- Lord we thank you for your goodness. We thank you for your grace. We thank you for life that you have given to us, physical life yes, but spiritual life as we look at today an incredible topic of transformation. Guide as now as we open your Word. Work in and through us, and may we see the truth that you have for us. It's in Christ's name that we pray, amen. Well today we 're gonna talk about one of the most exciting topics within our series, The Unshakeable Truth. We've really laid the groundwork to this point, and today we're gonna talk about what it means to live the transformed life. And particularly focusing on your new identity. We've spent the last couple of weeks talking about some massive truths about how Jesus Christ was our substitutionary atonement. It was a big concept if you're not familiar with it, go back online, access the messages. But it simply means that Jesus Christ came and died for you and rose from the grave so you can have a relationship with God. It's the only way. And as a result of that we've been made right with God the moment we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ. But now we begin to turn the corner and talk about how we line up our life on the outside with what has happened on the inside. We used to live, as many of you know, in California. And we lived on the Central Coast of California, and I hate to say it especially now when it's so stinking cold out, we lived 16 blocks from the ocean. It was pretty cool. So I could get in my car and I could drive down Grand Avenue, and bam, there was the ocean. You take a right on Highway 1, and just off to the left about a mile down was this incredible place called the Monarch Grove. And there were these massive eucalyptus trees, so it smelled incredible. And as you began to walk through these trees, there were literally thousands and thousands of butterflies flying around. They were hanging out in all the trees up above. Here's a closer picture. And they were just hanging up there. And as you walked through with your kids, we had little kids at this point, they would land on you. And kids love butterflies, right? And you could take a look, and these weren't these little ones, these were massive butterflies, the monarchs. And I did not know this, but they actually go through seasons of migration. They would migrate from where we used to live down to Mexico and back. Kind of like the geese, but they're a whole lot prettier than geese, okay. Now they didn't start out this way, as many of you know the process. They start out as these little itty bitty caterpillars that crawl around. What we did one year is an experiment with our kids. We got a plexiglass container, and we put little caterpillars inside of it with leaves and plants and branches so that the little caterpillar could actually at the leaves, and then they'd form a cocoon, which looks somewhat like these two cocoons here, and then they went through this incredible process of what, you know it, because of your science classes, metamorphosis, right? There was a dynamic change that happened and the butterflies would come out and then we would release them. Here's what it looks like as the monarch is actually coming out of the cocoon and then there's this beautiful process of transformation, and it is the butterfly that actually brings more life. It's not only beautiful, but it pollinates other plans so that life continues to grow. It's a wonderful picture of the transformation that happens inside of us. As a matter of fact Paul actually uses this concept in this verse in Romans Chapter 12 verse two where he has just described everything that's happened to you in Jesus Christ, and then he adds this verse starting in Chapter 12 verse two he says do not be conformed to the world that you've been saved out of, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. So in other words this process of transformation has to happen as you begin to put God's truth in your mind. That's why we've taken the next year to deal with this series called The Unshakeable Truth. Let's start thinking biblically. So it happens as you renew your mind that by testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good, acceptable and perfect. So the renewal of our mind, based on the transformation process allows us to see the truth of God's will and how we should live our life. Now it's fascinating because the word translated transform, when you go back to the original language, it actually sounds like, and it's the word we get our English word from, metamorphosis. That's the idea. So his whole point it, you're a caterpillar whether you like it or not, Paul says, okay? And then you go through a process of metamorphosis, of change. So that, he says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, the moment you come to know Christ as Savior, therefore, based on your trust in Him, anyone is in Christ, he is what, look at what it says. A new creation. The old's passed away, behold new has come. You are now going through a process whereby there is change happening in you. It's already happened on the inside. You may not have sensed it, felt it. I mean it didn't feel like your arms were getting longer, your legs were getting longer, but there was a new heart given to you, and as a result of that, now you're going through the process of being changed practically in this world to be like Christ. The purpose in life now is to honor Jesus Christ. To live in relationship with Him and become more like Him. That's why this is the truth we're gonna look at over the next two weeks. We believe the truth that followers of Christ are meant to live in relationship with God and be transformed, going through the process of metamorphosis, lining up the outside with what has already happened on the inside, into the likeness of Christ, which defines our very purpose for living, to honor and to glorify Him. Now in order to do that, we're gonna go back into the Word. At Rockpoint if you're new, you joined us over the winter, perhaps you're here, we teach from God's Word. I make a point of that. We wanna go back to what the Bible says, because that contains the truth for us. So now I want you to take your Bibles out. I want you to go to a fascinating book. If you've never read it, you'll get a little taste today. I would encourage you to do it his next week. It's the books of Ephesians. I want you to locate Chapter 1, and locate verse three. Now it's page 976 in your chair Bible. Grab your electronic version, whatever Bible you brought in here, and then take your notes out and a pen. We're gonna walk through some incredible truths today about discovering your new identity. Now we're just scratching the surface. This is not an exhaustive list, but it is the list that Paul gives us in 1 Corinthians Chapter 1, starting in verse three. Now Ephesians is split up into two different segments, and this'll help us. In Chapters 1, 2, and 3, Paul tells you who you are in Christ. He starts with your position in Jesus. That's what we've been talking about over the past several months. And then starting in Chapter 4, 5 and 6, he begins to tell you how you should practically live in light of your position in Christ. And he unfolds all of the wonderful things that you have been empowered to do in order to be and look like Jesus Christ. Now it's important to understand that when someone comes to know Christ as Savior and Lord, and if you've never had the privilege of doing that, we'll help you understand how to share your faith, and we'll also help you begin the process of learning how to build relationships with those who need to hear of your faith. We want you to do that. And when someone comes to trust Christ as Savior and Lord, one of the recommendations I have is you wanna follow up with them as a new follower of Jesus Christ within 48 hours. That's really important, because they're asking all kinds of questions about what's happened on the inside, and so you want to help them begin to grow. And so that's where we step into their life and we help them understand why church is important. We help them understand how to read God's Word. And see how it applies to their life. We want them to understand how to have a prayer life so that they can communicate with the God that they worship. All of those things are wonderful, however, those things in and of themselves do not transform you. What they do is they help you understand who God is. When you study the Bible, just reading a verse doesn't transform you. What does that verse do? It helps you understand who God is. It helps you understand who you are. It helps you understand who Jesus Christ is, and then as He asks you to step out in faith, and begin to act like Him and live like Him, it's the Holy Spirit of God that enters into your life to help you live accordingly based on what you know. And that is the process, the dynamic process that begins to take place so that you can begin to transform and change to begin and act like Jesus Christ. That is the key. Now Ephesus is a great book to look at because quite frankly you can read about the history of these believers over in Acts Chapter 19. They were saved out of a whole bunch of stuff. I mean there was black magic, there was sorcery, there was all kinds of immorality going on. And these individuals had their lives radically transformed by the gospel, the good news that Paul preached to them, and so much so that they wanted to go through the transformation process so they had one of the biggest bonfires we've ever seen or read about in the New Testament where they started throwing all this stuff in the fire and it was burning because they were ready to live for Jesus now. It's a wonderful story. Now look down at verse three. I'll just read one verse at this point. Paul says blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. His point here is that he is now going to unpack all that you've been blessed with as a new person in Jesus Christ. You have been given a brand new identity. You have been given an opportunity to discover who you are. And so starting in verse four all the way through what we're gonna read today, verse 14, and then he actually continues to go on. He's talking about the new life that you've been given in Jesus Christ. That's his point. As a matter of fact when you look at Chapter 2, and you can read this one on your own. He says you were dead in your sin, no spiritual life, you've been made alive by God's grace, and then by the time you get to verse 10 of Chapter 2 in Ephesians, you're His workmanship. You're His creation. He has brought you through a process, and continues to bring you through a process of metamorphosis so that there's change in becoming more like Jesus Christ. And he says, you have been blessed with some stuff that's gonna help you grow, and it begins with an understanding of your new identity. Peter says it this way, 2 Peter Chapter 1, verse three. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence. You get to know God, you get to know Jesus. You learn about your new identity, and you learn how to begin to live your new life. You've bene given everything. Now for some of you, you've been in the military. Can I see your hands? Okay, many of you, and you've gone through this thing called Boot Camp, right, okay, yeah. And you're smiling, 'cause it probably brings back terrible memories, I don't know, but I've never been through Boot Camp, but from my understanding, the way it is supposed to work is that they strip away everything that you bring into Boot Camp and then they rebuild you as a part of a team so that then they give you the very resources you need to go fight a battle and win. You have everything you need. And that's the idea of what happens to us spiritually. You've been changed on the inside, given a new identity, which we're gonna unpack, so that you can begin to live out this incredible life. Now let's look down at verse four, and at this point I'll read through verse six. He says, even as he chose us in Him, that's Christ when you see that in this passage, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the beloved. Now I'm gonna stop there for a second. Starting in verse three all the way through verse 14, Paul gives you one long run on sentence. Now I know your English teacher told you never to do that, but he did it and the reason is because he's just adding one statement after another about your new life, and he starts with the Father. Your new life began when you were chosen by the Father, and here's the statement, and everyone of these statements are put in the first person pronoun so that you can apply it to your self. You are chosen by His love to be holy and blameless. The words in love at the end of verse four, actually go with holy and blameless. He did this in love. And the point is you were chosen. Here's what I want you to gather out of that massive concept, okay? Rest in it, 'cause it's true and it's found in the Word, but here's the point I want you to pull out of that. Your salvation was a work of God from beginning to end period. You were stuck in your sin, that was one of the unshakeable truths we talked about, there was not way you could get to God. You could never develop a platform high enough. I talked about that a couple of weeks ago. Therefore God came down to you. And He chose to save you in Christ through Jesus Christ. It only happens through Him. It doesn't happen though Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam. You are chosen through Christ, that's how you're selected to be part of His family. It happens because of what Jesus Christ has done for you. Now that happens through faith. He chose you to be saved through belief in Christ. It's why I love this verse, 'cause it really pulls together both concepts. You still have to believe. That's also a major truth that's found in the Word. Yes He chose you, rest in it. Sometimes it's beyond my comprehension to gather all the different points that are found in that massive truth, but we are also called to exercise our will and believe. Look at what Paul says here. But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit, and what's the key? And belief, belief in the truth. Both are found there. Now the point I want you to see though, is that you are chosen to be saved through Christ to be what? Look at what he says. If it's your Bible you can underline it, circle it. I always like to do that when I study the Word, to be what, holy and blameless. And He did it in love. Now what's Paul doing here? Paul is starting with the end in mind. Have you heard that phrase before? Start with the goal. He's saying He saved you so that one day you'll be in the presence of Jesus Christ totally holy, totally blameless, where sin is gone, that's the goal. Now consider what that means to someone's motivations, especially for those of you that may have been saved out of some form of a pretty lousy past. They certainly were. I mean this is why they were throwing all their incantations and sorceries and all kinds of stuff into the bonfire, 'cause they were like I don't wanna go back there anymore, I wanna be changed, I'm looking forward to that day, and his point is, because that's where we're going that changes your motivations. And now I wanna roll up my sleeves and get started 'cause I don't wanna go back there anymore. So God bring about your process of metamorphosis and start bringing the change, 'cause I'm tired of fighting the sin and the stuff in my life. I want a change, and I want that to begin now. Now if you ever go on a vacation. Now for some of you you're thinking man, I'm checking flights right now. I'm getting out, I'm migrating south, okay? Now what happens when you do that though? There's a sense of anticipation, right? I'm going there, I can't wait, I can't wait. And for some of you, a part of that is getting ready for the trip, and what I mean is you wanna go shopping so that you can have some new clothes to put on when you go down, now you've gained a few pounds, so you might have to add some space in there, but what do you wanna do? You want new clothes, going to your new spot. That's kinda the idea here. Paul is saying that's Heaven, where you're gonna be totally holy, totally blameless, and now the process that God takes us on is putting on the new clothes so that we become more like Jesus. 'Cause Romans 8:29 says this. For those whom He foreknew He also predestined, we'll get to that word in just a minute, to be conformed to the image of His Son. Putting on the new clothes, walking the new life, experiencing the transformation. It means I'm getting to know Jesus more, how He thinks and acts and lives so that I might live like Jesus, in other words live differently and love radically, and again, it's all His work and not ours. And because He chose us, He's gonna make sure we get there. I'm eternally secure, and I am sure of this that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. He started it, He's gonna make sure I get there, and it's done in His love. The transformation that happens is out of His loving transformation that happens in us. So when we experience trials and difficulties, and we start stretching and we lose a few pounds in order to fit into the new clothes that you bought to go on the journey, it's gonna take some pain in the workout in order to get there, right? Well the same thing is true for our spiritual lives. Sometimes there's some pain involved, but we begin to change and we begin to walk and think and act like Jesus Christ, and that's this massive process of transformation and it happens because He is loving and He changes us. Now he goes onto another word here. If you'll look at the next verse, which he has communicated in verse six. He says that we are adopted, or verse five, I'm sorry, through Jesus Christ. He says he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ. You and I are adopted or brought into His family. Now don't get hung up on the word predestined. Let me just quickly say this. Predestined means that you've been marked out beforehand. And it goes along with the word chosen, but here's how they work together. God predestined believers to be part of his family, to be adopted. But in order for that to happen, He chose you, 'cause you couldn't do anything about your salvation. You're stuck there. So He chose you by belief in Jesus Christ to be a part of His family. What I wanna focus on though is I'm part of His family now. I've been chose and loved by God, and now I'm part of His family. So there's an incredible idea of value and worth that I've not had before because I was stuck going down a road I don't wanna go and all of a sudden He transformed my life and changed me and He did it out of His love. It's an incredible truth to rest in. We've never adopted a child, but we've got many of the families within Rockpoint that have, and it is a wonderful journey of taking someone, bringing them into their family, giving them a new identity in many ways, a new name, and it's a wonderful picture of what God does with us as He changes us and transforms us. I love this verse. Romans 8:15-16 says for you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, all right 'cause He saved you, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba, Father." He is our Heavenly Daddy now. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. That word Abba's an Aramaic or Hebrew word, and you can hear it today even with Jewish children speaking of their Father. I've heard it, "Abba." That's what they say. They don't say Dad like we do, they say Abba. And it means He's my Heavenly Father. I relate to Him. Just one quick nugget. In the Old Testament, the word father is used 14 times in 39 books, but rather impersonal, refers to the nation and not a person. By the time we get to the New Testament, the gospel writers record Jesus referring to His Heavenly Father over 60 times in a personal relationship. And it's the word Abba. Now that you've come to know Christ as Savior, and you are chosen to be in Him through Him, you now have a relationship with God the Father as your Heavenly Daddy, that's the idea. And then in verse six it's done because we live for Christ to His glory and to His praise. Now look at verse seven. In Christ we have redemption through His blood. The forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of His will according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in Him, things in Heaven and things on Earth. He's giving you a 30,000 foot perspective of everything that He's doing from Genesis to Revelation. His plan of redemption. Look at verse 11, in Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be, again, you are saved, transformed to be for His praise and His glory. We started with the work of the Father, now we're gonna review the work of the Son. You're redeemed by the Son, and redemption is this wonderful concept that we talked about a couple of weeks ago where Jesus paid the asking price that God asked, His own life. His death, so that you might be forgiven and set free. So that you were purchased from the slave block of sin under it's power and its' penalty, forgiven, so that your guilt is not held against you anymore, and then released so that you can live. What happens? Well he mentions it right here. You're forgiven. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And this happens, which he mentions in this passage, and then all over the book of Ephesians, by His grace. It's a gift given to you. I've referred to this in the past, and I love it because it's an acrostic. And I know every analogy or acrostic can break down at times, but this is a great way to look at God's grace. It's God's riches at Christ's expense. He was the gift. He gave His life so that we could be forgiven and set free. It's unmerited favor. He paid the price so that by trust in Him, I could be changed and transformed. Now you are provided wisdom and insight. You know I've been adopted into His family, chosen to get to the end game to be holy and blameless. He's gonna make sure I get there. He's gonna transform me. He's gonna change me. Now I've been forgiven because of what Christ has done. And now look at another way we renew our mind. You're provided wisdom and insight he says, to understand God's purposes from Genesis to Revelation. His incredible plan of redemption, why? So that you can start giving thanks by how you live. Now the word wisdom here actually means objective understanding. You can read the Word now, and you can begin to understand it. Now if you came to Christ as a child, you didn't see this dramatic change, but for those of you that trusted Christ later on in life, for some of you, maybe not everybody, but for some of you you remember because you were exposed to the Bible in a Lutheran church, Catholic church, whatever it may be, and then all of a sudden you came to Christ and you started reading the Bible again and all of a sudden it just like started to make sense. I've never had that before. And all of a sudden there's kind of a desire to start reading it and finding out more about my life in Christ. Because I'm experiencing the transformation. Anybody been there before? Yeah, so you're just thinking through wow, the change. That's because you've been given wisdom to read the Bible and understand it and then insight, that is the subjective apprehension of it. How does this apply to my life? That's the point. So that now you can read God's Word, you can understand it, and we're gonna learn in just a little bit, the Holy Spirit has been given to help us begin to grow and understand this incredible plan that He's laid out before us to change us, to transform us, to understand how to live our lives. When my son was five, we bought him a Daytona 500 slot car race set, an electric slot car. Now does anybody still know what slot cars are? Okay, I don't even know if they've got 'em around anymore everything's on video, but for those of you that are unaware of this, okay, and you have to go to museums to see these kinds of things. They were tracks that you connect, and there's a slot in it, okay, that's why they call it a slot car. And there were electric wires that ran parallel to the slot and you had a car that came with the track, and it has a little pin in it, and you put the pin in the track so it stays there. Now they eventually developed magnets on the cars so they would actually stay on the track, and the whole idea is there's probes under that car that connect with the wires that run around the track, and I being clear enough? All right, and electricity then would flow through that, it wouldn't shock you, but it'd be enough to actually run the car around the track. Now it's a great analogy of the spiritual life. Because when you've been saved, you've been given a track, and that track is found by the Word of God. You can read it and understand how you oughta go through the journey of life. There's current that runs on that track, and that current and that power in order to do that, is given by the Holy Spirit. He came to give us power in order to live our life. There's one problem. Corrosion often times would really start developing on top of those electric wires and on the probes of the cars so you had to take sandpaper and actually go around the track and get it off, and get it off the bottom of the car so that the current could actually run and empower the car to go around the track. And what often times happens in our lives, is there are things that get in between me living for Jesus Christ. However, as long as you stay connected to the Word, it's the Word of God that will tell you how Jesus would live. So that you can begin the process of then stepping out in faith and removing, now remember we're getting ready for a trip. So we bought some new clothes, but in order to put the new clothes on, you don't put 'em on top of your old clothes. You off load the old clothes, and you put on the new clothes. Paul talks about this even in the New Testament. So that as you stay connected to the Word, you are learning how Jesus would live His life. You are being conformed to His image because as you learn how to live your life, you're off loading those things, you're getting rid of the corrosion and the stuff that keeps you from living a life like Jesus, and you're adding into your life, those clothes that allow you to be conformed to his image, and as you do that, it is the spirit of God that empowers you to continue to live your life and go down this journey. So one tool here, is in the back at the connection center, we have these key steps to Bible study. If you didn't pick these up when we went through the gospel of John, highly recommend you do it. It'll help you begin to ask the right questions to open up God's Word, discover the truth for yourself, and then ask some application questions on how it applies to your life on the back. Well he also says that you have an inheritance. The inheritance that he's speaking of here in verse 11, is what we talked about being holy and blameless. That inheritance is Heaven. It's being in the presence of Jesus Christ. It's all the wonders and the joys. However, he's not done yet. What he's telling you is your new identify is formed by God the Father, so renew your mind and start thinking biblically about who you are, You are redeemed by the Son. So God the Father, God the Son, and now he's gonna talk about you are sealed by the Holy Spirit. In other words, you are given a new identity by the very work of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Everything that you are is a wonderful gift that God has given to you, to transform you, and change you to be like Jesus, and live a new life. If you look down quickly now at verse 13, he says in Him or through Christ's redemptive work you also when you heard the Word or truth, the gospel, this is trusting Him as Savior, of your salvation, and believed in Him, there it is. So both the choosing and believing are there, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory. First, here's another great truth of your new identity. You're marked as God's child. You are loved and marked as God's child. He says you are sealed with the very work of the Holy Spirit of God. This provides security because it's His work of salvation in your life from beginning to end. It has nothing to you. Do you get it? It has nothing to do with you, you have to lose it then. It's His work, it's His gift. Now this idea of sealed means security yes, but authentication. It was a certification of genuineness. A seal back then was a little piece of jewelry they would roll on clay, or it was a ring that had your name on it, and so when you wrote a letter, we sign today, they would stamp it with their seal to say well you know there's only one other person that has that seal, you can't forge it okay? They had to develop these seals, and therefore this document really did come from the King or the Prince telling me what to do. The idea here is the moment you trust Christ as Savior you are marked with His certificate of authentication. Brian is a child of Jesus Christ, okay? Chet is a child of Jesus Christ. Marked by God's work in your life, not your own, you're His now. Now when did this happen? Well it happened the moment you put your trust and faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. He saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His mercy by the washing of regeneration, the renewal of the Holy Spirit. You are now His child. It's something again, it's a wonderful, wonderful gift that's given to me. Now in the process of transformation, this is what's remarkable to me as you continue to become more and more like Jesus Christ you continue to line up your life on the outside, your practice, with the position of who you already are on the inside, so that others can begin to see you're the real deal. You know what? He's a different husband, He gave his life to Jesus Christ. And that's when the wife says, I've never been so loved in my entire life, 'cause he finally surrendered. With all the stuff he did, and now he's turned around and there's real change, why? Because there's a metamorphosis that's going on. Wow, I've never seen my high school kid like this. There's a change. I mean he's been coming to youth group. Seth shared Christ with him, our high school pastor. And he accepted Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, and he's so changed, you're here right now as a parent because your high school student came to Christ and you saw they're the real deal. They're the genuine article, there's transformation that happened. You see that's the exciting journey that we're on. Now here's the gift, you and I have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. It is the Holy Spirit, God Himself, that is the guarantee to make sure I'm gonna get to the end holy and blameless. Now notice what he does here, this is remarkable. In verse three he starts with these wonderful blessings that He has given to us, and then in verse four, he starts with the end in mind. He chose you, you're gonna be holy and blameless, okay? He's gonna walk you through a process of conforming you and helping you put on the new clothes, gotta stay connected, get rid of the corrosion, but as you step out in faith, it's the Holy Spirit that's gonna guide you towards this point where he ends in verse 14 with Heaven again, and the process in between is the transformation that takes place. And the transformation takes place because you have the very Holy Spirit of God living in you, changing you, transforming you. See if you come and say man, the Christian life is not working for me, but you truly have trusted Christ as Savior and Lord, the problem is not the resources, the issue is your heart. The transformation that needs to start happening in your life happens when you begin to see that Jesus Christ acts this way, He starts living this way. And in order for me to live differently and love radically, I need to start aligning my life with how He's living His life, because I've been changed on the inside, my affections have changed. I have a desire to see the Word. I can apply it to my life. I wanna know Jesus Christ, 'cause I'll tell you what, I don't wanna go backwards, I wanna go forward, and the end game is where I'm going, so I'm rolling up my sleeves, I'm gonna be apart of this, and the wonderful gift that you have been given, in addition to everything else, you've been given the very power of God through the Holy Spirit in your life to help you understand and empower you to begin to live the new life, to put on the new clothes, to experience the transformation so that others begin to see that's the real deal. And that's where we're gonna pick it up next week. So you gotta come back. So here's how I'm gonna send you out. I want you this week at some point to review this list about who you are. That's the process we started with, renewing your mind so that you can begin to rest in the gifts that have been given you. And by the way, I'm just scratching the surface. So in your life groups, you all need to be in a life group. And also because we're going through this book called "The Unshakeable Truth," written by Josh and John McDowell, he lists in this chapter that deals with this, an incredible list of who you are in Jesus Christ that was put together by another pastor who's pretty well known in the Twin Cities, Neil Anderson. And in that he unpacks all that you are in Jesus Christ. I find that's the starting place to really experiencing the new life in Christ. Start with who you are. And then next week, we're gonna come back to understanding how we begin to access the power of the Holy Spirit in us and begin to live and love like Jesus really would. Lemme pray for you. Lord thank you for the hope that we have in Christ, the new life that we have. Father we should be leaving here rejoicing in the fact that you saved us, transformed us, you are doing all the work in and through us. Lord yes it's times of stretching and change, but as we surrender our lives, we begin to see Jesus in us more and more every day. So guide us now as we leave this place, and may we serve you with every part of our being, it's in Christ's name we pray, amen.