Demolition

Pastor Chris Paavola:
Will you guys pray with me as we get started this morning? Heavenly Father, before we begin today, we just need to acknowledge there are heavy hearts in this room. This has been a week filled with a lot of tragedies. We have the passing of loved ones here in this church family and also just national tragedies. And it’s not just Utah to Colorado, North Carolina, Florida, and then you can go overseas and just the mass tragedy in East Jerusalem this week. It’s heartbreaking, Lord. And we say, Lord, have mercy. Come quickly. Lord Jesus, I pray for everybody who’s grieving from these senseless deaths that you would comfort them by your Holy Spirit. Remind them of the hope we have in Jesus because of his death and resurrection, that though we grieve, we do not grieve as those who have no hope.
And God, I also just as an added, I pray that discourse would continue in our country, that we wouldn’t stop talking to each other and shut down communication. But God, I pray for healthy discourse, not even over social media and text messages, but just real conversations with people who might have different opinions than our own across coffee tables or over a beer, over a beer or whatever it might be. God, just keep us talking to each other because so many things break down when we stop talking. And so, God, may we have healthy discourse in this country.
We pray these things in the mighty and victorious name of Jesus, in re de Jesus. Amen.

WELCOME
Well, good morning, everybody. My name is Chris Paavola. I’m the senior pastor here at St. Mark and it is wonderful to be with you guys this morning. Actually, the events of this week, this morning kind of highlights something that no matter what goes on in the world, no matter what happens, no matter what you came from or walked out of, when you walk into here, you were reminded that God is still God, he is still good and he’s still in control. And that kind of emphasizes and just puts an emphasis on that the value of consistent worship and making this a habit and a routine in your life is because when you come in here, no matter what you walk out of, when you walk in here, you were reminded of something.
And I don’t use this word lightly, but it’s a good word. It has some baggage to Eastern mysticism and stuff, but it is transcend, it’s transcendent, it’s transcendental. You have a piece that transcends, that surpasses understanding available to you, and that’s also a piece that’s available to you when you walk out of here, when you go through your life. It’s not just pieces in here that you carry that peace with you when you walk with Jesus. And that’s what we’re all trying to do, is to experience Jesus in our everyday life. And you experience him by becoming like him. And I don’t have to work very hard to segue out of a conversation that we’re having into a conversation about today and this idea of under construction because truly this is what we’re talking about being like Christ is not just this good thing to do.

SERIES
We talked about this last week in our series as we kicked off when we were talking about blueprints and saying that you can’t begin construction without a blueprint. And that’s true in a church building going through construction, but it’s true in you becoming Jesus that it takes a blueprint of being like Christ. And when we are like Christ, we experience his power in our lives. Truly, truly, yes, when you’re in Christ, you experience his forgiveness, but when you are like him, you take on his power and his peace and everything else that comes with it as that was our conversation last week as we talked about a blueprint. Today we’re segueing into one more foundational thing that I think we all need before we can get into the how to of be like Christ and the tips and tricks and life hacks of looking like Jesus.
And today we’re going to talk about this idea of demolition.

DEMOLITION

DEMOLITION OF A BUILDING
You can’t have a construction before demolition. You can’t build something until you break something. If you want to have an omelet, you got to break a few eggs. And that’s what we’re going to be talking about today and this whole idea of being like Christ, if you’re just looking into Christianity, if you’re new to this Christianity thing, you’re going to hear today why this is so difficult for us to be like Jesus and why so many Christians struggle in being like Christ. And if you are a follower of Jesus today, you’re going to hear why we tend to plateau on things and why we get stuck in certain things. And it has to do with this idea of demolition, right? Like this, just the breaking down, dusty, dirty debris, disruptive demolition because, so when it comes to the construction here, we can’t go from this.
We have an image here. This is what our church looks like right now, 1990s tile and vintage looking desks that have outlived their life. Or remember how in the nineties everything was hunter green and just, we can’t go from that to looking like this without a whole lot of demolition. And that means putting up partitions and making our parking lot looked like Chernobyl and all of that construction. And before we can get to that demolition is required actually the first day of demolition. So, we had this whole process, we dream up what the church could look like and then we could make these blueprints and we do all the fundraising, the capital. That was an 18-month process. And then the first day of demolition was a Monday and it had been 18 months in the making. So, Monday’s my day off, I drove to the church because I just wanted to see it.
And I drove in and there was these construction workers putting up scaffolding and stuff, and I’m cheering, I’m introducing myself to them and giving them high fives. And they’re like, who is this freak? And I’m clapping on the way out and doing fist bumps. I was so excited. And then reality set in and demolition is painful. If you’ve ever put in new cabinets in your kitchen or renovated your bathrooms, you know what I’m talking about, how it actually strained your marriage, the way everything got so dirty and so dusty. And now after day one when I was excited, then all of a sudden reality set in and oh, our offices are being used as storage closets and oh, we can’t find anything and oh, we’re working all day to the sound of drilling and hammering and jackhammering. That’s kind of hard to do. And it’s where are we supposed to have meetings and where is the Keurig?
I need coffee. The coffee is now in the sacristy. I had to ask the altar team, I’m like, can we please use this area for our coffee because I need coffee. But so reality set in it is hard. It is clumsy, it is painful. And that’s not just true of construction.

DEMOLITION OF A PERSON
It’s true of becoming like Christ. We read words like these words from the Apostle Paul where he talks about how we are being transformed into his image with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord who is the spirit.

…we are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:18

And we read that and we’re like, yeah, I’m being transformed. And we see words like transformation. We picture like a cocoon and a butterfly and we just emerge. Beautiful. And there’s no pain in that or ever increasing, glory. We want glory. And then reality sets in after we cheer and clap on the first day of demolition and then reality sets in. We’re like, this is painful. This is hard. I don’t like this. And I mean that becoming like Jesus can be painful. There’s a video kind of explaining what I mean. Take a look.
VIDEO
Man: Ephesians two 10 says, we are God’s masterpiece. I don’t know about you, but when I look in the mirror, I don’t see a masterpiece, but I want to. So, I go to God and I pray, dear heavenly Father, would you do whatever it takes to mold me into the image of your son? Make me your masterpiece. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
God: Hi
Man: No. Who are you?
God: I’m God, you said the prayer. So here I am. That’s how it works. You’re not God, I am
Man: Okay. If you’re God, what does Lamentations 15:9 say?
God: Lamentations is a very short book. It only has five chapters.
Man: Why is it so short?
God: I was tired of lamenting. You are God.
Man: You are God! What’s that about?
God: These are the tools. I’m going to use to make you into my original masterpiece. This is the process
Man: I thought you were a carpenter?
God: That’s my son. Let’s get busy.

Man: Okay

God: I’m going to bring up things in your life that don’t belong in your life. And start right here. Your anger. I created the emotion, but you use it in the wrongest of ways. You compare yourself to others instead of me and you lie. You tell little white lies. You’re so afraid of confrontation, you’re becoming a people pleaser.

Man: Okay, Time out. I think you’ve done some really good work and I’m looking pretty good right now.
God: When you look in the mirror, who do you see? I see me. Okay, then I need to keep chiseling away because ultimately you and other people need to see my son. But when I look like Jesus, people get uncomfortable and I don’t think I’m supposed to do that. So what you’re saying is you’d rather play God in certain areas of your life than for me to be God over your whole life.
Man: No. What I’m saying is you’ve grown me to here. Maybe we take a break from each other for a while. All right? And then I’ll stay here and then you
God: Come back and we can grow some more. You never just take a break from me. You’re either moving toward me or away from me, but you never just plateau. What you’re doing is called control. Do you want to control things in your life for Can I chisel control, chisel control, chisel. No, no, chisel. All right, here we go. Can we chisel where I want? That’s called control. Okay, sorry. This right here, that secret sin, that thing that you run to whenever you’re hurting, you’re angry, you’re lonely, you’re tired. Do you want to keep rearranging this in your life or do you want me to chisel it out? Chisel it.
It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. It’s your whole life.

Man: This hurts. Okay? I don’t think you understand this pain.

God: Don’t talk to me about pain. I know all about pain. I sent my son to die on the cross for pain, for sin, but also did it for another reason to give you freedom. Do you know what insanity is? Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. And there are things that you are doing in your life that are insane. Allow me to chisel them out of your life.
Man: I know, But I’ve let you down so many times, God.
God: No, you are never holding me up.
Man: Okay? And chisel away.

22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, shich is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4

Pastor Chris Paavola:
Ephesians 4 22 through 24, “you were taught with regard to your former way of life to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires to be made new in the attitude of your minds and to put on the new self-created to be like God and true righteousness and holiness.” We read words like that and we see the putting on and it looks enjoyable as if we get this image of a big fluffy bathrobe that we put on and we speed past the words before putting on is the putting off? Go back if you don’t mind. There’s a putting off of the old self and the apostle Paul talking about this, putting off of the old self there. It seems gentle, but I love that video for so many reasons, because it’s painful. Sometimes change is hard.
We have pet sins. We don’t want to let go of things we like doing. And before we talk about an addition and building an addition and renovation, we need to talk about demolition. Demolition is necessary for this process of construction and sometimes it hurts. So here it looks kind of simple. It’s like a bathrobe. But elsewhere, Paul talks about this idea of putting off, getting rid of the old nature put to death. He describes it as a death.

Put to death, therefore whatever belongs to your earthly nature
Colossians 3

25 Everyone who compete in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever…I beat my body…
1 Corinthians 9:25

In Colossians three verse three, or in Galatians 5 24, he talks about how this putting off is like a crucifixion. That’s not a term he used lightly with the first century audience. Or then in 1 Corinthians 9 25, he compares it to a runner going into strict training, making his body submit to him striking blows to it. It is harsh, at times it can be aggressive. And make no mistake, those things, they are painful.
And this is why it’s so hard for us to become like Christ, because sometimes it’s just not fun. It’s not enjoyable. It’s difficult work. And so, if you’re non-Christian wondering why Christians aren’t like this, it’s because it’s so hard. And if you’re a Christian wondering why you stalled out there it is, it’s hard. It’s difficult. It can be painful. Now, the other reason I like that video, there’s a couple other reasons, but I love just the whole premise. Who’s holding the hammer in the video? God, we don’t get to hold the hammer and chisel and decide God is holding the hammer and chisel. There’s a song by an artist a long time ago, Bebo Norman called for the hammer holds and he’s shaping us and fashioning us into something. And you can see that the reason I like that image in the video is because you can see that image in scripture like in these words.

God planned long ago to choose you and to make you his holy people, through the sanctifying work of the Spriit…
1 Peter 1:2

Next slide. First Peter, chapter one, verse two, you’ve been chosen according to foreknowledge of God, the Father through the sanctifying work of the spirits to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood. Now that word sanctifying, that’s our word, sanctification, right? And we’ve talked about this. Sanctification is becoming like God. Justification is being declared like God. Sanctification is becoming holy and righteous. Justification is the moment you are declared righteous. Sanctification is a process. Justification is a moment. We’ve talked about this again and again. Justification is the work Christ does, but sanctification here is the work who does spirit? I’m going to say that again. Justification is the work of Jesus on the cross, on your behalf to die for your sins. Boom. But sanctification is the work of the spirit. It’s the work of God actually that works. Sanctification, that’s where we get our word. Holy socked us. Maybe you’ve heard that in Latin, but it’s also the word that we get the word saints.
Saint is not something you become one day when you are baptized. By the way, we have four baptisms that are 11 o’clock service today, y’all. Isn’t that awesome? Four. But when you’re baptized, you become a saint and you begin this process of sanctification. So actually, I think it’s funny, our church is called Saint Mark. And when you go to Saint Mark, you’re basically saying, I’m going to this church where I’m going to go through the sanctification process and sometimes it leaves a mark. It works in my head. Anyway, so Saint Mark. Anyway, you’ll catch up later on. Okay? So anyway, sanctifying work of the spirit, Saint Mark Saint, the spirit is working in us, but it’s the work of the spirit.
And it’s not just the where, and the what, but it’s also the when. As Paul also describes in the next verse, please, Philippians.

God is at work within you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Phillipians 2:13

He says, “God is at work in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” So, it’s not just that he’s giving you the desire to work, but he’s also giving you, he’s deciding not just where and what he’ll chisel out, but he’s deciding when and how. But it’s the work of the spirit. So, this is actually really encouraging you guys because if you’re like, I want to become like Christ, it’s not up to you. It doesn’t depend on you. It’s not you do this, God is saying, let’s do this. It’s not you’re on your own. It’s you’re not alone.

TIPS AND TRICKS
It’s not pulling yourself up by the bootstraps and finding the willpower. It’s surrendering your power to his will and finding his power. That’s what sanctification is. And so if there’s a lady in the parking lot and she leaves at Walmart and she leaves her carts and then she drives away and the cart rolls in front of your car and you see her, this is oddly specific, but just at that moment, instead of hauling off and saying something, you have at that moment the work of the Holy Spirit in you chisel away what you want to do, what feels so good to do by making you like Christ, but you can’t begin the demolition or the construction to be like Christ until you start the demolition of everything that is not like Christ.
But this again is the work of the spirit. And then that brings to the second thing that I really like in that video. One is that God is holding the hammer for thee. The hammer holds and he’s deciding where and when to chisel.

LORD, MAKE ME LIKE CHRIST

But the other thing I really like about that video is how it starts. How does the video start that we just watched? How does it start? Prayer? He prays, Lord, make me into your image and then God starts the process. I am telling you that you’ll greatly increase the likelihood of your success in becoming like Christ when you pray about it. And this is so awkward for me to say it’s clumsy. I don’t have a way to eloquently say this, but it’s just true that when you pray, you tap into a power you do not have and you can pray about the sanctifying process of being like God.
And it doesn’t need to be drawn out. This can be a short prayer that you can pray at any moment. Lord, make me like Christ. And you can pray that you see this in scripture. You see a couple examples of people praying really short prayers before they do something. Call them arrow prayers. Sometimes they’re just poof, they’re quick. It’s just one thing. I got to say it, Lord, make me like Christ. And then they do the thing, right? And you can do this. So, when the lady has the shopping cart roll in front of your car at the Walmart parking lot, instead of deciding, do I have the fortitude and the will power and the strength to restrain myself and not say something first I can say, Lord, make me like Christ. And then when I do that, I tap into a supernatural power of God that I don’t have on my own.
I want to wave at her with one finger. I want to say something, but Lord make me like Christ. And now I am tapping into the sanctifying work of the spirit and God shows up and chisels and you can pray this, Lord make me like Christ. Anytime you guys, we can pray requests all the time. Very rarely do we get prayer requests to be made like Christ, and it is just because. But please make this a part of your regular vocabulary of your everyday life. And I promise you, God will show up. So, when somebody cuts you off in traffic, before you express yourself, pray, say it with me, Lord, make me like Christ. Go back, please. There you go. So, say that, Lord, make me like Christ. Or when you’re scrolling on Facebook or Instagram or TikTok and you see an ad with a scantily clad person and before you decide to keep scrolling or to linger and that moment of weakness, you can pray, Lord, make me like Christ. Or when you’re out with the girls getting breakfast or brunch and it turns into a gripe fest and everybody is gossiping and it is so delicious and it’s just, I love it. And before you open your mouth and join in the gossip you can pray, Lord, make me like, why are you guys getting quieter? The more examples I give, let’s try it again. Here we go, Lord, make me like Christ. Or when you see a post about Charlie Kirk on Facebook, before you hit reply, you can pray, Lord, make me like Christ.
And God shows up and starts to chisel and gives you a strength and a power that you don’t have on your own. That’s what it means to put off to death, to crucify the old self and to put on Christ, to breathe in his new life and to be like him.

VERBS AND ADJECTIVES OF CHRIST
So last week we had this list of words on the screen and I said, this is what the blueprints of Christ. And we talked about the character of Christ, the adjectives and the nouns. Go ahead and put it up there, Brian, the verbs of Christ. And I said, which word is the word that you want? And I guarantee you? Well, my hunch is that you sat there and thought about addition, what you can add to your life, the things you could become. You want to put in a new wing or a fresh coat of paints, or put in new furniture and curtains and stuff. You started thinking about what you can add to your life. And that’s true. There are some things in there that you can begin to do. But today I want you to look at those words with a new lens, a new filter. I’m standing shoulder to shoulder with you because I’m preaching to myself here as well. But look at those words.
Which one of those words gets to demolition something in you that God wants to demolish, to chisel out, which word up there gets to something that God wants to put off? And when you look at that through the lens of demolition, my hunch is, is that your minds or your eyes rest on circle in on one or two words. And so church, don’t try to do it on your own. Tap into a power that you don’t have, and let’s pray these words. Lord, make me like Christ. Go ahead, brother. Let’s say it together.

Response: Lord, make me like Christ!

Pastor Chris Paavola:
PRAYER
Lemme pray for you, heavenly Father. First of all, we need to acknowledge that we fall so short of the image of your son and we need your forgiveness. And thank you God, that we have your forgiveness because of Christ, that we’re not trying to become like Him to earn your favor, but because we have your favor not to earn forgiveness, but because we have your forgiveness not to earn your good graces, but because we have your good graces in Jesus. So thank you God for what he has done for us on the cross. And God, that image of the cross, we thank you also for him being a demonstration of doing your work and your will all the way to a cross for thee the hammer holds even when it means his crucifixion. And God, I pray for all of us this week that you would make us a sanctified, saintly, people that we would be like Christ. So God, let this prayer be quick on our lips at the ready and accessible as we go about and just interacting and the people we love and the people you love. And it’s the name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.