JAN 6 2017 | A New Creation for a New Year

Sea Change Church · "A New Creation for a New Year" · Adam Stadtmiller · January 6, 2017
2 Corinthians 5:17
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Therefore, from now on, we recognize no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him in this way no longer. For if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creature. The old things have passed away, and behold, new things have come. Now, all these things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

Namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them. And he has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God were making an appeal through us, we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Lord, thank you for this word. Thank you for Pastor Adam, and as we open this new year, as he ministers, may there be a word for us.

In Jesus' holy name, amen. Amen. Thank you, Jim. I appreciate that. Was anybody here when I called him Santa on Christmas Day? That was awesome. You're welcome. That's Mickey. If Santa talked like that, I wouldn't let him down my chimney, trust me. I hope you're doing well. I am really excited to be in 2017 here and to be the pastor of a church moving into its final decade before we hit 100 years.

I mean, that's very exciting that the Lord would put me here at this time and put us here as a generation of believers. And I often think about the generation that started, and I say it all the time, but I love our history. I'm a historian. I'm kind of a pocket historian. But in 1927, 28 people got together, and they met in a little tent. They got a loan, and they actually bought the whole block of gender, is what I understand there.

And then they couldn't afford it, so we moved to this one, which is not bad. But I wouldn't mind having the whole block over there next door. Nonetheless, they met in a tent for two years until the Episcopals gave us Mary Scripps, built a new church for the Episcopals. And they moved this one on horseback down here and on a train cart, which is awesome.

And now we're part of another generation. And I wonder what they would think now if they looked and seen all the different things, the 1950s congregation that built this and did different things. And I'm just excited about the next 10 years here, and we really as a staff and as an elder ward feel that God has opened up a window, not only worldwide, but also for our church for the next decade.

And I don't want to speak beyond that, but for a season of harvest. And we really want to lean into that. I was in San Francisco this week. I took my daughter up there in our motorhome. It was just a little me time and us time with my 9-year-old. And I was riding with all these Uber drivers because it's probably the best way to get in and around San Francisco because you don't want to take a 31-foot motorhome into Frisco, trust me.

Although I thought about it. And the conversations right now are rich. I want to say, if you want to do evangelism, just pay for an Uber ride. Like seriously, I did five. I've never done it before. Some of you drive for Uber, I think. I did like five rides. All the conversations were about God. I was with a guy that was Hindu. I was with an atheist.

I was with a woman who was Jewish. I was with another guy who was Muslim. And we just talked about God. It was so easy. And it was just rich conversations. And it kind of feels like the static that you see on social media really isn't what is happening on the ground. On the ground, there is so much low-hanging fruit in regard to great conversations about faith.

And so, yeah, it was exciting. And as we move into this new year, I'm excited. So in April, we'll be celebrating the actual 90th anniversary of this church. And I think this building, other than the missions, I'm pretty sure, next door to us, is the oldest church building that isn't a mission in San Diego. I think. I could be wrong. Let me know if you know of any different.

Well, hey, we are here talking about a new creation as we start the new year. And we're going to be talking this year. We really want to make God's word the star. The preacher is not the star at this church. The worship leader is not the star. Our Jesus in you is what we say is the star. As you go out, we're a congregationally-based church. We want to see you make a difference.

And not let what we are doing here on stage be the number one thing that we do. But your lives, where you live, making a difference. And we want to equip you with the word of God. So this year, we really want to highlight the word of God. I'm so excited about the Genesis study with Elliot. Such a phenomenal teacher of God's word. We're going to be there, Jim, doing Proverbs.

Just one of my favorite books. I almost read Proverbs every single day. Real close to reading that every day. It's so much wisdom. And then we're having one of the best known biblical apologists in the last probably 50 years come to our church next week. A little tiny church on the corner. We're the smallest megachurch in the world. And we have, we are, and we have, I want to say James Dobson, but it's not James Dobson.

Tell me, it's Josh McDowell. I don't, I'm stuck in the 80s and 90s here with my mind. But Josh is coming, and he's going to speak about biblical authenticity, which we really want to highlight the year with. From then on, in the next two weeks after that, I'm doing a talk called Stealing Eden on human sexuality. And I just, I can't wait. I've been working on this talk for about four years.

It's going to be two weeks of that. And we are going to look at the bookends of human sexuality. If you read the Bible, the Bible begins with a marriage. The Bible ends with a marriage. I don't know if you ever thought about it that way. There's two marriages. And now in between those two perfect states, which is the garden and heaven, a lot of things have gone on.

And what we're going to focus on in week one is what did it look like in the beginning? And then in week two, we're going to look at marriage, Christ and his bride, what it looks like at the end. And look about how that might affect us going forward and how we live in human sexuality. So that's cool. And then we're doing 10 weeks on Rooted. I'll be preaching through this small group series.

If you're not in a Rooted small group, we encourage you to be a part of one. It's going to be basic Christianity. But even if you're a mature believer, we're going to be talking about that. And then I'm going in to, right around Easter time, the rest of the year, King David. And so excited about the life of David. Hopefully, you want to dive into God's word this year.

Hopefully, you want to use it as a compass for your life and move on and let this year be a special year in God's word. Let me pray again. And then we will jump into this text. Lord Jesus, I want to thank you, God, for the word of God, for this generation of the church, God. People have worked to build us a place where we can meet, and we are thankful for it.

And I pray for the decade ahead, Lord, that you would just move like a ship that cuts ice in the Arctic, Lord God, and makes a path. And so we just bless you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Well, I will give a disclaimer that New Year's is my least favorite holiday. I don't even know why it is a holiday, nonetheless. Is anybody a big New Year's fan?

Anybody? You got, okay, I apologize. So we have one big New Year's fan. Right on. Two. And Zach. Okay, great. Great. Because you've been here. He's a big New Year's fan because he's been here for so many years, he said. Right. Anyway, I just, you know, Christmas is over, Thanksgiving's over. I would say for the last multiple years, I don't know how many years, I just go to bed.

9.30, 10, I tap out. Three years ago, or four years ago, my daughter, when she was 10, Lily wanted to stay up, and I did not want to do it. So around three in the afternoon, I rolled the clocks back three hours. Woo! Happy New Year! Go to bed! You did it! And she was so excited. She stayed up all the way through. I don't know if that's dishonest or not.

I know. It's a gray area. Spiritual Connie thinks it's dishonest. Yeah. Woo! I did it! I did it! I finally told her this year that she hadn't stayed up. So. I don't make resolutions. I stopped making resolutions. I just never kept them. And then I was challenged with guilt. And my resolution, I think a couple years ago, was no more guilt. And I love the song, no more guilt in life.

That's a great resolution. It's a value-based thing. But as we look at resolutions, I want to talk about probably a resolution that's a little more broad than, I'm not going to eat sugar. And I think that things like that are great. And I think, you know, I had somebody say last night that they stopped having dessert like, was it six months ago or years ago?

I don't remember what it was, but it was a long time. And they just quit having dessert because it was an issue. And I think that is really cool. I quit drinking 29 years ago. I think it'll be 30 years this year. It was a great decision. Yeah, it was cool. Oh, yeah. And so it was a great decision. But I want to pull back and do a 30,000-foot view and say, what if the decision this year wasn't so much about what you're going to do for your waistline or what you're going to do for your finances or one thing or another like that?

But it was this. I'm going to become a new creation. What would it look like to look holistically at your life and say that, what would it take to change the values which I live by to become a new creation? You know, we are a value-based church. And every year, and all the staffs, when I was on staff in different churches, we would lay our goals out.

And I had to have them. We would start at my last church. We'd start working on the goals in July. And I hated it. It was just so arduous for me. And I would, like, make stuff up. You know, they'd say, go seek the Lord. So I'd go seek the Lord. Do the best that I can. And, you know, sit there. And I believed that God spoke to me. But it was just really hard to make goals.

And so as a church here, I decided, you know, what would it look like if we didn't really set goals, but we had values that we believed in, if we had values that we followed, and we became a value-based church that is not so much about goals, about what we're going to grow to this number, we're going to have this many people in small groups, and not that we won't use that language, but what would it look like if we said, we're just going to live according to our values?

And so this year, I didn't ask the staff to come up with any goals. I don't know if they realized that. I just didn't bring it up. I didn't announce that we were going to do that. But what would it look like if we were value-led? And for the last three and a half years since I've been here, we've been value-led. And what I have found is that, and we've said this as a staff, that we have far, as a church, far exceeded any goal we would have ever realistically set.

I would say in regard to the amount of people that are experiencing the kingdom in this church, for the things that have happened with the generosity of the church, or people have gotten saved, or healing, we never would have set an audacious goal as God had in mind. That God's goals, and the scripture actually talks about goals in Ephesians 3.20.

We'll get to it in a moment. Sorry you don't have notes today. We had a skeleton staff. We gave the staff the week off, so there's no notes. But there is, Ephesians 3.20 says this, that God will give you more than you can ever, what? Hope, dream, or imagine. Meaning this, if you spent the next million years, and I'm not throwing the baby out with the bathwater, okay?

But if you spent the next million years thinking of the highest goal that you could think of, let me tell you, God's going to top that goal. That he will give you more than you can ever hope, dream, or imagine. And maybe it's less about the things you're going to do, and more about the person you're going to be, or the church you're going to be.

And let me give you an example. This week, I was going to paint the house this last week, and I was going to clean up. I was going to get all organized in the garage. I clean the garage every three months, and then it's just a mess. And like, I clean it. My daughter comes in, surfboard, wetsuit on the ground. Boom, boom, boom. You know, and it just, I don't know anybody else has a garage that just deteriorates after you clean it.

And so I had this value that, you know, I want to be organized. But I also have a value that I want to have a really good relationship with my daughter and be a great dad. And I checked the weather, and it said the weather was going to be good in San Francisco, and the motorhome was just sitting in the yard. And I saw the bucket of paint there, and I saw my daughter's sad little face.

And we had the week off. We give the staff the week off for between Christmas and New Year's. And I thought, on Monday, I thought, let's get in the motorhome. Let's go to San Francisco. And she's like, yeah, let's do it. And so Lucy and I went under the hashtag Lucy and Daddy be tripping on Instagram. And we took off. And I got to say that if I had had a goal that was in front of me to paint the house, I'm not sure I would have lived my values.

Because I'm more concerned with being a really good friend to my daughter's and to be a great dad than I care about the house being painted. Although it is so easy for me, being an A-type personality, we're going to click this and we're going to click this off. And when all these things get clicked off, then I feel good about myself. I got to say, we went and had a fabulous time.

And on the way home, she goes, you know, Dad? She goes, you're a really good friend and a great dad. And I just want to say that I realize this is so cool. She goes, I just want to have gratitude because I don't deserve a great dad. There's a lot of kids. She's nine. A lot of kids that don't have great dads and that are poor. And we have all the food we want to eat.

She goes, I'm just grateful. And I said, sweetheart, that is a great value to live by, gratitude. I said, if you can live in that place, what would it look like? And so let me just ask you this. We can just put your resolution aside. And I'm not saying to throw your resolution away because resolutions are modern-day vows. And the scripture is full of vows.

But what would it look like if you understood your values? What are the values you live by? One of the values at this church is rest. Another value is fun and play. Your values will determine how you live your life. And I want to say a value-driven life will probably get you closer to the goals or further beyond the goals you ever would have set.

Because I know a lot of organizations, especially Christian organizations, that are just killing it when it comes to their goals. They are crushing it. Their numbers are good. They are peaking. They are maxing. But they have staff cultures that burns the staff out. They turn people over. There is a trail of bodies behind them. And I've seen that. And maybe you've seen organizations yourself that are just crushing all the numbers.

But there is a trail of bodies behind them. I want to say we want to be value-led people. Jesus was a value-led Messiah. He had the values of love and peace and patience. And so as we're looking at this, I want to challenge you to reassess your values. Do you even know what your values are? Have you thought about those? Sat down. I have 10 values for my life.

Right now this church has 12. We're going to be posting the values up on there. We could have many more. But resolutions are modern-day vows. And resolutions, these vows or these decisions to make a difference or a change in your life are a starting point oftentimes. And I would say that if you're going to have a resolution, which I think are great.

And the Bible has tons of resolutions. Resolutions were starting points. And so people would make a commitment to God. They would say we're going to do something. And then they would oftentimes set up like a bunch of rocks and say this is like an altar to what we have agreed upon. And they would make covenants with God. Covenants, as Eliot spoke about, talk about friendship.

And I love that. And so when the Jews made a covenant with God, it was based on relationship. Just like what I'm going to talk about in human sexuality, that the covenant of marriage, the covenant is based on relationship. And so the value is deeper, is the roots of any resolution that you make. So the roots of a covenant have to do with the value of relationship.

And when God makes covenant, why did he make covenant? Because he wants us to follow a bunch of rules? No. That's what we are often told about Christianity. We have this arbitrary God who's draconian in nature, who just wants to take all of our fun away and kind of ruin everything and just make sure you don't have any fun and give you a bunch of rules to follow.

No. The rules have roots. The covenant has roots. The resolution has roots. And that root is relationship. And when we follow God, when we make these resolutions, let me ask you this. What is the value that is coming? One of the things I keep challenging, especially our engaged couples and the entire church as well, is the value of purity. I mean, what does the value of purity look like?

You know, one of my values, a separate one is this week I thought, you know, I have a value of health, but I'm not really living my value. And as opposed to like, well, I'm going to count the calories and do this whole thing. I just thought every day I just want to make it. What does a healthy value look like to have that be the root? Because I do want to live and have that as a value.

So once again, looking at this, and Christ saying this in this scripture, that we now are a new creation. And I want to challenge you, what would it look like in your life if you were a new creator, if you just got to recreate yourself? If you play those video games where they give you so many points and you can choose, well, I want five points of strength and nine points of courage and seven points of good cooking ability.

No, those aren't part of the game. And you can create it. I want to say we have the ability in Christ to do that. He also says in Ephesians that all the riches of heaven, every rich of heaven, every bit of heaven's power is available to you to be accessed through relationship. And so we have this starting point. And so as you're looking at your goals, let me ask the first question.

I'm going to look at verse 16. Verse 16 talks about the starting point of what you want for your life. I want to say it's really important whenever you make a decision, whether it's I want to buy a new home or I want to date this girl or a guy or whatever the thing is, to go back and try to find where that desire is coming from. To find the genesis, to use the class that Elliot is going to do, to find the genesis of why we do what we do.

And here it says in verse 16 in this idea of becoming a new creation, it says, From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. And this scripture is about sharing faith. It's about sharing reconciliation with God. But I think it does have a broader understanding that we can look at. And that is the starting point of where we begin.

Are we looking at people? Are we making decisions about people according to our own fleshly understanding? Or even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, that means before you knew him in the spirit, you only knew him because we live in the flesh. We did not live by the spirit. It is impossible to live truly by the spirit without being reconciled to Christ where the Holy Spirit comes in and guides you.

We regard him thus no longer. However, once again, this is talking about a starting point. Here's the question. With all the decisions you're making for your life, with the path of your life, whether it's that new house or that new thing or whatever it is, if you trace it back, is that decision coming from your flesh or is it being led by the spirit?

That's a huge, I want to tell you something. If you're going to get into discipleship to following Christ, knowing the genesis of your desires is a huge, huge arrow in your quiver in regard to following Christ. Why do I want what I want? I was listening last night to the radio. We were driving, actually we were driving 10 hours. I was at the Golden Gate Bridge Friday morning.

I was at my house in La Jolla Friday night. Long way to drive. And I was listening to this thing and it was like a Mercedes dealership and they're like, we have pre-owned Mercedes. And I'm like, used. And they're like, pre-owned. And I'm like, no, it's used. No, it's pre-owned. And I'm thinking that, you know, because everything is how you say it in the marketing.

And then at the end of the commercial, they're like, they're so amazing. You know, there are hardly any miles on it. And there's only two of us in the dealership that will know that you bought a pre-owned Mercedes. So what? If somebody, I mean, what's the secret that I didn't pay the 20% tax when I drive it off the lot? I think, you know, that maybe I should be applauded for buying the pre-owned one, you know?

But there was this, there was this thing of like, shh, don't let anybody ever know. Because this is the world's standards. This is the flesh. I want everyone to know that you had enough money to waste on the new one. That you didn't get the pre-owned one. And we won't tell anybody. You know, as I thought about that, because I talk about commercials a lot with my daughter.

Because it's hard to miss commercials and see the billboards. We always talk about what is this really saying? What is it actually saying? And the question we have to ask ourselves is when we have a desire is what is it, what are we, what is our flesh or what is our spirit saying to us when we want that thing? We also spent a fair amount of time, my daughter and I, watching a show called Lives of the Super Rich.

Okay? Anybody seen that show? It's ridiculous. It's absolutely ridiculous. But it's fun to watch. The one thing I noticed about everything that they owned was at the end of it they'd say, and then they sold the house. Oh, and then the yacht, it's for sale right now for $55 million. I'm like, every single thing that they wanted, that they spent all this time, it kept ending with like they sold it.

Because the scripture says this, the eyes of mankind are never satisfied. The eyes of mankind are never satisfied. Once again, if we're living according to the flesh, we're going to continue to set goals that will try to satisfy our flesh. And I want to, let me just assure you, your flesh will never be satisfied. This is one of the lessons from human sexuality.

There is no end to what the flesh will want and no line it will cross. And when you set a line, it will want to cross the next line. The scripture talks about the reason we have sin is because a rule has been set. As soon as there's a rule, we want to cross it. So you can go out as far as you want with human sexuality, as far as you want, and say, okay, that's the line.

Whatever that thing is, because everyone kind of has a line, okay? I want to say as soon as you set that line, the flesh will say, I want to go beyond that line. It will never end. It has to have rules. And when you're talking about who you want to be as a new creation, let me ask, where is that desire coming from? Is it a desire to be the person that no one knows that you bought the used car?

You know, or whatever that thing is. Do we have it? Is there a starting point from the flesh? Romans 8, 6 says this. The mind that is governed by the flesh is what? Anybody know what that says? What it leads to? Death. Let me read that again. The mind, your mind, is going to be governed, okay? Your mind has a master. It is going to be governed. And it's going to either be governed by two things.

It says it's going to be governed, the scripture says, by your flesh, which is what you want, your most carnal desires, the things that you just have to have. You know when it's the flesh, right? I don't know if anybody, do you guys know when it's the flesh and when it's the not? That's another thing for following Christ. It's a really good understanding of when this feels like it's the flesh and when I'm being led by the spirit.

There is a huge difference between the two and to tune into that. It says it's a mind that is being governed. You have a governor, like a Caesar, that governs your mind, that makes your decisions, that is by the flesh will lead you to what? Death every single time. But the mind that is governed or led by the spirit leads to what? Two things. Life and peace.

I got to tell you what, it's hard to live by the spirit. Because the spirit will tell, it'll basically tell the flesh no on a regular basis. Nope, nope, nope. I found myself, I'm really good at looking at things I want to buy on the internet. I'm really good at it. I don't know if anybody else is good at it. I sit at night, I'm looking at homes I can't afford in La Jolla.

I'm looking at my new thing, I want the 1975 F250. I like, you know, the Ford F2, right. Just a beautiful truck. Like I need that in La Jolla, right? Like a super duty truck. Like where am I going to park it? Like I have no, no, and pretty soon I realized, why do I want that? Because it's cool. Super cool. Where does that come from? And pretty soon I'm back to my Toyota.

You see what I drive? Yeah. 2005 Toyota. No offense if you have the same thing. Welcome to the club. I think this comes back to a question. It's this, in 2017. It has to be less about what you want and more about who you want to be. I mean, who do you want to be? Do you want to be kind? Do you want that? Do you want to be kind? Do you want to be loving?

Do you want to be faithful? Do you want to be loyal? I want to say loyalty is something we heard about, you know, I was in England. And as you look on the walls, loyalty, fidelity. These are things that were values in the, you know, in the, quote, dark ages. We don't hear about loyalty that much anymore. We don't hear about fidelity that much anymore.

We don't hear about purity. What would it look like if you said, no, you know, I'm not going to look at that. I'm not going to do that because I have a value. I want to be pure. I just have a value. I don't want to stain my life. I don't want, you know, because the filth of the world stains us. It changes us and it leads us to death. So what would it look like if you wanted to, it was more about what you want, less about what you want to do and who you want to be.

Peter, Peter Drucker says this in regard to like setting goals and in regard to strategy, because strategy is a big deal these days. Okay. We'll figure out the strategy analytics. If you're into sports, analytics is a big thing. Like how many free throws they shoot? How, you know, they figure all this strategy out. Peter Drucker says this. He said, culture, I mean, you know what he finishes that?

Culture does what? Culture eats strategy for breakfast. Peter Drucker, one of the greatest business minds of the last hundred years has the Peter Drucker Center up in Claremont University. He says culture will eat strategy for breakfast. Meaning this, that if you set your home, what is the culture of your home? You can have a ton of goals. We're going to get up on Monday.

We're going to do this. We're going to do that. You can have this whole thing laid out and you can have a miserable culture where your kids are miserable in your household, but you can, you can accomplish all your goals because you have arguing and you have chaos and it's a mess. But I want to say, if you have a culture, culture will produce far beyond any goal that you can ever set.

And so one of the things we're doing here as a church that you were part of, one of the things I'm doing in my family, because I feel like I lead this church is a reflection of my family. One of the things I don't want to have is a real shiny church and a sullen home. Let me say that again. I refuse to have a really shiny church and a sullen home.

This church has to be a representation, a reflection of what's going on in the home. And I would say the same for you, your business, your life, your friendships, what is happening at home needs to be the, the, the, the, um, genesis of what is happening out in your life. And we want to set a culture of love. We want to set a culture of forgiveness.

And when you get to a decision, should I do this or should I do that? It's so much easier to look and say, well, what does, what, what is the culture of this home and what decisions should we make? Two more things and we're coming in for a landing. Ephesians 3.20, I already read to you, says that God will do a medulatory more than you can ever imagine according to the power that is at work within us.

Go to verse 17. Verse 17 says, therefore, if, if anyone, anyone is in Christ. So you're no longer in the world. There's two places to be. You can be in the world, but once you receive Christ, you step into all that Christ is. It's like the fog that I experienced on the way down the coast yesterday or two days ago. You are in Christ. So if anybody's in Christ, he or she, non-gender specific, is a new creation.

The old is passed away and behold, the new has come. I guess a good question is, is what needs to pass away? Are there some things that just don't work anymore, but you keep doing them, but they just don't work. It just needs to pass away. It's not really a resolution. I'm not going to do that anymore. It's just like, you know what? This leads to death and I'm tired of death hanging out at my door.

I just know when I was 19, when I got sober, I was just sick of death. I went to the clubs at night. I'd see the clubs. There'd be all this bright lights and music. You know what? It's surrounded by death. It smells like death. And when I walk by, you know, certain clubs and I walk by, you know, I walked, we went to Felipe's Pizza and PB the other night and I walk by and I know you'll never forget the smell of the sweet alcohol, like the night after a party that's on.

Because I grew up in the bar business. We had bars. There's just a smell that they have. And to me, you know what it smells like? It smells like death to me. It might not smell like death to anybody else. It might smell like a strawberry margarita to somebody else. But to me, all I saw towards the end of it was death. Just skeletons walking around with smiles and partying.

I wanted nothing else to do with it. I want to reach out, like it says in this scripture, to be reconciled. Those old things have to go to death. Does something need to die? What are you going to crucify this? You know, it just needs to die. You just, you get sick and tired. You just, you don't want it anymore. It just has to die. It has to die. What are you going to kill this year in your life?

It's not a value I want anymore. Excess is not a value I want anymore. Lack of generosity is not a value I want anymore. It needs to die. Criticism needs to die in my life. I need to be a new creation. I am really good at being critical. You know, I'm so good at it. TV, food, whatever it is. It needs to die. What does that look like? It says the old is past.

It says there's been a completed spiritual transaction. And here's the thing. In heaven, all those things that need to die, in the spiritual terms, if you have asked Christ to follow Christ, you've told Christ, I want to follow you. Let me tell you, in heaven, there's been a spiritual transaction. Those things are dead for you. In the spiritual realm.

Now, before then, you had guilt. You had shame. They were all registered to your account. But when Christ died and you received his forgiveness, what he did on the cross, those things are empty. Now, you can still choose to live in those, but no longer that debt has been paid. It says you are a new creation. Are we going to step in to that because of that spiritual transaction that has been made?

And then finally is this. How do we do it? I think one of the keys to being a new creation is reconciling sin. Just being real honest with yourself and saying, you know what? I love this sin. I don't know if anybody ever says that. Like, do you ever talk honest to God? Like, I was talking to God in the last year or two, and I'm like, you know, God, I kind of like this sin.

Like, you know, and I was like, you felt bad. You know, you feel like kind of scared to say something like that. You know what I mean? Because it's God, and he's going to like strike you down. I'm like, I kind of like it, and I kind of don't want to stop. I'm kind of into it. This is my thing, and you're getting in my way here, and I just want to say to you, you're going to have to get me to a point where I want to stop, but I'm willing for you to get me there.

That was a big deal for me. That was the 1% that Kai talked about. I didn't want to give it up, but I'm like, you know, God, I'll go 1% and at least say I'm willing to allow you to get me to the place where I do want to give it up. That's a great start for following Christ. It was a great start. I would say, God has continued to work on my life.

Sin is fun for a time, but sin leads to death for a season, and sin leads to death. And some of us are quicker at moving on to death than others. I was really good at moving to death in my younger days. I want to say reconciliation is a great starting point. Reconciliation with God. You've already been reconciled, but to go back and say, I confess, God, that I like this sin, that I'm sinning here, start me over again.

That's one of the best things about Christian spirituality, the ability to be forgiven completely for whatever has happened in the past. And God each time saying, I will remember it like the east is from the west. Your balance is clean. You are completely set to move forward. And so here's my challenge for you as we end this year. Make 17 about your core.

Make 2017 about a value-driven life. Some of you will get your resolutions done, and that's awesome, and you should do them, and those are great vows. But make it about the person you want to be. Think about the values you want to have, the values of forgiveness and kindness, and begin to make decisions based upon your values. I have found that nothing has shaped my spiritual life and following Christ from when I stopped trying to click the boxes of all the things I should do, and I just said, I want to have a value of following Christ and do the best I can to have love and peace and joy.

And when a situation comes up, just to be able to say to myself, you know what, I value generosity. I'm going to help this person on the street that needs help. I value forgiveness. I'm going to go say I'm sorry. I'm going to give forgiveness to somebody. It is a new thing and a new value. Amen? Amen.