Colossians three 10 says, put on your new nature and be renewed as you learn to know your creator and become like him. New nature being renewed. I've got a new name written down in glory. Does anyone have any idea what we're talking about today? Yeah, talking about new. And to get us started, go back to the people you've already talked to and what's the newest thing that's coming to your life? I mean, new, new kid, new car, new shoes, new earrings. What is it? What's the newest thing that's coming into your life? Talk about it. Have a seat. Thanks guys. We are, Good morning. My name is Nathan Brown and I'm one of the pastors here at The Crossing. You can usually find me worshiping at the Fenton campus every weekend. And I wanna say hello to our Fenton campus. I also want to say hello to our Grants Trail campus, our Mid Rivers campus and our online campus. All of us doing this together is a really special thing. Now, here's one thing you need to know about me. I'm a middle child and you're like, so what? What does that have to do? Anything? Are we talking about birth order again? No, I tell you that I'm a middle child because I want you to know that I'm familiar with these three words, hand me downs, anyone else hand me downs. It's a pretty brilliant thing, you know, as a new parent, I love hand me downs because you're telling me I get to only buy something once and then never have to buy it again for any future child. It's brilliant. But growing up I received a lot of like new to me things, but not really new, you know? But it made me appreciate the really new things that, that I received, for example, yeah, I think it's tax free weekend this weekend. I remember getting a new pair of shoes before the start of every school year. And you don't have to be going back to school to appreciate a good new pair of shoes. But let's say you are, they, they complete the first day fit. They give you kind of a confidence booster walking in. My wife's actually a kindergarten teacher. She's been teaching the last eight years and for the last eight years she's still got a new pair of shoes at the start of every school year. We love new pairs of shoes at our house. Uh, but then I also remembered I played football in high school and I got a new pair of cleats at the start of the season. Maybe you remember the feeling of new cleats. They're sharp, they're shiny, they make you play just a little bit better, don't they? New cleats. Uh, and then I also played the tuba. Hold your jokes, but I played the tuba and getting a used tuba mouthpiece off of marketplace would be gross. So I got a new tuba mouthpiece every once in a while, and that new tuba mouthpiece made that tuba sound not a whole lot better. I mean, I'm not gonna lie to you, but my biggest core memory when it came to receiving something new was my first phone. I remember peeling back the screen protector and seeing my reflection in this screen that's probably never been touched by human hands before. No smudges, no fingerprints, no cracks, just a brand new screen. We love new, don't we? I think we do because that's what every company's trying to sell you, right? New. But if you're tracking with me, everything new eventually becomes old, old new, does not stay new for long, those new shoes become worn. Those new cleats become dull. That tuba mouthpiece becomes gross. And I'm lucky if I make it home from the store without dropping my phone and getting a a scratch on it. Why are we so fascinated with the idea of new? I think there's actually a spiritual component to it. I think whether you know it or not, there are parts of your life that you long to be made new. I think whether it's because of decisions you've made or maybe things that have happened to you, you feel less than not valuable. Maybe you can relate to the feeling being a little worn down, a little broken, a little cracked like a phone that's seen better days. And now you're sitting here wondering, can I be made new? You come to church and you hear songs like, I'm Made For More. I, I can have a new name written down in glory. And you're wondering, is that true? Is there really new out there for me? Maybe you're like me. You can get on board with the idea that there is something new and better out there for you. But it's like every time you take a step forward towards that new, towards that better, you remember I've made some mistakes in my past, I'm probably gonna do it again. And it's like every step forward I take, I eventually end up falling two steps back. So I'm not just gonna take any steps anymore. I'm gonna stay stuck and quiet and safe. But also if you're like me, when I'm stuck and quiet and safe, I isolate myself from other people and I just get caught in this cycle of shame, a cycle that leaves me pretty hopeless and not wanting to take any steps towards new and better. So the question I want us all to ask is new possible? And if it is possible, can I be made new? Can you be made new? We're gonna bring that question to the Bible today. We do that every weekend around here. We believe that the Bible is true, that this is how God still speaks to us today. And so to answer that question, we're gonna be looking at a verse in two Corinthians chapter five, verse 17, two Corinthians chapter five, verse 17. And if you have questions about the Bible, I want to encourage you to ask them. 'cause what I find time and time again is when I bring my questions to truth. Truth is not afraid of questions. Truth can handle any question including yours. So ask your questions about the Bible. These words in two Corinthians chapter five were written by a man named Paul. Now Paul is a very influential, uh, writer and preacher in the first century. He started many of the first Christian churches and much of the second half of our Bible that we call the New Testament, our letters to these churches. Second Corinthians is one of those letters. So Paul, apart from Jesus, I think is the most influential Christian who's ever lived. So that's some of who Paul is, but it's not all of who Paul is. Paul has a history previously in Paul's life, he did not believe in Jesus. He thought the message of Jesus was of huge distraction and did more harm than good. He thought the followers of Jesus were crazy. And so with his position of power at the time, Paul set out to persecute and even allow the murder of Christians. And you know, we talk about having questions about the Bible. I have one right now. How is that the same guy? How is it that once a person who allowed the murder of Christians becomes the most influential follower of Jesus who ever lived? Let's just be thinking about that as we hear Paul's words in two Corinthians chapter five, verse 17. Paul writes, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old is gone, the new is here. If anyone's in Christ, the new creation has come, the old is gone, the new is here. I really appreciate just with what I know about Paul and what now you know about Paul, that he's the one writing these words. He's kind of living proof that it's possible, possible to become new. To summarize what happened to Paul, he was living one way. Jesus got ahold of his life and change him. So much so that now he's living a completely different way. Paul's using the language here, new creation because he believes he is a brand new creation because he's following Jesus. Now, there's a temptation when we read the Bible, especially a really well-known verse like this, to do a number of different things. Uh, first maybe we read it from a distance because the Bible, after all was written so long ago, we aren't sure if it's relevant anymore or maybe we separate ourselves from the words that we're reading because it uses some language that we don't use today and it's a little confusing. So we just try to skip ahead to maybe something that makes more sense. Or maybe you are so familiar with these words. I've read that verse so many times. I got it. Let's get onto something that I don't know in any of those cases, by the way, I've done all of them. I'm treating the Bible like some sort of intellectual exercise with no room for the possibility of God's word to change my life. And what I've discovered, some really practical tools to help the Bible not become something I just do up here in my head. But to eventually make its way down into my heart is just really simple Bible study tools. And I want to give you one of those. I read a verse once and then ask a question and then I read the same verse again and ask a different question. And I just do this a handful of times, read something once, ask a question. So that's what we're gonna do today. We're gonna read two Corinthians five 17, ask some questions along the way and see where God leads us. But I think before we go any further, we should stop, ask him for his help. As we do that, will you join me and pray? Well, Jesus, I trust that you're already stirring something in our hearts and minds, a desire to be made new. So God, I ask now as we open up your word, would you help me? Would you help us as we read it? And I ask this in your name, Jesus. Amen. The first question I want to ask of this verse is who? Who is this verse for? If this verse is talking about new life, who is this new life for? And it tells us, right? If anyone, if you're taking notes, maybe circle, underline that word. Anyone. If anyone is in Christ, new life is for anyone. And now I've spent quite a bit of time in, in Bible college and seminary studying the original languages of the Bible, Greek and Hebrew. Two Corinthians five was written, written in Greek. And do you know what the original Greek word for anyone means? Nine o'clock. No, 11 o'clock it it means anyone. I'm so thankful. It's some things don't change. Anyone means anyone. That's really good news because you know who's included in anyone. Everyone, everyone. You, if you're hearing this, if you're seeing this, Paul wants you to know that new life is a avail available for you. It doesn't matter if you're a student or an adult, if you're single, married, divorced, if you've grown up in church or today's your first day in church, new life is for you and it's for me, but it's not just for you and for me, it's for the people in our lives that we love. Maybe you have a spouse or a child, a best friend or a neighbor that you're like, I want them to know Jesus. I want them to have a new life. It's good news because it is, it's available for them too. But if we hang out on that word, anyone for very long, there might be some people that come to mind that we're a little on the fence about. I don't know if I want them to have a new beginning. I don't know if they really deserve. And the truth is, whoever you think is least deserving of a new star, a new beginning, a new life with Jesus, whether that's you or someone else, Paul makes it clear it's especially for them. New life is for anyone. So who anyone? The next question, where if this new life is for anyone, where is it found? If anyone is in Christ, it is in Christ that you find your new life. Christ here is a title for Jesus. And last week Greg said that titles and names of God are like windows. They give us glimpses into his character. So I'm curious, what does the title Christ tell us about Jesus? That word Christ in the Greek means anointed one. Anointed one, and then the Hebrew equivalent word is Messiah. So anointed one and Messiah, to call Christ or to call Jesus the Christ would mean that you are claiming him to be this long awaited savior of God's people, the one who was promised to come and rescue them. And in the ancient biographies of Jesus, we have four of them, we call 'em the gospels, Matthew, mark, Luke, and John. The writers explicitly called Jesus the Christ about 60 times. They knew that Jesus was this promised savior of the world. And when you read those gospel accounts, you read that they not only worship him as Christ, but they worship him as God. They saw Jesus as divine. And now maybe you're here and you have questions. You're not on board yet with Jesus being divine, we're not thrown by that. In fact, this church believes that you don't have to have all of the answers to be a part of the conversation. You are invited. And however we can be helpful for you and your spiritual journey, we want to be, we want to be helpful. So let us know. But can I tell you where I've found my new life? It wasn't in a self-help genre, it wasn't in a list of religious rules. It was a living savior named Jesus who invited me to let him be the leader of my life. And that was the best decision that I've ever made. And it's an invitation that is being extended today. Are you letting Jesus be the leader of your life because he is offering you a new life, a new beginning. Jesus once said, I am the way. I am the truth, and I am the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. That's a crazy bold claim Jesus is making. But before you discredit it, just ask yourself, what if it's true? What if everything Jesus is saying he is right here the way, the truth and the life. What if those things aren't found within you or by your own doing, but actually by surrendering and trusting the one who created you, Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. And some of you right now may be thinking, Nathan has no idea. Nathan, I've had a really good year. I've made bad choices, but I'm making better choices now. I'm replacing bad habits with good ones. I've even started going to therapy. Are you saying all of that's for nothing? Is all that useless? Please hear me. All of that is so good and I know it's hard work and it's work worth continuing, but I honestly need to tell you there is a difference between life adjusting, life improvement and being remade by Jesus. There is a huge difference between making better decisions because you can make better decisions and still carry shame. You could do all the right things and still feel like something is missing. We need to be made new by Jesus. The writer of Psalm 23 says, our souls need to be restored at the very core of who we are. Everything needs to be restored. And I can't go very long without thinking about restoration. Like what comes to your mind when I say the word restoration? For me, it's cars, not just any car though. A 1979 Ford Mustang, can I tell you about a 1979 Ford Mustang? It was a transitional model cam coming off the assembly line 46 years ago. Transitional model meaning there was a very unpopular design. The Mustang two right before it, people did not like the Mustang two. And so the 79 Mustang was a redesign and people liked it, but really they just liked it more than the predecessor. And so people bought it, but it didn't become anything special. The 79 Mustang did not become a classic car or a muscle car. It became a daily driver. And just like any daily driver, these cars got driven into the ground, like worn out and eventually useless. And what do you do with the useless car? You send it to the scrap yard and that's what happened. And nobody thought anything of it. That's just what you do. Until here we are decades later looking for 1979 Ford Mustangs and realizing they're pretty hard to find. They're pretty hard to find, especially in good shape. Oftentimes you find them forgotten in a field, abandoned in a barn, rusted out, engine seized. Sometimes there's even trees growing through the floorboards. But when someone who knows cars sees a 79 Mustang, do you know what they say? I want it not because it's beautiful, but because they know what it can become. They know it's value and then they begin the restoration process. And the restoration process is so easy, guys. I mean it's so easy. You just take a car and you slap a new coat of paint on it. That's it. Somebody who restores cars is just like, uh, no. It cost me so much more. Blood, sweat and tears. Time, money. It's a process, right? Restoration process. You strip it down to the frame, you take out everything broken, you replace what's lost. And over time, over time, this car becomes transformed. It's brought back to life again. And here's what I find extremely interesting. A 1979 Mustang restored is more valuable today than it was when it was brand new 46 years ago. All of our fixing, all of our efforts to improve our own life is nothing more than a quick paint job in the long run. I don't know about you, but I don't need another spiritual or cosmetic touch up. I need a restoration, complete restoration. So my question for you now, is there a part of your life where you are wanting God to restore? It's, it can be kind of a serious question, but if you're willing to go there, would you be willing to talk to the people around you? What's an area of your life that you're wanting God to restore? And if you don't want to talk about it, that's way, okay. Just respectfully say, I don't wanna talk about it, but go and talk to the people around you. What's one area of your life you're wanting God to restore? I am so thankful. I'm so thankful that when Jesus looks at us, he looks at us and he says, you're not beyond restoration. He looks at us and says, I see value. I want you and I want to provide you with something that you cannot provide for yourself. New life, everything that you just mentioned that you want to see restored falls under the umbrella of new life. New life is actually the answer to the next question we're gonna ask. What is this verse even talking about? He's talking about new creation, new life. What is new life with Jesus? Look like? It looks like your life being changed, your life being made new, you being once lost and now being found. You being once an enemy of God and now becoming a friend of God. And the scriptures tell us, we actually become more than a friend of God. We become a child of God. A loved child of God adopted into his family. You can go from having no peace to experiencing a peace that surpasses understanding. You can go from having little to no hope in life, to having an eternal hope, spending forever with Jesus in heaven. Your eternal destiny changes according to the Bible. What was once hell is now heaven. And you can go from having no purpose in life to having a purpose much bigger than you could ever imagine on your own. Tim a a couple weeks ago taught us, when we become a new creation, our lives begin to look more like Jesus. And we become Christ's ambassadors here on this earth. Meaning wherever you go your life looking more like Jesus is showing Jesus off to a watching world. I can think of no greater purpose than to be invited in to what God is doing on this earth. We are now a part of the story that God is writing. What a privilege to be invited into that. And these are all just glimpses of what new life with Jesus looks like and it's available to all who trust Jesus and put their faith in him. So we're talking about new life, but there's another, what that's being talked about in this verse, right? There's new life, but then there's also old your old life, that life that's not working for you anymore. What has to happen to that old life? In order for that new life to come, it needs to go. The old has gone, the new is here. One translation says the old has passed away that speaks to the finality. Like your old life is gone, gone is gone. And now when God looks at you, he only sees your new life because the old is gone. And that's really good news, isn't it? When God looks at you, he doesn't see your past, your mistakes, your sin, your shame. He sees your new life in Christ. And you know how earlier we talked about everything new eventually becoming old? I think this verse tells us that's not true in God's eyes. Your new never gets old to God. Your new life in Christ never gets old to God. Why is that good news? Because I don't always feel new, do you? Golly. I mean life happens sometimes I start believing old lies about myself. These old patterns of thinking start creeping their way back in. I need to remind myself I'm a new creation and when God looks at me, he doesn't see my old self anymore. He sees new I am a new creation. The old is gone. The new is here. How is it possible? Next question. How is it possible that God no longer sees my old self? To answer that question, let's look a couple verses after. Uh, in verse 19, two Corinthians five 19, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. So in order for us to understand how God no longer counts our sins against us, we need to figure out what that word reconcile means. Reconcile means to bring two separated people together, two separated people back together, restoring friendship. We need to be reconciled with God because there is space between me and him. The Bible calls that space, that separation sin. And I'm just gonna personalize it for for a minute here. I sin for a couple different reasons. I create space between me and God a couple different reasons. First reason is I sin by choice when I know what I'm supposed to do and don't do it. I choose to sin. I choose to create more space between God and myself when I know what I'm about to do is not what God wants me to do and I do it anyway. I'm choosing to sin and I'm choosing to create space between me and God. So I sin by my choice, but then the Bible kind of backfills. I sin by choice because I sin by nature at the very core of who I am. I'm naturally wanting to choose selfishness, pride, rebellion, that nature, that sinful nature, goes all the way back to the first book of the Bible. Genesis. We read about the first humans, Adam and Eve. They were created to be in a friendship with God. And they were living in that friendship. They were living in perfect relationship with God. Creation was whole and complete. When that was happening, God loved Adam and Eve. And just like any loving relationship, there is a choice right? To love or not to love. And Adam and Eve took that choice and they actually believed a lie from Satan. The lie sounded something like, does God really know what's best for you? I think God's holding something back from you, you can choose better on your own. And so they chose to disobey God. And at that choice, that very first choice, sin entered into the human story. Now everything, I mean, we're still feeling the effects of that decision, aren't we? Everywhere we look, we see brokenness, separation, our relationship with God broken, our relationship with each other, broken. The very world we're living on, we're broken. I wanna share an illustration with you. And it may sound familiar because it was shared three Easter services ago, but it's just been so powerful. It's still ringing in my ears. Here is a piece of pottery. It's whole, it's complete. It's as the artist intended for it to look right. It's beautiful. Similarly, when God created humanity, we were his prized possessions out of everything that he created. He loved people the most. And when we were walking in perfect relationship with him, we were whole. We were complete. And then we learned. Adam and Eve, they made a decision, right? Their decision to choose their own way. And then sin entered into the human story. And now everywhere we look, I don't see wholeness. I don't see completeness. When I look at my life and I look at the world around me, I see brokenness. I see things like natural disasters, floods and tornadoes. It's a result of sin. When I look at relationships with other people, I see gossip. I see broken marriages, I see bullying. It's a result of sin. And then when I look at my own life, I see unwanted behaviors. I feel negative thoughts toward myself. All of the brokenness we see in ourselves and around us, it's a result of sin. We are broken and we need to be made new. Jesus knows this. He sees us in our brokenness. And do you know what he does? He says, I want you. I see value. I wanna give you what you can't give yourself new life. I want to make you new. And he does that by reconciling us to God, restoring a friendship with God that we were made for. See, Jesus knew that there is a price to be paid. The price of our sin, the penalty for our sin is death. And so Jesus stepped out of heaven, came to earth, lived a perfect life, and died on the cross, the death that we deserve. He died in our place making a friendship with God possible. Again, as as we read the scriptures more though we, we see that Jesus doesn't stay dead. Just there in second Corinthians, there's uh, few verses earlier verses 14 and 15, we believe Christ died for all. We also believe that we all died to our old life. He died. Jesus died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ who was, who died and was raised for them. That's just a picture like we can have new life because Jesus has life and our new life is raised and resurrected. And I think there's a beautiful picture of what our new life in Christ looks like. There's this ancient Japanese art form called Kintsugi, and it's not uncommon for beautiful pottery that is once whole and complete to fall and become broken because of the earthquakes. And so families would gather up their broken pieces of potter and bring them to a Japanese artist to make it new, to put it back together. And how they do this is pretty interesting. It's pretty surprising because if I were this Japanese artist and you should be glad I'm not, I would be using some sort of like quick drying, clear super glue because I want what's broken to look like it was before never broken, right? But the cons, Sugi artist, he does something so much better. This master artist takes pure gold, mixes it into the adhesive, and in a very slow and expensive process, puts these broken pieces back together. And what's left would look something like this, something that I think looks more beautiful than it did before. Something that I know is more valuable than it was before. And I'm thankful that our Jesus, he's a master artist in the business of making things new again. He does what we cannot do on our own. Like we try to, we try to put the broken pieces of our life back together and we will fail every time we need to be made new, completely restored. And I think that's just a beautiful glimpse of what new life with Jesus looks like. Because now we're walking throughout our workplaces, our schools, our homes, looking like that. That's beautiful. That catches people's attention, right? And now we get to tell the world I serve and follow and love. A a master artist who when he looks at me says, I want you. I see value in you and I'm going to make you new. If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old is gone. The new is here. Well, we've looked at this verse, we've marked it up, we've asked our questions. But I think there's one word, one small word that has a lot of potential impact for us. As is the case. Sometimes with scripture, the smallest words can have the biggest impact. For me, it's the word if, if we, everything that follows that verse, the new life, the areas of your life that you want Christ to come in and restore. It all depends on what you do with that word. If, if you want to be found, if you want to be saved, if you want peace, if you want forgiveness of your sins, if you want new life, it's all possible. On the other side of trusting Jesus saying, Jesus, I recognize I'm broken. I can't make myself new, but you can. I need you. Jesus, please make me new. And that's an invitation for all of us here. If you've not yet, let Jesus be the leader of your life. Maybe today you surrender, but I think there's another invitation being offered. There's another invitation being offered for people who have given their life to Jesus. Maybe you were one who was baptized 42 days ago. Maybe you've been following Jesus for 42 years and you find yourself looking at your life saying, I don't feel new. I've started believing old lies, starting old habits. I'm wondering, was the decision to follow Jesus even real? I'm not seeing much change in my life or the world around me. I can't answer some of those questions for you. But I can assure you, if you are in Jesus, when God looks at you, he sees new, there's al. There's kind of this already but not yet thing going on right now. Because in God's eyes you are new. But in your eyes it's helpful to remember you're being made new. The scripture we started out with, let's go one more time there. Colossians three 10, put on your new nature and be renewed. As you learn to know your creator and become like him in your eyes, you need to know that you're being made new. The very spirit of God living inside of you is making you new from the inside out, you are in process, you are being restored, you are being made new. May you trust that God is doing a good work in you and that he will complete it like we saying earlier. So I think there is an invitation for everyone here, a next step with God to be taken. And I want to end our time together by just giving you an opportunity to start a conversation with God. One sentence. Let's not leave here without saying at least one sentence to God. It could be maybe about something that we've talked about this morning. Maybe there's something going on in your life that you need to invite Jesus in and say, can you please make this new? And I believe Jesus is listening and that he wants to hear from you. You can call it a a prayer or a conversation. But let's just start that conversation right now. I'll pray over you. And if there's anything that resonates with you, you can pray it in your own words. Maybe you wanna close your eyes to help with distractions. You can have this conversation with God in your silently to yourself, or you could whisper it under your breath. And here in a moment, the team is going to lead us in a song. And if at that moment you wanna open your eyes or read the words on the screen, ask yourself, do I believe these words to be true? Do I want them to be true? And if the answer is yes, then maybe you stand, then you join us as we see. But for right now, let's quiet our hearts. Start a conversation with God. Well, Jesus, I don't think I believe yet, but I want to help me. Jesus, I pray for everyone right now who may be on the fence of faith. Would you provide what they need to fully surrender to you? Maybe it's some sort of evidence they're looking for. Maybe it's Christian community, maybe it's you. Would you reveal yourself to them? Jesus, I recognize today that I need to be made new. I'm broken. God, it's a dangerous prayer to pray. But I do ask that you would show us just how broken we are and how much we need you. Jesus, thank you for what you did for me on the cross. God help us. Remember, it was for me that you died. And Jesus, I confess that you are the one who made me new. You are the one making me new. Jesus. You are the one that I want to become like. I trust that you're doing this in me.