CONNECTION
- Couple dad jokes
- Acknowledge dads. One of the things I noticed when I first came to victory was how many men there were in the church. The biggest thing that stood out to me was the messages on grace and identity.
- My story
I don’t know about you, but everything changed for me when I heard and believed the message of God’s grace and our new identity in Christ. That is a foundational message for our church and is at the heart of what I want to share today. I want to share a story that will frame the rest of our conversation and explain why there’s a tent on stage.
TENSION
- The Tent
The title of my sermon today is “Get out of the Tent.” [Display sermon graphic] You see, when I made the decision to follow Jesus, I received a new identity. I didn’t discover, create, or earn this new identity. I received it. But it wouldn’t be long until I believed the lie that my old self is who I really was. Hearing the truth about my identity in Christ and my union with him helped me get out of the tent then, and still does to this day.
CONTENT
- Old and New
- 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV)
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
-
- Romans 6:6 (ESV)
“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.”
-
- The king of the cosmos has joined himself to us. (Christ is the mansion)
- False and True
- Ephesians 4:20-25 (ESV)
“But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
25Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.”
-
-
- Define Falsehood. The tent represents the lie that who you really are is who you used to be. The tent is fake. It has the appearance of the old self, but it can’t be the old self, because your old self is dead. You can call it the fake self, false self, but I like to call it the cranberry sauce self.
- Are you in the tent? Here’s what tent talk sounds like
- Insecure
- Despair
- Hangry
- Afraid
- You’re not you when you’re in the tent. The true you is…
- Calm
- Content
- Wise
- Unafraid
-
APPLICATION
- How to get out of the tent
- You get out of the tent by believing, not achieving
- Galatians 2:20
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
- How to stay out of the tent
- It’s not a one time thing. Everyday you’ll have opportunities to believe the lie and get in the tent.
- 2 Corinthians 3:18
“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
-
-
- Disciplines -> story of disciplines
- Disciplines are helpful to the extent the bring us to Jesus
- We must be more aware of the Kingdom reality than the tent mentality.
-
INSPIRATION
The reality is you are a son, you are a daughter of the King. You are strong and brave, you are calm and content, you are wise and unafraid. You are in the mansion. Now get out of the tent.