Gripped by Grace: The Love That Transforms Identity

[00:00:02] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:02] Good morning. My name is Juanita Sonye, and Summit has been my church home for four years.
[00:00:09] Today's sermon is going to come out of 2 Corinthians chapter 5. I'll be starting in verse 14.
[00:00:14] For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died, and died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves,
[00:00:26] but for him who for their sake died and was raised from now on therefore we regard no one according to the flesh even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh we regard him thus no longer therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation the old has passed
[00:00:45] away behold the new has come all this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to give to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation that is in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself not counting their trespasses against them
[00:01:03] and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation therefore we are ambassadors for Christ God making his appeal through us we implore you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God for our sake he made him to be sin who
[00:01:19] knew no sin, that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Thank you. This is the word of God for the people of God. Thank you. You may be seated. Some years ago, I was on death row

[00:01:39] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:01:39] just visiting. I was spending, no hyperbole here, one of the most transformative stretches of ministry in my life. I was there with a group of other NFL players at the Angola State Prison there in baton rouge louisiana they'd asked me to come in and do a week of revival meetings
[00:02:03] to the community there these inmates and i don't think revival is um is an overstatement so many of of our brothers there in the prison are coming to faith in jesus christ they've actually planted
[00:02:15] over a hundred churches at angola state prison inside the prison it's quite quite amazing well because death row inmates can't mix in with general population we what we would do is we get together in the evenings with the general population and
[00:02:29] share the good news of Jesus Christ and then we'd spend the afternoons with our brothers there in death row and I was excited to be there yes for the ministry and to get to know these individuals and we saw so many come to faith in Jesus
[00:02:45] Christ but secondarily I was excited because one of the individuals there former nfl players what happened to be one of my favorites is now a hall of famer and um i was looking for an opportunity to steal away and get some time with him and that did happen we were
[00:02:59] able on a break to sit down me and this uh this former nfl player together and and have lunch and so there we are and um i'm trying my best not to fanboy uh over him and um i just said to him i
[00:03:13] said listen man you're you're one of my favorite players and it's been great to see what christ is doing in your life and man we just spent some time together i'm just watching how you interact and
[00:03:23] the tears and but i gotta tell you that's drastically different than than what i experienced of you when when you were actually out on the football field in fact um i don't think it's a surprise for me to say to you you played with an edge not just with an edge i said please
[00:03:40] don't um please don't look down on me for being a little forward it seems as if you played with a sense of anger and he just kind of nodded his head he affirmed it so i gotta ask you where did
[00:03:53] that anger come from without hesitating he said oh that's easy came from my dad so when i was a little boy my my dad walked out on me and me and mom said what's interesting around the same time i
[00:04:12] started playing pop warner football at the same time and and he said i remember my first game looking up to the bleachers hoping dad would be there dad's not there he says i could feel the
[00:04:26] anger rising in me and something in my head says i'm going to play so hard and so well dad's going to hear about me and he'll have no other option but to show up and and see me play so i played
[00:04:37] hard i went all out and um next game i'll look into the bleachers dad's not there i'm going to play hard because i feel the anger rising in me i'm going to play so well dad's going to hear
[00:04:46] about me and he's going to come and he'll have no other choice but to see his son play and i mean that first season doesn't come that's okay next season and he says i just without thinking look
[00:04:56] into the bleachers dad's not there get angry and i'm just going to play hard because dad's going to come that never happens during pop warner later on i go to high school play my high school
[00:05:05] football team and without thinking about it before each game i look up into the stands hoping dad's going to be there dad's not there anger rising i want to play with this edge never came to my
[00:05:13] in my high school games, I get recruited, go to a D1 school without even thinking about it, man.
[00:05:18] Walk out onto the field, I'm part of the special teams, and receive the kickoff, look up into the stands, assuming dad's gonna be there.
[00:05:24] Dad's not gonna be, okay, even as a college student, I'm gonna play so hard, so well, dad's not gonna have any choice, I get drafted.
[00:05:32] Surely dad's gonna see his boy play in the NFL.
[00:05:35] I play for over a decade, and what grates on me to no end, he said, every single game.
[00:05:42] I'm a grown man.
[00:05:44] I'm looking into the stands, secretly wishing dad's gonna be there.
[00:05:48] And he never came.
[00:05:50] That's where the anger came from.
[00:05:55] He said, what drives me nuts, that thing gripped me and controlled me.
[00:06:02] And my dad wouldn't even thinking about me.
[00:06:09] What controls you?
[00:06:16] What has a grip on you?
[00:06:22] What's the organizing principle of your life?
[00:06:25] Oh, trust me.
[00:06:26] You have a thing, I have a thing, All God's children have a thing.
[00:06:30] For some of you, you can identify, cut and paste.
[00:06:33] That's my story.
[00:06:34] My mom, my dad left.
[00:06:35] Either they weren't there physically or they weren't there emotionally, man.
[00:06:38] And I'm just kind of driven.
[00:06:40] Everything in my life, subconsciously, I'm gonna prove and I'm gonna prove I'm worthy of your love.
[00:06:46] And for some of you, that father wound, that mother wound, it works in the opposite direction.
[00:06:49] What you say is some of the best dads, some of the best moms I know are that way because at some point they said, my kids will never know the pain that I felt.
[00:06:58] So I'm gonna go on the other way.
[00:07:00] It just drives them.
[00:07:02] It controls them.
[00:07:04] Others of you, that's not your thing, but maybe what controls you is people pleasing.
[00:07:11] I just, I gotta make people comfortable with me.
[00:07:16] They gotta like me.
[00:07:17] And if I don't get that, it disproportionately devastates me.
[00:07:21] Other people, what controls you is money.
[00:07:23] It's the bottom line in every decision.
[00:07:25] Yeah, I'll say a little prayer, but really the organizing principle of your life is money.
[00:07:31] It just kind of governs the way you allocate time and governs the decisions that you make.
[00:07:35] Other people, what controls you is your kids.
[00:07:37] It's not just that you're being responsible and loving and affectionate.
[00:07:41] They're kind of the sun and you kind of orbit around them, your sense of wellbeing and identity.
[00:07:46] We all have a thing, something that's gripped us.
[00:07:57] Now watch this, when we come to our text, Paul's gonna talk about the issue of control, But his argument is not, don't be controlled.
[00:08:13] Because I think Paul understands that's an impossibility.
[00:08:15] Sort of like Tim Keller, he popularized it.
[00:08:17] I'm sure he didn't come up with it.
[00:08:18] Tim Keller talks about this concept of idols cannot be removed, just replaced.
[00:08:24] Something is on the altar of our hearts.
[00:08:29] So the issue is not control, it's what is controlling you.
[00:08:33] And there's so much in this text and I'm excited to wade through it.
[00:08:38] but I think we just peel back the layers.
[00:08:42] The epicenter of our text is found in verse 14.
[00:08:50] Notice what Paul says about the issue of control.
[00:08:54] Paul says, for the love of Christ controls us.
[00:09:02] Notice Paul talks about the issue of control, but he's not going to say don't be controlled.
[00:09:07] Paul understands that's an impossibility.
[00:09:10] He's wanting us to be controlled by the right thing or better yet, the right one.
[00:09:15] Paul says, I'm controlled.
[00:09:18] And if you're in Christ, you should be controlled, not by money, not by an absentee parent, not by the approval of others, not by anything else.
[00:09:27] You should be controlled, watch it now, by the love of Christ.
[00:09:32] Now the original language of our text is in English, it's Greek, the Greek word for controlled, I love it.
[00:09:37] it means to be gripped it it means to be squeezed it's the idea of of being backed into a corner in fact this same greek word paul uses in philippians chapter 1 verse 23 where he's pulling us into this
[00:09:51] tension man man i really do want to live and i want to remain because that means fruitful labor for me but but man for me to die it means i'm in his presence and then he says this i'm hard pressed
[00:10:02] between the two the greek word there for hard pressed is the same greek word for control in our text do you see it paul says paul says i am gripped i am controlled watch it now
[00:10:19] not just by christ he says what has gripped me what i cannot get away from is the love of Christ. It's invaded my heart. I just can't step away from it. It's the organizing principle
[00:10:41] of my life. Now, I'm studying this text. I'm like, the love of Christ. Okay, that's kind of broad.
[00:10:46] Paul, do you give us any clues in this text that'll help us to get pinpoint accuracy on exactly what you mean by the love of Christ? Yes, keep on reading. Don't need to spend a day in seminary
[00:10:59] to figure out what Paul means when he says the love of Christ.
[00:11:02] Verse 14, because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died.
[00:11:11] And he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
[00:11:22] Jump down to verse 21.
[00:11:24] For our sake, he made him, the him there being Christ, to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Here is Paul. Paul says, what has gripped me, what I can't get away from, what has backed
[00:11:43] me into a corner is the love of Christ. Paul, what do you mean by the love of Christ? Here it is.
[00:11:49] Paul unpacks the love of Christ and he leads us to that glorious doctrine of the substitutionary atoning work of jesus christ that you and i sinners it's not just that we did sin we came
[00:12:05] into this world as sin romans chapter 5 paul would say sin into the world through one man that's adam it infected everybody david talks about this in psalm 51 behold i was born in iniquity and in sin
[00:12:19] did my mother conceive me this is this is the glorious doctrine of total depravity total depravity doesn't mean i'm as sinful as i could be it's not total as it relates to degree it is
[00:12:30] total as it relates to extent i'm thinking now of that great pastor friend of mine in arizona tom schrader since gone home to be with the lord he used to say if sin were blue we'd all be smurfs
[00:12:43] it colors everything about me i'm i'm i it's not just that i do it i came into this world complete by sin and racked up a pill with God I had no hopes of repaying and my sin watching
[00:13:02] now Ephesians chapter 2 says it triggered the wrath of God Paul says for we were by nature by nature objects of God's wrath if you're here today maybe you're a new believer or maybe you're
[00:13:16] not a believer you're saying wait a minute wait a minute women I thought God loved me and you're saying he's angry with me how can anger and love live in the same person oh you
[00:13:24] must not have kids no one tick you off like those precious little tax write-offs I mean in fact any therapist will tell you if I really want to know what you love let me see what you get angry over God's not indifferent towards our sin it
[00:13:49] it angers him watch it because his anger is rooted in his love here's jesus we had no way out and jesus christ came and god and his justice could not just let the bill just not get paid
[00:14:12] someone had to pay it jesus verse 21 who knew no sin the perfect spotless lamb of god became sin what does that mean our sin was put on him so that we might become the righteousness of god
[00:14:30] and what does that mean god authentically sees us watch it now as as righteous watch it because when we got saved again romans chapter 5 the righteousness of christ was cash apt to our insufficient spiritual accounts and so now he sees us through the righteousness of christ
[00:14:50] it's the glorious doctrine of the substitutionary atoning work of Jesus Christ to be clear this doctrine is not just a New Testament doctrine it's realized in the New Testament but Isaiah talked to this in Isaiah 53 look at it
[00:15:06] with me surely speaking of Christ he has borne our grief and carried our sorrows yet we esteemed him stricken smitten by God and afflicted but he was pierced for our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities upon him was the
[00:15:19] chastisement that brought us peace and with his wounds not my good works with his wounds we are healed oh we like sheep have gone astray we have turned everyone to his own way and the
[00:15:34] lord has laid on him the the iniquity of us all listen every major religion would say yes there's sin and just about every major religion wrestles with now how i'm going to pay for that what makes
[00:15:45] christianity unique is it says you can't but praise god in christ he did he paid our bill that's why you've heard this before if you've been around church for a while it's a well-used quote by that saint of a man john stott who too has since gone home to be with the lord
[00:16:06] stott said the essence of sin is man substituting himself for god while the essence of salvation is god substituting himself for man jesus in my place is the foundation of the christian life it's the substitutionary atoning work of christ okay brian i understand this now thank you for
[00:16:31] that paul is saying what's gripped to me is the love of christ paul says specifically when he's talking about the love of christ he's talking about jesus in my place the substitutionary atoning work of christ but brian practically speaking what has that love of christ done for me
[00:16:48] paul says two things one it's reconciled us all this verse 18 is from god who through christ reconciled him to reconcile this to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation i love it our sins triggered the wrath of God first John chapter 2 says that Jesus
[00:17:17] Christ his death on the cross he became our propitiation the idea is is that his death satisfied the wrath of God so if you're in Christ there is no condemnation his wrath is satisfied now watch it propitiation takes us here
[00:17:36] reconciliation watch it now takes us miles down the road past it not only did christ kill the hostility but because of christ the floodgates are open and now you and i can have an intimate
[00:17:55] real relationship with the god of the universe that that's why the author of hebrews says that that that when christ died the veil of the temple was torn in two i mean that was the only place
[00:18:08] that the high priest could go on the day of atonement but now christ has torn it into which means i don't have to be a high priest i just have to be in christ and i get to commune in the holy
[00:18:19] of holies it's reconciliation i love what what one christian writer i think it was philip yancey Philip Yancey says, the story of the gospel can be broken down into three three-word phrases from God.
[00:18:39] I love you, I forgive you, what's for dinner?
[00:18:45] What's for dinner is reconciliation.
[00:18:48] We get to sit at the table with him.
[00:18:55] But secondly, Paul says, the love of Christ that's gotten a hold of his heart, it's not only given us reconciliation, but it's made us new.
[00:19:04] verse 17 Paul says this love of Christ has gotten a hold of our hearts he says if anyone is in Christ he is a new new new creation again the original language of our text is Greek
[00:19:19] several Greek words for new one is neos n-e-o-s neos speaks of something that is new as it relates to time it's the 2025 Chevy Tahoe that is not the word Paul uses he doesn't use neos he uses kainos
[00:19:33] K-A-I, N as in Nancy, O-S.
[00:19:36] Kainos speaks of something that is new as it relates to invention.
[00:19:41] Nias is the 2025 Chevy Tahoe.
[00:19:44] Kainos is Henry Ford in the Model T.
[00:19:48] While the world just knew horse and buggy, Henry Ford comes up with something so new.
[00:19:54] They didn't have a category.
[00:19:58] He says, when the love of Christ invaded your heart and you were made new, He didn't just remodel the home that is your life.
[00:20:07] He blew up the old home and has completely made a new home.
[00:20:14] I don't know about you.
[00:20:15] This introduces a problem, does it not?
[00:20:19] Okay, I've been made new, but God, if I'm honest, your son, Brian, talking to you, when I look through the rear view mirror of not just my life, but of very recent moments in my life,
[00:20:29] there's moments in my life where I'm not acting new.
[00:20:34] I'm acting old.
[00:20:35] So how is it that I've been made new?
[00:20:38] But man, I'm acting old.
[00:20:39] Do you not see the tension?
[00:20:41] Here's how I want you to process it.
[00:20:42] The idea of this word new, it is, watch it now.
[00:20:45] Here it is.
[00:20:46] It is both positional and experiential.
[00:20:52] So when we got saved, we became the righteousness of God.
[00:20:58] So he sees us through the substitutionary atoning work.
[00:21:03] right we're completely new and now sanctification watching now it is me living into what he's already declared me to be which is new july 3rd 1999 my wife and i got married 10 30 in the morning
[00:21:17] inglewood california what a day that was right down the street from roscoe's chicken and waffles i tried to talk my wife into having the reception there she was not praying with me for those of
[00:21:30] you who are married our wedding like your wedding they pronounced on us that we're one husband and life. Those early days of marriage, the friction that Corey and I experienced was even though we had been declared one, we were oftentimes acting as two. So we've been declared one, but we're
[00:21:53] not acting into what we've been declared to be. 26 years of marriage. It is Corey and I walking out our oneness that was declared 26 years ago.
[00:22:08] When you got saved, God says, no.
[00:22:12] And I'm going to give you the Holy Spirit, Paul says in our text, as a guarantee.
[00:22:16] He's going to help you live into what he's already declared you to be.
[00:22:20] Oh, I'm thinking now that North African theologian, Augustine.
[00:22:25] I think Augustine's around the 4th, 5th century, somewhere in there.
[00:22:27] Augustine, if you've ever read him, Augustine is painfully transparent about his life prior to Christ and his struggles and he just puts all of his business out there he says I was sexually immoral I was sexually depraved I did
[00:22:40] not even try to control myself and then I get saved I'm made new and then what happens not long after getting saved and being made new he runs into an old girlfriend and this old girlfriend
[00:22:50] he says was really aggressive with him trying to tempt him and and he's dismissing her and he's rebuffing her, and she says to him, Augustine, Augustine, stop tripping. I don't think they said that in the fourth century, but you understand. Augustine, she says, it is I. Augustine responds,
[00:23:12] I know, but it is not I. You see the newness there. So I got to ask you, when you run into the old buddy that you used to party with at the frat house, do they have to take a double take? On
[00:23:42] your jobs do your co-workers say something to the effect of something's different you run into that old boyfriend that old girlfriend do they say a version of you've changed in the ways you know you're gripped by the love of christ it's changing you being made okay brian i need some more vitamin
[00:24:19] a application i i get brian that the epicenter of our text is being controlled by the love of christ I understand the love of Christ is a substitutionary atoning work of Christ.
[00:24:33] That's what Paul gets to.
[00:24:34] That's what he specifically has in mind.
[00:24:38] But Brian, how do I really know that I'm being controlled and gripped by the love of Christ?
[00:24:44] Paul tells us three practical things that the atoning work of Jesus Christ helps us with on a moment-by-moment, day-by-day basis.
[00:24:54] First, Paul wants us to understand that being controlled by the love of Christ gives us a new outlook on life and death.
[00:25:07] Listen, I understand some of you are maybe especially paranoid by this prospect of death.
[00:25:16] Listen, the older I get and what's freaking me out, I've been going to funerals of peers.
[00:25:23] Like two guys in my friend group have died within the last 12 months.
[00:25:27] I mean, that's sobering.
[00:25:31] I remember annual physicals at 25 meant nothing.
[00:25:34] 52, they start to mean something.
[00:25:39] So how does this help me process my mortality?
[00:25:43] Verse one, for we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, for in this tent we groan,
[00:26:00] longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, If indeed, by putting it on, we may not be found naked.
[00:26:06] For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened.
[00:26:13] Hear the words Paul uses to describe life on this earth.
[00:26:16] Groaning, being burdened.
[00:26:19] He's helping us to understand something we already know.
[00:26:24] Suffering in this life is unavoidable.
[00:26:27] It's inescapable.
[00:26:35] And then he uses the idiom of a tent.
[00:26:38] it's a temporary structure that's here for a moment and then it's taken down it's our bodies it's our lives one writer says um inside of every old person is a young person who looks in the
[00:26:57] mirror and wonders how that happened one celebrity says i know i'm going to die i just don't want to be there when it happens it's not to say that that we don't have some angst about death i think that's
[00:27:16] fine but paul is saying if your life is gripped by the love of christ you're not inordinately rattled by the prospect of death because while our bodies are a tent it is inside of a permanent
[00:27:35] structure paul says not made with human hands but a building made by god which means to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. I read this and forget the triteness of
[00:27:53] this analogy. I immediately, the vision that I had, I immediately went there to our little home in Memphis, Tennessee when our boys were little. They used to do something I'm sure maybe your children have done. They used to set up these forts in these tents. They used to get boxes and
[00:28:10] I can still see Miles and Quentin and Jayden get these big blankets and they'd pin them to the to the inside the cushion of one sofa they'd stretch it across an empty space and pin it
[00:28:20] inside the cushion of another sofa they'd hang out there they'd eat their snacks and cookies and watch tvs under their tent i think they'd watch the sweet life of zach and cody whatever it was
[00:28:31] shout out to that i mean they just love these tents they they love these forts but inevitably at some point it came crashing down and they'd be upset angry at times even cry but can you
[00:28:47] imagine the devastation if that was their only dwelling place oh they slept good that night because that temporary structure was inside of a much fixed permanent structure called our home so they grieved but they didn't grieve without hope it's the same way with us as believers
[00:29:12] having been gripped by the love of christ yes we we've got this momentary tent yes we're passing away, but this world is not our ultimate home. We're going, as Tremaine Hawkins says, up yonder.
[00:29:33] Soon and very soon, Andre Crouch says, we are going to see the king. Gives me great sadness, but also great joy. Later on this week, I'm going to, I've been asked to help officiate a funeral
[00:29:50] of one of our dear, precious members. Saint of a man, deep encouragement to me. Went to this campus. I think he was 96 years old when he died. Always had a word of encouragement for me. I was
[00:30:03] with the family in the hospital last week as he's fighting for his life. And I'm seeing him there on the hospital bed fighting for his life. And God bless his daughters. They had to make some really
[00:30:13] tough decisions and they're processing out loud these tough decisions. And then his one daughter says, I know my dad, he just wants to be home with Jesus. And I got in the car and headed home and
[00:30:28] it got me thinking about my kids yes I'd love to see them get married if God should so will yes I'd love to see them have grand have my grandkids if God would so will but but can it be said of me
[00:30:40] but at the end of it hey Brian just wants to see Jesus Paul wants us to understand being controlled by the love of Christ gives us a new outlook on life and death but secondly being controlled by
[00:30:58] the love of christ gives me a new outlook on my life verses 9 and 10 paul says so whether we are at home or away we make it our aim to please him for we must all appear before the underlying this
[00:31:18] phrase judgment seat judgment seat judgment seat of christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. Paul says, I've been gripped by the love of Christ. And so what that means is being gripped by the love of Christ, it now
[00:31:39] pivots me from self-centered living to God-centered living. My aim in life is to please him part of the reason for that paul now says part of the motivating factor is i'm going to stand before the judgment seat of christ the phrase there for judgment seat is the greek word bema
[00:32:01] bema bema you're looking right now at the actual behemoth seat in corinth some of you all been to corinth my wife and i've been to corinth that's the judgment seat so the people in corinth they
[00:32:12] would have thought about that that's where the judge would sit and would hear the arguments and would render a verdict paul says in christ we've received his love and we're going to appear before the judgment seat in fact paul would say this earlier to the corinthians will you look at it
[00:32:27] with me paul in first corinthians 4 says therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time before the lord comes who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart then each one will receive his commendation from god now believer in christ
[00:32:47] the judgment seat has nothing to do with whether or not we get into heaven the Bema seat is not a place of condemnation you're in you're in not because of your performance you're in because of what Christ did but Paul is helping us to see
[00:33:08] that even in Christ while we have escaped condemnation we cannot escape evaluation it's the whole idea of rewards crowns paul says first corinthians 4 everything we've done even the stuff hidden in darkness is going to be revealed the bama seat we're in best way
[00:33:35] i can explain it to you look look y'all i was the laziest student the laziest student in high school my modus operandi was what is the bare minimum i can do to get through it
[00:33:50] so here I am I graduate graduation ceremony I didn't go to a small school didn't go to a large school but it was small enough to where when we walked in I've got on my cap and gown we each get
[00:34:04] a program I noticed immediately that on this program is a list of all of us graduates I've graduated I immediately noticed that that a select few of these graduates had a certain set of symbols
[00:34:14] one set of symbols meant that Keisha graduated summa cum laude another set of symbols meant that Connor graduated magna cum laude. And then there's my name, no set of symbols. I mean, I graduated. Thank you, Lottie. So I'm sitting in graduation ceremony, do the whole tassel thing.
[00:34:35] I'm in. But you know what's interesting? This festive occasion, I'm sad because I'm looking at my name, no set of symbols. I reflect on my high school career and I have this thought, I wish I would have tried harder. I wished I would have pushed it. I wished I would have had
[00:34:59] more of a focus. Look, the point of crowns in heaven is not to parade around and brag about what I have and what you don't have. We'll all lay them at the Savior's feet. But what if that
[00:35:15] person has nothing to lay at the Savior's feet? I believe for that person, you're in. No condemnation.
[00:35:25] But there will be a level of sadness. Finally, Paul says, being controlled by the love of Christ gives me a new outlook on others verse 16 i really believe is one of the most counter
[00:35:44] cultural statements paul ever makes from now on therefore we regard no one according to the flesh it's right on the heels of him saying the love of christ has backed me into a corner it has gripped me it controls me and one of the ways i know that is from now on i regard
[00:36:14] no one according to the flesh i believe there's two applications of this let me deal with the secondary application first and then jump to the primary one i want you to process this with me
[00:36:31] for now as a first century citizen of the roman empire i call this the most counter-cultural statement one of the most that paul ever made because the whole system of rome was a caste system predicated on the flesh. You valued or devalued people based on gender. Men got all the
[00:36:56] cards and rights and privileges and women were looked down on. You were valued if you were free and really valued if you were a citizen of Rome. Slaves, not at all. You were valued if you were
[00:37:11] a certain ethnicity and jews look down on greeks and greeks look down on jews in fact paul is writing to read yourself in acts chapter 18 there's a multi-ethnic church made up of jews and greeks and to this caste system paul says if the love of christ has truly invaded your life
[00:37:28] you do not see people by those worldly categories we regard people no longer according to the flesh i want us to process this on two sides of the tape i think this this is the needed word for
[00:37:45] us unfortunately even today in the united states of america i think it's just kind of baked into all of us to value or devalue people and so i think paul is saying if you're a part of a group
[00:37:58] that your culture sinfully privileges don't you dare look down on somebody else the gospel has blown all that up in fact in galatians chapter 3 paul would say it this way there is neither jew
[00:38:14] nor greek there's neither slave nor free there's no male and female for you are all one in christ jesus he's not denying those differences in fact what's interesting you read the pauline corpus and you'll see he takes time throughout his letters addressing each of those groups but
[00:38:31] he's saying the only status that matters isn't gender isn't class isn't culture ethnicity the only status that matters is the foot of the cross so if you're part of a group that is being sinfully privileged don't look down men don't look down on women and don't leverage your position to
[00:38:52] take advantage you're not controlled by the gospel if you do that people of means who have a measure of wealth don't look down on and don't leverage that to unjustly treat the poor and people who
[00:39:09] have one ethnicity who's privileged don't use that to look down on other ethnicities no what matters is your status at the cross. But I think there's another way to look at this. If you're on the
[00:39:23] other side of that, I think to not regard people according to the flesh means do not automatically think or assume the worst in others. Women, is patriarchy and misogyny a real thing? Absolutely.
[00:39:41] I say that with sadness. But at no point should we automatically assume the worst in men.
[00:39:53] Poor people, do you have historical receipts of the rich leveraging their position and power and money to to beat you down are there cases of injustice sadly so but don't automatically assume that to be wealthy is to be ungodly or to have bad motives so my wife is half mexican
[00:40:11] half irish i'm african-american i guess that makes us a tri-racial couple we spent uh some 12 amazing years in memphis if you know anything about memphis long sad history of um of racism in memphis and so we get to memphis and um not long for planning the church when the couples from
[00:40:31] our church invited us over to their house for dinner my wife and i get there and uh um you ever walked into a place and be like something's different here and i can't quite put my finger
[00:40:39] on it well it took me about 20 minutes to realize all the couples there were interracial couples so we're sitting there at the dinner table and uh the conversation just drips into you know how hard it
[00:40:49] is and somebody says we need a support group and my wife and i got in the car we went home and we're like man amen they may need that but that's just not for us because early on in marriage my
[00:41:01] my wife and I said, if we're out to eat and someone's staring at us, I'm going to look at my shirt and just automatically assume I've spilled ketchup. It's a miserable way to live, assuming the worst in others. That doesn't mean that, you know, we're not aware of certain
[00:41:23] realities, but if unity is to reign in the body of Christ at summit, it begins with being gripped by the love of christ but the primary application isn't just that paul actually says now that you
[00:41:46] have been gripped by the love of christ verse 11 therefore knowing the fear of the lord we persuade others but what we are is known to god and i hope it is known also to your conscience
[00:42:00] paul says my heart is so controlled by the love of christ i make it my aim to persuade others this is the idea of sharing my faith or evangelism you just got to understand i grew up in a very
[00:42:14] legalistic church culture that that believed in evangelism but they they came at it through the portal of obligation and you gotta share your faith and do this and do this hear me paul comes at it another way he talks about evangelism and the ministry of reconciliation and making it our
[00:42:32] aim to persuade others but notice the context is the controlling love of christ so that evangelism is what i do in response to a heart that's been gripped by a substitutionary atoning work so the question is never when was the last time you shared your faith the question is do you love
[00:42:57] him has he hasn't gotten your heart because here's what we know we talk about what we love so if you go to a restaurant and you have this amazing meal you ain't keeping that to yourself if you fall in
[00:43:17] love someone's gonna know about it if jesus has this he has this several years ago as we close there's a an amazing film that came out called three seasons many years ago shortly after the
[00:43:40] the Vietnam War. It's about this, it's an Asian love story. The guy's name is Han. Han is poor.
[00:43:51] It's a rickshaw driver eking out an existence. He's, excuse me, his name is Hai. He's in love with a girl named Lan. The problem is Lan is a prostitute. It's the only way she thinks she can
[00:44:08] support herself. Hai would love for Lan to stop her work and be with him, but he can't support her.
[00:44:19] and Lon, the primary place where she works is at this big fancy hotel and one of her bucket list items outside of being with High is she would just love a night at the hotel
[00:44:36] without any customers and to just enjoy just a night to herself and High enters into a race as the story goes and he wins the race, gets all this money and he knows immediately what he's going to do.
[00:44:56] He purchases a room for Lon.
[00:45:01] Now what you think is, let me fast forward because it's going to be a steamy love scene.
[00:45:05] I'm sure Lon thought that as well, but it shocks you there's none of that.
[00:45:11] One critic writes this about the movie.
[00:45:13] Will you look at it with me?
[00:45:16] He has only purchased her a place in the normal world she dreams of living.
[00:45:21] And he only asked permission to watch her fall asleep in it.
[00:45:26] Slowly, comfortably, she falls asleep and he's gone by the morning having demanded nothing from her.
[00:45:30] but only the chance to fulfill her desire to belong but something snaps in her she finds she can't go back to her old job of prostitution having a experience for the first time someone who used his power to serve her rather
[00:45:48] than use her she gets a new sense of her own dignity she's not the same person she's changed by the transforming grace of selfless love that's what a window into the story of the gospel.
[00:46:09] I'm sorry, hi, but there's an even greater story of selfless love.
[00:46:16] And I hate to break it to you, we're all one, prostituting ourselves to the idols of this world.
[00:46:23] But he who knew no sin became sin on our behalf.
[00:46:31] Through him, we might become the righteousness of God.
[00:46:36] And I'm telling you, just like this critic says, you let that transforming love truly set up shop in your life.
[00:46:43] Something in you is gonna snap, can't go back new creation i'm i'm gonna live into that new creation so father in the name of jesus oh for this glorious text this glorious truth pray for anyone here today lord god who does not know
[00:47:04] you as lord and savior thank you that the message of christianity is jesus in my place thank you for the substitutionary atoning work of jesus christ that not only satisfies the wrath of god but who
[00:47:19] prompts god to say what's for dinner it opens up the table to intimate relationship with him there's no better deal in town help us Lord God to live into this thank you for the grip
[00:47:33] that you have on our hearts it's in Jesus name we pray