... Now What?

Good morning. I know what some of you are thinking, "Who is that?" Well, for those of you that don't know who I am, let me introduce myself a little bit. My name is Adrian Moreno and I'm the new pastor of communications here at Twin Lakes Church, which basically means I'm in charge of the things you see on print, on the screens, online. My wife and I, my wife's actually here with me, Jamie, and I moved here from Florida about six years ago and this is our family. It's our Christmas picture. I don't smile really well in pictures. That is a fake smile. And these are our daughters. Our eldest is two and a half years old. She is Ella Joy. And our youngest, who's joining us here today, is Penelope Grace and she is three months old. So, you're very sleepy. Oh, thanks. I'm pretty sleepy. She's sleepy right now. Don't wake her up. Last night was just a rough night. She woke up a lot. Anyway, so that's our family.

But you're still wondering, "Well, why, what are you doing up there?" At Twin Lakes, we're actually celebrating a unique holiday this weekend that many churches all over the world are celebrating. It always happens the weekend after Christmas and it's called Associate Pastor Preaching Weekend. For me, it's Associate Associate Pastor Preaching Weekend. But all joking aside, I am excited to be here and I'm excited to serve René in this way to give him some time off because, if you don't know, his daughter is getting married tonight. You can clap. That's clap worthy. So, please pray for him and his family. I'm just like, "I don't even want to think about that with my little girls." I'm like, "You are never dating and you're gonna never get married. Just live with us."

This is my second time up here speaking to you. Was anybody here the first time I spoke? Thank you. The first service clapped away louder for me. It must have been bad. Well, there's enough of you in here that I can't use those same jokes, so I'll use something different. But before we go on, I just want to say it is a privilege for me to stand on the stage for two reasons. One is our family loves this church and I feel privileged to be able to speak to you this weekend and that I get to share the stage with such incredible speakers that we have, like René and Mark. I mean, I've worked at a few churches, I've listened to a lot of speakers, and we are blessed at this church.

Well, we still have a couple trees left. Christmas is like holding on as tight as it can at Twin Lakes. But some of you, I know I met a couple last night, their Christmas decorations were gone 1 p.m. the next day. Nothing. Cupid was out, ready, just let's go, we're on. And you know, for a lot of us, Christmas comes and goes. You know, there's a lot of excitement and you get time off, you get presents. Some of, you know, some, I see some kids in here, your toys have already broke. You tried to fly that helicopter and it's on your roof right now. Ran out of battery, you've returned stuff. Christmas is past, right? And so the thing that is disheartening is, you know, those things go away and that's okay, we have to live our lives. But the idea of what Christmas is about, that the light has come, that Jesus came, that God Himself came as Jesus, we kind of forget about that too.

And then we wait a whole year before we think about, oh, that's right, Jesus was born, oh, that's great. What I'd like to do is look at that light, the light that has come and see that it was a singular event. It is this one event that happened a long time ago, but it changed the world. It changed our calendar, you know. And so it should have an impact on our lives, not just one time a year, but all throughout the year. And so today we're gonna be talking about change, making some changes because after Christmas, what's the next holiday? New Year's, right? And we're talking about resolutions. Some of us want to eat better or exercise more, I won't say any names. Some of us want to maybe learn a new language or some new skill. Some of us want to quit some bad habits. Whatever it is, the first of the year seems like a great time to do something new, to start a change.

I remember when I was in school, like in junior high or high school, I loved like Christmas break or summer break. It's like, this is my chance. I could be somebody else want to get back to school. This time I'll be a good student. That never happened. But we always think that the first of the year is sort of this new start and we can make some changes in our lives. And alongside all those, I think are great healthy changes. I would encourage us to think about making a spiritual change, to looking at the light that is common and letting that affect change in our lives. Because when Jesus came as a baby, and Jesus came and he grew up and died on the cross, he rose from death, he didn't do all that just for your future. Just so that you could be saved and get into heaven one day. But all that happened to change your today too.

The light has come not just for one day in the future that you can get into heaven, but it is here, it came for us to change our lives every day. And I'll be honest, for me, messages like this when I hear them are hard. Because deep down inside I suffer from this disease called legalism. Maybe some of you can relate. And if you don't know what legalism means, that basically means I need to do things to earn God's love. My legalism is deeply rooted and I'm not putting all the blame on other people for my legalism. I have some to blame, but it's not all my fault. Okay. I've talked about this before, if you've heard before, that my dad is Colombian and my mom is Korean. And if you were here, if you ever hear me speak, my mom comes up a lot for a few reasons. She's Korean, so she doesn't speak English that well, and so that's funny. And she can be a little bit wild and that gets and that's kind of funny.

And I was thinking about this, my mom's actually here today. And being nice before I mean to her. She asked me last night, "How'd it go?" I'm like, "Good, did you talk about me?" I'm like, "Of course. Was it nice?" "No." I was like, "Did you tell them, do you remember the time I saved your life?" I'm like, "No, I didn't tell them the time you saved my life. That's not funny." But I did. So I get the record straight. She, long time ago saved my life. Thank you. Here we go. I love my Korean mom. I love my, you know, I have this affinity to the Korean side of my ethnicity. And I think because in junior high and high school and college, I was around a lot of Korean. So I love Korean things. I love Korean food a lot. I love Korean television and movies. We watch it online at home. I love Gangnam style. I want to look like him. And that's Korean.

But there is this one aspect of Korean and also Asian culture that is hard to deal with. And I know it's not unique to Korea and Asia, but it's this performance-oriented way of living. You know, I have to be really good and succeed to earn the, you know, the favor and the approval of my parents, of my friends, of my country. I mean, if you ever go to like, to a, you know, piano recital, you'll see different kids up there. If you see an Asian kid up there, know that this is what's going on in their mind. I must not make a mistake because my mom is looking at me. I'm not joking. I remember talking to a musician who is, who will leave Nameless on stage here, performing. It's like, "My mom's in the front row." And I'm like, "I know how you feel." My mom doesn't, my mom, it's not that she has the greatest memory, but she remembers certain things really well. Things that I haven't done great, haven't degraded.

I'll be honest, I'm forgetful. I lose, I've lost a lot of things in my life. I've lost keys. I remember losing my dad's cell phone in the early 90s, which, you know, there was like 10 cell phones a week. I was like, "I'm not going to turn around." I was like, "This backpack." And I'm like, lost it somehow. I lost, I've lost lots of things. I remember my high school class ring. I lost that. She's already laughing. And I, my sister bought me this gold chain with a cross. I lost that. I lost my first wedding band. And I know. I know. She knows. This is like, surprise to me. So I'm forgetful. Now, my mom can't stand that. She can't stand that I lose things, especially if she bought it and it's valuable. So just recently, I was like looking for something. I couldn't find it in my house. Recently, like this past week. The "or" is that she goes, "Whoa!" So inside of her, like she's reacting now, "Did you lose something?" She goes, "You remember?" Now, when she starts a sentence, "You remember?" That's what "you le membo" is. "You remember?" I know I have to sit down and get a snack because she's about to like go on. All right? Because now what happens in Korean culture is not only are you supposed to perform, but if you don't perform, I will guilt trip you to death.

And so here it goes. "You le membo?" "You high school lean?" She's dying. This is so true. "You name some kind of blue diamond?" "I buy." "I buy my money!" "I work in my life so hard by you lean!" "You bong-bong." "You bong-bong," I'll translate. "Bong-bong" is not a Korean word. It's a description. "Bong-bong" is the sound made when I haphazardly just throw valuables away because it hits the wall on the floor and I lose them forever. "Bong-bong." It's good. They're proud of you, mom. And so she doesn't stop there. And the funny thing is if you're around, she won't talk to me. She'll talk to you and describe me. So Jamie will be there. She goes, "You know him? His sister by beautiful gold chain. Have a call of Jesus Christ. Cross!" "Bong-bong." I'm still looking. She's like, "Now what happened? What? You bong-bong? What? Oh, I found it." Like I thwarted her plan. She goes, "Oh." "You lucky." I've never talked about her this much with her in the room. Oh my gosh. This is crazy. I'm going to get it.

I grew up with that. And what doesn't help is when I became to know Jesus, that happened at a Korean church. This is not universal. Every Korean church is this way. But this one was. This one was using my mom's techniques on encouragement of perfection and guilt. And they were very legalistic. They talked about, "Yeah, Jesus loves you, but that's not the most important thing." "Yeah, get that over with. Now you have to live this incredible life." And so I remember at that church, I had to stop listening to secular music. And I couldn't watch any movies. I couldn't play any more video games. I had to throw all those things away. And I remember throwing all that stuff away. And my parents were like, "What are you doing?" And there were other things that weren't bad. I mean, we were really big on praying and reading the Bible. That sounds good, right? I mean, but we're supposed to pray hours a day. And we read the Bible like this. We read... Our goal was to read the Bible every two to four months. Maybe you have a Bible in a year plan. If we saw that, we're like, "Bible in a year?" You're not even a Christian. Bible in a year. Every two months. To read the Bible every two months, you have to read 40... I think it's 42 and a half chapters, like, to bite it out. Which is okay in Psalms, but Leviticus and Numbers... Man, those were rough days in my life. He's like, "They're great books. God, I love them. But just like bite size."

And so we had all this, but if you didn't live up to that, if you weren't doing that, then God didn't love you as much. Or He'd love you more if you did that. And so I lived this tortured life as a young Christian. That everything I did had this implication on how much God loves me. It really wasn't until I came to Twin Lakes that I really learned about grace. Where I learned that God loves me no matter what. But does that mean we just do anything? We just sin? And we don't... No. The grace of God, when you really understand that God loves you and you can't earn His love, should spur us on to live a life. That is godly. To not sin.

So we're talking about change today. And maybe you're here today and when you hear change you're like, "I have some of those legalistic tendencies too." I think the Bible clearly instructs us. Though it talks about grace a lot, it does instruct us on how to live. There are, I wouldn't call them rules, but like, you know, sort of advice. Like, "This is how you should live. If you want to live a godly life, look at this." Colossians chapter 3, you read it. "Now that you know Jesus, live like this." So there's clear instruction. But how do we look at that correctly? How do we change without falling into the legalism that I'm talking about? So that's what we're talking about today. The light has come. This incredible event came to change our lives. Now what?

Take out your message notes. They're in your bulletin. They look like this. I'm not a big, like, fill-in guy, but I tried this time, so you better fill it in. So hard. And if you have a Bible, turn to Philippians chapter 3. If you don't have a Bible, there's a Bible in front of you or maybe under you. It's going to be on that piece of paper you just took out. It will be on the screen. Or maybe you've got a new electronic device this Christmas that allows you to pull up an app, a Bible app. Go ahead. Congratulations, by the way. Philippians chapter 3, verses 12 through 14 says this, "Not that I have already obtained all this or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."

Paul is obviously calling us to make changes in our lives. He's saying, "I press on." Forgetting what is behind, if it was today, forgetting all the things that happened in 2013, those are mistakes. And I strain toward what is ahead. I strain toward the goal. And what we could do is go into this verse in detail and say, "Okay, who is Paul talking to?" and define some of these words, like, "What is the prize he's talking about?" But what I'd actually like to do is take a step back from the scripture and look at how we're reading it. How do we read this? How do we read this? Because for me, the recovering legalist, it's like, "I've got to do things to earn the prize, earn my salvation. I have to earn God's love." It always creeps back in. So how do we read this and how do we talk about change without it becoming legalism, without us trying to earn God's love?

Well, I think the first step is this, is we need to know how not to change. And how do we not change? You first fill in, try to be perfect. So what Paul says in verse 12, Philippians 3, 12, "Not that I have already obtained all this or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold, that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me." I'm not saying don't try to be good and don't try to move forward, but we can't try to be perfect because we'll never be perfect, right? And you look at Paul, Paul is sort of the, he's like my hero of the New Testament, my human hero. God used him to write most of the New Testament. God used him to spread the gospel all over the world. God used him to take the gospel to the Gentiles. So if you're here today and you're not Jewish, you hearing about Jesus and his love is because of Paul. He risked his life so many times to spread the good news. And he says, "I haven't attained this." Because what happens when you try to be perfect? You fail. If you try to be perfect, you will fail every single time.

The perfectionist here is like, "I can do it sometimes." No, you're human. You cannot be perfect. And for me, it really, that was made clear. I remember my junior year of high school, I, you know, I was a Christian at this Korean church, so I'm sort of trying to live this perfect life to earn God's love, and I wasn't doing well. My junior year, I started, I fell into some sin, I had some bad habits, I was hanging around, not the right people. And so what happens? I failed at being perfect. This is the next villain. It leads to guilt, and then I give up. This leads to guilt, and then I give up. So what happened is I felt guilt, I felt shame, and so I gave up. I still went to church to put on the facade so that people thought that I was still a Christian, or still, I mean, still a good Christian. That's what I thought, that I was still a Christian. But at home, I was like, "I'm not going to read the Bible, I'm not going to pray, I'm not going to think about God because I'm sinning too much."

And the reason I did that is because when I, I thought when I read the Bible and I prayed, I was coming close to God, and two things were happening. One is I wanted to hide my sin, so I didn't want to read and pray. And so I didn't read the Bible and pray because getting close to God, I thought, "He was disgusted at me." And so I'm like, "I'm not going to do that." And it was this downward spiral that year, I remember, and I just felt more and more into sin. And maybe you're sitting here today and you've gone through that. You tried to live a Godly life, but you failed, and you gave up. Maybe you gave up on church. Maybe you gave up reading the Bible and praying or trying to do it anymore. You failed, and you feel shame. Maybe you're sitting here today and it's like your first time back at church. I'm like, "I'm going to try it again. Oh my goodness, look what he's talking about." Maybe you think I'm going to call you out and say, "How many sins do you have today?" "Oh, get out of here!" Let me assure you, like I've been assured, that this place, that the Church of God, is for the imperfect. The Church of God is for the loser, and it is for the sinner, like you and like me.

I think there is a way to make change in our lives without trying to be perfect. How do we do that? Well, what I'd like to do today is sort of lay the groundwork, sort of begin the journey on making lasting change. I'm so excited. We didn't plan this, but René, the next three weeks, is going to be talking about change in the new series, Radical Deep Organic Change. Just like Mark said earlier, I encourage you to come out. It is going to be incredible where he dives into this issue on how we can make change. So how do we do that and how do we lay this groundwork? Well, we look at that passage in Philippians, and for me, those legalistic tendencies come up where I'm like, "I need to earn God's love." The problem is, I'm reading that passage wrong, and more importantly, I think I have the wrong idea of who God is. My perception of God is distorted.

And so the answer to taking verses out of context is, you can do that. Take a verse out of context, read it, and make up something. The answer is, read more of it, right? So let's read a little bit more. Philippians chapter 2, chapter 4, verse 12, we're going to read verses 12 and 13, and I think this is going to help us shed light on this, and how do we make change without trying to be perfect, without trying to be a legalist? Verse 12, "Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling." Okay, so verse 12 isn't a great start for me. I'm like, "Work out my salvation with fear and trembling." That's what I was doing. What I thought I was doing was working out to earn my salvation. But let's look at verse 13, and I love this verse. I feel like God's opened up this verse to me. I've read it, I don't know how many times, reading the Bible every two months, but I feel like recently he's just like, "I got it." Look at this, Philippians 2, 13, "For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose." I like, blew my mind.

So what I like to do is unwrap that verse together, turn to the next page in your notes. We're going to unwrap that verse by answering four key questions. Question number one, what's the key concept to really changing? Well, look at the beginning of that verse that says, "For it is God who works." The first thing you need to know, that I need to know, and that we need to ingrain into our brains, is that it's God that saves me and God that grows me. God saves me and God grows me. Whenever I get in those times where I wonder, in my place, you know, in light of God, my position with God, like, am I saved? Does he love me today? I'm reminded that God's love is unconditional. Ephesians 2, 8 says, "For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God." We have to remind ourselves that it starts with God. He's the one, his power, his strength is what saves us. And not only saves us, but like we're reading in Philippians, that it's his power and his strength that actually changes us and grows us.

And to me, this brings light, like, okay, now when I'm reading those other verses, it helps me see that, okay, God is calling me to do things, he's instructing me, but I do that with God's strength. That it's not all on me. Okay, so God works, and God works through us. Does that mean we just, like, lay back and don't do anything? No. Number two, how do I let God work in me? You know, some people look at our church, and we're very grace-centric. We talk about grace a lot, and they look at us and say, "You know what? You don't talk about not sinning, and you don't talk about living a godly life enough." Because we have grace, because God loves us, doesn't mean we should just sin as much as we want and do anything we want. Like I said earlier, it should spur us on to living, and in the Bible, just because God is gracious, it doesn't eliminate those phrases like "working out" and "striving forward." Those things aren't nullified.

Because we have grace, doesn't mean we just lay back. And I think there are two things that are sort of the beginning of letting God work. So these are the things that we can start doing to let God work in us. And the first is this, is to spend time with God, or spend time with Him. Spend time with Him. How do you get to know someone to know what they like and what they want or what they're passionate about? You spend time with them, right? We're all in relationships of some kind. You might be married, you're a child, you have neighbors, you run into people. Let's call that a relationship. If you wanted to get to know any of those people, you spend time with them. Jamie and I, when we were dating, she was away at college, and I was a youth pastor in the town we lived in, far enough away where we didn't see each other a lot, and so we relied on the phone. And so we would have these phone dates.

And now a phone date to Jamie was this. She would set aside a time, we would talk about, she would go to some quiet place, like her closet or somewhere where she could talk about real things, and then call me. Me was like, "Oh, she's calling me." And I would just, whatever I was doing, I'd just answer the phone, and I thought, "I'm on the phone. This is a phone date. We're together." So I remember, that's not the right thing to do, by the way. And I learned that because I remember one of our first phone dates, she calls and I had forgotten about it. I'm laying on the sofa, I'm like, "Oh, phone date time." And I was watching a movie, and so instead of turning it off, I turned on the volume. And so I'm watching the movie, I mean, having a phone date. And soon into that conversation, she's crying. I'm like, "Oh my God, what did I do?" And she's like, "You're not listening to me, you're not paying attention to me, you're not engaging in the lower tech out." And like, my phone's leaking with tears. And she was right, I wasn't engaged because I was watching a movie.

And so we learned then that we need, if I wanted to get to know this beautiful woman that I one day wanted to marry, I needed to spend time with her, and so we made sure that, "Okay, I get away and I talk on the phone." And even since then, in our marriage, I mean, like I said, we have a two and a half year old and a three month old. You know, that's a lot of stuff going on all the time. Daytime, our two and a half year old is awake, having fun. In the nighttime, our three month old is awake, having fun. So when do, you know, we have to make sure we carve out time to spend together because it's in those times where I've gotten to know Jamie and what she likes, what she doesn't like, what she's passionate about, what she's indifferent about, what she loves.

Where we've gotten to know each other, like I know that she loves the shows, "What Not to Wear" and "Say Yes to the Dress." And she knows I do not like those shows. Especially "What Not to Wear," they're so mean. Anyways, I think we can do the same thing with God. I think we can spend time with God and find out his favorite TV shows. No, really, find out what he likes, what he's passionate about, what he loves, and what he doesn't like. And we do that by talking and listening to him. And when I say that, I mean praying and reading the Bible. What a blessing it is to have the Bible. I used to look at the Bible as a book of rules that I can never live up to, to earn God's love. But you know what it is? It's the story of love for us. From the beginning of time in Genesis to the end of the age in Revelation, God is unfolding his redemption story, the redemption of the earth, the redemption of you and me through Jesus Christ, his love and his grace for us. It's that story.

And as you soak yourself up in the Word, you read the Word of God, you begin to understand who he is, understand what he's passionate about. And not only do we get to listen to him that way, but we get to talk to him. When you pray, God listens. Have you ever tried to call customer service for any company? How hard is that? It used to be easy, like you'd call and they'd answer. But now some robot, you have to like tell them the secret code to get past them to talk to somebody. But what if you wanted to talk to like the CEO of that company? It's impossible. Think about that. We can talk to the creator of the universe directly. When you pray, he listens. Look at this verse. Psalm 116 verses one through two. I love the Lord because he hears my voice and my prayer for mercy because he bends down to listen. I will pray as long as I have breath. What an incredible picture that God bends down to hear your prayers. His ears are fine. He can hear you as far away as he is. But it's just like it's the posture, you know, the picture of the posture that he has when you pray. He wants to hear what you have to say where you can tell him your heart, tell him what's going on in your life, lament and complain and ask him for things.

So spend time with God. You prepare yourself by spending time with him, reading and praying. But not only that, then we follow him. Like I said, there's clear instruction and we have to follow it. James 1:22 says this, "But be doers of the word and not hearers only." We don't just spend time with God and think that that in itself will just change our lives. We have to begin to follow what it says because he's giving you advice. Basically, this is how you should live and it would make sense to listen to God, right? I mean, if some sports person came in here that knew how to throw a ball really well, said, "This is how you throw a ball." I'd be like, "Okay, that's how I'm going to throw it." Or there might be a couple you know that has a great relationship. They've been married so long and they give you advice. You like, "Listen with bated breath." Anytime I meet parents of multiple kids and they've grown up and they're like, "Good people?" I'm like, "And they're alive?" "How did you do it?" "Please tell me." And they give me advice. I'm like, "Okay." And I like take it into my heart.

You know, when I spent time with Jamie, I've learned the things she likes and doesn't like and how I can serve her more and how I can love her. Like, if I want to surprise her, I just go to Yogurtland, get frozen yogurt, I put gummy bears in it and I present it to her. And she lights up and I turn on what not to wear and then I leave the room. Because they're so mean. We let God work in us by spending time with Him and then we follow what He says and when we do that, God starts to change us. But so there's all this doing. And so for me, that recovering legalist, again, I keep reverting back to like, "Oh, so I need to earn God's love." So we ask question number three, "So am I supposed to work or is it all about grace?" The answer to that question is yes. God is gracious and He instructs us on how to live.

It's like the difference between rowing and sailing. I've done neither of those things, but I've seen them on TV. So rowing, you do this basically, right? And reading the Bible and praying and serving God and following what He says, what I used to think were there were the oars in the water and I'm pushing myself, this is it, I'm pushing myself towards God, towards the change I want. But really, I used to think towards His love. But what it really is, it's like sailing. Now, if you're a sailor in here, you're like, "Sailing is hard work, buddy." And I'm like, "I know. I've seen it on TV." And you have to unfurl the sail, right? That's how you say it? Unfurl the sail. You pull the thingy and you do this thingy and you dodge that thingy and then you're sailing, right? Don't beat me up, sailors. They're tough guys. But it does take work, but it's a different kind of work. When you're reading the Bible, you're praying, you're following what He says, you're preparing your boat, you're preparing your sail, you're preparing yourself for the wind to push you because it's not the sailor that's pushing the boat, it's the wind.

And so for us, as we're doing that, spending time with God, and following what He says, we're preparing our hearts for God, the wind, let's say, of the Holy Spirit that dwells in us to move us to change. There's a pastor of John Piper, he's a famous author and speaker, and he said this phrase that I love. He's talking about these same verses. I love this phrase. It says, "Pursuing God doesn't change my position with God, it changes my condition." I've got to say it again. "Pursuing God doesn't change my position with God, it changes my condition." You know, I think about my mom. I might have done a lot of things in my life. I will still boom-boom a lot of things and I'm sorry. But it makes me no less of a son to her, right? I'm still her son, and I'll always be her son, no matter what I do. "Pursuing God will never make you more or less of a child of God." Romans 8:38-39. Look at this. "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future nor any powers, neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation." Paul is saying nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Once you put your faith in Christ and you become a child of God, you will always be a child of God.

It's funny though, when I was in that legalism, as in, you know, whatever, in high school and junior high, and I was doing all those things, reading the Bible, praying, and I was following God, I was trying to live the best I could. I did feel like I was closer to God. I felt like He loved me more. And I think there's some truth in that statement. I think I actually did feel that. But you know what? It wasn't God who was changing. It was me. As I read the Bible and I prayed and I followed what He said, I just had the wrong perception where I thought I was earning God's love, but I was just preparing myself for Him to move in me. And I felt that. It's because when you pursue after God, you're not ruling or pushing yourself to God. You're preparing your sales, your condition to be transformed by God.

So we have to remember that it's God who saves us, God who grows us, that to let God work in us, we have to spend time with Him and follow what He says. And don't forget that all that doesn't change your position with God. It changes your condition. And we asked the last question, number four, so why should I grow? The end of that verse says, "In order to fulfill His good purpose." The first thing is this, "I become like Christ." Why we should grow is because I become like Christ. 1 Corinthians 3, 18. "And we all who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory are being transformed into His image with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." What's going on there is basically it's saying when we think about, contemplate the Lord's glory, we are being transformed into His image. That's incredible.

And think about that. We're just thinking about Him as you soak yourself in God's Word, as you spend time with Him and follow Him. God is transforming you to become more like Christ. And not only just for you to affect change in your life, but to affect change in others. Because the second thing is, "I become a light to the world." Philippians 2, 14 and 15, "Do everything without rumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation. Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky." He works in us to fulfill His good purpose. He works in us to save us, to grow us, and then for us to shine for the world to see.

It reminds me of the story of a little boy going to Sunday school, and the Sunday school teacher comes out and brings this life-size cardboard cutout of Jesus. And she's teaching the kids, and she says, "Children, this is Jesus. Hi, Jesus. He loves you so much, and He died for you, and He rose from the dead. And if you accept Him into your heart as your Savior, He will live inside of you." And the kids are like, "Yay, Jesus. I want to come to the late." But one kid was like, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait." And he looked bewildered. He rose his hand. The teacher called on him, and he says, "So you're saying, 'Jesus, is it He, if I accept Him, will live inside of me?' Yes. That guy next to you is going to live inside of me?" Yes. And I think the teacher was like, "Are you ready to make that decision?" And he paused, and he goes, "So if He lives inside of me, won't He stick out?"

It's true. The light that has come when you put your faith in Christ now lives in you so you can be a light to the world. He sticks out. This is the bottom line. God is full of grace. And that should spur us on to want to live a godly life the best that we can, as we prepare ourselves through spending time with God in prayer and reading His Word and following what He says, and understanding that all of that does nothing on earning His love or His grace, that you will and always will be a child of God. And as you prepare yourself, as you open your sails, and God starts to push you along and transform you, He will stick out. Let's pray.

Father, I thank You for Your grace. It is amazing. And it is baffling, and it doesn't make sense, that You would love me. That You would love any of us. I thank You that Your grace and Your love isn't dependent on how good or how well we do. But God, my prayer for myself and for all of us here is that as we understand Your grace and how much You love us, that God, that would inspire us to live a life that is godly. Inspire us to move towards change. Help us, God, to spend time in Your Word to pray, to follow what it says, and to understand that You give us the strength to do it. And You love us no matter what the outcome. We thank You and we love You, and again we're grateful and we're astounded by Your grace, Your love, and Your mercy for us. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.