Mark: Good morning, everybody. Good morning. Well, I want to welcome everybody online today, just like they did. We're so glad you're here. And also to welcome everybody in the Family Center. Guys, we have a whole part of our church just down the hall in that room. Could we give them a big welcome this morning and tell them we're glad they're here? I think it was Pastor Diego said a minute ago, he was like, last week, obviously, we celebrated the resurrection, but how many are thankful that we don't just celebrate it one day? that it is literally the reality of the life that we get to live every single day. The resurrection of Jesus. John 11, 25, Jesus said this, said, I am, you probably memorize this as a kid, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. How many say that's encouraging today? Jesus was not only resurrected from the dead, he is the resurrection. He is the life. The resurrection is a person. I think we need to shift our mindset from just like a day to the person who is the resurrection. And because he came out of that grave, everyone who belongs to him also is going to come out of that grave too. And he not only secured our future one day, but church, ⁓ You know, He redefined our present here and now. So not only that day when you take your last breath, but today He's redefining life for us. The resurrection of Jesus changes everything about everything for all of life. So I want to encourage you this morning. Our God is a resurrecting God. He's the God of resurrection. He resurrects dead people. He resurrects dead marriages. He resurrects hopeless, impossible situations and he also saves, he delivers, I mean, I could just go on of all he is. He's so good. He's so good. He restores and he's making, like we said last week, all things new. And one day he's gonna make all things new. But that reality has begun and we get to enter into it. New creation began on that first resurrection morning. So this morning I wanna talk about I want to talk about identity. I want to talk about new creation identity. Are you ready? All right. Second Corinthians five says this. think I shared this one last week. It says, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is passed away. Behold, the new has come. In Jesus, the old has passed away and the new has come. Now I have three points again today, aren't you proud of me? This is like four times in a row that I have had some points. And if you are, you're like, I hope you have a point, right? What is the point of this message? I'm gonna get to it. But the first point is this, if you're taking notes, you don't become new, you are new. You don't become new, you are new. In the Greek, the literal translation is this, if anyone is in Christ, new creation. If anyone is in Christ, new creation. It's not just spiritual poetry, it's spiritual reality. In Christ means this, that God no longer sees you as you were. In Christ means he sees you in his son, he looks at you and when he looks in your eyes and in your face, what does he see? He sees Jesus. Your whole standing has changed. Your whole identity has changed. Your entire nature has been invaded by resurrection life. It's been said like this, heard it said something like this. It's not that God is upgrading your software, he's replacing your entire operating system. You're not the old you with some religious upgrades. See, I think that's how we get religion. The old you is not getting a facelift. You're not being improved, okay? You're being entirely made new in Jesus Christ. Becoming like Him from the inside out. That is what new creation is. Somebody might say, ⁓ I don't feel like, I don't feel like a new creation. Have you ever woke up in the morning and said, I don't feel so new today? Can I just encourage you today? And this is in regards to this, it's in regards to anything. Your feelings are not the highest authority. You know what it is? The Word of God. I want to say that again. Your feelings are not the highest authority. The Word of God is the highest authority. You might be like, hey, hey, my life actually not only doesn't feel very new, it doesn't look very new. And I'll say, hey, that might be true in some places. But do you know how transformation happens? Transformation begins by agreeing with God about who you are now in Him. Here's the truth that we need in us. If you are in Jesus Christ, new creation, turn to somebody, look him in the eyes, give him a pointy finger and say, new creation, new creation. Think about this, you guys. Think about this. Let this actually settle in. Because I think it's so easy to get in the buzz of all this, this church language and religious language, but But if you are in Jesus, new creation, new creation identity is actually central to everything in the Jesus life. We celebrated Olivia, our oldest birthday yesterday, she turned 22. And ⁓ I can't believe that I could be that old to have a 22 year old. I told her, said, my mom was 22 when she had me. I said, don't get any ideas. ⁓ When she was born 22 years ago, she didn't start a journey to becoming a Thompson. Okay, when she appeared to us, ⁓ she was a Thompson immediately. We weren't like, well, let's see how you do and then we'll see if we can give you our name. No, she came and blessed our lives. And the moment that she came into this world, she became a Thompson. and then began to live in the reality of what it is to be a Thompson. I can remember times as our kids have been growing up over the years, you'd be instructing or disciplining or whatever else, and you'd say, hey, the Thompsons don't do that. You ever do that in your family? Like, hey, honey, the Thompsons don't do it. Well, they do that, and they do that, or whatever. Well, the Thompsons don't do that. Jesus doesn't do that. You know, the new creation identity isn't a journey towards identity, it's deliverance into an identity. Let that settle. Many of us, really, we say, I'm on a journey. we'll talk about transformation another time, but many of us don't need a journey. We actually need a deliverance of mindset. You're not working towards a new identity. You're waking up to one. Okay? You're waking up to one. I think ⁓ we have a lot of Christians who don't know who they are. And if you don't know who you are, then guess what? You're not gonna live who you are. Identity comes through truth. If you don't have the truth about who you are, you're not gonna walk in your truest identity. Jesus said this, said, you know the truth, right? And the truth will set you free. Truth and freedom go together. I wanna tell you, if you're not living in the realities of the freedom of new creation, you probably need some truth. Because truth sets us free and identity comes out of truth. Romans chapter six is where we're gonna camp out most of the morning today. And I think it's one of the clearest passages in the New Testament, really on this. If you have your Bibles, you can open up. It'll be on the screen as well behind me. Romans chapter six, starting with verse one, Paul says this, says, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried. Everybody say we were buried. We were buried. Therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead, by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in the newness of life. For if we have been united, everybody say united, united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united, everybody say united, united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self, was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing. so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Come on. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once and for all, but the life he lives He lives to God in verse 11. So you, he's talking to us, you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Wow. That's packed with some goodness, isn't it, right there? Like there is freedom right there. How many know that as we read the word of God, actually, The Word of God will deliver you. Sometimes we think, ⁓ I need more information, I need more application. I'm telling you what, you sit and you read the word of God and you ask the Holy Spirit to touch your heart and pierce your heart, the word of God itself will deliver you. I'm telling you, as we just sat here, I believe truth was breaking in in your mind, in your heart and your spirit. And I believe the spirit of the Lord is setting people free right now by the power of his word. This is the good news of Jesus Christ this morning. The second point today is this death to the old means life to the new. Death to the old means life to the new. So consider yourselves dead to sin. This word consider is very, important. Paul is saying this is how you must think of yourselves. This is actually how you need to set your mind. Dead to sin. and alive to God in Christ Jesus. What he's doing here is it's a command of mindset. How many know sometimes we need to command our minds to think in a certain way? It's a command of mindset. This is who you are now. Think this way about yourself. Think this way, because this is who you are. So this is how you gotta think. He says, verse five, if we have been united with him in a death like his, we'll certainly be united with him in resurrection like his. He's talking about the baptized. He's talking about those who have surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ, gone under the waters, come up. He's talking about every person who has truly given their life to Jesus, who were buried with him in baptism into death. He says, those people, he says, if, everybody say if, if. It's like a question, if. You've been united with him, then this is your reality. If you've been united, this is who you are because of him and because of what he did. And here's what this word united means. It means our lives have actually been inserted into the very roots of his life. Paul goes into this even more in Colossians chapter three and he just says this, if you've been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above. Where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, set your mind on things above, not on things that are on earth. Why? For you have died. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Man, that's a good one, isn't it? For you have died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. What does this mean? Here's what it means. It's the best way to imagine it. a person who's become very wealthy. They become rich through their brilliance, through their diligence and their efforts. So you've got this incredibly wealthy person. Let's say they're a billionaire, okay? Billionaire wealth. Now imagine that they get married. How do all those riches come to the spouse? through a legal agreement. We could say, by grace, unless you signed a prenup. Don't do that. How many of thankful Jesus didn't make a sign of prenuptial? So these riches, kind of espouse through a legal agreement, all of a sudden, it's signed like, you're married. That's by grace. The one person who's done everything in order to amass this wealth, the second person, they just get married. It's a legal union. It's theirs. Some of you are like, I'm looking for a husband just like that. Right? Or a wife just like that. It's by grace. Okay? This is what the text is saying here, that everything that Jesus has done is now legally true of you. Now, I don't know if you're getting this because only you said yes, yes, yes. Do you get what this means? Have we become so used to this? Or do we actually have a revelation of this? This is who we are now in Him. It means our lives are now united to the past and the future of Jesus Christ. The determining factor in your relationship with God is no longer your past, but His past. How many know he has a good past? His past is not your past. His future is now your future. And the Father sees you through Jesus and he accepts you and he delights in you as he delights in his Son. This is foundational for the new creation life. Verse five says, will certainly be united in his resurrection. Certainly, it doesn't say conditionally. It says it certainly, period. That means the moment that you believe and you surrender to him, you are connected to the future of Jesus Christ. And what Jesus will do in making all things new one day, he has begun here. and now, and we get to live in it right now. This is some good theology and we need this foundation in us guys, because you know what'll happen? The days you feel this way or feel that way or the day you mess up or the day you don't feel new, I'm telling you what, you'll come back to the foundation and the foundation is the word of God. And that's exactly where you'll remember who you are. Titus 3, 5 to 7 says this, he saved us. not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us so richly through Jesus Christ our savior, so that being justified by his grace, we might get this, become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Paul's saying here, guys, the moment You become a believer, a follower of Jesus, united in Him, the Holy Spirit comes into your life. And the same Spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead lives in you, lives in you, lives in you. He's alive in you. He's making all things new. He comes into you and he begins to work in you. Hear this. You didn't just get out of jail free card. You didn't just get a pardon as thankful as I am for all those. You were united into the past and the future of Jesus Christ. And that reality, that identity makes a way for us to be new. It makes a way for us to no longer be enslaved to sin. Not one more moment, the power of sin and death we have to be a slave to. How does this happen? How does this newness come? Well, Jesus said this, said in John, when he was with the disciples in John 12, 24, he said, he said this, I've been just meditating on this this week. He said, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. Now, Jesus was certainly describing his death, but he's also describing the way that new life comes. This is how it comes forth in our lives. Remember he said, whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. So what is this talking about? The seed goes into the ground and it dies, springs up, bears much fruit. Here's what it's talking about. We have to die to who we were. We go into the ground. That's what Romans 6 is talking about. Our old self, our old way of life, our old way of thinking. All that stinky rotten old stuff. How many had some of that? goes into the ground. It dies unless a seed dies, unless you die. Life will always be about you. How many know that life about you is actually quite exhausting? Life always be about you. We love resurrection, but we resist death. How many know Jesus died, but he also invites us to follow him and die? You can't have new life without dying to the old life. And you know what you see happen all over is that people want to kind of do both. I want to tell you, you can't have both and have the resurrection life of Jesus. We were never meant to live for ourselves. It's in Him that we live. It's in Him that we move. It's in Him that we have our being. And when we get this, I'll tell you what, it's going to change everything. How many have been walking with the Lord for a long time, you'd still say like Pastor Dan said, I have, there's more. Like there's things in my life and I know there's more. I know this resurrection life is more than what I'm living. I'm telling you what, He's speaking to you today. He's speaking to you today. He's speaking to you. Somewhere between dying and springing up, something happens that actually changes our motives. You die to what you've been. And when you die to what you've been, when you spring up, then all of a sudden you're springing up to everything that He is. bearing much fruit. If it dies, it bears much fruit. So if I'm lacking fruit, the fruit of the new creation life, I probably need to die. Happy Sunday after Resurrection Sunday. Look, I thought we moved on from this death thing. No, Paul said, I die daily. Can I say that again? If I'm lacking fruit, if I'm lacking the fruit and the realities of a new creation life, I probably need to die. I probably need to die. The grain of wheat, when it dies, here's the thing, it isn't actually being destroyed. It's entering at a new phase of life, one that's far more fruitful than it ever could have been on its own. I just think that, you know, I meet with a lot of people, I just think so many don't believe that we actually have to die to what we've been. Seven times we're like, oh, we said the prayer, we're in. And then we kind of just go about our own life. No, no, no, no. You say the prayer, you're in. And then daily you say, Jesus, I want what you want, not what I want. And in that, He changes you. All of a sudden, your desires change, your longings, your loves, your taste buds change. The old me doesn't live anymore. It's Jesus now living in me. My old self has been crucified with Him. What happens is sin is no longer your master. Not because you got stronger, but because you actually died. And the resurrection power of God, of Jesus Christ lives in you. This is why we have to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God. I want to give you something that I want you to think about, and it's this. We don't work on our old self. We don't try to coach our old man. If you're united with Jesus, Your old man is dead. This is new creation identity. This is how we have to think because you can't live the new creation life with old creation mindsets. That's why it says, your mind on things that are above, not on the things that are on earth. I could say it this way, we don't become what God thinks of us unless we're thinking about what God thinks. That's why we give ourselves to the Word of God. What I'm believing, along with what I'm beholding, is what I'm becoming. And if I'm not given my thoughts to what has been made available to me in Jesus, I'm going to be living way, way, way, way, way below my privilege, way below what He paid for. Many, many people spend their lives struggling, fighting, lifestyles of sin because they're trying to make a dead man look good. So many in the church have spent years and years trying to clean up and fix the old man. Church, God doesn't want to visit your old nature. He buried it. This is not about behavior modification. It's about living from the identity that Jesus has given you. Are you with me this morning? I want to tell you, many of you could hear this message and be like, I've heard this, I know this. I want to tell you, but are we living it? Are we living it? And if you have it, then guess what? This is going to help you today because you're going to be able to pass this on and strengthen your brothers and sisters. Point number three, we live from a new identity. We live from a new identity. When Jesus saves you, when he saves you, he doesn't just hand you tools. He gives you a new nature. And your new nature hates sin. It hates sin. And you don't have to open the door to a life of it ever again. Through your new identity, the power of the Holy Spirit, you have the ability to break the reign. of sin over your old man and over your old masters that used to own you. know, Paul, in this passage, he would have been thinking back in Roman times, you know, there was this thing where, you know, if somebody got so in debt that to get out of the debt, they'd say, I'm going to go work for this person for the next five years and everything I do will be for them. then after those five years, I'll have paid off my debt and I can move on to normal life. You do that for five years living under the rule and the reign of a master like that. After those five years is up, oftentimes they would see that person out in the street and they would be fearful and they would feel that same reality that they'd felt in those five years. But the truth is, is their debt was clear. This is the reality for us, church. Jesus has cleared our debt. Like you don't owe sin a thing. You don't owe addiction a thing. You don't owe who you were a thing. And you don't have to open that door open to a life of it ever again. Somebody's getting it back there. Verse 12, he says this, let not sin, let not sin, therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life. And your members to God as instruments for righteousness, for sin will have. no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. This is freedom, church, this is life. Jesus didn't come to abolish the law, he came to fulfill it. And what happens in this is now grace empowers righteousness in a way that the law could never. Grace isn't a license to sin, it's an empowerment to be free from sin. And if grace Grace leaves you comfortable in sin. You haven't encountered grace. You've misunderstood it. He misunderstood it. Grace doesn't lower the bar. It changes your nature. And what happens is grace will empower what you are willing to do. I want to tell you what, when you have a little yes to Jesus and you say, Jesus, help me, grace will empower that yes. Every single time. I love chocolate chip cookies. Loudest amen we've had all morning. Great. I loved chocolate chip cookies. And I'll tell you this, ⁓ in my past, I used to have a problem with them. I would find them wherever they were. And probably my favorite ⁓ chocolate chip cookie in town is Architect chocolate chip cookies. Have you ever been? You know, last time I talked about, not Andy's, Jenny's ice cream and their sales just went through the roof all over the world. It's the influence I carry. ⁓ I'll tell you what, these architect chocolate chip cookies, they are so good. And I stopped eating them, you know, months ago. I wanted to say years, but that wouldn't be true. I stopped eating them months ago, right? And just haven't even had a desire for them. Because I'm like, you know, I don't like how sugar makes you feel. know what I'm talking about? It's like, oh, that'd be so good. And then you eat it, and you're like, oh, gosh, I feel so bad. anyway, so I was going through Architect Drive-Thru last week, actually. And I was just going to grab a coffee to go through. And I got to the the sign, all of sudden, I wanted a chocolate chip cookie so bad. It just came out of nowhere. And I was like, I literally had to brace myself in that moment. I was like, the coffee will be enough. The coffee will be enough. You know what I mean? Like, I'm like, literally, the coffee will be enough. And I was imagining, you know, a little cup of coffee satisfies that thing. And there's no sugar in my coffee either, but it's just, I think it's mental. Anyway, so. Like, are some of you like, I can't believe this is our pastor. I'm sorry. Just being real about this moment. So I was like, I just have to make it through the order. The speaker. If I make it through the speaker, I'll be good. And I did. And I was like, yes. I was like, the coffee will be enough. I get to the front. I just, I don't know, just because I'm like this. I told the lady, I was like, you have no idea the self-control it took for me to say no to the chocolate chip cookie. And the lady laughed, she's like, well, if it makes you feel any better, we're out anyways. I was like, yes, it makes me feel better. So anyways, we're friends with the owners of Architect and ⁓ they come to Hope here and I texted Ryan and Alicia and I was like, you have, why I do this, I don't know. You have no idea the discipline it took to say no to the, you know, I say this to them or whatever. The next day, ⁓ the day before Easter, last Saturday, ⁓ I get this little text video and it's Alicia. She's videoing herself that night. She's like, I'm breaking into ARCHE. And she opens up the door and I'm seeing her walk in there and she goes, look at these. And she grabs two cookies. And I was like, no. And anyways, Easter Sunday morning, it was an Easter miracle. They were on my chair. Can you believe that? ⁓ What is the point of that? Jesus is enough. Do you kind of pick up what I'm putting down in that story? I'm actually losing in my mind the point of that story, but ⁓ my new identity is that I don't eat cookies. And in that moment, Jesus was the cup of coffee. He's enough. He's enough. But I was remembering... that old moment of like eating the cookies and how good that would be. But then I was able to actually realize like, actually it doesn't pay off and I don't really want that. What I want is the coffee. What I want is Jesus. What I want is Him. And unless we learn to live from our new identity as a non-cookie eater, That's how it works. We'll keep going back. Like, unless we get this truth in us, we'll keep going back. We'll keep trying to fix the dead person. Have you ever tried to fix the dead person? Cycles of sin, cycles of bondage over and over, prayer after prayer, striving, striving. And here's the thing I'll tell you, like, I believe in the delivering power of Jesus Christ in a moment. I believe it. I believe in encounter. I believe that one moment in His presence changes everything. But I'll tell you what happens. If you don't get the true identity put in you at the same time, you'll go back into the cycle. And you'll think that that wasn't real. When it was real, it's just you forgot who you were. You forgot who you are. until we live from this Jesus identity that we're a new creation. I shared this story one time and I was reminded of it and I wanna share it again today. Saint Augustine, who is one of the most influential theologians and philosophers in history, lived in the late 300s, early 400s. And he came to the Lord about 31 years of age. And I love this story about him. And I just wanna share it again with you, because I think it's so powerful. ⁓ Before he was a Christian, to put it mildly, he had a problem with sexual self-control. But after he became a Christian one day, ⁓ the story is that he was walking along and one of his old mistresses showed up. And she came after him. She was one of those people that he was ⁓ very attracted to. And she wanted to pull him off into a fling, which in those days would have lasted several weeks. So she starts to try to invite him up to her place and tries to attract and attach to him. And Augustine, he just says very kindly. He says very nicely, very courteously. He's like, thank you very much. Thank you. That's great. Thank you. Glad to see you. But no, but no, no, thank you. And he starts to walk away from this lady. And suddenly it occurs to her, maybe he didn't really recognize me. And she turned to him and said, Augustine, it is I. And Augustine turned around and smiled and said, yes, I know, but it is not I. But it is not I. See, she said, it's me, Augustine. And he said, yeah, I know, but it's not me. It's not me. In other words, I'm somebody else now. I'm somebody else now. I'm a new creation now. And what used to control me, what used to be my master doesn't master me anymore. The point is, Augustine didn't manage his sin, he died to it. He wasn't merely avoiding temptation. People try and do that. That'll work for a bit. Cut off the hand, gouge out the eye, Jesus said. That works for a bit, but. But what this is bringing up is that there has to be something deeper that happened. He'd undergone a death and a resurrection and he was a new creation. Here's what I want to ask you today this morning is we're going to close in just a minute or two. When your past calls your name, your old self, that old life calls your name, whatever that is, lust, anger, greed, maybe attitude, maybe some addiction. from your past, whatever it is, when it whispers in your ear, can you say, it is not I? Can you say, it is not I? I say whether you've been walking with the Lord for decades or you've just came to faith in Jesus last week, I feel like what I'm here today to do is to remind you that you are a new creation. That you are not who you used to be. I really feel this today that somebody needs to hear this. Multiple people need to hear this. You are not. who you used to be, stop partnering with who you used to be and step into who he says that you are. Stop going back to who you used to be or even the mindset, a belief that, ⁓ this is what I have to do. I can't stop this. No, no, no, no, no. It's not the truth. Even if something from your past comes knocking on your door, guess what? You don't have to answer the door. The blood of Jesus changes everything. What He did for you changes everything. You're not your past addictions. Can I just say this? You're not your trauma. And I care about trauma. People have been through some very traumatic things. It isn't that I don't care about it. It's just that that is not who you are. You're not your last mistake. You're not your worst thought. The old you died with Christ. I want to tell you today, if you are in Jesus, you are a new creation. So what does that mean? It means that when porn calls, you can say, that's not who I am anymore. I don't care if that happened yesterday or last week. You can actually stand now because you've been equipped with the word of God today and what he says. And you can say, that is not who I am anymore. As of today, I had a revelation of new creation life inside of me and that is not who I am. When that distorted sexual desire, whatever flavor that might be that knocks on the door, you can literally say today, it is not I. It is not I. When anger arises, the unholy kind of anger, the sinful kind of anger, you can say that belongs in the grave with my old life. When that bitterness or that offense thing that's been there, that's never really been dealt with, when that thing tries to take root, you can say, no, no, no, no, I'm free. That's who I was. I forgive. I forgive. I forgive that isn't even me anymore. Yeah, that happened to me. It wasn't right. It's not excusable, but I forgive because that's who I am as a new creation. And that is who he's making me to be. Too many believers are living saved, but are enslaved. I'm telling you, it's not supposed to be. Jesus' blood paid for our deliverance. I'm telling you what, many believers are actually been delivered by the blood of Jesus, but are dressing up like dead men and dead women. Stop trying to manage what Jesus already crucified. Agree with them and say, that's dead, that's done, that's who I was. No more, no more. The cross didn't just forgive you guys, the cross ended you. Stop negotiating. with what died and start living from who you've become, a new creation. I'll tell you what, I struggled a little bit because I feel like this message is so basic, but I wanna tell you, it's so foundational that if you're not building on this, the house will crumble. It'll crumble. If you were taught that you were still supposed to sin as a Christian, you were taught out of faith to believe for the grace to change. If your life reality tells you this, you need a reality change. That's not the truth because Jesus set you free. Listen to what 1 John 2.1 says, says this, but if, everybody say if, if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. What does it say? It says, if we sin. It doesn't say, now when we sin, it isn't an expectation that we sin, it's if. What do we do? What do we do? We confess it. We repent, what does that mean? We get a right mindset and we turn and go a different direction. We come into agreement with God, we confess it, we don't hold it in secret. And what? He's faithful and just to forgive us. He's faithful and just to cleanse us. It's not talking about a lifestyle of sin. That's the old you. It's talking about moments when you bump into that old you, you confess, you turn to him and you continue to walk in the new way. How many know that's life? That's life. And we fix our eyes on Jesus. We look to Jesus. Yes, there's a place for self-evaluation, self-examination. It's important. What is coming out of my life? That is so important. But here's the thing. I'm not transformed by looking at me. Why would you look at you? You were the problem. Oh, look at you. Look at him. I'm transformed by looking at Jesus, the Lamb of God. That's how I'm transformed. As I behold him, I become like him. Why wouldn't we look at the one who overcame it all and is faithful to complete what he began in us? This is who we look. Galatians 2.20 says this, I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live. I think we have that one for the screen. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And get this, and the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God. See, Augustine, he wasn't merely walking away from sin, he was walking in union with Jesus. This new creation life is union with Jesus. It's His life in you. In a day where so much of our culture is driven by feelings and flesh, we need this truth. Identity doesn't come from your desires. It comes from your resurrection. And He reshapes and He transforms your desires. We need this truth. Can I just end with this truth? You are not what you feel. If you want to receive this, just lift your hand. I want to just, I feel like almost like a declarative moment over you. I declare this over you church. You are not what you feel. You are not your struggle. You are not your past. You are not what happened to you when you were a kid as awful and painful as that is. You are not the sum of your sexual temptation. You are not what offense and bitterness tells you that they deserve. You are in Christ and Jesus lives in you. Come on, come on. That is the truth. That is the good news of the gospel. Stand with me this morning. I wanna invite our ministry team to come again, cause I wanna just give an opportunity for anyone that just wants to receive prayer today. Maybe you're here today and you don't know the Lord and you're like, I have not surrendered to Jesus. have been away from Jesus, this team that's gonna be up here in just a minute, they wanna pray with you. They wanna minister to you this morning. And close with this thought, just real quick. When a caterpillar becomes a butterfly, it no longer crawls on the ground, right? It doesn't say, it doesn't say, I feel like crawling today. No, it flies. Why? Because it's new. Because it's new. To go back would be unnatural. Church, don't go back to crawling when you've been born to fly. Could we just lift our hands all over the room right now, just before the Lord? I thank you, Lord, for this reality of new creation. Just praying right now. I believe this is a turning point for people in the room. Things that need to be surrendered, things that need to be left. I pray over this place today. Old things that need to be left. Dead things. that need to get buried today. Things that need to be left here today. And when you walk out of this place, you walk into the place of newness, not because of your strength, but because of the Word of God and the reality of your truest identity. I pray that in Jesus' name. I pray right now that there would be a great deliverance in this room. Come on. I pray that there would be a great holiness that awakens in us. a New Testament church full of righteousness and holiness. Come on church, would you just pray? I pray that in Jesus' name, attitudes and words and negativity and all the things connected with the old life broken off in Jesus' name. I pray that we would be delivered. I pray that there wouldn't be a cycle of sin that would be able to be remaining because of your word that has gone down in us today. And I pray this over the church. I pray freedom for every captive. I pray life to be released. I pray that our truest identity would rise up within us and we would be bold in it today. And I pray that we would be humble. We would repent where we need to repent. And we would turn to you where we need to turn to you. And I pray that in Jesus' name. And everybody said, amen. Amen. Amen. Let's give him a shout of praise today for his word. God bless you, the team's gonna be down here if you want prayer, agreement on anything today, we wanna pray with you. God bless you as you go.