out this Christian life empowered by Jesus.
[00:36:56] But then listen, it's not like God's like, I'll save you, then you gotta do the rest.
[00:37:04] No, no, no, no, no, that'd be bad news.
[00:37:06] Paul goes on to end chapter three, verse 18, by giving one of the most stunning truths in all the Bible.
[00:37:11] Look at it.
[00:37:12] He says, and now we all, those of us who have placed our faith in Jesus, we now have unveiled faces.
[00:37:19] We can now behold the glory of the Lord.
[00:37:22] And if that's you, look at what he says.
[00:37:24] And we all are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.
[00:37:33] What God is doing in your life, That's the word sanctification.
[00:37:38] He's sanctifying you, making you look more like Jesus, your savior, one degree of glory to another.
[00:37:45] And it's not something you manufacture or produce or transform yourself with.
[00:37:49] No, it comes from the Lord who is the spirit.
[00:37:54] Y'all, I need you to see this because if you would understand this, it will radically change the way you relate to God and the Christian life.
[00:38:03] Transformation does not just come from you trying harder. It comes from looking at Jesus longer. That's where transformation comes from.
[00:38:16] And what I want to do is I want to land this plane by giving you an illustration that I'm likely going to regret because I'm going to show you some pictures that I probably shouldn't of
[00:38:30] myself. Okay. But these pictures perfectly illustrate the point that Paul is making in verse 18. And I want that to be the point that you take home with you today. So essentially what I'm doing out of pastoral love for you, you need to know something. I'm sacrificing my own dignity
[00:38:44] for the sake of your sanctification, okay? Don't ever say I didn't do anything for you.
[00:38:48] All right. Growing up, let's just say I went through phases, okay? Like a lot of you probably did, so don't get too high and mighty. And each phase, looking back, tended to match whoever I
[00:39:06] was trying to impress at the time or whatever group of people I was orbiting at the time.
[00:39:11] Y'all know what I'm talking about?
[00:39:13] So let's just take a little journey through the life of Curtis with church appropriate pictures, all right?
[00:39:18] So go ahead and put up that first picture.
[00:39:20] My first phase, I was about seven years old.
[00:39:22] This is me on the right with the awesome bowl cut, praise God.
[00:39:26] This is my lifelong best friend, Danny Payne on the left.
[00:39:28] We met when we were like four years old.
[00:39:30] This is Danny and I, we're probably seven or eight here.
[00:39:32] We'd just been introduced to the greatest magazine of all time, East Bay Magazine.
[00:39:36] Danny and I decided that Nike was the superior athletic brand.
[00:39:40] don't come out with me that Reebok or Adidas crap, Nike all day. Well, Danny and I as best friends, man, we wanted to look the same. We wanted to do all the same things. We wanted to
[00:39:49] play the same games. We wanted to be together. And so Danny and I got, we got our parents to both get us these Nike bathing suits. And we thought we were like the coolest kids on the
[00:39:56] face of the planet. Well, that started what was kind of the celebrity athlete phase where whatever celebrity or whatever athlete we admired, that's who we wanted to be like. And so one of my very
[00:40:06] first CDs was Will Smith's Big Willie style. Getting jiggy with it, okay? On the front of that CD, Will Smith was wearing like a white tank top with jean overalls, one of the things I've
[00:40:18] done, with butter Timbs. I do not have a picture of me trying to recreate that outfit, okay? That would be starkly embarrassing. However, I tried it, looked at myself in the mirror, just thought, don't work for me like it works for Big Willie style. Didn't work. So then, man, I moved on to
[00:40:32] the athlete phase. Allen Iverson was one of my favorite basketball players at the time. Those were the only Reeboks I would ever wear. The questions are the answers. So I went to my mom with this incredible bowl cut, said, mom, can I have cornrows like Allen Iverson? Mom said, nah,
[00:40:46] not doing it. Okay. So then I was like, all right, Griffey seems a little more attainable. So I would turn my hat backwards in baseball. I asked mom for some big Oakleys. I'd cock my elbow when I
[00:40:54] was playing baseball. So kind of entered into the celebrity athlete phase. Well, fast forward a little bit, I got introduced and started hanging out with some friends that were really into like heavy metal. I mean like Slipknot, Mudvayne, Korn, Linkin Park, some of these things. Keep in mind,
[00:41:08] pre-Jesus days, right? Now, I was still an athlete, so I was still rocking that. But then fast forward, I had a little bit of an athlete hard rock face. So this is your boy at an eighth grade basketball
[00:41:19] pep rally trying to twist my hair with my LA looks extra hold, wearing, in case you were wondering, with that basketball jersey, those pants, those are what we like to call JNCOs, ladies and gentlemen.
[00:41:32] Okay, that was the heavy metal phase.
[00:41:34] Well, later on, started working at golf, like I've told you, had a nice little preppy phase.
[00:41:38] Fast forward in life, started hanging out with some people that love tattoos, had a little tattoo phase.
[00:41:42] Well, then praise God, he chose to save me.
[00:41:45] Not only did he save me, he called me into ministry.
[00:41:48] So my wife and I were like, we need to move up.
[00:41:50] I need to go to seminary, need to learn about this whole Christianity thing.
[00:41:53] Well, man, this is what I was coming from.
[00:41:55] So I was like, what do you wear at seminary?
[00:41:56] I thought you wore like, you know, three-piece suits.
[00:41:58] And so I Googled like Southern Baptist Seminary and then out came Nerd Seminary Curtis.
[00:42:06] That might be the most embarrassing picture of all for me.
[00:42:10] Notice you have never seen me in an outfit like that, nor will you ever, okay?
[00:42:14] Because that's what I thought seminary folks wore.
[00:42:17] And then I was like, man, I feel like I'm a little cooler than this.
[00:42:19] So then I tried to, I attempted like kind of this, what I thought was like cool seminary.
[00:42:23] Go to the next one.
[00:42:24] I thought this was like cool seminary.
[00:42:26] And my wife was like, nah, babe, you have one too many buttons undone, too many layers.
[00:42:29] this ain't working, ain't doing it. And so praise God, I have moved into the wifed up phase. I am in the phase of man who just simply listens to his wife and wears what she tells him to wear.
[00:42:41] Not kidding. Sent this picture to the production team, approved of by my wife, didn't realize I'm wearing that exact same outfit this weekend. 100% coincidence, hand on the Bible, okay?
[00:42:56] Not kidding. What that means, ladies, hear this, this tips free. If you tell your husband he looks is good in something, he's gonna wear that thing, okay?
[00:43:03] So I stand on stage giving my life to Christ.
[00:43:06] I'm approved of by God.
[00:43:07] My wife's right here.
[00:43:08] I know she thinks I look good.
[00:43:09] I'm good before y'all today, okay?
[00:43:11] So I wore this.
[00:43:13] Here's the thing.
[00:43:14] I did not wake up in all those seasons of my life thinking, how do I reinvent myself today?
[00:43:18] Like, no, just in every season of life, whatever or whoever captured my gaze ended up ultimately shaping my life.
[00:43:30] I would start to behold something or someone, and I would eventually start to become like them.
[00:43:38] And see, that's not just some kid going through puberty trying to figure life out in a weird phase problem.
[00:43:45] That's a human heart problem.
[00:43:47] What you behold, you eventually become.
[00:43:53] Whatever captures your gaze will ultimately shape your life.
[00:43:58] Whatever you fix your focus on will begin forming your character.
[00:44:03] whatever you behold, you eventually become.
[00:44:06] And see, this actually works both ways.
[00:44:09] Because listen, if you behold people's approval, you'll become a slave to their opinions.
[00:44:16] If you behold comparison, you become insecure.
[00:44:21] If you behold control, you become an anxious person.
[00:44:26] If you behold self-reliance, thinking I can do everything on my own, you become self-condemned from all the ways you don't measure up.
[00:44:36] But praise God, it works the other way too.
[00:44:38] Because man, if you behold Jesus, you become secure in his love that was demonstrated for you on the cross.
[00:44:47] You become settled in his acceptance.
[00:44:53] You behold Jesus, you become restful and at peace because of his sovereignty, which carries all the things that you can't.
[00:45:01] You behold Jesus and you become transformed slowly, steadily, one degree at a time.
[00:45:08] But here's the trick.
[00:45:09] You gotta keep it in that order.
[00:45:12] It's behold and then become.
[00:45:14] We can't fall back into these old covenant patterns of thinking that it's perform and then become or fix yourself and become, prove yourself and be transformed.
[00:45:25] Try harder and then you'll be transformed.
[00:45:27] That's the old covenant talking.
[00:45:29] The old covenant says, do this and live, but leaves us powerless to actually do it.
[00:45:34] The new covenant simply says, look at Jesus and live.
[00:45:39] It says, stop striving, lift your eyes, behold Jesus, fix your gaze on his beauty, his majesty, his grace, his mercy, his goodness.
[00:45:47] Fix your eyes on his work.
[00:45:49] Believe on him and you will be saved and know that your life does not transform from proving yourself.
[00:45:56] You get transformed by trusting, believing, receiving and beholding the one who already proved everything for you.
[00:46:04] You just simply turn to him and the veil is removed.
[00:46:07] The spirit will begin a transformation in your life that you could never create for yourself.
[00:46:14] But I want you to leave with today, church.
[00:46:16] I want us to be a church that beholds Jesus and becomes like him.
[00:46:21] I want you to be a people of God that lets the gospel free you from needing to prove yourself because in Christ, you need to know you've already been approved.
[00:46:30] And so, Father, this morning, I pray that we stop trying to prove ourselves and that we stop trying to earn what's already been given to us in Christ.
[00:46:38] God, I pray that we start beholding you and as we do, that you would transform us.
[00:46:45] I pray alongside the old Puritans who said, Father, what we know not, teach us.
[00:46:49] What we are not, make us.
[00:46:52] And what we have not, God, would you give us?
[00:46:55] We pray, we ask in the perfect and holy name of Jesus.
[00:46:59] Amen.