Condemnation and Criticism
Transcript
All right, so we are in our fifth week of our Killjoy series. We've got this week and next week, and we're finishing it up. What we've been doing is we've been looking at there are certain things as Christians that do not have to be true for us, do not have to be normal for us, but that we've gotten used to, that have become normal for us. Today we're going to be talking about self-loathing. You can call that self-condemnation. Sometimes it goes under the name of low self-esteem, which I don't like.
I don't think that's helpful, but people use that term. We use self-loathing, self-condemnation, self-hatred. We're going to just talk a little bit about how that works and how it affects us and how it robs us of joy and what the Bible says about how we can be free from it. So I started playing football when I was like 11, and then I played through elementary school, middle school, high school, and some in college. And my sophomore year of high school, I sublexed my patella, which just means I dislocated my kneecap on my left knee. So I went to – actually, no, it was in my freshman year.
So my freshman year, starting in my freshman year, I got hit. My kneecap came out of place, and then every year after that, I had knee injuries. So over the course of the rest of my career from my freshman year onward, I dislocated this kneecap four times, strained in MCL, strained in LCL, tore fibers, and meniscus. I dislocated this kneecap three times, which I was at a doctor one time, and he goes, how many times have you dislocated? He's a doctor, so he probably said sublexed your patella. And I was like, this is the sixth one.
He goes, you know, it usually only happens to girls, right? I was like, bruh. I did not. I do now. Thank you. He was like, and just kept going.
Just gets to go about his day being a doctor, and I have some sort of girl knees. I don't know. No offense to all the ladies in here, but I took offense at that. But anyway, sublexed this one. Three times, strained in MCL, strained in PCL, strained in LCL, tore in ACL, and tore meniscus and fibers. I've gotten really good at taking naps in MRI machines.
My knees hurt. They started hurting when I was a freshman in high school. They continue to hurt. They still hurt. They make really terrible noises if I walk upstairs or carry things or walk forward. Went to a doctor recently.
I was like, it was just like a normal checkup because I'm getting older, and you have to start going to those. And so I was like, I don't need you to listen to my knees. And so I bent over, and he listened. And I was like, what do you think? And he was like, well, if you don't run a lot, if you don't go jogging or make that a thing. And I was like, doctor, I love you.
I just wanted to say. I always thought running was evil also. He's like, if you don't do that, you might be all right. So I was like, oh, okay. So if I don't make jogging a thing, I won't have to have surgery.
And he goes, oh, no. No, you're going to have to have surgery, but you could push it back by a couple years. I was like, well, great. My knees hurt. They hurt. They hurt.
They have gotten used to it. It's not like a really violent pain. It's a dull pain. They grind. They pop. It's normal for me.
It is normal for my knees to feel this way. So my wife's like, you should go ahead and get surgery. And I'm like, no, because that would feel like out of the normal type pain. Like, that's different. I'm used to this. I'm okay with this.
I want to keep my knees the way they are. Slight pain, but not continual aggressive throbbing pain or surgery pain. And for a lot of us, when it comes to self-loathing, when it comes to this internal dialogue, this internal monologue, we've gotten so used to it. We don't even notice it anymore. I don't pay attention to my knees hurting. That's normal for me.
That's my center of gravity for me. So for a lot of us in the room, you've gotten so used to speaking down to yourself because self-loathing in some ways is a voice. Your voice is somebody else's voice. It's kind of in your head as an internal dialogue. And so normal life looks to you like, I'm ugly. I'm fat.
I'm such an idiot. God, nobody really likes me. I made that conversation awkward. They don't really want to talk to me. These friends aren't really my friends. They just have to hang out with me so they're nice to me because they have to.
I'm going to ruin my marriage. I'm going to mess my kids up. I'm a terrible mother. I'm a terrible father. I'm a failure. I'm an idiot.
I'm horrible. I'm ugly. Nobody really likes me. I don't have any real friends. This is a normal thought process for you. So that when you go to do something and you mess up, you think, of course.
Of course I would mess up. That's what I'd do. When a relationship starts going poorly, you start going, yeah, of course. Because this is how all my relationships work. Because I'm such an idiot. I've been doing this my entire life.
I'm the one who derails everything. I'm the one who ruins everything. This has become a normal, everyday, for some of you it's a, I should just kill myself. I'm worthless. I'm a failure. Everyday.
It's not uncommon for these type of thoughts to be how you speak to yourself, how you think about things. And here's what we're looking at this morning. If you are a Christian, and if the gospel is true, then this internal dialogue, this internal monologue can't be. If the gospel is true, then these things that have begun to be normal in our heads can't be. Can't be true. That's what I want us to see this morning as we go into scripture.
And then I want us to, out of that, begin to know how do we respond. What do we do? So let's go to Colossians 1. We read this earlier. It's on page 638. If your Bible is a blue and white Bible, one of the ones in the rows.
If you don't own a Bible, this is our gift to you. Take it. But we'll be on page 638 looking in Colossians. This is a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to a church in Colossae. Teaching them about Jesus. Teaching them about how Christianity works.
We're going to pick up in verse 15. The first word is he. That's talking about Jesus. And it'll be talking about Jesus throughout. He is the image of the invisible God. Okay, so Jesus, God created the world.
He exists in a spiritual realm. We don't get to see him. But Jesus lets us see him. Jesus is what God would be like if he became a person. So he's the image of the invisible God.
The firstborn of all creation. Now firstborn, when it's used in the Bible, can mean two things. It can mean, in this section, it can be the firstborn of all creation. That can mean that he was created first. But firstborn is also used to mean has preeminence over, is dominant over, because of the way they did lineage.
So he's either created first or he has dominance over. The firstborn of all creation for, so it's explaining this, by him all things were created in heaven and on earth. Okay, it means has dominance over. It doesn't mean he was created first. Jesus has existed since eternity past as part of the Trinity. He was not created.
He has dominance over everything because he created everything. Okay, Jesus created everything. For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions, rulers or authorities. All things were created through him and for him. So all nations, all countries, all rulers, all thrones, all dominions, visible and invisible.
So spiritual as well. Spiritual dominions and authorities and rulers, all of them were created by Jesus, through Jesus, and for Jesus. And he is before all things. And in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. I know we don't usually do this, but can somebody say amen or praise Jesus? Isn't that good? That he is massive. He's created everything. Everything exists in him and for him and through him.
And then he went to a cross to reconcile everything back to himself. That's who Jesus is. Okay. 21. And you. And you who were once alienated and hostile in mind doing evil deeds.
All right. Let's look at those terms real quick. Let's explain them. Especially for the person in here who has that sort of internal dialogue. Alienated. Outcast.
Alone. Alone. Isolated. Unwanted. Unloved. Separated.
That's what alienated means. Alienated. Hostile in mind. Means that you are an enemy. You are far from God. You are against God and God was against you.
And it says in mind, meaning that you are completely laid bare before him. He can see your thoughts. He can see everything you've ever done. That God looks at you and knows exactly what is going on with you. You have nowhere to hide. Nowhere to run.
You are laid bare. You are fully exposed in front of him. And it says doing evil deeds. Meaning that we were wicked. Sinful. Failures.
Sick. Twisted. Broken. Horrible. People. That's what that means.
That's what that means. But. It says who once were. That once was. If you are a Christian, that once was true for you. You once were alienated.
Hostile. Now. Wicked. Sinful. Failure. Who's an enemy of God.
You once were. What's it say? 22. He has now. Okay. Because of how English works.
Once were. He has now. This is change. This used to be true about you. You used to be alienated. You used to be hostile in mind.
You used to be doing evil, wicked deeds. You used to be broken and sinful. But because of Jesus. He has now. He has. Jesus has done something now that changes that.
He has now. This is verse 22. So you who once were. 22. He has now. Reconciled in his body of flesh.
By his death. Reconciled means he brought you back. You're not alienated anymore. You're reconciled. That Jesus did that through his death on the cross. That those of you who feel like I'm unwanted.
I'm unloved. Nobody cares about me. Nobody wants me. I ruin everything. Jesus went to the cross. To pursue you.
To reconcile you. To make you his. Because he cares about you. And he loves you. Jesus tells his disciples. There's no greater love than this.
Than that someone would give up their life for their friends. That's what he did. The greatest love with which you've ever been loved. Was shown to you on the cross. When Jesus went to the cross. While you were his enemy.
To make you his. He has now through the cross. Changed. The descriptors for us. Some of you. If we had to ask.
How would you describe yourself. And you were going to write it down. You'd write. Unwanted. Damaged goods. Failure.
Whore. You would. That would be how you would write it. And what this just said was. You once were. But now.
Jesus has. And he changes. Your descriptor. Here's what it says. And now Jesus has reconciled you. I mean he's brought you back.
To himself. In order. To present you. Holy. And blameless. And above reproach.
Before him. He rescued you. Died for you. To present you to himself. To present you. Holy and blameless.
And above reproach. Before him. We're going to come back to those terms. Let's keep reading. Because I want to. Finish this thought.
And then we'll come. We'll define those terms. Spend the. The remainder of our time there. If indeed. It's 23.
If indeed. You continue in the faith. Stable and steadfast. Not shifting from the hope. Of the gospel you heard. Which has been proclaimed.
In all creation. Under heaven. And of which I. Paul. Became a minister. Okay.
So now we have an issue. When we get to the text. He says. You were this. Jesus has now. Made you this.
Holy blameless. And above reproach. If. Okay. So that's a scary word.
If indeed. You remain. Stable and steadfast. And not shifting from the hope. Okay. So that can mean.
One of two things. That if. Can mean one of two things. It can mean. This will be true for you. If.
You keep it together. That if. Can also mean. If this is true for you. This is what will happen. So it can be.
This is true. If you keep it together. Or it can be. If this is true for you. You'll keep this. This is what will happen.
You'll make it to the end. So let me. Explain. Put this in a different category. To maybe help you think about it. All right.
So when I was. Going into my freshman year. Of high school. We were at a. I grew up in the church. I was in a youth group.
We were in a. I was in the youth choir. Anybody else in the youth choir. High quality stuff. We're going to get. We're going to get youth choir started here.
It's going to be awesome. We're going to wear white gloves. We're going to do interpretive dance. I got big plans for you guys. We're bringing handbells back. All right.
So anyway. I was in a youth choir. We went to Florida. To sing a song. To make a CD. Or something.
I don't remember. And there were some guys there. From another youth. Thing. That were. Running their mouths.
And telling people. They were going to fight them. And it. It got to this whole big. Thing. And.
There was a point. Where. These two guys. Were coming towards. Me. And a group of other people.
Telling us. They were going to beat us up. And so I thought. That sounded like a bad idea. Because I don't know. I don't like getting beat up.
So. Ninth grade Chet. Thought. You know. One of the best ways. To not get beat up.
Is to punch someone first. And so. While they were walking this way. I jumped up. And I punched a guy. Who was closest to me.
And there was another guy. Who was bigger. But this guy was closer. Okay. Tracking with the story. All right.
My brother Logan was there. And he's older than me. Now. Now. A good. Older brother.
Regardless of the circumstances. Will defend. Their younger brother. In a fight. I'm making that as a blanket statement. A good older brother.
Will defend. The younger brother. In a fight. Now. I punch this guy. Big guy grabs me.
Older brother. Punches the big guy. It's beautiful. Might actually be. Don't read too much in this. I'm not making theological statements.
At this point. I'm just telling you a story. So. A big guy grabs me. And then. He gets punched.
In the side of the head. Now. We can. Then begin to argue. Because. My brother Logan.
Punched him in the head. He is a good brother. Or. Because he is a good brother. He punched him. In the side of the head.
See how this works. That's the issue. We're facing. In this text. Do you make it. To the end.
Because you are a Christian. Or. If you make it. To the end. You are a Christian. When you take.
The totality. Of the rest. Of the scriptures. Where it's say. That Jesus is the author. And the finisher.
Of our faith. That he who began. A good work in you. Is faithful to complete it. Where Jude says. I commend you to Jesus.
Who's. Who's going to keep. The only person. Who can keep you. From stumbling. What this text means.
Is. Jesus. You used to be. Hostile. And wicked. And evil.
Used to be. A rebellious. You used to be. All these things. And Jesus has now. Through the cross.
Made you. Holy. And blameless. And above reproach. And because he has done that. You will.
Make it to the end. That all of those. Who make it to the end. Were. Rescued. Redeemed.
And made that way. And brought there. By Jesus. Not by themselves. That's very important. Especially for people.
Who struggle with self-loathing. Because you will try to. As best you can. Wiggle your way out of. Jesus being this ultimate hero. Who rescues and redeems you.
And the text means. You make it to the end. If you're a Christian. If this is true for you. You'll make it to the end. And those who don't make it to the end.
Weren't actually ever saved. That's. And we can talk more about that. But I just had to cover that. As we went through this real quick. So what I'm saying is.
Because my brother was a good brother. He punched the guy on the side of the head. All right. You can ask him about that later. He's one of our group leaders. Pray for him.
He's got anger issues. All right. Let's go back. You once were. He has now. Let's look at these phrases.
He has now. Reconciled in his body of flesh. By his death. In order to present you. Holy. Blameless.
And above reproach. What do those words mean? Holy means. Set apart. For God. Cleaned.
Lifted up. And set apart for God. Some of you think you are separated from God. What this actually says is. No. You are separated.
For God. That he separated you from everything else. For him. That he brought you to himself. He made you. Holy.
That they were. Consecrated. Set aside. Utensils. They used to use in the temple. They were consecrated.
Set aside. Holy places. And that because of Jesus. We've been made. Holy. Meaning we've been consecrated.
We've been set aside. We've been brought to him. Holy and blameless. You're not at fault. If you are in Christ. You have no blame.
If you went before a judge. They would have nothing against you. You are blameless. Now think about that for a second. How many of us does that actually get to be true for? On our own.
Raise your hand. We're going to punch you. If that's true for you on your own. Because you're a liar. Okay. None of us.
None of us. None of us get to be blameless. Jesus makes us blameless. And then it says. Above reproach. I want to read you all the definition of a reproach.
It says to address someone. In such a way as to express. Disapproval. And disappointment. Disappointment. Or.
An expression. Of disapproval. And disappointment. That's what. That's what reproach means. And we're above.
Reproach. Meaning there is no. Disapproval. There is no. Disappointment. For those who are in Christ.
You cannot be. An idiot. A failure. You cannot be. All these names you. Label yourself with.
Or that other people. Label you with. You can't be. Not if you're in Christ. You're above that. There is no disapproval.
There is no disappointment. You have not fallen short. You have not failed. You have not let people down. Like not in Christ. You're above reproach.
Nothing bad. Can be said about you. Romans 15. Three. Says it this way. For Christ did not please himself.
But as it is written. The reproaches of those who reproached you. Fell on me. Now that's a. Kind of a clunky sentence. But here's what it means.
Everything bad. If you were a Christian. Everything bad. That could be said about you. Lands on Jesus. That's what happened at the cross.
That's why Jesus died on the cross. He did not deserve to die on the cross. He deserved to be exalted. And worshipped. And held high. And loved.
And respected. And welcomed. And cared for. But he traded all of that in. To swap places with us. So that everything bad.
That anyone could possibly say. About us. Lands on Jesus. And Jesus takes it to the cross. We could line up. Every Christian in this room.
And we could walk up this ramp. And you could walk up to a microphone. And you could say out loud. Every bad thing. That you could think to say about yourself. That someone else could think to say about you.
That someone could drag out of your past. And if you are a Christian. None of that would stick to you. Because it all. Went to Jesus. And he took it to the cross.
All the things that could be said bad about you. Became true of Jesus. And all of his righteousness and holiness. Became true of us. So that in Christ.
We are holy and blameless. And above reproach. Remember when you were a little kid. And you'd be arguing with somebody. And you'd call them a name. And they'd be like.
I'm rubber. And you're glue. Everything you say. Bounce off me. And sticks on you. Maybe you don't remember that.
That's a thing. They got the people wrong. If you're a Christian. You're rubber. Jesus is glue. That's how that works.
Everything that could be said bad about you. Everything that could be levied against you. As a complaint. As disapproval. As disappointment. Bounces off of you.
And sticks on Jesus. That's the good news of the cross. That's the gospel. So if you follow yourself around. With an internal dialogue of. I'm terrible.
I'm the worst. I'm going to mess my children up. I'm going to fail. I'm going to ruin my marriage. I'm the one who did this. I'll never be clean.
I'll never be washed. I've always. Have this in my past. I'll never be. Any of the things I've set out to be. I'm always going to be a failure.
I'm always going to fall short. I'm always going to be an idiot. If that's you. All of that. If you are in Christ. Bounces off of you.
And sticks to Jesus. Because the reproaches. The complaints. The disapproval. The disappointment. That would have come to you.
Go to Jesus. And then Jesus took him to the cross. And all of his holiness. And blamelessness. And everything that made him above reproach. So that no one can say anything bad about Jesus.
Comes to you. That's the gospel. And that's why. If you. If the gospel is true for you. None of this other stuff can be.
If the gospel is true. If you've placed your faith in Jesus. And he's died for you. And reconciled you. And made you holy. And blameless.
And above reproach. To present to himself. None of this other stuff can be true. One of the reasons we read. Verses 15 through 20. To show you how massive Jesus is.
And how much in control he is. And how sovereign and eternal he is. Is because I want you to know. That if Jesus says you're holy. And blameless. And above reproach.
You are. And you don't have an option on that. If you've placed your faith in Jesus. And he says. I've made you holy. And blameless.
And above reproach. You are. And secondly. If that is seated in Christ. If it's wedged in him. If it belongs to him.
If he's the one who keeps it together. It's not going anywhere. If it was up to you. To keep together. To be holy. And blameless.
And above reproach. You'd have a problem. But because it's based in Jesus. It's eternal. If you've placed your faith in Jesus. You will forever be holy.
And blameless. And above reproach. Because of what Jesus has done for you. And that's good news. Okay. So where does this come from?
How do we begin to be free from it? Well we said when we started off this series. That we were going to talk about your three enemies. As we went through. We haven't spent much time on them in the past couple weeks. But we're bringing them back up today.
You've got three enemies. The flesh. The world. And the devil. So I'm going to give a brief explanation of these.
And then we'll talk about how they work. But the flesh is you. You choose to sin. You actively pursue sin. So it's possible.
In this scenario. That this is your own internal dialogue. Where you're beating yourself up constantly. Maybe you think it'll help. There's some reasons why you might do it. Some of you are trying to motivate yourself.
So you say things to yourself. Like don't be lazy. Don't be an idiot. If you don't figure this out. You'll be a failure your whole life. You're trying to motivate yourself.
By giving yourself some tough love. Some of you are trying to keep yourself from being disappointed. So you apply for a job. And then you. She's more qualified than I am. She'll get the job.
They don't even really like me. I should just be happy if I don't get fired. No one likes you. You're not going to get invited to the prom anyway. Everybody thinks you're ugly. You should just be happy if people let you come.
And if anybody will dance with you. You just set yourself up to not be disappointed. Some of you. You're always surprised if something good happens. And it's because you have an internal dialogue. That's consistently telling yourself.
Everything's going to fail. Everything's going to be terrible. Everything's the worst. I'm going to break it. So when anything good happens.
You get surprised. Some of you. You can see it because you apologize for everything. Somebody gets angry. Somebody gets sad around you. You apologize to them.
Because obviously it had to be your fault. Feeling gets tense or awkward. I'm sorry. People are consistently looking at you going. What are you sorry about? I just.
I am. Sorry. I'm sorry that I'm here. Don't stop looking at me. There's this need to. Because you've already conditioned yourself to feel like such a failure.
Some of you spend a lot of time being focused on the things you did wrong. The mistakes you made. Rather than things you got right. Some of you spend all your time comparing your bad qualities to the good qualities of others. It's possible that if you struggle with this. It is just a fleshly.
You have gotten in the pattern personally of beating yourself up. Of using this as a tool to manage your life. To motivate yourself or to keep you from being disappointed. But if you're a Christian. Those things you're saying can't be true. They're true of Jesus.
Can't be true of you. The world. So we said the flesh, the world, the devil. The world could be any kind of outside force. Any kind of outside anything. So some of you.
The internal self-loathing, self-hatred, self-condemnation voice. Is your dad's. Or it's your mom's. Some of you. Have a jury of middle schoolers that follow you around. You got out of middle school 20 years ago.
And you're still whipping yourself with stuff that 13 year olds said. Some of you it's your ex-spouse. Why are you such a screw up? You'll never be able to. You'll always. You mess everything up.
You're the reason this is broken. You're the reason this is wrong. For you a lot of the stuff you say to yourself isn't I. It's you. It's some other voice coming into your head. It's your dad saying something to you.
It's your mom saying something to you. You've been conditioned. It's gotten so normal to you. This is the way you grew up. And so since you've been. Six.
Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten years old. This is how you talk to yourself. You're an idiot.
You're a disappointment. You're a failure. You're a failure. Not if you're in Christ. You were. But he has now made you holy and blameless and above reproach.
Some of you today in the name of Jesus get to evict a chorus of 12 year olds from your head. That's good news. 12 year olds. 12 year olds are the worst. No offense. If there are 12 year olds in here.
You'll get better. The third one. And this one's weirder for us. But we've got to spend some time talking about it. The flesh. The world.
The devil. We actually have a spiritual enemy. The Bible is clear that spiritual reality exists. That there's a God who's good. Who has angels that are good. And that there are evil angels or rebellious angels.
That are called demons or evil spirits. That actually exist. That actually cause harm. If you just read through the New Testament. And I know as Westerners we're prone to just kind of gloss over those passages. But Jesus interacts with demons.
It's weird. I get that. Here's the thing. The Bible is clear. Demons exist. They are real.
They do affect people. They can harm you. Mentally, physically. Like we see that in the Bible. The Bible is never demon focused or evil spirit focused. It is always fully and forever Jesus focused.
But we have to as Christians be aware. That this is a reality. And take that into consideration. So there is a possibility. That if you have some sort of a negative voice in your head. That it is demonic.
That it's actually the accuser. So the Bible calls Satan the accuser. That he accuses us. That he attacks us. That he comes and condemns. He says you're a failure.
You're terrible. He points out your sin. But then he uses it to say. This is why you're unlovable. This is why you're wicked. This is why you'll never be forgiven.
This is why God can't save you. He keeps bringing up what you've done. Let me show you a couple of verses. And then we'll talk about a little more about how this works. But Ephesians 6.12 says this.
For we do not wrestle. And that word wrestle in the Greek means hand to hand combat to the death. Sitting friendly wrestling. This is you ran out of weapons. And now you're in a ditch with somebody. And one of you is coming out.
We do not wrestle against flesh and blood. But against the rulers. Against the authorities. Against the cosmic powers over this present darkness. Against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. That as Christians our main battle is not against political parties or nation states.
It's against spiritual forces of evil. At work in the world. Because there is a real eternity with a real heaven and a real hell. There is a reality beyond what we can see. Now for people who have grown up in the west.
Where we approach everything through reason, logic and science. Which there's nothing bad about any of those. All of those belong to God. Everything was created for him and through him. Reason, logic and science have their place. But there is something beyond what we can see.
The Bible is clear on that. And what it's saying is that a lot of our battle isn't against just flesh and blood. It isn't against our flesh or the flesh of others. There's actually spiritual reality going on. Now that's kind of terrifying.
To be honest with you. That you're in a hand-to-hand combat to the death with spiritual forces. And that would be absolutely cripplingly terrifying. If the Bible didn't say other things. So let's go back to Colossians 1.
It's going to be on the screen. Just to remind you. For by him, that's Jesus. All things were created in heaven and on earth. Visible and invisible. Whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.
So it's specifically saying visible ones and spiritual ones. Keep going Colossians 2. So it's saying he created all spiritual things. For in him, that's Jesus. The whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. Meaning he's fully God.
And you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority. So Jesus is seated over every cosmic power. And you've been filled up by him. And keeps going in Colossians and says this. God made. He's talking about you.
He says, God made alive together with him. Having forgiven us all our trespasses. By canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside. Nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities.
And put them to open shame. By trumping over them in him. The thing that rulers and authorities. That the enemy has against you is your sin. He accuses you of your sin. When Jesus paid for your sin.
And when he nailed it to the cross. The enemy has been disarmed. He has nothing to accuse you of anymore. He can come back and remind you of it. He can say, here's how you failed. Here's how you're evil.
Here's how you're twisted. Here's how you're broken. But guess what happens? All of those reproaches fall on Jesus. They're not true for you anymore. But it is possible for some of us.
Who have this internal dialogue. For it to be some sort of demonic thing. Now. I'm fully want us to continue to talk about this. I want to give you a few more ways to think about this. And then we're open for any kind of questions.
I'll just hang out afterwards. If you have more specific questions about this. But we don't want to spend all our time on it this morning. But a couple of things to maybe help you think about this. Now. Accusation and condemnation come from Satan.
Some of you think. You struggle with this feeling of guilt and shame. And you think. I can't. I can't go to God. I can't go to church.
There's this idea that if you go to God or go to church. He's just going to make it worse. All God's going to do is say. Yeah. Here's how you failed. Here's how you're terrible.
Here's how you're an idiot. And judge you and condemn you. But biblically. That's not God that does that. That's not Jesus that does that. That's Satan.
You just describe Satan. When somebody says. All God's going to do is condemn you. It's like no you just describe Satan. That's what the Bible says he does. He accuses and condemns.
God convicts. Which points out your sin. And then he goes to the cross for it. And offers you forgiveness and reconciliation and love. So the Holy Spirit in you.
If you are a Christian. Is going to convict. But the Holy Spirit uses a scalpel. Not a sledgehammer. So the Holy Spirit.
If you're a Christian. And you're convicted. He comes and says. You said this. You shouldn't talk to your spouse that way. You did this.
Like he. He goes right to the issue. He cuts it out like a cancer. And he leads you. Through. Through surgery.
Which is painful. Through conviction and repentance. Which is painful. To life and freedom. Satan doesn't do that. He hits you with a hammer.
Or he throws a blanket over you. It's just. You're an idiot. You're a failure. He points to your sin. But he doesn't.
He doesn't call for hope. He calls for condemnation. Some. Some of you. In your life. Have had.
And some of you have. Terrible friends. Some of you are sitting next to your terrible friend. Don't look at them. You've had terrible friends. They followed you around.
They. They made you feel bad about yourself. They called you names. They made you feel uncomfortable. They. They tore you down.
Some of you had friends that. That they could talk you into doing really dumb things. And eventually. Some of you grew up. And you got rid of these terrible friends. You moved on.
You were like. No. I can't. I can't hang out with you anymore. Because you make me feel terrible about myself. You.
You beat me down. And then you talk me into dumb things. Like all I ever do with you is get in trouble. Like this is. This is not a good friendship. This is not a healthy place.
Some of you. Potentially. If this is you. Who have. Struggled with self-loathing. May have.
Some sort of a demonic thing going on. That actually functions. Just like a terrible friend. That you don't realize is following you around. So you don't get rid of it.
All it does. Call you names. Give you bad advice. Bad suggestions. And because you don't realize. That this.
Maybe just be demonic. You don't tell it to leave. Now again. That may be super weird. But what Ephesians 6 just said was.
We don't wrestle with flesh and blood. But with. Spiritual forces. So let me tell you. If you are a Christian. If you're not a Christian.
I fully expect. All of this just weirded you out. We believe other weird things. We believe that God became a person. Died on a cross for our sin. Was laid in a grave.
Three days later. He rose again. And eventually. He's coming back on a horse. It gets way weirder. We believe all that.
Now. I'd love to talk to you about it. It's. It's. It's good news. It may come across as weird to us.
Now. For Christians in the room. Who aren't weirded out yet. You got to realize. We are actually at war. With spiritual forces.
Let me explain to you. What happens. When Christians go. Wait a second. Spiritual forces. Whoa.
And get really terrified. It is like. You were drafted. Went to boot camp. Went to training. Got sent down field.
Down range. So you are. You go on your first patrol. In Iraq. Or Afghanistan. You come back.
You go. I need to speak to the commanding officer. Why? I need to speak to the commanding officer. Right now. And for some reason.
They are not mean to you. And they let you do it. And you walk into the commanding officer's. Office. And you say. They are shooting at us.
They hate us out there. And your commanding officer goes. What? Get out of my office. Before I shoot at you. That's what.
When Christians go. Hold on a second. We are at a war. There is an enemy. Yes. The Bible is so clear on that.
We have just Americanized it out. Absolutely. The enemy wants to tear you down. And mess up your marriage. And keep you from following Jesus. Some of you.
When you open the Bible. And you start reading scripture. You hear things like. Jesus is an idiot. Like. You hear swear words.
I wasn't going to say them. But I was going to use a letter. But I feel like that might be inappropriate from up here. You hear. You hear swear words. Of.
This is. This is nonsense. This is garbage. Some of you right now in your head are saying. This is dumb. This is a waste of time.
I shouldn't be here. Some of you. Every time you try to read the Bible. You're overwhelmed by. Condemnation. And conviction.
And you can't even. We have an enemy. That does not want you to find freedom. And joy in Jesus. Does not want you to be active. And sharing your faith.
Does not want you to have life. And hope in him. A real enemy. And. We have a real king. Who's disarmed our enemy.
By taking our sin. To the cross. And by having everything bad. That you could ever say about me. Falls on Jesus. So we're free.
So what do we do? If this is you. What do you do? How do we find freedom here? First thing. You need to preach a better sermon.
For those of you who don't know. This is a sermon. We open the Bible. We say things about Jesus. Some of you. You.
Just so you know. Not some of you. All of you. You preach to yourself more than anybody else does. You preach to yourself more than anybody else does. You tell yourself more about what is true about life.
What's true about you. What's true about Jesus. Than anybody else does. And some of you who are Christians. Are preaching. Very terrible sermons to yourself.
All the time. Y'all know our sermons don't get good on Sunday. Until we get to Jesus. It's not a good sermon. Until we get to the point. Where Jesus shows up.
And saves all of us. Where Jesus is the hero. Where Jesus sets us free. But some of you are following yourself around. And preaching sermons. That I would get fired for.
And rightfully so. Your sermon just covers the first half. You're a failure. You're a sinner. You're terrible. You're an idiot.
Let's pray. That's a terrible sermon. Get to Jesus. If that's. If you were preaching a sermon. If you were.
Like you're following yourself around. Telling yourself theological truths about yourself. And if you are a Christian. You've got to get to Jesus. I was terrible. I was a failure.
My sin did Mark me. It did own me. But. Jesus died for me. And I'm free. And I'm holy.
And I'm blameless. And I'm above reproach. Everybody say that with me right now. If you're a Christian. I'm holy. Who.
That's enthusiasm. Let's go. I'm holy. I'm blameless. And I'm above reproach. That's true.
If you're in Christ. And that's a good sermon. That's real. Some of you need to get some passages of scripture. And begin to repeat them to yourself. You need to wake up in the morning.
And the first thing you do is you pray. And you thank Jesus. And then you start reading some scripture. And you start saying. I'm holy. And blameless.
And above reproach. That he who knew no sin. Became sin for me. So that I could become the righteousness of God. And I'm the righteousness of God. I'm clothed in Jesus.
I'm free forever. When I stand before the king. I will be welcomed. And loved. None of my sin will follow me anywhere. My sin will forever Mark Jesus.
And I will forever celebrate and praise him. Because I've been set free. And I'm a child of the king. Some of you need to begin to preach better sermons. And you legitimately. You really need to make a list of Bible verses.
Or truths about the gospel. We have some we can give you. To help you begin to know what is true. Because you from the age. Maybe some of you who grew up in homes. That were verbally abusive.
From the age of. I don't know. Three. Two. Whenever you started understanding language. Till you got out of the house.
You've heard verbally. Over and over again. You're an idiot. You're a failure. Look at you. No one could love you.
No one could want you. Like this is what's been beat into your head. And you need to begin to say out loud. Some things that are true. About the God of the universe. Who loves you.
And died for you. And came to rescue you. We need to preach better sermons. You need a better savior. Here's the best thing our culture can give you. The best thing they can give you.
Is you need to love yourself more. You need. A higher self esteem. You need to know that you're special. You're a snowflake. You're a magical rainbow pony.
You are. Repeat that after me. Magical rainbow pony. Like this is the best they can give you. You need to have self esteem. You need to know that you're special.
You need to. You need to forgive yourself. You need to learn to love yourself. Boo. No thank you. Part of the problem is that we're only looking at ourselves anyway.
And you're correct. When you look at yourself. And you come to the conclusion. That I'm terrible. That I'm a sinner. That I'm broken.
That I failed. Yes. The Bible will agree with you. But then it's going to say. But. But Jesus.
Some of you have been so focused on yourself. You need to get to. But Jesus. You need a better savior. You need the God that shows up. Not you.
Not more self esteem. Not more love for yourself. You need a God who gives you his esteem. Who forgives you. You don't need to forgive yourself. You need to be forgiven by Jesus.
You need to be redeemed by Jesus. Made much of by Jesus. You need to humble yourself before him. And then be given the confidence that the cross can give. That you're holy and blameless and above reproach. Not because of you.
But because of Jesus. And because it's because of Jesus. You can't mess it up. Every time you feel like I've failed. Yes. But Jesus.
We have a better savior than you. And your self esteem. And the way you feel about yourself. You get to have a self esteem that doesn't come from you. That comes from him. And it's a God esteem.
Where he lifts you up. Where he exalts you. Where he goes to work for you. Because he was humbled for you. We need a better savior. Galatians 2.20-21 says this.
I have it on the screen. I got it right here. I have been crucified with Christ. Meaning when I died. When Christ died. I died with him.
It's 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.
See Paul is writing this. And he knows I was loved by God. And he gave himself up for me. He loved me. Then he says I do not nullify.
Which means treat like it doesn't exist. The grace of God. For if righteousness were through the law. Meaning rules. If righteousness. If I could be made right.
Be okay. Through the law. Then Christ died for no reason. When we're following ourselves around. And saying these mean things to ourselves. These hateful things to ourselves.
We're holding ourselves up against the law. I should look like this. I should be like this. I should be smart like this. I should have handled this better. You're holding yourself up to a standard.
And what he's saying is. If the standard could save you. Jesus died for no reason. But because Jesus died. We don't nullify. Or act like grace doesn't exist.
We trust Jesus. And let him live through us. That we died with him. All our sin died with him. And that he's alive in us. His righteousness is alive in us.
That we believe in grace. Which means we get all the benefits. Without any of the work. That we get to be holy. And blameless. And above reproach.
Even though we didn't deserve it. Because Jesus worked on our behalf. Thirdly. You need a better way to pray. Okay. So Jesus says this.
In the model prayer. In Matthew 6. So he says. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts. Or forgive us our sins.
Or forgive us our trespasses. Depending on your version. Forgive us our sins. That's what he's talking about. As we have forgiven our debtors. So help us.
Forgive us of our sins. As we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not into temptation. And deliver us from evil. So he specifically says.
It's a normal daily way to pray. To pray about the flesh. The world. And the devil. That's forgive me my sins. That's the flesh.
Lead me not into temptation. That's the world. And deliver us from evil. That's the devil. That's a normal daily way to pray. Some of you.
Only blame things on the devil. And you need to spend some time. Repenting of your own sin. Some of you. Most of us. Know that we sin.
Try to repent of our sin. But never get to the point. Where we say. And deliver us from evil. If the enemy's involved. He doesn't get to be.
Because you're the head of all rule and authority. And I'm free in you. And in the name of Jesus. Any enemy involvement has to go. So here's what we're going to do today.
We're going to actually pray through those three things. This morning. If you're not a Christian. If you don't pray. I would invite you to pray. I would invite you to begin to pray.
And ask Jesus to reveal himself to you. But also. If you're not going to pray. That's cool. You're welcome to hang out. With us at any point.
And be someone who's just checking this thing out. Who's even a little bit antagonistic to it. You're not going to offend us. You can ask us any questions you want. But I would ask that right now.
As we pray through some of this. You just be quiet and respectful. We're going to pray a little bit. For those Christians in the room. Who specifically struggle with this self-loathing. If we've been talking to you this morning.
We're going to spend more time talking about it in our groups. And for some of you may not know. You have this. There's a list we have in our Killjoy book. To help you identify it. We're going to pray about those three things.
The flesh. The world. And the devil. And here's how we're going to do this. Let's pray about the flesh first.
In just a second. We're going to pray. And you get to repent. For actively any participation you've had. In telling yourself lies. In preaching a false gospel to yourself.
You get to repent for unbelief. And then you get to remind yourself in prayer. Of what's true. That you're holy. And blameless. And above reproach.
That you're free. Some of us in our prayer lives. Need to get to the point. Where all we do is talk about ourselves. We talk about our friends and family. We need to start talking about Jesus.
In our prayer. Thank you Jesus. That you saved me. That you redeemed me. That you're king. And that I'm free.
So we're going to pray about the flesh. So just for a minute. I want you to take a second. And I want you to. If this is you. I want you to take a moment.
And ask the Holy Spirit to help you. To actually repent of. Any participation you've had in. Applying this to yourself. Lying to yourself. And then I want you to take a minute.
To just celebrate that Jesus. Frees you. Okay can we do that now? O Amen. Amen. Amen.
Now we're going to take a second to pray. Where he says, deliver us from temptation. Keep us from temptation. We're going to pray about where we're tempted to believe more about what the world says about us than what Jesus says about us. Some of you believe what your dad said about you more than you believe what Jesus says about you. Some of you believe what middle schoolers or your mom or some sort of a jury you've made up in your mind.
What they say about you, what you think people would say about you more than what Jesus says, which is your holy, blameless, and above reproach. We're just going to take a minute to pray that through the Holy Spirit he would let us not believe that. We would trust him more. That he would deliver us from the temptation. Keep us from the temptation to believe what the world says. That he would send unto you a gospel.
They would then satu liaby. And I believe what the Lord says. Those fruits and понимаю. Amen. Amen. Now in this third one, here's what we're going to do.
We're going to specifically pray that in the name of Jesus, if there's anything that's messing with your thought pattern, affecting how you think about yourself, that in the name of Jesus, it would have to leave. That the enemy does not get to speak into what's true about you or have any dominion in your brain in the way you think that you're free. You don't have to be, it's not, this authority isn't based off of you, it's based off of Jesus, his work on the cross, what he's already accomplished, what's already true. So you just get to right now saying in the name of Jesus, and Jesus, I pray that in the name of Jesus, that anything that is affecting my thoughts, that's not me or the Holy Spirit has to go.
Has no place in my thinking anymore. Take a second and do that. Amen. Amen. We said when we started this series that we were going to treat it a little bit the way we treat counseling, that I wish that we could have done this across the table. And here's what we always say when we get to this point when we're talking with people through this.
And just so you know, there have been many people in our church family who have struggled with this. And specifically when they got to the point where they got to tell something to just leave them alone in the name of Jesus, they felt free and clear. And it's not weird. We have an enemy that hates us, that wants to lie to us. You get to have freedom. Some of you in the room right now may have just thought when we got to that point where we were going to tell something to leave in the name of Jesus, you may have just gotten frustrated, fearful.
You may have begun to think, this is dumb. This is a waste of time. I'm not going to do this. That's not the Holy Spirit. It's not the Holy Spirit talking. It may be you.
And if it's you right now getting really frustrated, you can repent. But it's possible that you're being continually pressed to not tell something to leave in the name of Jesus. And I just want to encourage you, do. Because the Holy Spirit doesn't mind you saying that. He's active and at work to set you free. So we're going to take one more second to just pray and say in the name of Jesus, everybody in the room, in the name of Jesus, nothing gets to mess with me.
I'm free. Because I'm holy and blameless and above reproach because of the cross. Nothing gets to mess with my thinking. So let's continue to pray that just for a second. Amen. Amen.
Jesus, we thank you that you're good. Amen. That you who were holy and blameless and above reproach took everything that could ever be said bad about us onto yourself. That you became our sin. You became the worst of all of us. You became everything we could ever be accused of that would be true.
Everything we've ever tried to hide, you became it. And you were nailed to a cross and laid in a grave. And that you rose again conquering it. That we died with you and we get to rise with you. That it's you alive in us. So that we are now holy and blameless and above reproach forever.
Because you've accomplished that on our behalf. And that we get to be reconciled to you and presented to you. That one day we will be presented before your throne as holy and blameless and above reproach. And it will be a beautiful testament to your work on our behalf. That it will be a moment where you receive so much glory because you saved such sinners. And we'll be overwhelmed and tears will shrink down our face and we'll praise you, our God, for eternity.
Because you became our sin. So that we can be free. We praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Some of you, you need to go home.
You need to make a list. Bible passages. We can help you with that. You can talk to your community group leader about it. Some of you are going to need to do some follow-up with your community group leader. You have some questions.
Some of you, maybe we need to do some pastoral follow-up. That's kind of outlined in the beginning of our Killjoy books. Some of you are just going to need to be real honest with your group this week. One of the reasons we get to confess out loud is because everything we can say out loud bad about ourselves goes to Jesus. And we're above reproach. We're above reproach.
Gospel Fluency
Transcript
How we doing? We are in our second week of our Anchor Series, and so what we're doing, we are a church plant, and I think you kind of stay a church plant for like the first five years. I think that's kind of the rule. At least some organizations will say that, and after that you've kind of existed long enough to think you probably won't die. And so that's kind of how that works. And so we're a church plant, and what that means is as we continue to grow and as we continue to see more people hop in and be church family with us, we have to consistently re-remind ourselves, re-launch into who we are, what we're shooting for, what it means for us to be church family, and so that's kind of what this is.
That's what the Anchor Series is. And so what we're going to do is for the next six weeks, we're going to just be walking through what we mean when we say we're a gospel-centered community on mission, what we're talking about. So we put it on banners. We put it on t-shirts. And we're just going to kind of take some time to say this is what we mean. This is what we're talking about.
This is what we're shooting for as we follow Jesus. And so what we did last week was we just talked about the gospel. And so we just said, here's what the gospel is. We went from Romans 1, 2, 3, skipped 4, and went to 5 and 6. And so we just skipped 4 in case you had OCD just to make it where you can no longer pay attention. And we just kind of went through the first six chapters of Romans and said, here's what the gospel is.
Here's what the gospel story is. And so what we said was we were created to exist in a relationship with God, designed by Him to exist as creation in a relationship with Him as our Creator, and that we fell. And that fundamentally sin is not us breaking rules, but it is us swapping out what it is that is primary for us, that we swap our Creator for something else. And we begin to say, this is the goal. This is the hope. This is the dream.
This is what will fill me up. This is what will satisfy me. And that in doing that, we dishonor God. We run from Him. And so we were created. We fell.
But that Jesus redeems us. That He steps in and becomes for us our salvation. That He lived perfectly for us, died in our place for our sin. So that in Him, we do have that. He remakes that relationship back right with God. And then after that, we get to live in light of that, that we're restored.
We have a restored relationship with God. And then ultimately when we die, we'll spend eternity with God back in the perfect relationship we should have had had we not fallen. And that's the storyline we find ourselves on. Whether you're a Christian or not a Christian, that is the storyline of the Bible. And that is the storyline of the world. And so what we've said as Christians is that that is our story.
That is fundamentally where we are in the world, how we exist. And so since that is the gospel, since it's the gospel is that Jesus died on our behalf and we're saved by His work, not ours, and then everything else comes out of that. Everything else plays out of that. And so what we're going to do today is just talk a little bit about what do we mean when we say we're gospel-centered? Like that sounds cute or nice or it's some good Bible word goal thing that you put on that banner. That's nice.
What are we talking about? What does that look like? How do I do that on a daily basis? And so we're just going to try to be real practical for the rest of this series and just say if that's the gospel, then this is what we mean by gospel-centered. This is what we mean by community. This is what we're talking about when we say mission and try to help us all grow in, oh, okay, some tangible.
That's how we'll do that. And that's what that'll look like. So let's pray and then we're going to talk about some stuff this morning. God, I thank you that we are saved by Jesus's work, not ours. That we've been made right with you, not through our efforts, not through our work, but through Jesus's work on our behalf. Praise you that the Bible is not fundamentally about our behavior and it's not about our ability to fix the situation.
I pray that you would, through your Holy Spirit, lead us today, speak to us and teach us today and help us all to grow in what we mean of being gospel-centered. We love you. Praise you in Jesus's name. Amen. So we fundamentally all fall short and we all need Jesus to step in and save us.
And it's about his work, not ours, not our behavior, but his. And so Paul, the whole New Testament is about the gospel. And Paul even says that the, we read last week in Romans that the law and the prophets testify to this. And so what he said is the Old Testament, which is kind of the law and the prophets, that means that all of the Old Testament is pointing to Jesus and what he was going to do, that that is the story. And so Paul in 2 Corinthians, I'm just going to read this to you. He says, for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
He said, that's it. That is all we talked about is Jesus Christ and him crucified. I decided to know nothing among you. And every time I read that verse, it reminds me of a scene in the office where one of the guys is getting fussed at and his boss looks at him and goes, do you understand me? And he stares him back in the face and goes, I understand nothing. Like real defiantly, but makes himself seem like a complete.
And that's us. That's us as church family. Do we understand anything other than gospel? We understand nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified. That's us. That's, that is what the New Testament is about.
That is center for us. And so everything comes out of that. And so one of the ways that we talk about this, one of the ways that we describe this is the term gospel fluency. And so gospel is the story. It is that Jesus died for us, that he saved us. And fluency just means that we speak that language naturally, normally.
So I took Spanish in high school and in college and am nowhere near fluent. I passed and that's about it. That's all I got. And so like if I'm speaking Spanish with someone, I've got to translate the whole time. So if I'm talking to, I actually was over, we were in the North Brown area of West Columbia about a week ago.
And I was talking to, I heard somebody, we were talking with a guy who spoke Spanish. He was speaking English with us, but then he answered the phone. And so he was talking to his son in Spanish. And I'm just like, listen, and I'm trying to hear things. And I'm like, I think that means mama. I don't know what that is.
I think he said dog. This is a weird conversation. And like, I'm just trying to pick up on what he was talking about because I have to take the word he says to put it in my brain and I have to translate it. I have to say, okay, what's the English equivalent of that? So if I was in Mexico, I could walk over to someone and I'd say, all right, I need to know how to find the library.
Because this is one of the only sentences I know how to say in Spanish. So bear with me. Donde esta means like where is. So, okay, donde esta es la biblioteca. Yeah, because if I ever visit a Spanish speaking country, I really want to know how their libraries are. So I've memorized this phrase.
I will be able to get permission to go to the bathroom. I will not know where it is, but I will know that I'm allowed to go there if I ever find one, stumble upon it. But what I've got to do is I'm not fluent. So what I have to do is I've got to take the English word and I've got to pair it up with the Spanish word and I've got to figure out. So you say something to me in Spanish.
I've got to figure out what that means in English. I've got to take my English words, what I want to say, pair it up with Spanish words and speak back. But once you become fluent, so a native Mexican Spanish speaker is going to hear Spanish words, think Spanish words, speak Spanish words. That's fluency. So if you moved to Spain after a while, you wouldn't have to translate.
You would just know what was being said. You'd respond. You'd dream in Spanish, think in Spanish. You'd become fluent. And that's what we do with the gospel. It actually becomes our language because it is our story.
So I'm a Southern American. So I speak American, which is a form of English. I speak Southern American. And so I know what a crawdad is. I know what the term all y'all means. It is the most inclusive form of y'all, often followed by something derogatory, like all y'all can kiss my foot.
Like I just wanted to make sure everyone knew they were included. But that's my heart language. And that's what happens with the gospel is that it becomes our language and it actually begins to affect how we think, how we see the world. So our language shapes our worldview. I heard this and I don't know if it's true, but it was told to me like it was true that somebody was an English speaker was in a country in Africa and was going to be teaching them this group about self-sufficiency. And he was talking with his translator, but he wanted to talk about self-sufficiency or self-reliance.
And he was trying to get the translator. He was like, what's the, he explained the concept of the translator. And the translator said, okay, the closest word that we have for that concept is a mental disorder. That means that you don't believe you need your tribe, that you, you believe you exist outside of community because our language shapes around what we believe and our language shapes what we believe. And so for us as Christians, we become fluent in the gospel because that is our story, which what that means is when we sit with somebody and they begin to tell us, we begin to plot their story out, their life out.
When we're talking to them about creation, fall, redemption, restoration, we begin to look for where they're saying they fit in that story. We begin to hear through the lens of the gospel. And when we, when we talk back to them, we point them to the gospel. We speak as if the gospel is true. So I no longer hear as a happiness seeking American.
I listen in here as a gospel filled Christian, a gospel changed Christian. And when I talk back to someone, I speak back to them. I'm not just going to give them. Here's the advice. Here's what the world says. Here's what I've been taught as an American.
No, we're going to speak back in light of what the gospel is. And so that's what we're shooting for today is we're just going to talk about that concept and we're going to try to grow because the gospel is our story. And because it is the story, we're going to try to grow and what it means to be gospel centered. So if you'll flip to Colossians one, um, this is, this is a passage that kind of points this out to us, that shows this to us. And then we're going to just talk through some, uh, uh, how we see this in the Bible, because the new Testament is gospel centered. It is about Jesus and what he has done.
And so it's not going to be so much when you look through it, you're not going to see, oh, this is where they explained this concept. It's like, no, this is where they do this. This is where this shows up. So we're in Colossians one, uh, go to verse 27. So Paul's been talking about Jesus in the beginning of Colossians, how big he is, how massive he is, what he's done for us, that he, through his sacrifice has made us right with God and made us holy, blameless and above reproach.
And he's explaining all this. And we get into this text, he's going to say the mystery. Uh, and what he means by the mystery is this, this massive God, what he said in Colossians one is this massive God became a human. Lived perfectly on our behalf and swapped places with us that, that he gives us his goodness, his righteousness, his holiness, and he takes our sin on himself. And so that's the mystery he's talking about, that that is absolutely baffling. If you've been in the church for a while, you've been around Christianity for a while, you've heard that a lot.
And sometimes we can forget how absolutely mysterious and baffling that is. And the mystery of it is also that how is God going to handle sin? How is he going to make people pay for their rebellion against him? And, and the mystery that is revealed is that he's actually going to pay for it for them. And so that's what we're looking at. And that's what he's talking about when he says the mystery, he's really just talking about the gospel to 27 to them.
God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles, Gentiles are people who are non-Jewish are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. And so it's the gospel and the fact that Jesus melds his life with ours, mixes his life with ours so that he's in us. And he is our hope of glory because of his work, not ours. And then 28, him, we proclaim Jesus, him, we proclaim warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this, I toil struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. Okay.
So what he says is it's Jesus that we proclaim. It's Jesus that we're talking about. It's Jesus that we're pointing to. It's Jesus that we're going to push towards, that we're going to point people towards, that we're going to focus on. And his reason is so that we can present everyone mature in Christ. If you are a Christian, maturity is not really an option for you.
It is your trajectory. It's where you're headed. Romans says that we're predestined, which means that he sealed it beforehand to be conformed to the image of Christ, to the image of his son, which means that all of us over time are going to slowly look more and more and more like Jesus who've placed our faith in Jesus. So if you feel like, oh, I'm not really growing, I'm not really, it's happening. It's going to continue to happen. It's slow and messy and painful, but growth is going to continue.
And maturity is the goal for us as Christians, that we want to grow in maturity. We want to repent of sin faster. We want to sin less. We want to see our sin more. That's one of the marks of maturity is not so much that you sin less, that happens, but it's actually that you just begin to see your sin more. Things you didn't know were sin start showing up and you're like, I've been doing that forever.
I didn't even realize I was off there. My whole thought process was broken here, but we grow in maturity. And the way to do that most of the time has been answered by the church as learn the rules. It's been, we want to grow in maturity, read the Bible and learn what it looks like to be a Christian. And it comes across as learn the rules. So you get told Jesus died for your sin and his work replaces yours and you're saved by his work, not yours, that he took your sin.
He died for it and he gives you his righteousness. And that's the gospel. And then somebody said, do you want to be a Christian? Raise your hand. And you said, that sounds like a sweet deal. You raised your hand.
Y'all talked or you had a conversation with somebody. You said, I've placed my faith in Jesus. And then they said, cool, now here are the rules. And you were like, what? I thought this wasn't about my behavior. I thought this wasn't.
And it feels a little bit like, I feel like we've changed the story here because we feel like most of us feel like the way to grow as a Christian is to figure out how to behave better, figure out what the rules are and follow them. But Paul says it's Jesus we proclaim. That we're going to consistently point back towards the gospel. So it's not that we grow out of the gospel. We grow into the gospel. Does our behavior change?
Yes. Is that what it's about? No. Is Jesus going to consistently make us more mature and grow us? Absolutely. Are we consistently going to see our sin, repent of it, change, grow?
Yes. But it's the way to grow, learning all the rules and trying to white knuckle them and trying to follow them. No, we grow in Jesus. It's him that is proclaimed. Growth comes through Jesus. And so just to help you with this, and I'm going to give you the references.
So if you disagree with me right now, I feel like this isn't true. I want you to just write these down. If you just like taking notes and writing things down, you want to look this up later. I'm going to give you the references. And I'm just going to explain quickly what Paul says. So we're going to see where Paul does this, where Paul sees the world through the gospel.
So 1 Corinthians 6, 9 through 11. 1 Corinthians 6, 9 through 11. Paul's talking about behavior and living correctly, what it looks like to behave, what it looks like to have a right life. And he goes through and lists this sin, this sin, this sin, this sin, this sin, this sin. Step away from it. Don't have it in your life.
And then he lands with, because Jesus has saved you, because you've been called out of this, because you used to be a part of this, but you've been rescued by the cross, because you've been rescued by Jesus. And so the reason that we behave is because Jesus has already saved us, already rescued us. In 1 Corinthians 6, 18 through 20. So later in that chapter, he specifically talks about sexual sin. He says that sexual sin is a big deal, that you should flee from sexual sin, because it's not, it's one of the only sins that's not outside of the body, but it actually is a part of your body. And the reason he gives is that you've been bought with a price, that Jesus shed his blood for you.
Your body doesn't belong to you anymore. It belongs to Jesus. He owns it. He paid for it. You've already been made right. So act like it.
Live that way. But the reason is the gospel. The motivation is the gospel. Not you're falling short. Not God's mad at you. Not live up to the rules.
Not you're a bad person. No, it's that Jesus already made you right. Live that way. When he's talking about giving and generosity to Corinthians again, but it's 2 Corinthians 8, 9, 8, 8, and 9. What he says is that they should be generous because Jesus, who was rich, became poor on their behalf. And so the reason for generosity, the reason we open our wallets, the reason we give to the church, the reason we help people pay light bills is not because it's good, not because it makes us right with God.
It's because Jesus has already given up everything and given us everything. We already have all the wealth that we could ever want. When he's talking to husbands and wives in Ephesians 5, 22 through 25, he says, here's how to be a wife. Here's what that looks like. Here are the rules for being a good wife. Here's how to be a husband.
Here's what that looks like. And the whole time, the reasoning behind it is because marriage is a picture of Christ's love for the church. And what Jesus has already done on behalf impacts how we live as a married couple. But it's always the gospel is the reasoning. The gospel is the motivation. And it's the gospel that empowers us to actually live that way.
That's what we're talking about when we say we're gospel centered. It's not, hey, come, let's all work to behave together. It's no, our behavior is going to change as we focus on Jesus, as we grow in Jesus. So this is how we talk to ourselves. This is how we think. Husbands, wives.
We'll pick on husbands. I'm a husband. We'll pick on them. Wives, this applies to you, but I'm going to fuss at your husband. So you're welcome.
Why do you serve your spouse? Why are you gracious to your spouse? Why do you go out of your way for your spouse? Now, if we're honest, a lot of husbands will say things like, well, if you just had this conversation with somebody, because it's good. Okay. Because you're supposed to.
Right. Because life's better when you do. Yeah. She fusses less. Mm-hmm. Bible says we should.
That's okay. That's a good reason. But we could rattle this stuff off. But eventually, there's a reason. That all runs out. The motivation for that runs out.
It makes me a good husband. Okay. But there's some days I could care less about being a good husband, if I'm honest with you. I just, I just, yeah, what would a good husband do? Probably get up and help. What do I want to do?
Sit on the couch. I'll just take a loss today. Perhaps a track record's probably good enough to be at least above 500. Like, I'm above 50% right now, probably. I'll justify. I did something last week that really probably counted double.
Covers this day. That your wife is happier. People will say, like, happy wife, happy life. If mom ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. Okay. Eventually, that runs out, too, though.
The only reason I'm doing good stuff is because it makes my wife not fuss at me. At some point, I just don't care anymore. This ain't worth the effort. Because I get fussed at all the time. Like, eventually, husbands, you're just like, ah, ah, ah, ah. Truth is, though, the reason that you serve your spouse is that Jesus served us.
That Jesus gave himself up for us. That we have been so absolutely served. So absolutely taken care of. So absolutely had someone sacrifice on our behalf. That it fundamentally changes how we behave. And then the reason I behave is no longer about me.
Because all of those were about me. All of those were about you. Makes me feel good. Makes me look good. Makes me happier. Makes life better.
She fusses less. All of that eventually turns in on itself and is just about you. That's why it breaks down. Because at some point, you've decided something else is more important. But all of those get to be about Jesus.
And they get to be about Jesus and not about your spouse. Not about making her happy. Not about she responding appropriately. It's only always about Jesus. And that never runs out. That motivation doesn't quit.
Yes, I've been served. Yes, I've sacrificed. She doesn't notice. So Jesus does that for me. And I take it for granted. And I don't notice.
And I don't appreciate it. And I get to grow. When I serve and do something I don't want to do. When you're doing something you fundamentally hate, you get to remind yourself, I bet the cross was terrible. Thank you, Jesus, that you sacrificed on my behalf. And that doesn't run out.
And it continues to change us. And it actually brings joy in that situation. Why do you work hard at your job? You can rattle off the list. Makes me feel good. People see me doing it.
Boss will notice. I'll get a promotion. Eventually, all that just runs out. But if it's that I worked fundamentally for God, that he sees me, that Jesus has already come and worked hard on our behalf, that he's already come and sacrificed on my behalf, that doesn't run out. Motivating yourself with the gospel and remembering that this is my story, this is who I am, that doesn't run dry. Why are you generous?
Jesus was generous. Why do you avoid temptation and sin? Because Jesus died for it. Because I've been made new. Because I'm holy and blameless and above reproach because of him. And then what happens is we get to turn this out towards other people.
There's not even just behavior. It's circumstances. You get fired from your job. Is that bad? Yeah. Do you wish that hadn't happened?
Probably. Although my dad had a friend one time who got fired during hunting season and they were going to be, he got to be on like unemployment for a little while and he was so happy. And his twin brother didn't from the same place. And so he went hunting every day while his brother was getting ready to go to work. And that was like the best thing. He's like putting on his camo and laughing or whatever.
But most of the time though, getting fired is bad. And you have to remind yourself that, yeah, this is bad. But God's trustworthy. He's proven that in the cross. And my worth doesn't come from my ability to work, my ability to provide, my ability to earn. That all of my worth and approval has already been sealed in Jesus.
Jesus. So it changes how we see the world. It changes how we react. And it changes how we talk to people. So this becomes our primary story.
It becomes our language that we're fluent in. And it becomes how we respond for the most part. Christians. If you're in here and you're not a Christian, you're off the hook on this one because you probably don't do this. Although you probably do give advice. But Christians.
A lot of times we memorize Bible verses. And then we use them like bullets to shoot people. All we do is we remove the verse, wipe the gospel off of it, which was the context in which it came. And then we just give the verse to someone and we think we're being helpful and we are not. Is that verse true? Yes.
Is the context the gospel? Yes. And a lot of times the way we apply it is not the gospel. So you're having a conversation with someone and they're like, I just feel like a bad wife. I feel like a bad mother. And you're like, well, Proverbs 31.
Boom! Feel good? Feel like a better mom now? Better wife? Let's read those verses together.
I just wanted to help you see how woefully you fall short. Happy Mother's Day. The gospel doesn't show up. It's out of context. You're not telling the whole story. I've really been struggling with lust.
I've really been struggling with, well, Job 31.1, Ephesians 5.3. Boom! You're welcome. I'm enjoying our confession time. Like, we just lay weight on people and we haven't told them the whole story. And so we actually get to respond out of the gospel.
Instead of just saying, yeah, you are a terrible husband. Yeah, you are. Yeah, you do fall short. We only give that half of it. The Bible's very clear. Yeah, you are a selfish roommate.
You are a jerk. Good point. I've been meaning to tell you you were a jerk. Here's how the Bible says you're a jerk. Like, we just end up shooting people repeatedly with Bible verses that don't help people love Jesus, don't help people grow, and don't help people see the gospel. And so what we do as a church family is we give good news before we give good advice.
And I'm going to explain what that means. Good news is the gospel, that Jesus died for us, that he rescued us. And it's an event that happened on our behalf. So, king goes to battle. I heard this story before. It helps me see this picture so clearly.
A king goes to battle, leaves his castle behind. He gets his archers together. He gets his chariots together. He gets all of his horsemen, all his foot soldiers. And they go to battle and they leave. And everybody, he leaves a couple of people in the castle.
And all the civilians in the castle. And they're waiting to find out what's going to happen. One of two things happens. The king goes to battle. And he wins. And what he sends back is good newsers.
All they're doing is riding back on a horse, laughing to themselves, feeling real happy and light inside, to go tell everybody, we won. King won. Victory's been won on your behalf. Throw open the gates. Get the band out. Bring out your finest meats and cheeses.
The celebration will begin. The battle has been won. And all you can do with that, because it is news, is live in light of it. So you feel better. You celebrate. You dance.
There's like freedom in that. Or he loses. And he grabs somebody on the horse and he says, ride back as fast as you can and tell them they're coming. They've broken our ranks. His army is scattered. He says, tell them to put the archers on the walls.
Tell them to seal up the gate. Tell them to bring in as much as they can. Close everything up. Seal everything up. Put all the women and children in the inner chamber. And here's the game plan.
Best way to probably defend yourself and good luck. That's advice. He sends good advisors who just show back up and say, here's what we have to do to hopefully survive. And that is not the gospel. The gospel is, here's what Jesus has done to give us life and to give us victory. And we live in light of that.
It changes our behavior. But it's not about our behavior. Our behavior isn't to fix the problem. It isn't to beat off the enemy. It isn't to win. It isn't to defeat those who are charging against us.
It isn't to have the victory. The victory has already been won. The king has already won. The good news is already proclaimed. And so as a church family, we give good news before we give good advice. And we like good advice.
Good advice is good. But we give good news first. We're going to talk about Jesus before we talk about you. Before we talk about your situation. We're going to talk about Jesus first because we have good news. So we give good news before we give good advice.
And we talk about Jesus before we talk about you. And it changes how we interact with each other. It changes how we speak to each other. And here's why it matters. If you sit down with someone for coffee and they say, I feel like I'm a terrible mother. I feel like I'm a terrible wife.
I just feel like I'm falling short. And all you say is, yeah. Here are the things I did to be less of a terrible mother. Super encouraging. Let me tell you my three tricks to being awesome. Here's what I did to be a better wife.
Here's what I read that Beth Moore says about being a good wife. Here's what all you're fundamentally saying. You're giving good advice. But all you're fundamentally saying is, This is about your behavior. And that is the opposite of the gospel. When I just give you good advice, When you sit down with coffee for someone, And you say things that you're hoping to be encouraging, Hoping to be helpful, And you leave Jesus out of it.
What you're saying is, This is about your behavior. The problem is your behavior. And the way to fix it is your behavior. That's what we're telling people. And here's why that matters. Parents.
You got kids. You got kids in, You grew up. So younger people, Maybe you came up through a youth group. Parents, Maybe you've got kids in a youth group. Well, not if you're here. We don't have one of those.
But maybe you've had one. Your kids were in a youth group. And here's the thing. With your children, You want them to behave. You want them to grow. You want them to have morals.
You want them to have standards. But here's the thing. If your child, Doesn't say any swear words. Doesn't drink. Doesn't smoke. Doesn't chew.
Doesn't date people that do. Only listens to family friendly radio. Like they're tearing up WMHK, Which is now K-Love. Like they're rocking on the way to school, To a Sandy Patty thing. If y'all know who that is. They iron their blue jean shorts, And tuck their shirt in.
They only wear, Or they only watch VeggieTales movies. If they do that successfully, Do they not need Jesus? If you successfully beat, These behaviors into them. Do they not need Jesus? No. They do.
They're just a goofy lost person. They're just an awkward sinner. That's all it is. Should their behavior change? Yes. Should you teach morality as a parent?
Yes. Should you pay attention to the messages, That your children are learning through music and movies? Yes. Should we all? Yes. Everything is preaching to us.
Everything is declaring a false gospel. Does that save us? No. In your community group, If you could just get everybody to behave. If confession time was, I only prayed for seven hours this week. I really wanted to hit 14.
And then y'all just hugged each other. Would you not need Jesus? No, you'd need Jesus. You'd need him to save you, To redeem you, To change you. You need his work, Not yours. And so when we look at someone, And you just say, Here's how to change your behavior.
What I have just declared to you is, It's about your behavior. And if you fix that, You'd be okay. And that is the farthest thing from the truth. So it makes a difference. It's a big deal. So we're going to, Give good news before we give good advice.
And we're going to talk about Jesus, Before we talk about you. That's how we as a church family respond. That's what it looks like, To be gospel centered for us. So when we talk to somebody, We're going to talk about good news, Before we give good advice. And we're going to talk about Jesus, Before we talk about you. Martin Luther says this, And this was, He said it in German, Way back in the day.
He's one of the guys that like, Had a fit and started the reformation. He's a pretty angry person. It's kind of cool. He also helped clarify some things, About the gospel and some of the stuff in scripture. But he said this in German, So it was translated into like, Old English.
So some of the words will be weird, And I'll try to skip. Where it says teacheth, I'll just say teaches. Martin Luther said this, Here I must take counsel of the gospel. I must hearken to the gospel, Which teaches me, Not what I ought to do, For that is the proper office of the law, But what Jesus Christ, The son of God, Has done for me. To wit that he suffered and died, To deliver me from sin and death. The gospel wills me to receive this, And to believe it.
And this is the truth of the gospel. It is also the principal article of all Christian doctrine, Wherein the knowledge of all godliness consists. Most necessary is it, therefore, That we should know this article well, Teach it to others, And beat it into their heads continually. And that's what we're shooting for as a church family. To beat the gospel into each other's heads continually. And a lot of times we think, I know the gospel.
I don't need to know the gospel right now. I need to know how to change my behavior. The problem is, Your behavior won't change, Unless the gospel becomes more real to you, More clear to you, More, You feel it more. That's what changes our behavior. And the truth is, You don't know the gospel. We function outside of the gospel all the time.
There are times Matt and I, We're getting this up, I'll need to repent, Or I'll be upset about something, And Matt will go, Let me tell you, Your approval doesn't come from that, That you completely whiffed on, And it was terrible. Your approval comes from Jesus, And his work for you. And the whole time he's doing that, I'm like, I know that Matt. Thanks. And when he gets done, I'm like, I feel better, That was really helpful. Because we need to be reminded, Of the gospel.
Flip over to Hebrews 3, So if you're in one of these bibles, It's going to be like, 11 pages to the right, On 649. And the author of Hebrews, Is kind of laying this out for us, What this looks like. And so I just, We're going to walk through this, And then we're going to talk a little bit about, Just practically, How do we share the gospel with each other, On a regular basis. Hebrews 3 verse 12, Take care brothers, So brothers and sisters, Church family, Take care brothers, Lest there be in any of you, An evil, Unbelieving heart, Leading you to fall away, From the living God, But exhort, And I'll explain what that means in a second, Exhort one another every day, Every day, As long as it is called, Today, See what he did there?
That none of you may be hardened, By the deceitfulness of sin, Sin lies to us, For we have come to share in Christ, If indeed we hold our original confidence, Firm to the end, Okay, Exhort one another today, As long as it's called today, Every day, As long as it's called today, Exhort just means special Bible encouragement, It really just means special gospel encouragement, That's what it is, That's what exhortation is, It's reminding each other of the gospel, Because that's our original hope, What was your original hope? That you were awesome? If that was your original hope, I have news for you, You are not a Christian, And you are not awesome, Your original hope is that Jesus, Was awesome for you, That he was good for you, That his work saves you, That's the original hope, And that's what we exhort one another in, That's what we remind each other of, Jesus is great, You aren't, You are going to fall short, That's the gospel, That's why a feel good, Ism, Feels so empty, You ever mess something up terribly, And someone trying to be nice is like, Oh it's okay, You'll be okay, It'll be alright, It'll all work out, That'll, Oh you'll be fine, It's great, You're great, You didn't mean that, You're a good person, Some of you, Maybe, You believe that, If you say that to me, I'm like, I'm not a good person, Like that's not, This isn't helping me at all, I don't think it'll all work out, I don't think, Like, It just feels so empty, Some of you who aren't Christians, You've been told that repeatedly, And you've really, Really tried to believe it, But you just can't, Something in you just won't let you, Fall in love with the idea, That it'll all be okay, And everything will work out, You know what warms my soul, Is when someone stares me in the face, And says, Yeah you messed that up, And that was terrible, And you failed, And Jesus steps in, And rescues, And redeems, And works, And it's because of your failure, And because of your sin, And because you fall short, That he gets to be your savior, It's your sin, That made his salvation possible, Then it's like, Yes, Thank you, So we can't do, Just you fall short, And we can't do, Just you'll be okay, We've got to connect them, With the understanding of the gospel, Which is, Yeah you fall short, But you'll be okay, Because of Jesus, Because he works on your behalf, Because he's saved you, Okay, Here's what we're going to do, Take just a second, To talk about, How we actually do this, What this actually looks like, As church family, When we talk to each other, So we've already said, We're going to give good news, Before we give good advice, And we're going to talk about Jesus, Before we talk about you, So, You're sitting down with somebody, And they confess, That they've been, Really struggling with lust, Really struggling with, They've been looking at pornography, It's just tearing them up, They don't want to, It's a Christian friend, I don't want to, I just, And every time, I feel so terrible, I just feel worthless, And I know that God's mad at me, And at some point, I just can't keep repenting, Of the same thing, At some point, He just doesn't listen anymore, I'm sure, At some point, It just doesn't mean anything anymore, When I confess this again, Normal response, Would usually follow, And fall in the advice category, Yeah man, That's a big deal, And it hurts you, And you think it doesn't hurt anybody else, But it does, It hurts all the people, That are involved in that industry, It's very similar to sex slavery, It can hurt your future relationships, It can damage those, The Bible says it's sin, Job 31.1, Ephesians 5.3, Maybe you should memorize those, And quote them out loud, When you feel tempted, Let's get a blocker thing, On your computer, Let's set it up, To where it will email people, If you fall, Let's meet once a week, And I'll ask you how this is going, Boom, Is that good advice? Yeah, Memorizing verses, Putting a blocker thing on your computer, Will it help change the behavior?
Maybe, Does it make him love Jesus more? Probably not, Because it's trusting himself, So let's rewind, Let's give good news, Before we give good advice, Let's talk about Jesus, Before we talk about him, Hey man, Yeah, That's sin, And Jesus died, For sin, And when he died for you, You were his enemy, You were weak, And he saved you, And he saved all your sin, Past, Present, And future, And if you fall again, It's already been paid for, You are covered forever, By grace, Let me tell you something, When you feel miserable for a few days, And you feel guilt, And you feel shame, And you're beating yourself up, You're not allowed to, Because once you've become a Christian, You don't get to atone for your sin, Jesus does, You don't get to beat yourself up, Your beating has already been poured out on Jesus, You don't get to be punished, Your punishment has already been met in Jesus, You don't get to feel bad, Your guilt and shame have already been taken by Jesus, You're free, And you get to praise him for his grace, That saves you when you're off, And when you're wrong, And when you're terrible, The gospel is more beautiful to you, Not on your days that you're good and you behave, But on the days that you fall so woefully short, And feel so much like you don't deserve it, That's actually what grace is, Undeserved favor, So when you feel like I don't deserve this, You've tapped into it, That's the gospel, You don't, And he gave it to you anyway, So maybe you should memorize some verses, And you and I can meet, And I'll ask about this, And we can talk about this, I know a guy who put a blocker thing on his computer, Which just helped him, Know that it was going to send out emails, And that can be helpful, But Jesus saves you, And you get to praise him for his forgiveness, And his grace, Now is that better? Does that feel better? Does that feel more real?
So maybe you should memorize some verses, And you and I can meet, And I'll ask about this, And we can talk about this, I know a guy who put a blocker thing on his computer, Which just helped him, Know that it was going to send out emails, And that can be helpful, But Jesus saves you, And you get to praise him for his forgiveness, And his grace, Now is that better? Does that feel better? Does that feel more real? More right? As a Christian, You start going, Yes, That's true, You're hanging out with one of your Christian friends, And they do this, They do the, I just, I just haven't been praying,
I haven't been reading the Bible, And I know I should be sharing the gospel with people, But, I just haven't been, I haven't been telling anybody, I haven't been intentional, I'm playing, You know, I'm spending more time, You know, Just doing other things, As opposed to sharing the gospel, As opposed to reading, What do we say? Ah, Man, Or lady, Friend, Sorry, Every once in a while, I call Anna man, And it turns into manna, I'm like, Hey man,
And Anna, So this could be a lady, I just may have called her man, Um, Hey, Set your alarm earlier, Get up 15 minutes earlier, And read the Bible then, Just do it first thing in the morning, That works for me, Um, Have someone else read through a book with you, So that you'll have someone ask, Hey, How's it going? Or, Did you read your chapter, And you'd say, No, I didn't know, Whatever, And yeah, We should share the gospel, Like,
We've been given the ministry of reconciliation, So we should do, If you don't tell them, Who will, So yeah, Normal responses, Heard that before, Said that before, I've said that before, It's one of my favorites, Set your alarm earlier, That's one of my go-tos, Just wake up earlier, Because I'm a morning person, So it just seems easy, Um, Now here's how we get to respond, Because we're going to give good news, Before we give good advice, We're going to point to Jesus, Before we point to you, Talk about Jesus, Before we talk about you, Hey yeah,
Let me tell you something, Your relationship with God, Is not based off of how much you pray, And read the Bible, Because you don't get to take that aspect, Of the gospel back from Jesus, Your relationship with God, Is that you've been adopted, Into the family, Because Jesus has given you, His position at the table, Because he reconciled us, And his relationship with God, The father has been given to us, Through the cross, So just read, You get to read, You get to study, Because it helps you grow, And helps you love God more, And helps you see the gospel more clearly, But it doesn't change, How God feels towards you, And we actually do have good news,
To share with people, Because it's not about, Our work or our effort, And guess what, Ultimately at the end of the day, You will save no one, So the pressure is off, Just tell people about Jesus, And if you mess it up, Talk to Jesus about it, Ask him to fix it, Go repent, Go tell him you're sorry, You said that wrong, Say I told you this the other day, And then I was reading in John, And man was I wrong, Here's what John says, And he said it better, So you get to share the gospel, But it's not, The pressure is not on you, To save or to rescue, Or to do any of this,
You're talking to a non-Christian friend, Works with you, Coworker, Friend of yours, Friend like you actually hang out with, Type friend, Who doesn't know Jesus, She comes in and says, Yeah I just found out my dad has cancer, We see the world through the gospel, That's terrible, I'm sorry to hear that, Pray with her, You hug her, She says, What am I going to do, How's this going to happen, And you get to say, I don't know what you're going to do, And I don't know how this is going to play out, But I'm a Christian, And I know this, I know that God is in control, I know that he's sovereign over everything,
And in these circumstances, One of the things that Christians know, Without a shadow of a doubt, Is that Jesus became a human, Suffered and died with us, And so when we face these kind of situations, We don't know how they're going to work out, But what Christians do know, Is that it's not that God doesn't love us, And it's not that he's not good, He's forever answered that half of things in the cross, He's good, He's for our good, And he loves us so much, That he would suffer and die alongside of us, How is this going to play out, I don't know, But we know he's good, And we know that he loves, And we know that he loves you more, Than you could ever understand, I'm going to pray with you, And I'm going to help any way I can, So we get to just respond,
Out of the gospel, And it's so much more life-giving, And it's so much more filling, And it's so much more true, That's why when we hear this, When we begin to talk like this as Christians, You begin to go, That's it, That's what we get to do, And then we give good advice, Here's how I quit being a jerk, It's helpful, But not until I know that me being a jerk, Isn't going to snatch me out of the hand of God, Because Jesus has already been not a jerk on my behalf, Which is beautiful, And here's what's cool about this church family, We're going to be terrible at this, And we're going to work to grow in it, So just so you know, You're sitting there going, That seems really hard to do, Yeah, And especially for those of us,
Who've been Christians for a while, That have been gotten used to, Just saying other things, Here's what's cool about this, And one of our group leaders pointed this out, He said it's like when you have a little kid, And it got me thinking about it, And it is like that, My brother has a little daughter, And she's like one now, And so I'm going to kind of make some jokes now, Because we're about to have a kid, And when we have a kid, My kid's going to be really special and smart, But, You ever been around parents, They're obnoxious about their children, They just are, Because their kid is the best, And he's the sweetest, And everything he does is the cutest, And so I'm hanging out with my brother, And they just, They love her,
And it's fun to hang out with little kids, And I like little kids, But every once in a while they'll do something, And the parents will get so excited, And it doesn't really make any sense, So they'll look at their little kid, And be like, She walked, Did you see her walk? She's walking, And it's like, She fell forward, Because her head is too big for her body, I don't know if that's walking, Or you ever see a parent, Like hold their kid's hand, And walk with them, And like, Look at them walking, It's like you're cheating bro, You're holding their hands the whole time, Or kids are learning how to talk, And they babble nonsense, All the time,
And then they say something, That sounds remotely close to airplane, And their parents lose their minds, She said airplane, Did she though? Is that real? Like, Get her to say it again, Get her to point one out in the picture, Like, That's what parents do, That's what we get to do as church family, That's what we get to do in our community groups, We're going to say stuff that doesn't make a lot of sense, We're going to mess up, We're going to just fall forward sometimes, And we're going to get to celebrate, Hey, That was kind of the gospel, Did you hear that? We talked about Jesus first, That wasn't just advice, Time out, Time out everyone,
I know you have a problem, But he just said the gospel, So we're high-fiving, And then we'll get back to your problem, Because we talked about Jesus first, Like that's what we get to do as church family, We get to celebrate the fact, That we're going to work, To beat this into each other's heads continually, Because we all need the gospel, We need Jesus, Over and over and over and over again, We need Jesus to fill us up, To remind us, To call us forward, To change us, So what we're going to do, Is Raz and we're all going to come back up, And we're going to sing, And we're going to praise Jesus, And as a church family, We are going to work and commit to, Giving good news before we give good advice, And talking about Jesus,
Before we talk about anything, Before we talk about your behavior, Before we point to, How you should change your situation, We're going to talk about, How Jesus has already stepped in, And fundamentally rescued us, Because that's the story we're a part of, Bow your heads, Let's pray, God I thank you, That we have the good news, And I pray, Through your holy spirit, That you would not let us, Let that get lost, And all the other stuff, That you would not allow us, To let that get, Just covered up, By all the other things, When we try to fix our behavior, And we want so badly, To change and to grow,
I pray that you would help us to remember, That we're going to change and grow, And we get to change and grow, But that that's, That we grow in the gospel, Not away from it, Not beyond it, Not above it, We grow deeper into it, Understanding grace, And understanding salvation, And being rescued by you, Help us to be gospel centered, Help us to be, Pointing each other to the gospel, In all things, Change our hearts to love you more, In Jesus, In Jesus, Daniel surgery Valentine's Day St. Seth
She's walking, And it's like, She fell forward, Because her head is too big for her body, I don't know if that's walking, Or you ever see a parent, Like hold their kid's hand, And walk with them, And like, Look at them walking, It's like you're cheating bro, You're holding their hands the whole time, Or kids are learning how to talk, And they babble nonsense, All the time, And then they say something, That sounds remotely close to airplane, And their parents lose their minds, She said airplane, Did she though? Is that real? Like, Get her to say it again, Get her to point one out in the picture, Like, That's what parents do, That's what we get to do as church family, That's what we get to do in our community groups, We're going to say stuff that doesn't make a lot of sense, We're going to mess up, We're going to just fall forward sometimes, And we're going to get to celebrate, Hey, That was kind of the gospel, Did you hear that? We talked about Jesus first, That wasn't just advice, Time out, Time out everyone, I know you have a problem, But he just said the gospel, So we're high-fiving, And then we'll get back to your problem, Because we talked about Jesus first, Like that's what we get to do as church family, We get to celebrate the fact, That we're going to work, To beat this into each other's heads continually, Because we all need the gospel, We need Jesus, Over and over and over and over again, We need Jesus to fill us up, To remind us, To call us forward, To change us, So what we're going to do, Is Raz and we're all going to come back up, And we're going to sing, And we're going to praise Jesus, And as a church family, We are going to work and commit to, Giving good news before we give good advice, And talking about Jesus, Before we talk about anything, Before we talk about your behavior, Before we point to, How you should change your situation, We're going to talk about, How Jesus has already stepped in, And fundamentally rescued us, Because that's the story we're a part of, Bow your heads, Let's pray, God I thank you, That we have the good news, And I pray, Through your holy spirit, That you would not let us, Let that get lost, And all the other stuff, That you would not allow us, To let that get, Just covered up, By all the other things, When we try to fix our behavior, And we want so badly, To change and to grow, I pray that you would help us to remember, That we're going to change and grow, And we get to change and grow, But that that's, That we grow in the gospel, Not away from it, Not beyond it, Not above it, We grow deeper into it, Understanding grace, And understanding salvation, And being rescued by you, Help us to be gospel centered, Help us to be, Pointing each other to the gospel, In all things, Change our hearts to love you more, In Jesus, In Jesus, Daniel surgery Valentine's Day St.
Seth
Kingdoms at War
Transcript
If you ask that question, what's wrong with the world in any group, no one says, what? Wrong with the world? I think we're good. Pretty sure we're crushing it right now. I'm pretty sure ISIS and Ebola is how things are supposed to work. I don't know why we would want to try to fix this.
Nobody does that. The truth is, everybody in this room may have a different opinion on how to fix the problem that we have, but nobody has a question as to whether or not we have a problem. Like, systematic, history-wide, worldwide problem. Right? So we're in our third week of talking about Jesus as king, that Jesus is a king and he's an eternal king.
And so here's what I want us to look at today. If Jesus is an eternal king, and if there is cosmic level problem, a cosmic level brokenness in the world, doesn't that kind of get put on his plate? Like, if he's an eternal king, if we're going to believe that, if we're going to say that Jesus is an eternal king that rules and reigns over creation forever, isn't this problem kind of his problem? That's how that works. So if you're a king and you're over a kingdom and your territory is fine and you're at peace, but everybody's dying from the plague, your kingdom's not doing so hot.
Or if everybody's well-fed but there's an army advancing, you can't, as kings, say, oh, we're doing good for another week or two until they get here. Like, you can't do that. And this is who we would take this complaint to, correct? It would be on his plate. So, like, nobody's gone to the mayor of West Columbia and said, what are you going to do about ISIS? What's your plan for fixing Ebola in Africa?
Nobody's saying that to the mayor of West Columbia, and if they are, he's going to be like, leave. Like, I have no, like, I've never sat down and written a letter to President Obama that was like, dear President Obama, what are you going to do about the ridiculous amount of potholes on the road to my house? Like, that's not going to make it to his desk because that's not his level of problem that he deals with. Does that make sense? So if we have a cosmic, worldwide, everybody agrees that there is an issue, that there's brokenness, that something is off, that this isn't how it ought to be, then doesn't that go to the king of the universe?
If Jesus is that king, doesn't that get put on his plate? So what we're going to do, we've taken the past two weeks and we've kind of looked at how Jesus' kingdom advances in a really personal manner. So we've looked at when Jesus shows up and declares that he's king, you can no longer remain neutral to that, just like if someone walked into your house and declared themselves king and owner of your house. You can't remain neutral. You can't be like, uh, all right, sounds good. Can I sit on my couch?
Like, you've got to address this problem. So Jesus shows up, declares himself king of the universe, and so we have to respond to that, and we said that we can respond like the wise men do in Matthew chapter 1 and 2, where they worship, or we could respond like Herod, where he tries to kill Jesus and defend his kingdom. Last week we looked at how we respond to Jesus as king, and that's through repentance, which is just acknowledging that we're sinful, that we're broken, and that we need him, that we need him to accomplish on our behalf what we can't accomplish, that we're not going to fix this problem, and that we need him to do it. So what we're doing today is we're zooming out.
We're going to take a very wide look at what the kingdom is, what Jesus came to accomplish, how he addresses this issue. I'm going to tell you that the Bible does agree with you that there's an issue, and it does say that Jesus addresses it, so it does actually get put to his desk. And we're going to zoom out. So if we were going to look at the kingdom, what we've kind of done is we've zoomed in on how it actually plays out personally. So if I was going to talk to you about the Roman Empire, we could zoom in on some random guy.
We could talk about Milanitis, the guy who sells horseshoes. And we could learn some things about the Roman Empire, but we wouldn't learn the wide scope of how it got started, how it ended, where its territory was, by just looking at this one guy. Just like watching Honey Boo Boo tells you something about America, but not everything about America. It's telling us something. You can learn some things, but just not everything that you would need to know, hopefully, about America. And so what we're going to do is we're going to zoom out.
I'm going to pray, and we're going to look at Jesus' kingdom as it affects, as it works on a bigger, more cosmic level. God, we thank you for the opportunity to gather and to study your word. I pray that you would reveal to us, show us, teach us about your kingdom, about how it works, and how we are invited into and involved in it. So God, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, in Jesus' name. Amen. So we will be in Matthew chapter 4 and 5.
So we've looked in Matthew chapter 1, Matthew chapter 2, and 3, and now today we'll be in 4 and 5. But we're going to start, zoomed out a little bit further. So we're going to go to Colossians 1, we're going to show it up here. This is in the book of Colossians. We studied this over the summer, and I just want to point something out to us. So it says, He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
So in Jesus, we have redemption, which means He buys us back, He makes us His again, He forgives our sins, which means there's brokenness personally in our lives, and that Jesus forgives that, that He steps in and takes our place and forgives us our sin, and that through that, He invites us into His kingdom. So the first half of that says, He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son. Here's how the kingdom works. We've said this repeatedly, but a kingdom advances against another kingdom. Kingdoms are by their very nature militant. And so Jesus' kingdom, if He's an eternal king, is going to advance against a much larger issue than just the small answers that we would give to what would fix the problem.
So that if I was going to raise an army, if I was going to begin to take over territory, if I was going to begin to claim area, I would start with my neighbor's house because I can declare war on that. Like it's pretty even. I can go over to Mr. Kirchtoffer and tell him that I'm claiming his house. He's like 90, but he's been in like every war that America's ever fought. So I don't know.
I think I could take him, but he's scrappy. I can't declare war on Russia. I mean, I could. We could decide right now that I'm going to declare war on Russia. Y'all could vote. We could say we were doing it.
Russia wouldn't care. Wouldn't do anything about it. They wouldn't even show up on their radar. See, what happens is when Jesus shows up and declares that he's a king, they think, okay, militant advance against the enemy. And everyone in the room thinks, Rome. Jesus is going to overthrow Rome.
Here's something I know. When I asked earlier what the problem with the world was, none of you immediately thought Rome. They're the worst, but they're no longer existing kingdom and they're funny hats. And they're still showing up in our movies like Gladiator. If we could just get rid of Rome, we'd fix the problem. But that's what all the disciples thought.
When Jesus showed up and he said he was going to set up a kingdom, they all thought, okay, he's going to overthrow the Romans. But the truth is, three, four hundred years later, if he'd have showed up, everybody would have thought he was going to attack something else. He was going to handle something else. If he showed up a hundred years later, they would have thought he was going to handle something else. If he showed up today, we'd say, hey, here are the issues. Attack these.
Advance your kingdom here. And if he shows up a hundred years later, the answer would be different. So he's going to zoom out. He's going to see much larger issues than we see. Roman Empire lasts like 400 years. Jesus has bigger fish to fry.
You see, he has a kingdom that advances against the domain of darkness. When it says that Jesus, he's delivered us from the domain of darkness and into the kingdom of his beloved son, what it's saying is that that's the war that is being waged. That Jesus is not advancing against the Romans because he's got much bigger enemies to deal with. Just like America could declare war on Russia and I can only declare war on Mr. Kirchstaffer, which now I'm thinking about it, I may need some allies, so we'll talk afterwards. You face enemies on your same level.
And so when they say, aren't you going to handle the Romans? It's not even on Jesus' radar for what his kingdom advances against. He's going to advance against the domain of darkness. So here's what's happened. When God created the world in the book of Genesis, he creates it, he says everything's good except for Adam shouldn't be alone, so he makes him a teammate to go through life together. He gives them both dominion, so he makes man and woman in the image of God and he gives them dominion over the earth and then he says that that's good, that he declares this good and right and then there's the creation that he has rebels against him and so that his good order fractures.
See, Satan shows up in the form of a snake in Genesis chapter 3 and he deceives Eve and her husband who was with her wasn't deceived but he joins in passively, lets her be deceived, watches and then just partakes in the rebellion understanding what he was getting himself into. Not fully, but he went tricked. And at that moment, God's good creation rebelled against him and there was a cosmic level brokenness and darkness enters into what was once light and good. And when Jesus comes back, when he shows up and he says he has a kingdom, he doesn't mean I'm here to overthrow the Romans, he means I'm here to reverse the effects of sin and brokenness in the world.
I'm here to advance against the domain of darkness that began with Satan, sin, and death. And can we agree that death is a bigger enemy than the Romans, than the Russians, than ISIS? Death's a bigger issue. Death wins, you just gotta wait a little while. So he says I'm gonna face a cosmic level enemy because there's cosmic level brokenness and this is I'm a cosmic level king, I'm an eternal king, so this is what I advance against.
So that's what Jesus comes to set up his kingdom against, that's what he comes to advance against. And here's the thing, so we would say, okay, hold on a second, hold on a second, so the world, we sinned, we rebelled against God, there was brokenness, Satan enters in their sin which just means that we no longer love Jesus like we ought to, we no longer love God, like they ought to, but they chose to make themselves God, they chose to care more about themselves than anything else and so we would say, well why doesn't God just get rid of evil? Like if he's God, if this is a cosmic level problem, we all agree there's something wrong with the world, why didn't he just fix that? Because he'd have to get rid of all of us because of the collateral damage at this point.
You see, when the United States gets into a conflict with a country like Iraq, or Afghanistan, which we've been over there hanging out for 10, 15 years now doing stuff, we have the capability to make that a black spot on Google Maps. Y'all understand that, right? Like the United States has the capability of creating craters where there used to be countries. we don't because of the collateral damage of the people who are a part of things that would get caught up in it. And so God could erase evil but he'd have to erase us because the truth is we've actually joined in the rebellion. We're selfish, we're greedy, we're a part of the problem.
Russ was very correct when he raised his hand and said he was. I am. We're a part of the rebellion and the brokenness, the sin that pervades the world. It's infected our souls. And so, God has an option, show up and destroy everything and get rid of evil. But he cares about us.
So what Jesus does is he comes to live a perfect life. So he doesn't rebel, he doesn't get infected, he doesn't join the domain of darkness but walks in light and then he dies in our place for our sins. So that he's headed to the cross and he's going to die so that darkness, our darkness can be put onto him and so that his light, righteousness can be given to us. So that our sin can be put onto him and so that his good things can be given to us. So that he who didn't deserve to die can die on behalf of those who do so that he can swap places with us.
He's advancing against the cosmic enemy which is sin. Ephesians 6 says this, it's a sister letter to Colossians. It says, For we do not wrestle and wrestle there just means hand-to-hand combat to the death. So it's not like WWE where they get to come back after they wrestle. It's like gladiatorial things where it's like, you lost, you don't exist anymore. Too bad.
So we don't wrestle, we don't have hand-to-hand combat to the death against flesh and blood which means our problems aren't worldly problems but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. So that Jesus' kingdom advances against darkness wherever it shows up. And see, the thing is when we say that these are issues, when we name off ignorance, when we name off racism, when we name off all the things that cause problems in our world, those are just a part of how darkness shows up, how sin shows up and works itself out. But it's not the biggest level problem.
So, Jesus chooses to show up and handle the actual problem that we're facing. His kingdom advances not against the Romans but against darkness. He has a kingdom of light that advances against darkness. So, jumping to Matthew 4, we're going to look at Jesus walking around and doing some of the stuff that he does. and it helps make sense of a lot of what Jesus did while he was on earth. It helps clarify, at least for me, a lot of what Jesus is doing. So, what we've looked at is that Jesus has a cosmic kingdom that advances against a cosmic enemy, Satan's sin and death.
He came just for the sole purpose of going to the cross so that he could die and so that he could disarm, as Colossians says, that he disarms the rulers and authorities, putting them to open shame because he canceled the record of our debt. So, the enemy wants us caught up in this and he wants us to be destroyed. And Jesus pays for our sins so that he was destroyed on our behalf so that we don't have to be destroyed as we place faith in him. Here's what Jesus does, Matthew 4, 23, 25. We looked last week at verse 17 where it says Jesus showed up and from that time Jesus began to preach saying, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
So, he repents, he declares that the way we respond to the kingdom is repentance. Admitting that we're broken, admitting that we're wrong and we need him to show up and then he starts telling us what he did. And he went throughout all Galilee, this is verse 23, he went throughout all Galilee teaching in their synagogues, that's where Jewish people gathered on Saturdays, not unlike this, what we're doing right now, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel, which means good news, the gospel of the kingdom. So, he's proclaiming, he's going around in Galilee, all this area, this area in Judea and he's proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, that he has a kingdom, that it is coming and that it is good news and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.
So, his fame spread throughout all Syria and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, which is spiritual enemies, epileptics and paralytics and he healed them and great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis from Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan. So, Jesus walks around and I think most of us are familiar with this, Jesus walks around and he heals people, casts out demons, which the Bible is very okay with spiritual things. We're Westerners, we're not for the most part. Like maybe we like that show where they go around and they talk to ghosts or whatever, which I was watching that one time, they were in an ancient Chinese lair.
Chinese people have layers, tomb, I don't know what Chinese people have, but they were in one of these and they're walking around and they're looking for a ghost and they got like that little boom, boom, you know, ghost detector thing they have because they sell those, I think it's sharper image if you're looking for one, if you think you have a ghost in your closet or something, boom, boom, boom, and then this 2,000 year old Chinese ghost comes over and says, get out and they freak out and they run and you're like, oh my goodness, there's a ghost and then you're like, wait, that ghost spoke English. So that was weird. Like this Chinese guy, he's been dead for a long time so he's got time to read and he's like, I'm tired of all these Americans coming in and poking around, and I need to learn English so that I can freak him out because every time I whisper Chinese things, they're just like, what was that? So he learned English just to get rid of, but no, the Bible, we're not super okay with spiritual things but the Bible is.
Like this Chinese guy, he's been dead for a long time so he's got time to read and he's like, I'm tired of all these Americans coming in and poking around, and I need to learn English so that I can freak him out because every time I whisper Chinese things, they're just like, what was that? So he learned English just to get rid of, but no, the Bible, we're not super okay with spiritual things but the Bible is. The Bible is very clear that there are spiritual powers, spiritual things that we cannot see,
That there is an enemy on a cosmic level, that Satan is real, he was created by God, he is not as powerful as God, it's not a yin and yang thing but he is real, demons are real, the Bible is very clear about that, doesn't go into explaining a whole lot of how they work, what they do because the Bible is very focused on Jesus all the time and the Bible is very clear that Jesus has authority and power over these spiritual beings and at no point does the Bible get demon focused although they are there. So Jesus shows up though and he heals people and he casts out demons and he heals paralytics
And he lets blind people see again and I always just kind of thought this was like something he did on his way to the cross and it was just something he kind of, he did because he was God and he could and so while he was here he might as well heal people because it would be kind of rude not to because he can and so when people ask he should that's only, just good manners I always just kind of felt like it was that or maybe it was just he was going to show us that he was God and so like by healing someone
He shows us that he's God but I always felt like they were separate things I always felt like teaching, telling people about the gospel and healing people and even the spiritual warfare stuff which is what the stuff dealing with demons and stuff gets called a lot that they were separate things and that the kingdom was kind of somewhere over here but the truth is when Jesus heals somebody he's actually just pointing to the work that he's going to do on the cross when he casts out an evil spirit he's just pointing to the work that he's going to do
On the cross because all he's doing is advancing his kingdom against the domain of darkness which is sin and the effects of sin which is death and pain and brokenness and so when Jesus walks around on earth healing people when he walks around on earth meeting needs of those who are hungry and broken and outcasts when he walks around on earth welcoming people in who are isolated all he's doing is in every way advancing his kingdom against the bigger problem
Which is darkness pain sin Satan death so when Jesus raises someone from the dead it's not a parlor trick or just something to show that he's God it's actually what he's going to do on the cross which is reverse the effects of sin which bring about all these things so Jesus walks around doing this on earth and it's not separate from from the the kingdom
And it's not separate from his work on the cross so Jesus let me just this is helpful to understand Jesus when he goes to the cross inaugurates his kingdom when he walked around on earth he begins to proclaim that the kingdom's coming when he goes to the cross and he dies and then three days later rises again he inaugurates the kingdom which means that the kingdom exists now
And on that bumper video it said the kingdom is already but not yet that's a good way to say it the kingdom already is here but it's not yet fully consummated it's not yet fully rationalized realized pretty sure what I just said before that didn't make any sense but if it sounded good it did alright moving on that he inaugurated the kingdom it's already
But not yet but it's not fully yet realized which means that when he returns and destroys all of his enemies and welcomes those who've had their sin covered that at that point is when every tear will be wiped away from every eye there won't be pain brokenness sin anymore everything will be grace mercy love it'll be back to the way it's supposed to
So when Jesus walks around on earth and he heals somebody he's pointing to what he's going to do on the cross and he's pointing to how the kingdom's going to eventually work because there is no cancer in the fully consummated kingdom there is no brokenness death and pain in the kingdom and so he's saying when he tells somebody I'm healing you and the kingdom of God has come near he's saying this is what it's going to be like and this is what
I'm going to accomplish on the cross and that's that's how he advances against the actual enemy so he wasn't wasting time he was actually moving his kingdom forward every time he healed somebody every time he pushed the enemy back because he's advancing against the domain of darkness okay so chapter 5
Says that Jesus seeing the crowds he went up on a mountain and when he sat down his disciples came to him and then he says a bunch of stuff that we don't that seems the exact opposite of how we would understand the world to work so he says blessed are you who are hungry blessed are you who mourn blessed are you who are persecuted and it's like I thought blessed meant good stuff that sounds terrible
But what his point is is that his kingdom is working in an opposite way it's an upside down kingdom as opposed to the way we would think the world works that he didn't come to make everybody happy and whole now that he didn't come to fix everything now but he came to take care of our big problem which is that there is brokenness that there is pain in the world
And that it's caused by sin and he's saying blessed are you who are hungry now because you'll realize that there's brokenness pain and you'll turn and find me but verse 13 is what we're going to look at how we get to be involved in the kingdom you are the salt of the earth but if salt has lost its taste how shall its saltiness be restored it is no longer good for anything except to be thrown
Out and trampled under people's feet you are the light of the world okay who's the light of the world who's the light of the world you are okay who's he talking to disciples people listening to him followers of his who else does the bible say is the light of the world Jesus yeah we're in church
That's the correct answer to most everything Jesus okay so Jesus is the light of the world and says that he's the light of the world and then at this point he turns and looks at his followers and says you are the light of the world Jesus is the light of the world his followers are the light of the world that's a pretty
Amped up promotion for those who would follow Jesus so that's an important role if it's what he fulfills as well and then he says that his church that the people that follow him are this he says you are the light of the world a city set on a hill cannot be hidden nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a stand
And it gives light to all in the house in the same way let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven okay Jesus' kingdom advances against the domain of
Darkness and then he looks at his followers and says you're the light of the world just right after he's walked around healed he's gathered big crowds and he's shown how the kingdom advances against darkness he then looks at his followers and says you're a part of this this is what you're supposed to do
This is what this is supposed to look like you're the light of the world we're advancing against darkness you know there's something great about light before we get into that God cheats just so y'all know when he gives illustrations when Jesus gives illustrations about who he is and what he did he created everything
We're going to look at some parables he gives next week about what he's like see when we're going to give an illustration about something we have to think okay I guess it's kind of like a tree and we have to think about what already exists but when God was creating things he got
To make it however he wanted to so when he says you're you're like light or I'm light or I advanced against darkness he already set up how darkness and light work so it's really not fair does that make sense like he created it so it gets to work how he wants it to work when God says that he's lighter that he advances against
Darkness do you know what's beautiful about that light never has a hard time getting rid of darkness it just doesn't he don't turn on a light in a room and it's got to take five minutes for it to push the darkness out of the room that's not how that works darkness is the absence of
Light so Jesus's kingdom advances against a domain of darkness and his followers are a city on a hill and the light of the world that we actually have because of Jesus the ability to advance against the domain of darkness when he says they're a city on a hill in that day when you needed something
A city was a great place to go it had walls and there was safety in a city there were certain cities that were actually cities that there were cities of refuge so if something was bad was going on or you did something bad you could actually run to the city and it was basically like home base so like you made it in the city like I can't get me I'm in the city you got to have a
Trial now you can't just kill me out there in the street and that was what they did so you went to the city to have fairness to have rule to have law to have protection if you needed something you went to a city because the city would have it and so what he says is that the church is a city on a hill that can't be hidden and that good works are to point to the father that people should see the
Church's good works and point to the father and give glory to our father in heaven so what Jesus says is that he's got a kingdom that advances against darkness in all forms and he's got a church that exists on the mission to advance that that we get to be a part of the same advancement against brokenness against pain against poverty against hunger against the enemy's work to bring about strife and pain and hurt that's what the church gets to do
And he empowers that and he accomplishes it but that's us so very practically how does that work what do we get to do what does that look like as we join Jesus on his mission I just want to cover a few things just to make just to make this this very practical so it's practical so we can understand what it looks like for us to join him to be a part of advancing the kingdom against darkness so we see that he heals people we see that Jesus so he meets
Physical needs we see at different times where Jesus feeds people so he meets physical needs that way as well he talks to his followers about being generous about giving things to people who are in need he also deals with spiritual ramifications of things so he addresses sin he addresses spiritual enemies so like we get to join in all of these things as the kingdom advances first thing we do real practical ways we pray the church gets to pray which
Is just us understanding that we don't accomplish this that we need God to show up that we need Jesus to be a part of moving this kingdom forward that if this is going to advance against the domain of darkness if we're going to push back darkness in West Columbia and Columbia we're going to push back darkness where we live we're going to need Jesus to show up so we pray we understand that it's what he accomplished on the cross for us that moves things forward anyway so we pray as the church we pray we give generously
Which means that as followers of Jesus we realize that he left his throne to give everything on our behalf to die in our place for our sins and so that everything we have is now held with an open hand it's his and it's whatever he wants us to use it for and the Bible says that that we've already been given everything in Christ and you know what that means it means you have nothing to gain you've already been given everything in Jesus and you have nothing to lose because you've already been getting everything in Jesus and so Christians are generous we give generously we open our wallets we
Write checks we help pay for things for people we give to local churches we give to missionaries we we give we pay for food we give generously if we own something it we share it we serve just means we give up our time our energy and our effort to push back darkness which means that it's Christians run soup kitchens do hospice care run clinics because Jesus did that because Jesus met physical needs that way because Jesus said that he didn't come to be served but to serve and so we get to join in the kingdom advancing as we push back the tangible effects of sin which is sickness and pain and hunger so Christians get to join in and advance the kingdom in a small way when we do these
Things we fight for relationships it's sin that tears up relationships every relationship you've ever had go poorly is due to sin and nothing else unforgiveness saying mean things to each other being too prideful to to communicate once something went poorly and so Christians know that Jesus overcame way more to have a relationship with us overcame everything and so we fight for relationships we're not okay with awkwardness just so you know that's a rule for Christians that's a rule here we're not okay with awkwardness not awkwardness like man that person makes conversations awkward because they breathe through their mouth not like that awkwardness like there's something weird between us and we're not
Going to talk about it awkwardness like they hurt my feelings but I'm not going to say anything we don't we don't that's that's not okay amongst Christians because we fight for relationships because Jesus gave us the ability to overcome it means that we fight for relationships with people who don't seem to have friends we befriend them because we know that Jesus went out of his way to befriend us who weren't very friendly he did not sit in heaven and say man that chad is one cool cat I want to get to know him he didn't he didn't say it about any of you either he overcame it for us and befriended us and cares about us because he's great so we fight for relationships we tell everyone about Jesus so it starts off by saying that he went around proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and that's what we do we tell everyone about Jesus we tell
Everyone about the hope and the life that can be found in him we tell everyone about how he's affected our hearts on a very real basis we tell everyone about the fact that we're messed up we can't fix this but Jesus came live the way we were supposed to died in our place he lived the way we were supposed to and died the way we were supposed to so that we don't have to die the way that we that we were supposed to and that we can have his way that he lived applied to our account we tell everyone about Jesus it is not an invitation we talked about last week it's not an invitation to come be amazing it's not an invitation to come have good morals it's not an invitation to come be really good behaviorers it's not it's an invitation that repentance is I'm messed up I need Jesus okay so we pray we give we serve we fight for relationships and we tell everyone about Jesus and you want to know
What's true we can do that anywhere we get to be a part of the kingdom anywhere I was having a conversation earlier this morning God wants Christians to be contractors and to stay contractors God wants Christians to be doctors and nurses and to stay doctors and nurses God wants Christian bus drivers Christian school teachers Christian plumbers there's no hierarchy in Christianity when it comes to following Jesus so it's not like foreign missionary Pope I don't know where you come from Pope foreign missionary bishop pastor Sunday school teacher deacon others who follow Jesus and read their Bible some others who don't read their Bible like it's not there's not like categories for it and God isn't like if you do this you're more special that's not how it works now there's supposed to be pastors and missionaries and they're supposed to be leaders in the church but they're supposed to be Christians who go to school forever
And then go do something else that they learn how to do they're supposed to be Christians who go to school to learn how to do something and then go do something that has nothing to do with what they learn how to do and they use that job to pay off their school debt and that's what because we can do this anywhere we can be a part of the kingdom anywhere you can do that at work you can pray for your co-workers say my boss is an idiot we'll pray for him most bosses are idiots pray for your heart while you pray for him see how you can so you pray you pray for your co-workers you pray that Jesus would show up that he would work in your in your place of work you can give this hey let me take you out to lunch hey I brought an extra honey bun in my lunch you want it people love carbohydrates give be generous you can give you can go out of your way to serve people when you hear hey I realize you're having car trouble can I can I help with that you
Can serve so if there's car trouble and you know how to fix it you can serve if you don't know how to fix it you can be like here's 10 bucks good luck is the gas tank on empty no I'm out of my expertise level here's $10 talk to a pro like you you can serve you can hey I've realized you're coming up on a deadline can I stay late and help you do that you can fight for relationships which means you show up early you stay late you talk to people and not just the people that are going to help you advance you can you can when you have the opportunity for someone who nobody else at work likes which every work has those people if if your work doesn't it might be you you can go out of your way to talk to those people to to share a time with them to say hey to them to ask them how they're doing you can fight for relationships at work and you can tell everyone about Jesus when you get the opportunity to share about Jesus when you get the opportunity to tell them about
What you have in Christ and the truth is if you're doing those other things you'll get opportunities and if you're doing those other things people won't mind listening to it because it won't be like hey I know I don't know you and I've never talked to you but here's this pamphlet or let me shout things at you it'll be no that's just who I am this affects how I exist in the world let me talk to you about Jesus you can do that at school you can pray pray for your the other students you can pray for your your instructors teachers professors you can give you can hey notice you miss class you don't copy my notes you can serve you can go out of your way to help people hey I'm doing pretty good in this section I don't mind helping I don't mind helping you study this hey I'm doing terrible in this section will you help me study this which isn't serving
But you may need to ask somebody that some point fight for relationships you can sit with the people that nobody sits with you can talk to people in class that nobody talks to you can do this anywhere and God wants us to do it everywhere that we are the light of the world which means that where you are God has you there on purpose some of you think my job is terrible and I want a different Job and God's holding on to your collar and saying nope I got something more important for you to do than just make money I got something more real and eternal and long lasting for you to do than just get a degree I got way better things for you to do than just play a sport I've got you here for a reason and we can do that everywhere you want to know what's
Beautiful about what we talked about last week that we approach the kingdom through repentance we're gonna be terrible at that there are gonna be days where we're the worst at it we don't pray we don't give we don't serve somebody tries to talk to us we're like hey shut up I'm not here to be your friend and then we get to repent and God doesn't love us more on the days that we get it right and he doesn't love us less on the days when we get it wrong we get to follow him in repentance Jesus has already accomplished everything on our behalf for those of us who placed our faith in him he's already done all of this for us and he's invited us into a cosmic level world-changing mission you see the disciples when Jesus rose from the dead and they look at him in
Acts chapter 1 and they say at this time you're gonna set up your kingdom you're gonna overthrow the Romans now and he says not now I've got a mission for you more people need to be invited in because at that point Jesus could have set up his kingdom and he would have saved all the people who knew him at that point and he would have destroyed everybody else and he hasn't done that yet because he wants all of us that know him to be everywhere infecting the world with the truth that we have in Jesus and spreading the kingdom band's gonna come up and play we're gonna sing and then we get to go be the church we get to go be a part of God's cosmic level mission we get to be a part of pushing back darkness by sharing food by praying for people by building relationships by serving people in tangible ways we get to be a part of
The kingdom advancing in our city every day and it's beautiful that everything that you do gets to have a level of intentionality to it now that you didn't understand or comprehend or or know or fully think about all the time we actually get to be a part of the kingdom advancing in our city when we go to work this week when we're having a random conversation with someone this week I'm gonna pray we're gonna sing God thank you that you did not solve the problem of the Romans I thank you that you showed up to handle a cosmic level brokenness in the world that you have a better vantage point than we do so that you address sin God I thank you that you've invited us into that that in your grace you didn't destroy evil and in your grace you're not coming back just yet so that we continue to to serve and love and advance your kingdom
In tangible ways and point people to Jesus we love you we thank you I pray that your Holy Spirit would empower us to be that to be a city on a hill to be a light in the world and God help us repent as we follow you we love you we praise you in Jesus name amen house and let's go 감사합니다 you you you you you you you
Him We Proclaim
Colossians 1:24-29
Transcript
Wow, alright, that good. Goodness. Felt like I was at a rock concert there for a second. With all that shouting. Can we do something? We don't do this often and we don't do it for some reasons, but also don't want us to not do it for bad reasons.
Let me explain what I'm talking about because that's getting confusing. We don't always clap for or make a big deal of much of what we do on the human side of things when we get together, but there is an appropriate amount of that, an appropriate amount of appreciation for the people that put in and serve and work, and we actually get to praise Jesus in praising people. That's an appropriate thing to do, and so can we just for a second, can we just clap for everybody that just helped lead worship, and everybody that just... It is okay for us to appreciate that, and they put a lot of work into it, and are very...
They love Jesus, and they want to help us love Jesus, and they want to point to Jesus and everything, and that's not always found, especially among people that are talented in different ways, and so I just want to... We appreciate all of that, and we need to, and it's good for us to. We're in Colossians. It's our fifth week of walking through the book of Colossians, and so grab your Bibles. If you don't have a Bible, there should be some at the end of the row, and so if you need one, look at the people down the row from you, get them to pass one to you, or do like a weird shimmy thing where you crawl all the way down to the end of the row and grab one.
So we'll be in Colossians. It'll be... We'll be in chapter one. It's our fifth week in Colossians. So how...
How are we doing? We've been in Colossians for five weeks. Are we... Are we growing? Are we changing? Are we seeing Jesus for who He is?
Are we learning that we're a y'all, that we exist in community with one another? Are we putting knowledge into practice? And as we practice that knowledge, are we learning more things like how to do stuff, how not to do stuff? You know, are we? Are we doing that? Has it been good for us?
Are we growing? Are we learning? It is our fifth week, so we're at half to today. We'll be halfway through. And I know some of you may be looking at the book of Colossians and doing some maths. We've been five weeks in chapter one, and there's three chapters left.
And so some of y'all might be calling lie on us being halfway through. But the last three chapters are going to move a little more quickly. The first chapter was pretty dense. And so we'll actually spend two weeks in chapter two, two weeks in chapter three, and a week in chapter four. So the maths currently is working out.
We're in Colossians 1. I'm excited about what we're going to get to talk about tonight because it's foundational for how we are as a church. Kind of who we believe we are and how we operate. And so it's something that actually this passage went into part of how we operate and part of what we talk about all the time when we talk about being a gospel-centered community on mission. And so I'm excited to get to talk about this passage in the context of Colossians because it's affected our thought process and how we do what we do as a church family. So I'm going to pray, and then we're going to hop in looking at Colossians 1.
God, we thank you. We're excited to be able to gather as your people, to be church family. And so we just pray that we would make much of you and that you would teach us and lead us through your Holy Spirit to understand clearly your word as we walk through this section of Scripture. So we love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, Colossians 1, starting in verse 24.
This is the Apostle Paul. He's writing to the church at Colossae. Every time he says you, he's saying y'all. He's using the Greek word for y'all, which is a plural you. And so verse 24. Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake.
And in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body. That is the church. All right, we're going to stop. We're going to walk through this section. We have a problem sometimes when we come to Scripture. I think we get used to it.
Sometimes studying Scripture. We're going to get together on Sundays and we're going to open it up and we're going to study Scripture. We're going to read from the Bible. We read from the Bible on our own and we read from the Bible in our community groups. And I think sometimes we get used to the Bible. And so we don't always approach it in such a thoughtful way.
And so we'll read something in the Bible that honestly doesn't make a whole lot of sense. And our response will be, hmm, okay. Like we just don't think about it. We're like, hmm, sounds good, Apostle Paul. Like it doesn't affect us and like we don't have to approach it thoughtfully. And so what Paul says here is I rejoice in my sufferings.
I rejoice. I rejoice. I'm excited. I'm pumped about. I have joy in my sufferings. And we'll read that and go, hmm, sounds good.
When we should read it and go, do what now? I mean, really, if he's rejoicing in suffering, we have one of two options when it comes to the Apostle Paul. If he rejoices in sufferings, either he's crazy or he knows something we don't know. It's possible it's both because a lot of times crazy people know things you don't know. But that's just because they're crazy.
So that really gets smooshed into option one. So really, either he's crazy or he knows something we don't know. And so when you read that, when you read that he rejoices in sufferings, don't go, hmm, sounds good. Let's look at that a little bit. And so what is he saying? How can he rejoice in suffering?
That doesn't make any sense. That doesn't make sense to us. That's not how we operate. Now, for those of us who have been around the church for a while or been in a community group for a while or studied the Bible for a while, this concept may not be super new to us. We may understand that that's something that Christians ought to be able to do. But we're not good at it.
And we don't really do it. So even though the concept may not be new to us, we can't act like we understand it or completely have it down when it comes to actual suffering in our lives. And for those of us who've just started hanging around church stuff, just started being, maybe just became a Christian or are just learning, checking this whole Jesus thing out, that's a pretty ridiculous statement to rejoice in suffering. To actually, not bears. He doesn't say I bear suffering or I put up with or I find some sort of a purpose in. He says I rejoice in it.
Like I'm excited about it. And that doesn't make any sense. And so, especially when it comes to like Americans, we're told that the American dream is the pursuit of our happiness. If our goal, if the most important thing in life for me is my happiness, is self-fulfillment, suffering beats that every time. Every time. Suffering always beats half my happiness.
So when my happiness and suffering lace up their shoes and head to the court, suffering dunks on my happiness every time. That's how it works. My happiness never comes away with a W on that one because happiness and suffering, happiness loses. And so what Paul is saying when he says I rejoice in suffering is that obviously he's not banking on his own self-fulfillment and his own happiness. He's writing this from a jail cell and he says I'm excited about my suffering. So he's not banking on what we're banking on.
It's not based off of his own self-fulfillment and his own personal happiness. Now, what we're going to see as we go through this passage is that this is not the point of what Paul is talking about. His point here is not how to rejoice in suffering. That's not what he's telling us here. He's talking about something completely different. But him saying that he rejoices in suffering illustrates for us what he is going to be talking about.
It pointedly shows us and demonstrates for us that what he is going to be talking about is real and it affects every aspect of his life. So I just wanted to point that out because it's a little bit bizarre for us and we can't just brush past that. And what we're going to see as we walk through is that he's actually in saying that indicating the weight of what he's going to spend the rest of the time talking about. So what's his reason? If he can rejoice in suffering, he's got to have some sort of a reason. So he says it.
Now, I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake. So it's for y'all's sake. For y'all's sake. Or when Anna and I lived in Virginia, they would say y'all's. Which is the plural, plural version of y'all. And so she worked at the bank and they'd mess up money stuff and somebody would look at her and be like, well, I think it's y'all's fault.
And Anna would be like, that's not a word. Although y'all's maybe not isn't either. If you ever have to text y'all's, it just looks ridiculous. But anyway, what he says is for y'all's sake, for plural, your church's sake. So he says, I rejoice in my suffering for y'all's sake.
And in my flesh, I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body. That is the church. Quick time out. That last sentence is confusing. What he is not saying is that he is completing the atonement for sin. So that's not what he's saying.
When he says the afflictions, filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions. What he's not saying is that he somehow has to suffer to help continue to atone for sin. Or that we as Christians have to continue to suffer to atone for sin. That's not what he's saying. So Jesus, when he died on the cross, fully and completely forever paid for our sin.
Atonement was finished. When Jesus on the cross said, it is finished, he meant it. When he uses the word affliction, which is actually a different word than what is used when it talks about Jesus' suffering in the Greek. He's talking about the continuation of the effect of the cross on the world. That he is suffering. He's facing afflictions to continue to spread the gospel, to continue to move this forward.
And so what he's saying is he's taking part in affliction as a Christian, as part of the body of Christ, and for the sake of the church, the body of Christ. And so he's not saying he's continuing atonement. Is that clear? We don't need to get super bogged down here, but that's what he's saying. So what he says is it's for the sake of the church.
It's for the sake of those who would become believers, those who would place their faith in Jesus. So when he says for y'all's sake, he's talking about the church in Colossae. And so he's saying basically that he can suffer because of the mission to see more people meet Jesus. That he can suffer because the mission to see more people meet Jesus, to see the church grow is actually bigger than his own personal comfort, his own personal self-fulfillment. But what we'll see, and when it comes to mission, is that yes, the mission is bigger, but there has to be a reason for the mission.
And as he keeps going, we'll see that there is a reason for the mission. We just recently, in June 6, celebrated D-Day, the 70th anniversary of D-Day. And so there were some cool things that happened around that. There was a guy in Britain who was 89 years old who wanted to go to the Normandy celebrations. They were all the people that had stormed Normandy were going to go celebrate. And the people whose caretakers weren't able to kind of organize something for him to be able to go.
And so he just put on his best suit, pinned his medals to his suit, put on a raincoat, and dipped out. He was 89 years old, and he just left where he was because they weren't able to work it out. And he made it over to Normandy. They were looking for him later, and it was like, I went where I wanted to go. I'm a grown man. I do what I want.
I didn't need permission to come here the first time. I don't need permission to come here the second time. And so I thought that story was interesting. Whenever I think about the storming of Normandy or Operation Overlord, I always think about my favorite Vin Diesel movie, which is Saving Private Ryan. It's my favorite Vin Diesel movie because he's only in it for like 20 minutes, and he dies, and it's great. But that movie does a really good Job of showing what that looked like, what the Operation Overlord looked like when the Allied troops took back the Beechins of Normandy, France.
And here's the thing. The Allies knew what they were doing. They knew what they were doing. They knew how to do it. So they knew what they were trying to do.
They were going to take back the Beechins of Normandy to begin pushing out the Germans. They knew how to do it. They knew how to operate the machinery and the weaponry that they have. And they knew how to work in relationship to one another. But in order to do it, they had to know why they were doing it.
They had to know why it was worth all of the loss of life, all of the pain, all of the suffering that would come with it. They had to know why. And so when Paul talks about the mission, and when he talks about how he walks through this, and how he can rejoice in suffering, he's going to tell us that it's for the mission, but then he's going to explain why it's worth it. So they suffered in the mission of Operation Overlord, but they knew why it was worth it. They knew what they were going after. Why it was worth celebrating every year since.
Why we celebrated it this year is because of the why, not because of the what and the how. And so what we're going to look at is, yes, we're going to talk a little bit about the what. We're going to talk a little bit about the mission. But we're going to land in, and Paul's going to land in, why. So, what we see first is the mission. That's what he's going to talk about, and then we'll talk about why.
He says, Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, of which I, Paul, became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, for y'all, to make the word of God fully known. So he's still talking about the mission, and here's what he says. He says, I was given this because of the stewardship of God. So God, creator of the universe, who's working to redeem and to save people and to bring them back in relationship with himself, has a stewardship.
He commands and controls his mission, and he invites humans into that. He invited Paul into that because of the stewardship from God. So God, who's overseeing all of this, gave some of it to Paul. And Paul says, It was because of the stewardship of God that was given to me for y'all. So he's talking about the Colossians church.
Now this is how this worked for Paul. Paul was a Jewish guy, super smart, had the equivalent of like several PhDs, was on the fast track to go be a part of the Sanhedrin, maybe even high priest one day, fingers crossed. And he was super zealous for Judaism. So he began to persecute all Christians, all of those who rose up against and began to proclaim that Jesus was God, that he died in our place for our sin, that he rose again three days later. So he began to persecute them.
And he was very zealous for it, which means he enjoyed it and liked it and was good at it. And so he was persecuting the church, deserved to be destroyed and crushed by Jesus, who's in control and in charge of everything. Jesus shows up, knocks Paul off his horse, makes him blinds and says, Why are you persecuting me? And then he says, I'm going to show you how much you'll have to suffer for my sake. Jesus, instead of crushing him, rescues him, gives him grace, saves him from his sin and invites him into his mission, gives him the stewardship of his mission. And so Paul becomes a missionary for Christ.
In Christ's name begins to proclaim the gospel that Jesus gives grace to those who don't deserve it. He goes to Ephesus. In Ephesus he's proclaiming the gospel. We know that Epaphras most likely becomes a believer in Ephesus. Philemon may have been with him. It's possible that Epaphras led Philemon to Jesus when he went back to Colossae.
Ephesus begins to proclaim the gospel in Colossae. The Colossian church is born. Those who submit to Jesus, repent of their sin and are rescued by grace by him in the Colossae. People begin to meet in homes, Philemon's home and some other homes. And Paul looks at the Colossian church, writes this to the Colossian church, whom he hasn't met and says, God in his stewardship gave it to me for y'all. And what's really exciting, heavy and intense is that each of us who know Jesus have a for y'all.
We have a for y'all that God in his good stewardship of his mission has handed over part of it to us for a y'all. So Paul says it was given to me for y'all. So there was a guy named David Thomas who became a believer. He lived in South Carolina. It's not Dave Thomas who made cheeseburgers. It's David Thomas who lived in South Carolina, started serving as a part of his church, started working with students and small children.
While he was doing that, one of the students he was working with named Matt Freeman became a believer. Repented of his sins, accepted Jesus as his savior, as his substitute for his sin, became a believer. And so Matt grew up as a Christian, felt called into ministry. Eventually, while he was in college, started working at a church where he was serving. At that church, he met a female that he was picking up what she was putting down. And he talked to his roommate, who was a complete prophetic genius, about dating this girl.
And his roommate, who's really smart and ruggly handsome, told him, you should not date someone that you work with at a church. That would be stupid. And because Matt completely appreciated this prophetic advice and because he knew the wisdom that his roommate had, began dating her anyway. Which totally worked out for him. They got married. Her name was Katie.
They then felt called to be a part of a church plant in West Columbia. Felt called by God, who in Acts 17, it says, sets our boundaries so that God knows where we are, has us where we are on purpose, knows where you live, knows your address, knows why he has you in relationship with the people he has you in relationships with. So he set your boundaries. So God who set our boundaries, Matt and Katie feel called to be a part of a church plant in West Columbia, and since they feel called to be a part of a church plant in West Columbia, they moved to Northeast Columbia because that's what you do. Made no sense to me.
But God who sets their boundaries had an idea of what he was doing. And so while they lived in Northeast Columbia, they became friends with the Gillens. While they became friends with the Gillens, they invited them to be a part of community group, invited them to start being a part of church family. Daniel Gillen becomes a believer, repents of his sins, and follows Jesus, accepts Jesus as his atonement for his sin, begins to follow Jesus. Daniel invites DJC to come be a part of things. DJ starts hanging out with their community group.
DJ meets Jesus, repents of his sins, and starts following Jesus as his sacrifice, as his atonement, as his king, because of the stewardship from God that was given to David, that was given to Matt, that was given to Daniel, that was given to DJ for y'all, for a y'all that's not over with yet. That's how that works. And each person in this room has had the king of the universe extend some stewardship of his mission to us for a y'all. And he sets our boundaries, and he knows who we know, and he knows why he has us on the street that we're on, and it's been given to me for y'all, as Paul says, and each of us has a for y'all that we toil, struggle, pray for, build with, spend our time chasing after because of the stewardship of a great God and king who knows what he's doing when he hands out his mission.
That's what Paul says. Paul says, first of all, the mission's bigger than my personal self-fulfillment, than my personal enjoyment and my personal happiness, so that I can be in prison and I can rejoice because of the stewardship of the mission that was given to me for y'all. So, what that means for us is that the mission's bigger. Mission's bigger than how we want to spend every weeknight. Mission's bigger than how we want to spend our money. The mission's bigger than how we want to be viewed by people.
I know my wife and I have this conversation all the time because I harass my neighbors because I'm just trying to talk to them, just trying to build a relationship with them. And they'll look at me and go, they're not going to come outside anymore. I can see people from my backyard. And so I'll see people. She's like, they're in their backyard. You can't go talk to them.
And I'll be like, watch me, which I do creep people out. And so I got to work on it. But the mission's bigger about whether or not I want to be seen as creepy or not. Like, we got to start talking to people. We got to build relationships with people. It's bigger than how we want to spend our time, how we want to spend our money.
And we know that. And now Paul's going to tell us how it's bigger, why it's bigger. Why it's worth it. Why it's worth the suffering. So we'll start in 25.
Of which I became a minister, just means servant, according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for y'all, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations, but now revealed to his saints, all those who have placed their faith in Jesus. That's what saints are, holy ones, made holy by Jesus. To them, God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles, Gentiles are all non-Jewish people, so me and most everybody else in this room are Gentiles. To them, God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
So what Paul says is the reason the mission is bigger, and what he's been called into, is to proclaim this mystery, the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Paul says it's about the gospel. And the two ways he describes that, the two ways he puts that out, is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ in you is a profound mystery. A couple weeks ago we spent some time talking about how big Jesus is, how he rules over everything. And what Paul says is that, yes, that's true, and he dwells in those who have placed their faith in him.
That's crazy. It's a profound mystery, but it's been revealed that the God of the universe would indwell, would live in, those who place their faith in him. And so what he says is, when he does that, that's our hope of glory. So, glory is, it kind of just means like shining. And so like, if you took a hot red poker and stuck it in a fire, and then you pulled it out of the fire, it would glow for a while. It's glorying with stuff coming from the fire.
But what he means here is that we, one day, will spend eternity with Jesus in glory. Where there aren't, there isn't pain, and there isn't shame, and there isn't guilt, and there isn't brokenness anymore. And so what he says is, the reason he can do this is because of the gospel, which is that Jesus Christ came to earth, lived a life in perfect relationship with God, died for our sins, so was crushed, as he says earlier in Colossians, that he, through his body of flesh, by his death, was crushed on our behalf, so that we might place our faith in him, and so that our sin that deserves to be punished, might be punished on him, and his righteousness, which deserves God to love, and share, and glory in Jesus, can be given to us, and that Christ can dwell in us, and that we have hope of glory. Our hope is not in this life.
So that's why Paul can say he rejoices in suffering, because his hope isn't here. He has a hope of glory because of Christ. It's not here. It's not in his personal satisfaction. It's not in how everything works out for him. It's not in his happiness.
It's in Christ. He has a hope of glory that's in Christ. I am. My granddad's name was Chester Phillips. It's actually who I'm named after. He was a pastor.
Bob Jones, Independent Baptist pastor, for a long time. He graduated from Bob Jones, so he went to, let me see, let me tell you some of his story. He went to, he was in World War II. He was in London during the bombing of London. He spent most of his time on a ship. He was a medic because he made glasses beforehand.
He and my grandmother got married like the week before he left. And so he left. World War II ended. He came back. He went to Bob Jones, learned how to be a pastor, went through their school. When he graduated on Friday, he began preaching at his first church on Sunday.
So he graduated on Friday. They moved on Saturday, and he started working with his first church on Sunday. He was not super comfortable with public speaking, and so my grandmother one time came down in his office, and she said in his office, he would always have his Bible laid out, his notes laid out, and he would have a brown paper bag over here on the right. And so she asked him one day, finally, after he'd been pastor for some years, she'd been married to him for a while, she said, what's the brown paper bag for? And he said, well, sometimes when I'm working on a sermon, I have to throw up.
Because I don't feel good about it. And that's why the brown paper bag's here. And so, but he was a pastor for a long time. I remember I was a part of his church when I was little, and he used to go to his office after he taught, and he'd open his drawer and give you a moon pie, because he loved Jesus, and moon pies are great. And so he'd give you a moon pie. And when I was seven, six-ish, five-ish, somewhere around in there, he started having trouble driving.
And my grandmother started noticing that he was drifting some, and it was like he wasn't seeing very well. And so she taught him to go to the doctor. He didn't like going to the doctor. He went to the doctor, and he had a brain tumor in his head. And so they said, we've got to operate. It's big.
It's just going to be a problem. And so they operated. They removed it. When they removed it, it was as if he had had a stroke. And so his whole left side of his body no longer worked. And so he had to do a lot of rehab to even just be able to walk.
And talk in a coherent manner. And so he found out he had a brain tumor. And then within just a few months was no longer pastoring and was not going to be able to. He wasn't able to open the Bible and proclaim God's word anymore. He was doing well to walk and to kind of communicate. And so they did not think he would have much longer, live much longer after that.
But he lived for another 15 years. Was still a complete trip. He was hilarious, enjoyable to be around. I remember one time we were at the beach, and I was about to go out swimming, and he called me over. He said, Jack, come here. So I came over to him.
He said, Now look. He's sitting in his wheelchair. He said, If you start drowning, I want you to call me. I said, Okay, yes, sir. He goes, Because I've never watched anyone drown, and I'd love to see that. I was like, Yes, sir.
I got you. That's just what he was like. But I remember about two years ago, he passed away. He was 87 years old, had been confined to a wheelchair for a while. Pretty much every day he'd had since his brain tumor operation was grace. And when God called him home, it was grace.
And I cried. And we knew it was coming. And I was genuinely sad and broken over it. And I cried. And I don't cry over much. Because there's something about death and suffering that strikes all of us as wrong.
There's just something in it. That even though we know it's coming, and even though 100% of people are going to die, and even though it happens all the time, it is as common as births. It is as common as getting colds. It is as common. It happens to everyone. There's something in us all the time that screams, this is not how this ought to be.
This is not how this is supposed to work. All of us, when we come to death, when we come to suffering, when we're faced with pain. And what the Bible says is that you are correct. That is not how it's supposed to be. That God created the world in a relationship with himself, and that we as humans rebelled. We ran from him.
The Bible says that we're the problem. That because of self-fulfillment, because of our desire to be God, because of our desire to prop ourselves up, that we rebelled, and that we're the problem. I read a thing the other day that was talking about the deadliest animals on earth. Wolves, sharks, elephants, hippopotamus, mosquitoes came in second to humans. Because we kill more people than anything else. Because we're the problem.
We're broken. We're greedy. I saw a picture of a shark swimming next to a scuba diver, and it said, one of these is the most deadly animal on earth. And the other one's a shark minding his business. Because we're the problem. But what Paul says, and what scripture tells us, is that Jesus didn't stand far away from our suffering.
Didn't stand far away from death. Didn't just crush us for our rebellion, but that he came to earth, he gave up all of his good things, so that he could live as a human, in the relationship with God that we could never accomplish. That he could live perfectly on our behalf, and that he could be crushed. That he could step into suffering, pain, and death. That he could bleed and die on our behalf, and that in him, not only can we face suffering, not only do we have purpose in suffering, but we also have hope of glory, that one day it'll be worked out again. That it'll be back right.
That that thing inside of us that screams that this is wrong, will be straightened back out, and it won't be wrong anymore. That we'll have hope of glory, where we'll spend eternity, with our great God and King, who's rescued and redeemed, and has made everything right again. Who's wiped every tear from every eye. Death and pain are no more. And that we get to celebrate and worship him for eternity. That's what hope of glory means.
And that's what the gospel is for us. And that's why we can suffer. That's why we can face pain. And that's why we can rejoice. Because God and his good stewardship has given this message to us for a y'all. And suffering isn't the end of it for us.
Suffering has purpose for a Christian. And we have hope set somewhere else other than on ourselves. It doesn't terminate on us. And it doesn't terminate on our happiness. Our hope is set with him in eternity. So that's why Paul says he can rejoice in suffering.
Because of Christ in him. Christ in us. And our hope of glory. So, here's what this looks like for us. So it's the gospel that empowers us for mission.
It's the gospel that empowers us in life. It's the gospel that lets us walk through suffering. That lets us walk through pain. It's the gospel. It's that Jesus stepped into our suffering. That he rescues us.
And that in him is our hope. Jesus. It's not set in anything else. It's in Jesus. And so here's what Paul says this looks like. We'll start in 27.
To then God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery. Which is Christ in you? The hope of glory. Him. Jesus. Him we proclaim.
Warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me. So Paul in this passage talks about suffering. He talks about affliction. He talks about toil and struggle. And he says it's all about Jesus.
And he says it's him we proclaim. Warning everyone and teaching everyone so that we can present everyone mature in Christ. This is foundational for us as a church. What he's talking about is that it's the gospel that we point each other to. It's the gospel that we point ourselves to. It's the gospel that we point each other to in community.
It's the gospel that we point everyone to. It's Jesus. We talk about Jesus. We make much of Jesus. All the time. That's it.
That's all we do. It's how we view the world. One of the ways we talk about this is gospel fluency. So fluency is when you can speak a language without having to think about how you're speaking that language. Does that make sense? So I took Spanish classes in high school and in college.
I'm not fluent in Spanish. I took like years of this stuff. Not fluent in it. Like if we're ever I can say ¿Dónde estás la biblioteca? And Puerto del Baño, por favor. So if we're in a Spanish speaking country and I get lost go to the closest library and check their bathroom because that's all I know how to say.
And I honestly may not even be in the bathroom but I'll have permission to go there. Because that's what I can say. I can ask where the library is and I can ask for permission to go to the bathroom. I can say other things like the cake is moist but I don't know how often that's going to come up in a conversation. So I mean if I say it enough people might give me money to go away.
Like I don't know. But I can't. I'm not fluent. So what happens when I speak Spanish is I have to think English words. I have to then match that up with a Spanish word and then say Spanish words. And then when someone says Spanish words to me I have to catch the Spanish words match them up with an English word so that I understand what we're talking about.
That's not fluency. Fluency is what's happening right now in English where I'm saying English words and your brain's got concepts. Like you understand what's being said. And then you when you were talking to me would think concepts say English words. I would catch English words think concepts. We wouldn't have to line it back up.
Does that make sense? And so what he's saying is him we proclaim. We talk about Jesus and we talk about gospel fluency. What that means is is that's how we view the world. Through the lens of the gospel. It's Jesus that we see everything through that we point everyone to.
All the time. I've seen those commercials for night view glasses. Have y'all seen those? It's glasses that are yellow. And they act like they're somehow going to give you night vision. I love those commercials.
People give actors in infomercials a hard time. But you've got to know how to act in an infomercial because you're selling garbage. And you've got to pretend like it's good. So you've got to at least have some acting skill. But in those commercials I love it because they'll be like it's like look at how dark it is.
And then they put yellow glasses on someone and they're like I can see everything. Or they'll just show like looking at nothing and then they'll show sunglasses fall over it with yellow and then everything like lights up. And that's ridiculous. That's not how that works. It just makes everything yellow. And so I really want them to put the glasses on someone and then be like wow it's dark and everything's kind of yellow now.
But the truth for us is that that's what the gospel is. The gospel is our night view glasses. It tints everything. It affects how we see everything. It's how we communicate. It's how we think.
It's how we view the world. It's the gospel. It's Jesus. We point to Jesus in everything. It says him we proclaim warning everyone teaching everyone so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. So what that means is that the gospel is primary for us.
We point to Jesus primarily in everything. So when we gather with our community groups we talk about gospel fluency. What that means is when somebody confesses sin or when somebody's struggling with something we don't pop off with just good advice. We don't just look at someone and be like well if you ate better and exercised more you'd be happier. Maybe that's true. And that may be really good advice for 97% of Americans.
But we give gospel first. It's Jesus we proclaim. It's Jesus that we point to because he's our hope. We don't have hope anywhere else. Our hope isn't in diet and exercise. Our hope isn't in the best type of Job to have.
Our hope isn't in this technique for parenting. Our hope is in Jesus. So it's him we proclaim. So this works on a personal basis. This is what Paul's doing. He's proclaiming the gospel over his own suffering so that he can walk through life.
It's what we do. So what we don't do is this. We don't say here's the rule so follow the rule. We say here's the gospel so follow Jesus. Here's how the gospel applies. Follow Jesus.
So the Bible has rules. It has things that ways that we honor God ways that we live. Talks about generosity. I want everyone in this room to be ridiculously generous but not because that's a rule. I want the gospel to so penetrate our souls that we can't help it. That he who was rich became poor so that in him we might be rich.
That God left everything to be made nothing so that in him we could have everything. If that doesn't make us generous I want that to be what drives us so that we can look at someone else and go absolutely I want you to have some of this because I've already been given everything and my God became nothing and I know that everything doesn't terminate on me. My wealth is not for my enjoyment but it's been stewarded it's been given to me for you for this to move forward and for me to walk in light of the gospel. So yeah we want to be generous but because of the gospel yes we want to love ridiculously but because we've been loved but because we know that he's so loved us that he would die for us he would take our place so that we can love.
Of the gospel yes we want to love ridiculously but because we've been loved but because we know that he's so loved us that he would die for us he would take our place so that we can love. That's just how this works. It works in community it works with us
The y'allness of us that he's talking to. So when we have sin issues you know what that means? The gospel applies which is sin's a big deal so we address it we don't pretend like sin's not a big deal we talk about it
Openly and honestly but there's forgiveness we just assume Jesus is going to do what he does which is allow forgiveness bring redemption bring reconciliation we deal with sin issues as a church family we don't allow weirdness between people that's not okay because the gospel is true not because that's a rule
But because Jesus overcomes all of that so we talk to people we can disagree we can repent we can pray for one another we can forgive because we've been forgiven we just invite Jesus in all of it and it's him we proclaim warning everyone and teaching everyone so this is how
We talk to our friends who don't know Jesus I was working at Sears a buddy of mine asked me he said man I used to get married he said you got any marriage advice I said yeah but I'm going to have to talk about Jesus because otherwise it's going to be confusing as crap my advice only comes from Jesus so I got to talk
To you about him first he's like okay so we talked about it because that's how I view the world that's the only way that makes sense and I honestly have found that that's not a pushy way to talk to somebody about Jesus because I'm telling them true things about how I view the world the reason
A lot of us have a hard time talking about the gospel is because the gospel hasn't penetrated how we walk through life it's clunky and awkward so it's like this weird weapon that we carry and smack people with but it doesn't affect how we walk through life so that's why we only talk about Jesus we proclaim
Jesus we point to Jesus when we get together we're going to talk about Jesus when we gather in our community groups we're going to talk about Jesus and so before you ever heard people be like I just want to go deep I want to learn deep things from the Bible and I always
Grew up thinking that you became a Christian because you learned the gospel because you repented of your sin because Jesus died on your behalf and then you learned good deep Bible things what Paul says is that it's the riches of the glory of this mystery which is Christ in us
The hope of glory you want to learn deep things dig into the riches of the glory of this mystery dig and dig and dig and dig into the gospel you are not going to find the bottom that's not going to be tap dry it's not going to it's not ever going to run
Out that's what we dig into that's what we dive into and that's why we proclaim Jesus all the time it's how we view the world he works in among us all the time so we proclaim Jesus all the
Time that's us I want to point to one more thing before we wrap up tonight he says this him we proclaim warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone
Mature in Christ we're going to grow in maturity we grow in maturity in Jesus we grow in maturity in the gospel penetrating deeply into how we live life and here's the thing maturity in Christ is for everyone it's for everyone
It's not for a handful of people and then a bunch of other people gather together and there's some sort of a big religious organization that's not the goal the Bible does have elders and pastors and people that teach but we teach I spend time each week working on things to teach and to talk about the Bible because
We're called to equip saints and we want everyone to be mature everyone to grow in how the gospel applies to everything maturity is for everybody growth is for everybody that we would grow in our community groups that we would begin to proclaim the gospel to each other Colossians is going to talk about that later that we would teach one another we'd admonish one another we'd lead one another celebrate
Worship with one another and that we proclaim the gospel to each other and that we'd all grow in maturity let's do that as a church let's talk about Jesus so much that we all just grow up in maturity in Christ let's let's have this room of people know how the gospel applies to finances how the gospel applies to our time how the gospel applies to our friendships it's going to be awkward it's going to be clunky there's going to be some confusing conversations there
Are going to be times that we say hey that's really good advice but how does Jesus work here how do we proclaim Jesus in this situation and you're going to go how does the gospel apply to buying a dog it does and it's going to be awkward to try to figure it out and talk about it but it applies to how we spend our time and how we spend our money and how we view the world so it applies to everything and we're going to all talk about Jesus so much that we all grow in maturity and become
Mature in Christ and it's going to be really good and a lot of fun man's going to come back up here and here's what we're going to do we are the y'all that Paul's writing to we are the church we are a group of people that exist in relationship with one another and what happens when you have a bunch of people exist in relationships with one another is that things get frustrating things get weird and sometimes people get their feelings hurt and sometimes there's struggle and there's
Pain and in this room there are people that are going through some things and so what we're going to do is we're going to respond as Christians we're going to respond and we're going to proclaim Jesus into this situation we're going to invite the gospel to bear in our lives and so what that means is some of you in here may just be struggling with some life just may be difficult right now you just need some you need some church family to come around and to pray with you and to talk with you about how your hope
Isn't in this situation but it's in Jesus and how the gospel works to bring life and to bring rejoicing and suffering here so you're just going to invite some people to pray with you you're going to go sit with somebody you're going to go talk to somebody you're going to go open up a little bit some of us in here need to confess some sin we need to have the gospel apply so that we know that sin's a big deal and that forgiveness is inevitable for those who repent that Jesus forgives and that reconciliation and
Redemption happen when we invite Jesus in so some of us are going to move around the room we're going to talk to somebody we're going to confess some weirdness we're going to confess some how we've been upset or frustrated with something it's going to get awkward but it's going to be so good because we're going to invite Jesus to be a part of it some of us just need to pray we just need to talk to some people anybody who's playing an instrument right now feels like they need to talk to someone they're going to put their
Instrument down and they're going to go talk to a person we care way more about being church family and applying the gospel than we do about a baseline no offense Josh that's what we're going to do we're going to cut the lights off we're going to they're going to play some music we're going to pray we're going to talk to each other we're going to move around that little thing that just popped in your head that you don't want to talk about that's what you're going to talk about that person that just popped in your head that's the person you're
Going to talk to we're going to follow the Holy Spirit we're going to invite Jesus to be a part of this we're going to pray with one another we're going to walk with one another and we're going to proclaim him always only we're going to proclaim Jesus because he's our hope. He's our life. And he's how we walk through everything. I'm going to pray and then we're going to move. Real quick before I pray. If you're in the room and you don't know Jesus, this is open for you to repent of your sin and to have Jesus be your hope and have his death apply to your account. So you can tell him. That seems awkward or you have questions. You can talk to a human.
We'd love to proclaim him. Let's pray. God, we ask that we'd be a church family, that the gospel works in and around everything. That's how we'd view life. So that God, we'd be able to rejoice in suffering because we know the truth of where our hope lies. And God, I thank you that in your wisdom you've given us a for y'all. That each of the people in this room who have placed their hope and their faith in you, that you've extended your mission for those around them, for those that they would toil and struggle to proclaim you to. And God, I pray that we would, that we would proclaim Jesus,
Warning everyone and teaching everyone so that we might present everyone mature in Christ. Holy Spirit, I pray that you'd work right now. Show us who we need to talk to. Enlighten us into how the gospel works in and among us so that there can be forgiveness, so that there can be reconciliation. We're going to move around the room, God. We pray that your Holy Spirit would move around as well. Teaching us, leading us, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
He's our life. And he's how we walk through everything. I'm going to pray and then we're going to move. Real quick before I pray. If you're in the room and you don't know Jesus, this is open for you to repent of your sin and to have Jesus be your hope and have his death apply to your account. So you can tell him.
That seems awkward or you have questions. You can talk to a human. We'd love to proclaim him. Let's pray. God, we ask that we'd be a church family, that the gospel works in and around everything. That's how we'd view life.
So that God, we'd be able to rejoice in suffering because we know the truth of where our hope lies. And God, I thank you that in your wisdom you've given us a for y'all. That each of the people in this room who have placed their hope and their faith in you, that you've extended your mission for those around them, for those that they would toil and struggle to proclaim you to. And God, I pray that we would, that we would proclaim Jesus, warning everyone and teaching everyone so that we might present everyone mature in Christ. Holy Spirit, I pray that you'd work right now. Show us who we need to talk to.
Enlighten us into how the gospel works in and among us so that there can be forgiveness, so that there can be reconciliation. We're going to move around the room, God. We pray that your Holy Spirit would move around as well. Teaching us, leading us, in Jesus' name. Amen.
Reconciliation
Colossians 1:21-23
Transcript
Well, g'day everyone. It is great to see everyone here tonight. My name is Raz. I feel like I don't really have to introduce myself because I just got a five-minute spotlight before, but I do have to defend myself because Chet called me out. This day we played putt-putt, I was the only person to lay down prone on the ground and do like a pool shot and score a hole in one. That deserves some credit, I think.
And so I may not be so good if you do it the conventional way, but give me some pool shots and I'll be all right. As he said, it becomes a healthy thing for churches to do as they continue to grow to be training new leaders. And so this is kind of what we're going to be doing tonight, and this is why I'm here. I've been in and around Mill City for a while. I've been leading a group with the West Columbia guys with Aubrey, and I've been on the teaching team for a while and helping out on Sundays as well and really just growing in a bunch of different ways on how to serve a church family and what it takes to run the church as it is from behind the scenes.
I'm currently studying in seminary at CIU. I pretty much wake up every day, read the Bible, study it, write a paper on it, submit it, and go home and sleep. That's pretty much my day every day. I enjoy it. It's really good. If you haven't tried it, maybe you should.
It's a great thing to do. We are, if this is your first week, we are currently in the middle of a series on the book of Colossians. So far, week one, we kind of looked overall introduction to the series. Paul is the author of the letter. He's writing from a jail, probably in Rome. He writes the letter to the church of Colossians.
He writes the letter to a group. He writes the letter to y'all. And so he uses the word you throughout the whole book, but pretty much the whole time he's doing it, the Greek word is the Greek word for y'all. It's a cool thing that the Greeks have that we don't have or that I don't have in conventional English, but southerners do, so it's great. We've got y'all. So it's a letter to y'all.
Week two, Matt taught that when we mature in Christ, when we grow in maturity towards Christ, we take knowledge, and that knowledge builds into action, and that action ends up turning back into more knowledge, and that more knowledge builds into more action, and that kind of pushes us forward towards Christ, and that's how we mature in Christ. In the third week, which was last week, we looked at the preeminence and the supremacy of Christ, how he is creator and supreme over all things. Everything was made through him and for him. He was before all things, and he has power over everything in creation.
This week, we're going to continue looking through the book of Colossians, but before we get there, if you haven't met me before, you're probably realizing that I'm not from Columbia, South Carolina by now. I am, in fact, from Australia, or as we call it, Australia, mate, something like that. It's not so much a fun fact about me as it is a warning, because everyone in America knows that dangerous things come from Australia. It's also a bit of a warning, because I tend to say things that make total sense in English-speaking countries, but this isn't an English-speaking country. This is an American-speaking country.
And so I might say things that mean everyone else in the world that speaks English would understand. Some examples might be, I'm not going to say any of these tonight, but except for now, chicken burger. I can see all of your brains just going, but it's actually a thing. You take a burger bun, put chicken on it, it becomes a chicken burger. Football. It's a ball, and you kick it.
It's football. You spend the whole game kicking it. You call it soccer, but you're wrong. Anyway, If I say anything, if anything comes out, it probably makes sense. You just have to think about it. In your brains, you can just join the dots.
Or if you're American, you can connect the dots. Whatever. Coming from Australia, we have a number of kind of unique cultural traditions, unique cultural things that we have that other countries just don't have. Some of them are good. Some of them are bad. Some of them other countries should probably adopt.
One of those is this thing that we have called reconciliation. Reconciliation is a word that existed before we kind of stole it. It's a word that means whenever two groups of people get in a fight, or two people get in a fight, and then they come back together. That's called reconciliation. But in Australia, it has this very special meaning.
You see, back in the 1800s, when the British folk, the white people, they came in and they took over. They kind of pushed everyone away. They did that thing that they did back in the day. I don't know why it was a rule, but they took their flag, and they just kind of stuck it in the dirt, and that meant that they owned the whole country. For some reason, that was a legitimate enough reason. It was like, you guys, you're already here, but you don't have a flag.
I don't understand. Why didn't you put a flag in the ground? You could have kept it, but you didn't. So we took it, and now it's ours. I've been reminded recently that in case the zombie apocalypse ever becomes a thing, America still owns all that land up on the moon, because they were the first ones to kind of do that, just in case you're paranoid like that. Anyway, back in Australia, the leaders who kind of colonized the area, they were looking at the way that the Aboriginal parents were raising their children, and they decided that it was not good enough for society.
They decided that rather than allow Aboriginal parents to raise their own children in their traditional ways, they would regulate that. They would make sure it was done correctly. And so they introduced laws. One of them was called the Aboriginal Protection Act. It actually didn't protect them at all. In fact, it was this specific thing.
They regulated the lives of aboriginals, aboriginals being the natives that were there. I don't know if I mentioned that. And so we come to this low point in Australian history, the absolute most disabicable era of Australian history, and it's what we call the stolen generation. There was a period of time where for 50 to 60 years, they actually didn't allow Aboriginal parents to raise their own children anymore. They decided they were being such bad parents, such horrible parents, that they were raising their children to be tribal and barbarians. And they said, we can't have that.
So they just started taking them. They started taking the Aboriginal children and sending them to white families and saying, you guys raise these kids to be civilized members of society. And so it ended up being that it got quite hostile, as you would imagine. The Australian kind of settlers, the British people, the white guys, they pushed everyone out, they stole their children, and they alienated themselves from everyone else. By alienated, I mean they separated themselves from them. They pushed them away.
They were hostile. They were evil towards them. They separated themselves from the aboriginals. And that's where we started with this idea of reconciliation. Back in the late 60s, the white guys, they kind of came to their senses. They decided this was kind of out of control.
We had gone too far and that something needed to be done. And so a referendum was held. A vote was held. The Australian public decided that we would give the aboriginals all of their rights back. All of the laws in the Constitution that prevented aboriginals from having rights were taken out. And we started on this road of reconciliation, trying to fix the problem that we'd created when we'd ruined that relationship.
Now, National Reconciliation Week is like a holiday in Australia now. It's really fun. I remember when it started in 1996. I was in the third grade. It was great. It was incredibly culturally insensitive.
They wanted to raise awareness for the aboriginal reconciliation. And so what they did was they said to all of the elementary schools around the place, host big aboriginal reconciliation events in your schools. And so what we did in the third grade is we had a corroboree. A corroboree is like a traditional dance thing that the aboriginals did. It was like a party. And so in the school assembly, all of the guys in the third grade ripped their shirts off and painted themselves with aboriginal paint and did like this little dance thing.
It was incredibly culturally insensitive. It's not politically correct at all. But that was like the inauguration of, hey, we're going to be reconciled to these people now. Now, I don't know if it worked or not, but it did raise awareness. And so that's a good thing, right? Instead of looking back and being angry about the past that had happened, everyone in Australia agreed that looking forward to a reunited future, a reconciled future was the way to go.
And so that's kind of this nuanced meaning of reconciliation in Australia. And now tonight as we open up Colossians, we're going to continue through into a section that is all about reconciliation. It's not between two groups of people. It's not between like the aboriginals and the white Australian conquering folk. It's between a holy God and all of fallen humanity. If you've got a Bible, you can open up to Colossians 1.
We're going to be starting in verse 23. If you don't have a Bible, there should be some kind of at the end of the rows. You can pass them down to each other. If you don't own a Bible and you've got your hands on one of these looking ones, you can take that with you. We want you to have it. It would be great for you to have the word of God within your reach at all times.
So make sure you grab one if you don't have one. We're going to be starting in verse 23. But before we do, I'm just going to pray for us real quick. Father God, thank you that you stepped down from heaven on a mission to bring us back to you. Be with us tonight as we learn from your word. Work in us to create a people who strive to become more like Jesus in all things.
Amen. All right, two weeks ago, Matt, he taught on a passage just before this one. He taught on a passage in verse 9 and 10. As I said earlier, it starts off with knowledge turning into action and that action turning into more knowledge and that more knowledge kind of growing and snowballing into more knowledge and action and more knowledge and more action. And that pushes us towards Christ. That is the process in which we mature in Christ.
This weekend, and that's really good news. This week, our passage today, it would be similar except that we have this problem. We have a rather big problem. And this is our problem. Our problem is that we were alienated from God. If you look down, verse 21, it says, And you, which is really the Greek word for y'all, and y'all, the church that's meeting in Colossae, and y'all, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds.
When a group is alienated from God, their knowledge and their actions, they snowball in the same way. Except, instead of snowballing knowledge and action, knowledge and actions towards Christ, when you're alienated from him, you still have knowledge and you still have actions, but they're snowballing in a direction away from him. It says that we are hostile in mind. We have hostile knowledge. And it says that we're evil in deeds. We have evil actions.
And so our knowledge and our action, it still snowballs, but it pushes us further and further away from Christ. We are already alienated and we're becoming more alienated. It's a pretty horrible problem if you think about it, being alienated from God, being separated from the creator of the entire universe. That's a massive issue for us. I've got a photo of a kid, a little kid. He's pretty cute.
I don't know if any of you have seen him before. Some of you might have. There's a video of this kid. He went viral not that long ago. He's got sprinkles kind of on his face. I don't know if you can see that.
There's little red things all over his face. He's been eating some sprinkles. The original video was pretty long, but I've cut it down for us. We're going to watch it now. Check out what this kid does when he eats his sprinkles. What are you eating?
I think. You didn't eat anything? Yeah. I think. Are you telling me the truth? No.
You didn't have any snacks? Nope. Can you explain to me why the sprinkles are empty? Well, they're not empty. Did you eat those sprinkles? No.
I did not. Did you eat those sprinkles? No. I did not eat those sprinkles. Sprinkles. John.
You have sprinkles on your face. Oh, no. No. I did not eat sprinkles. All right.
He's pretty cute. I'll give him that. But he's digging himself a hole. He's fighting a war that he's never going to win. And it's a pretty big problem. You see, he's taken this knowledge.
He likes sprinkles. Who doesn't? He's taken this knowledge and he's done some kind of an action. His action being he went and ate some sprinkles. Even though he knew, knowledge, that he wasn't supposed to. Then his mom asked him if he did that.
And he said, no. He knew that he had, but his action was lying about the fact that he didn't. And then he lied again. And then he lied again. He told five lies saying that he never even ate the sprinkles and they were attached to his face. It's a pretty big problem.
He has alienated, whether or not he knows it, he's probably like three years old. He has alienated himself from his mother. It's a pretty big deal when raising a child to know that that child is willing to lie directly to your face. That's cause for concern. And he's alienated himself from his mother. Now, in our lives, when we have similar things, we've all done this before.
We've lied and then had to cover up that lie with another lie. And then someone called us out on that lie. And we're like, oh, no, that's not true either. And we told another lie to cover up the lie that covered up the other lie. And it snowballs like that all the time. We've done this before.
It's not new to us. And no one's been like, what? That's never happened to me. Because this is something that we generally accept as something that happens. But in our lives, it's usually something bigger than sprinkles.
It's usually something bigger that will cause more of a problem, that will alienate us more. When I was in Australia, before I came here, when I was in Australia, just after high school, I worked as an electrician for four years. And for four years, I worked with or for this guy called Joel. He wasn't my boss when I first started working as an electrician. But then as I continued to work as one, he started his own company.
I ended up working with him. So I was working with this guy, Joel, for most of the time that I was an electrician. When I first met him, he was deeply, heavily into drugs, alcohol, parties, that kind of thing. He would go a week at a time without sleeping. And he would go out at night, come to work the next morning, play with electricity, and then go back out that night. It was crazy.
I didn't know how he did it. I like sleeping for 10 hours a night. So I could never do that. But we ended up becoming friends. We ended up bonding in quite a few different ways. And over the years, he ended up taking some of the things that I was saying about Jesus.
And I had the privilege of walking him back through the doors, inviting him into church family, the church that I was serving at in Australia. And then we went for about a year, and it was really good, really smooth sailing. He was on the right track. For no real reason that I know of, one day he called me up and fired me on the spot over the phone. It was over something that I had done, but I had done exactly the way that he had told me to do. And for whatever reason, that reflected badly on him, and he wouldn't take the blame for it, so I ended up taking the fall for it.
Now, I don't know if it's the same over here, but the unions in Australia are pretty powerful. They don't let things like that happen. And so what happened was I ended up not working there anymore, but instead I was stuck in a legal dispute with him over all the money that was owed to me and over the fact that I was fired for no reason and this kind of thing. Now, at that point in time, it was about as alienated as friends could be, sitting on opposing ends of the table in a courtroom. It was pretty horrible. But here's the thing about human disputes, human alienation.
It has its limits. There's this kind of invisible scale that's sort of understood about how split up, how much distance there are between people. And so if we look at Joel and my relationship and think, yes, we understand that they are alienated, we understand that they are separated, but it's not that big a deal. It doesn't affect that many people. They might be alienated that distance on our arbitrary scale. They might be a span's distance apart.
The aboriginals and the Europeans back in the day, that was probably a bigger deal than me and Joel. On our arbitrary scale, they might be kind of a wingspan separated. That's more distance to cover to bring reconciliation. When we think about our problem, our being alienated from God, it doesn't really work on this scale that we've got. We were alienated from God in a way that would be like from here to Pluto and back and do it again 500,000 times. And you can compare that with the span and the wingspan.
It doesn't compare when we try to say, oh, I understand what alienation is because I've experienced it in the human world. We have this very serious problem. We are alienated from God. But Paul, he doesn't stop with this separation. He doesn't stop with you've been alienated. He continues.
He says, you are hostile in mind and evil in deeds. It's the difference between being separated from someone and just not caring anymore and being separated from someone and then them throwing bombs at you from afar. We're not just separated from God. We're actually evil in deed and hostile in mind towards him. We are his enemies. And that's a pretty big deal as well.
I don't know if any of you ever go to the movies and cheer for the bad guy. That would be weird unless the movie is one of those ones where you're back to front and you're cheering for the bad guys to get out of jail or something like that. Usually we go for the good guys. No one goes to the cinema. Do you call it a cinema? Theater?
Movies? Go to the movies. You go to the movies and you don't cheer for Voldemort or Darth Vader. You cheer for Luke Skywalker. You cheer for Harry Potter. Maybe.
But if you turned our relationship with God into a movie, you have the good guy, the holy, blameless, above reproach, merciful, loving, sinless father in heaven. And you have sinful, depraved, hostile in mind, evil in deed humans. If it were a movie, you'd go for the good guy. And you would be expecting at any point in time God to just crush everybody. That's how much it takes for God to crush us. It's a big deal that not only are we separated from him, we are hostile towards him.
We are enemies with him. And so we find ourselves with this problem that we're alienated from God. And we need a solution because this problem exists. And something that we tend to do is we try to solve our own problems. That's something that particularly men in general, they want to do. They see a problem.
They want to solve it. But that's not exactly how it works. We desperately need something to bridge this gap. But it's not possible for us in and of our own power to do that. Usually when relationships are broken in the human world, we will call someone up. We'll schedule a lunch meeting.
We might text them these days if that's how it's done. And we'll try to set in motion some kind of plan to get back on the right foot with these people. And then after that lunch happens or whatever it is, it takes years of backpedaling and kind of trust earning in order to truly reconcile a broken relationship. But that's not exactly how it happens here. Because when it comes to our relationship with God, our alienation isn't, fixing the problem of our alienation isn't something that's on us. Because it's all about Jesus.
And so here's our solution. Our solution is that we have been reconciled by Christ's death. If you read verse 22, it says, He has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death. He has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death. When Jesus was crucified and killed, when he was sacrificed on our behalf, his sacrifice completely solved our problem of alienation. At no point in time does Paul suggest that maybe there's something that we as humans should do.
We should start doing. At no point in time does he say, follow these rules to get back into God's good books. At no point in time does he say that reconciliation is something that we have to achieve for ourselves. The solution is that we've been reconciled by Christ's death. Our sin, our hostile minds, our evil deeds, they separated us from God in a way that we can't undo for ourselves. Reconciliation was something that we absolutely needed.
We had this problem that we were separated. We absolutely needed reconciliation, but we had zero control over it to fix it for ourselves. Back in the day, the Jews, they knew that we had this problem. They knew that we were alienated. They knew that something was wrong in the world, but they thought differently about what the solution was. The Pharisees, they were a Jewish group that adhered very strictly to the law.
The law was technically biblical, but back in the day, they kind of perverted it. They changed it. They added things to it. The law they believed would reconcile them to God. By following the rules of the law, they could build these little baby steps that would get them back towards God, even though they'd been alienated 500,000 times the distance to Pluto and back. They thought they could do something in and of themselves to reconcile themselves.
And so they strictly followed the law, but they never wanted to break the law, so they invented new rules along the way to stop them from getting all the way to the law so they could never break the law because they didn't want to break the law. And so they come up with some very interesting things that they have to follow. An example would be Sabbath laws. We know what the Sabbath is. The Sabbath is a holy day that you're not supposed to work. It's the day of rest.
On the seventh day, God rested, and so we're supposed to imitate that and take time out as rest. But the Jewish people, they said that we weren't allowed to work on the Sabbath. But that wasn't strict enough. That didn't define it enough. We needed to decide what work was. And so over the years, as technology has improved and society has kind of progressed through history, we have to redefine and redefine what work is.
I lived in a section of Sydney called St. Ives. It's like a neighborhood called St. Ives. The elementary school that I went to was in St. Ives.
The church that I served at was in St. Ives. St. Ives is actually the densest Jewish population in Sydney. There's a massive synagogue there. And because there's a synagogue there, that's kind of the area that a lot of Jewish people move to because you're not allowed to drive a car on the Sabbath.
Driving a car counts as work. In fact, turning the key to unlock the door counts as work. You can't unlock the door of your car on the Sabbath. And so what they do is they all move into the area that the synagogue is in so that they can just walk there on the weekends. But some interesting cultural dynamics occur in St.
Ives because there's a lot of other things that they're not allowed to do on the Sabbath. They're not allowed to lock their own door when they leave to go to synagogue. They're not allowed to turn the lights off when they leave because operating a light switch counts as work. They're not allowed to push their pram. The baby carriage. What do you call it?
Stroller. They're not allowed to push a stroller to synagogue because that counts as work. And so interesting things would happen. They would make friends with their neighbors. They were very good missionaries. They would make friends with all of their neighbors because when they needed something done, the neighbor had to do it.
Sometimes they would pay it. If you need to shut your door and lock it, you need to get the neighbor to come over and turn the key for you. If you want the lights turned off when you leave, they've got to come and turn the lights off for you. Sometimes they would pay 13-year-olds to push the stroller to synagogue for them because they weren't allowed to do that kind of stuff. I remember playing tennis at one of my friends' house. He lived next to a Jewish family.
I was the guy who hit the tennis ball over the fence. I went over and knocked on the door. They weren't allowed to open the door to see who was there. They were like, open it. I was like, okay. Then I opened it.
Then I had to walk through, open the back door. I had to walk around, turn the light on. I had to open the fence, the latch gate, pick up the ball, throw it back over the fence. Then I had to close everything on the way back out because they weren't allowed to do any of that. As humans, we do these strange things that we think will earn us some respect from God. We do these things that will earn us our own salvation somehow.
I don't know why we do it, but we do. Adherence to the law is something that the Jewish people in St. Ives do. It blows my mind how strict and how nuanced and how small it gets. But at the same time, they have this belief that if they just do something, then they can create reconciliation for themselves.
Our world, it's not super different. If we set Christianity kind of aside on its own, Christianity is over there by itself. Every other major religion, every other major philosophy teaches some method of fixing yourself, making yourself better, saying a certain number of prayers per day, giving a certain amount of money, doing a certain number of good deeds, reading enough self-help books to fix your problems. Our world preaches this message that we can fix ourselves, and that's not at all what Paul is saying in this book of Colossians. The Bible that we have, it's not a list of rules that we can follow and that will earn our own salvation, that will reconcile us to God by following the rules.
That's not it at all. The Bible is here to point to the fact that we have been reconciled by Christ's death, that he has already done all of that for us, and we don't have to. As I said, when we fix alienation in our own lives, we start with a phone call, we start with a text message, we set up a lunch date, and we start this process of years and months of backpedaling to try and fix a broken relationship. That same guy, Joel, that I was telling you about, my boss back in the day, I don't know what God has been doing in his life. Whatever it is, it's massive. Even against the court rules that he's not supposed to contact me after the whole lawsuit thing, he ended up Googling my name, looking me up, finding me on Facebook or something, finding out what I'm doing with my life, and then he sent me this email.
It's great. It says, Hey, Raz, God has put it on my heart to make peace with you. I'm really glad to hear that you're doing so well and have stepped out in faith and are studying the Bible full time. I just wanted to apologize for anything that I have ever said over the entire time that we knew each other that was not of God or anything that may have offended or hurt you. I would also like to remind and thank you for being the one who reintroduced me to the church and walked me through the doors so that I could begin to learn the ways of God and have God change me from within. It meant, this was about a month ago that I received that email and I can't really explain how much it means to me to see someone who I knew to be so broken at the time come up with something like that.
It's a great story of the beginnings of human reconciliation. But here's the thing, human reconciliation, like I said, it has its limits. There's only so much that happens, there's only so much ground to cover when humans become reconciled. It's also a two-way street. Joel could have sent me that email and I could have ignored it, I could have deleted it, but it takes two to tango, so to speak. If we want to be reconciled with other humans, two people need to work together to fix whatever broken relationship has happened.
That's also something that Paul says is not the case with God. Paul says, the way it works with God is that reconciliation is completely one-sided. We have been reconciled by Christ's death. We've done nothing. Now, I'm not a pet person. I have to confess, I'm not a pet person.
I think pets are absolutely the worst. And I can see the devastation in some people's eyes already. All I have to say is that you're absolutely wrong and that you made a mistake if you have a pet. That's simply the rules. You shouldn't get them. You shouldn't get cats.
You shouldn't get dogs. Absolutely the worst choice ever. This is a photo of my sister and her pet dog. Aw. His name is Harley. He is a, he's a Kishond.
A Kishond is a dwarfed husky or as Matt likes to call it, a dwarski. He's cute. I'll give him that. That's about all he is. He, the thing about long-haired dogs like that in Australia is that it's like 90 to 100 degrees every day. The thing stinks 24-7.
I'm not even kidding. It just smells so bad. And my sister's two and a half years older than me. She moved out of home two and a half years before I did. The dog became the house's pet instead of her pet, which of course was never the plan. I never wanted to look after the thing.
I pretty much hated Harley since he walked through the doors. But it ended up being my responsibility, at least in part, to feed the dog, to make sure the dog was clean, and to make sure when it was dirty that it didn't come in the house. Harley got old, as dogs do. He developed a medical condition where he could no longer eat tinned dog food, canned dog food, I don't know what you call it. Moist food. He couldn't eat it.
He could only eat like the dry sawdust looking stuff. If he ate the canned dog food, now this is not polite to say, especially when you've got a microphone on, but I'm going to say it anyway, he would get hectic cases of doggy diarrhea. Keep in mind that this is a ridiculously hairy dog. Yeah. Am I right? Pets are absolutely the worst.
And so when my parents were out of town, when my sister was off and away, and it was my responsibility to deal with Harley, and he got his hands or his mouth or whatever on something squishy, and then he ate it, it would be my job to either clean up the mess that was made or keep him outside stinking until someone else came home to deal with it. I just hated the dog. I'm going home in two weeks and I'm kind of really thankful that he's not around there anymore. Sorry, I just had to say that. Okay, we can take that down there. I don't even want to look at him anymore.
Here's the thing about me and Harley. If reconciliation, and it didn't happen, but if reconciliation was ever going to happen between us, he was pretty much powerless to do anything. If reconciliation were to happen, which it didn't, it was completely my business to make that happen. I would have to do everything in that relationship to fix the problem. Now, I'm not saying that we're God's little pets and I'm not saying that he hates us, but the relationship dynamic is a lot more similar to that than of me and Joel, Joel and I. It's completely one-sided.
We have nothing to do with the fact that God reconciled us. He chose in and of his own power to do it all on our behalf. We did nothing. Our own efforts achieved nothing and no amount of law-keeping, rule-following, good deeds that we can come up with are ever going to do something on our behalf to reconcile ourselves to God. We had nothing to do with how we were reconciled, but our solution is that we have been reconciled. And so, now that we have been reconciled, we can look back in hindsight and see that distance, that separation that we had from God, that 500,000 times here to Pluto.
We can see that that existed before and we can realize and understand the length that God went to to pull us back towards him, to reconcile us to him. And as a result of that, we become a changed people. So what does it look like for us to be a changed people based on the reconciliation that we've been given? What does it look like for us? How do we live out that result? Well, here's the result.
The result is simple. We continue in faith. Look down at the second half of verse 22. It says, In order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister. As a result of what Jesus did, we have now been made holy, blameless, and above reproach. Before the solution, when we were alienated from God, we were alienated, hostile in mind, and evil in deed.
And then the solution occurred. Then Christ died on the cross, and we were reconciled to God. And now we're no longer any of those things. We're no longer alienated. We're no longer hostile. We're no longer evil.
We are holy, blameless, and above reproach. It's a massive transformation. It's a complete 180 degree turn. And so something happens. Something occurs externally in our lives when we are changed in such a massive way. We become a new people.
We're no longer alienated. We're no longer hostile. And so we continue to strive for holiness. We continue to strive for blamelessness. And we continue to strive to be more and more above reproach as we continue on. Our knowledge turns into action, turns into knowledge, turns into action.
We mature in Christ, and we get pushed closer and closer towards Him. As a result of the reconciliation we've experienced through Christ's work at the cross, we will live lives that continue in faith. And we don't shift from the gospel that we heard. That's why we call ourselves a gospel-centered community on mission. We don't want to be shifting from the gospel that we heard. And that's why we're gospel-centered in community.
That's why we rely on our community, on our church family, to make sure that we're staying gospel-centered because verse 22 and 23 say we never want to shift from the hope of the gospel that we heard. And yet, somehow, for some reason, we allow ourselves in little ways to slowly creep away from that. All the time. We do it all the time. Sometimes, sometimes we let our pride get in the way of the gospel. Sometimes we let pride creep slowly into our lives and start straying us away from the gospel that we heard.
Sometimes we think that we have some power in and of ourselves. Sometimes we think that if we do follow the rules, if we do keep the laws, that because I am a good person, God owes me something. We allow our pride to slowly make us start creeping and straying away from the gospel. And when that happens, we are actually at most in the need of the gospel in the first place. When that happens, we are in need of our gospel-centered community to breathe the gospel back into our lives. Sometimes it is not pride.
Sometimes it is more like shame. Sometimes we allow ourselves to think that we don't deserve reconciliation. Sometimes we think, God couldn't forgive me for what I have done. Sometimes we think, I am damaged goods. God couldn't love someone who has experienced all of the junk that I have had to experience before. Sometimes we let shame in through the doors and it redirects us.
It shifts us away from the gospel and we slowly start creeping away from it. And at times like this, that is when we are in most need of the gospel. That is when we are in most need of a gospel-centered community to breathe the gospel back into our lives. Sometimes, sometimes it is not shame. Sometimes it is more simple. Sometimes it is laziness.
Sometimes we think, I don't need to read the Bible today. I don't need to read it this week. I don't need to read it this month. I already know most of it. Sometimes we think, I'm kind of tired. I've got a big assignment tomorrow.
I don't want to do anything tonight. I'm not going to go to my community group. There's plenty of volunteers on a Sunday. I don't need to go there. I don't need to plug in in any way. I just kind of want to chill out, do life my own way.
When we find ourselves letting laziness in through the doors, we shift away from the gospel. And that's when we most need the gospel to be breathed back into our lives. In fact, in all of these cases, in each and every one of these cases, we find ourselves straying from the gospel, but we also find ourselves not living out the intended result of our reconciliation. reconciliation. We know that we were alienated, we know that we've been reconciled, and as a result of that, we continue in faith. But as we let ourselves stray from the gospel, we cease to do this.
It all relies on the fact that we continue in the faith, we continue not to stray from the gospel, and we continue to live our lives in light of the fact that we have been reconciled. It reminds us constantly that we are powerless to save ourselves. It reminds us constantly that we need to live in a community of committed believers who are willing and able to breathe the gospel back into our lives. It convinces us consistently that we need our gospel-centered community, that we need our church family in order to be living out this intended result. It's not a game for the lone ranger, because the lone ranger will allow himself to shift from the gospel, and then they will not be living out the intended result.
We need our gospel-centered community, we need each other to live out the results of our reconciliation. Now the band is going to make their way back up for us. But maybe you've been sitting here tonight, maybe you've been hearing all of this stuff about alienation, you've been hearing this stuff about reconciliation, and you think to yourself, I already know and understand this. I already know that we've been reconciled, and I already know that we should continue in faith. So what?
Well, how is that playing out in your life right now? How are you continuing in faith, stable and steadfast? Are you ever shifting from the gospel? How honest are you being with yourself about your shifting from the gospel? How honest are you being with your church family about whether or not you've shifted from the gospel? gospel? Can you identify any ways, even the small little ways, in which you have shifted from the gospel, and honestly, do other people know about them?
Maybe you've been sitting there thinking something completely different. Maybe you've been thinking, God could never be reconciled to me. I could never be reconciled to God. Maybe you're thinking, you don't know me, you don't know what I've done, God hates me and he always will. Well, you're right on one count. I don't know what you've done.
But I do know this. We are humans and we have very limited power. And as we learned last week, God has infinite power. He is infinitely more powerful than us. And so any power that you have to alienate yourself from him, any power that you have to separate yourself away from God, he is infinitely more powerful to bring you back to him. He is infinitely more powerful to reconcile you to him than you are to alienate yourself from him.
And if you haven't yet, you can put your faith in him to do that. You can accept the reconciliation that he has already accomplished for you and offers freely to you. If reconciliation to God is something that we so desire, which we should, then I've got news for you. Nothing that you are capable of doing is going to achieve it. Nothing that you are capable of doing will ever reconcile you to God. Because it's not about you and it's not about what you do.
It's all about Jesus and it's all about what Jesus has already done to reconcile us to him. Let's pray. Father God, I just thank you that though we were so alienated from you, though we pushed you away, that you reached down and that you solved our problem for us. I pray and thanks that you have reconciled us to you. Lord, I pray that as we go about our lives this week, that we can be remembering that it's all about Jesus, that we can be living out the intended result of that reconciliation, that we can continue in faith praising you and loving you more each week. Turn our knowledge into action, into knowledge, into action towards Christ.
We love you, God. In Jesus' name, amen.
Cosmic Jesus, Cosmic Gospel
Colossians 1:14-20
Transcript
Colossians chapter 1 verses 15 through 20 when talking about Jesus says this. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body of the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. It's all about Jesus. It's all about Jesus. Let's pray. God, we ask you to make much of your name tonight. We pray that you would show us that it's all about Jesus.
And help us to genuinely see that and to know that and to feel that as we study this text. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. How are we doing tonight? Good. This section in Colossians, we're in our third week of Colossians.
This section is one of the densest Christological sections. So it's just this real dense passage about Jesus. And so we're in our third week. We're going to go verse by verse through the book of Colossians throughout the summer. And so we've actually entitled our series Colossians. It's all about Jesus.
And so that's what we're going to see is Paul, who's in prison, writes this letter to the church in Colossae. He makes it very clear that it's all about Jesus. That everything and all creation, that our lives, that the way we live, the way we work, the way we relate to one another, the way we operate as a church is about Jesus. And so that's what we're going to walk through tonight. That's what we're going to look at. I get highly frustrated at the church.
I get very frustrated when I see this in myself, when I see it in just how kind of the American church works. I don't know much about other. I can't speak to other areas of the church, but I kind of have a good handle, I think, on the southern church and the American church. And I get really frustrated with human-centric Christianity. Christianity. When we make Christianity about us.
Now Christianity and what Jesus accomplished for us in the gospel is very good news for us. But at no point is it about us. My wife and her brother Sam, she's got an older brother named Sam, they grew up in the Edgefield, Johnston area of South Carolina. And the movie That Darn Cat, it's a movie that was filmed in Edgefield. I think there was an older version and they remade it with Dougie Doug. You may know him from Cool Runnings.
If you ever get the chance to see the movie That Darn Cat, don't do anything else with your time. It's just not good. I mean, as awesome as Dougie Doug is, it just didn't come out right. But the movie That Darn Cat was filmed in Edgefield. And so when they were filming it, she was little, her older brother was little, and they were invited to like, everybody can come, be in this movie, in this one scene. You just got to sign a waiver and then you can all be in the background.
It was like a fair or something. And so there's this one scene in That Darn Cat that every time we watch it, we have to pause it because as the camera is panning along, following the main characters, you can see this part of Sam's head. Just the top. And, I mean, that was his big breakthrough. He is now the top of the head model that you hear all about. He models, you know, hats and you can see the top of his ears.
No. And Anna was next to him. So her big debut was just messed up because she was a foot shorter than she needed to be. In some ways, if Sam would sit people down and say, I want to show you a movie that I star in. I want to show you a movie that's about me. And then watch the movie and then pause it at that spot and go, did you see the top of my head?
Told you. That's a little bit of what we're doing when we act like Christianity is somehow about us. We're taking this epic story of redemption that God works throughout history and we're turning it around and saying it somehow centers on us and it does not. And so what we're going to do tonight, we're going to walk through this section of scripture and we're going to see that it's all about Jesus. Always Jesus. Only Jesus.
All about Jesus. We're going to see that it's all about Jesus and that Jesus, as God, is for his own glory. That he rescues and redeems for his praise, his glory, his name. Okay. So we're going to see that it's all about Jesus and that he actually, even in salvation, is for his own glory, his own praise.
And then we're going to talk a little bit about how that's really good news for us. That in Jesus being for his own glory and in everything being about him, it's actually really good news for us. It's not about us, but it's good news for us. And so that's what we're going to talk about. But we're going to spend some time talking about Jesus.
And so this section of scripture is dense. Every line is, it's very potent. And so we're going to have to go through and we're going to have to dig in and try to take every bit that we read and talk about it. And here's what I want for us. Here's what I want us to understand. We're going to try to look at Jesus as he is.
As he is creator. As he is massive and magnificent. We're going to try to take that view of Jesus. I love in the book of Revelation, John, the apostle who knew Jesus in life, who actually in his gospel he wrote, the gospel of John, he just refers to himself as the one who Jesus loved, which my younger brother was asking me the other day. He's like, do you think that annoyed all the other disciples? Like, just to be like, and the one who was Jesus's favorite was there.
And like they're later reading it and be like, seriously, John, really? Like, but he knew Jesus, was very close to Jesus. And then when he sees Jesus, not as Jesus was as a Galilean peasant, as a man, but when he sees Jesus in his glory, he starts off with his, in the book of Revelation, he says, I was in the spirit. And he said, Jesus shows up and he explains what he looks like. And he goes, and I fell over like I was dead. John's like, I'm pretty sure I died.
And then he woke me up and was like, don't be afraid. And I was like, have you seen you? He doesn't say that. But that's, that's the Jesus we're trying to look at tonight. The, the, not Jesus as he was, Jesus as he was when he was a Galilean peasant, but Jesus as he is. Creator, God, sustainer, ruler of all things.
And so it's going to be hard for us. It's an uphill battle. And here's, especially with this being a dense passage, I want to show you something. This is a volcano. So that's a volcano.
That's an erupting volcano. I think it's in Hawaii. This is also a volcano. Not quite the same though. And as we walk through this passage, we'll be tempted to do that. We'll be tempted to take and have all this rich depth and magnificent, magnificence of Jesus.
And we'll be tempted to say, and here's this theological fact we can learn. And here's something else we can learn and just put in our brains. And, and yeah, we'll be talking about it, but we'll miss it. See, both of those pictures are of a volcano, but one of them has been robbed of its awe-inspiring gravity of its nature. And so as we walk through this text, we don't want to do this. We actually want to see this.
We want to see Jesus with the weight and the gravity that surrounds him. We want to see him as he is, highly exalted. And so we're still going to have to unpack the text, but, but don't walk through and just take in Bible knowledge and facts about Jesus and categorize them and, and miss the weight behind it. So what we're going to do is before we hop in, we're going to pray. If you're not a believer, I would invite you to pray. The worst thing is you think some thoughts towards someone who doesn't exist.
The best thing is you talk to the God and creator of the universe, and he hears you and responds. But for believers in the room, we're going to ask the Holy Spirit to show us this when it comes to Jesus. We're going to ask the Holy Spirit to impress upon us the weight and the glory of our God. And so I'm going to give you a second. You're going to pray that and I'm going to pray for us. And then we're going to hop in.
Amen. God, we ask as your people that you wouldn't let us miss Jesus's greatness. You wouldn't let us grow accustomed to studying your word and learning things about you to the point that we fail to see you. And so we ask you to do what only you can do. That's to open our eyes, open our ears, and open our hearts and overwhelm us through your Holy Spirit with the greatness, the glory of who you are. We ask, God, that you would show us clearly yourself tonight.
We pray this in faith. In Jesus' name. Amen. So verse 15, we're in Colossians chapter 1. It says that he is the image of the invisible God. So this whole section is going to say he over and over again, and it's referring to Jesus.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. So when it says image of the invisible God, in the Old Testament, God, the creator God, he makes everything. He calls the Israelite people to be his people, and he does not show up in a form. He doesn't have a body. He doesn't say, this is what I look like. And so all the other gods that other nations have around them have, you know, they have something that represents them.
They have totem poles. They have Asherah poles. They have carved images. They have idols. They have all this. And God says, you don't.
He says, I'm the creator of all things. He says, I'm the only God. And you don't sketch me out. You don't carve me up. You don't draw me down. You don't make an image of me at all.
Anything in heaven, anything under the earth, anything in the water, anything on earth, nothing. And so throughout the Old Testament, he's the God that they have no image for. I mean, that's actually still true for us. We don't depict God the Father. We can depict Jesus because he came and lived as a Jewish man. And so we kind of have an understanding of what he would have looked like as a Jewish man in that time.
Sometimes you see the Holy Spirit depicted as a dove because it says in Luke that he came in the form of a dove. But we don't depict Jesus. We don't depict God the Father. I was actually at a wedding yesterday in a Catholic church. Beautiful, beautiful church. And at the center, they had this stained glass of Jesus.
And above it, they had this stained glass of this old guy with a big white beard. I'm assuming that's supposed to be God. And we're not supposed to do that. The Sistine Chapel, the famous Sistine Chapel where there's this old naked white guy like touching naked Adam. I don't know who that old white guy is, but he's not God because we're not supposed to have any image of God. But what Paul is saying is something radical, something spectacular.
What he's saying is that Jesus is the image of God. And he's the image of the invisible God. So if you want to know how God treats people, how God interacts with people, how God has friends, how God deals with those who are rebellious, how God deals with those who are religious, who are moral, who are uppity, you look at Jesus. And you have a really clear understanding of how God interacts, how God loves, how God moves. And so he's the image of the invisible God. It says he's the firstborn of all creation.
Okay, so firstborn can mean two things. It can mean first in order or it can mean first in status. It does not mean here that he was the first thing created. Because what it says next is for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. And it keeps going. But he's not the first created thing.
He's firstborn in status. So this was a patriarchal society. So the firstborn male was the highest in status. And they would refer to other people as the firstborn, which just meant they were in charge of. So when it says he's the firstborn of all creation, it means he's over top of all creation.
Because by him, everything that was made was made by him. It says for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. Okay, so heaven, all the stars, all the stuff you see in the sky, all the things beyond the stars that we can't see, all the visible things, and all the invisible things. So heaven where people go when they die that know Jesus, have been rescued by Jesus, created by Jesus. On earth, all the visible and invisible things, created by Jesus. It says whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.
Every political system that anyone has ever been afraid of, every regime that's ever set itself up that people have submitted to is underneath Jesus. It's created through him and for him. So the U.S. government, the CIA, Russia, Mexico, England, Rome, all of them submit to and are under the authority of Jesus. All of them. The Taliban, all of them, under Jesus. For him to raise up, for him to lower, for him to do with as he pleases, he rules over all of it.
And it also says visible and invisible. So it's not just earthly kingdoms, earthly dominions, but it's also spiritual ones. Every power, every spirituality, every aura, every spiritual anything under Jesus. It means all demonic powers. Satan and Jesus aren't at odds with one another like Jesus versus Satan. It's not how that works.
Jesus rules over everything. It's like Godzilla versus Bambi without legs or something. I mean, it's not even, it's not fair. Because he created and he rules over. His enemies operate only in what he allows them to. So it says that, For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.
All things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things and in him all things hold together. Everything. By him, through him, for him. He's before it and in him it all holds together. Everything.
Nothing is excluded in that when it says heaven and earth, visible and invisible. At that point it's like, Oh, what? Okay, no, yeah, you win. All things. I got it. And he goes through and he says it's by him, through him, for him.
And he's before it and he holds it together. That means it's all about Jesus. All of it. Take just a second. Look around this room. It is not overly impressive.
But it was all created by, through and for Jesus. The architectural thought process that went into it. The human ingenuity. Everything. The humans in here. Our similarities and our startling uniqueness.
By, through, for Jesus. Your ability to look around this room and have your brain process what you're looking at without having to force yourself to do it. Currently there's air being pushed out. Oxygen. That was made oxygen by trees. Which doesn't even make any sense.
I've got a science teacher in here. She probably just got annoyed by that. Oxygen. Oxygen. That was made oxygen by trees. Right now is being pushed out of my mouth over vocal cords into a mouth with a tongue that's manipulating noises.
Noises that you learned as a child that are shooting through the air landing in each of your ears and your brain is immediately processing what is being said. You're not having to think about it. You're not having to make it happen. You are automatically. Explosions. Of concepts.
And understanding. Are going on right now inside of your head. in your brain. In a chunk of tissue surrounded by bone. A chunk of tissue that is now thinking about itself. That's weird and Jesus is just getting started. Your brain thinks about itself.
Your brain named itself. Your brain comes up with things to protect itself. Like I think helmets are a good idea. Your brain is like yes I think so. Now your brain is thinking you know if I named myself why didn't I come up with something better?
Like laser power thunder thought muscle or something. It's too long but we'll come up with something good. All of it. By him. Through him. For him.
While we were doing this. While we were talking about this. You were inhaling and exhaling oxygen. You weren't thinking about it. Your heart. A chunk of meat inside wrapped with bones and flesh wrapped around it was pumping continuously.
Blood that was taking oxygen nutrients throughout your entire body. It's happening all the time. It was pumping life through you. Indescribable. Intangible. But we know it when it's not there.
And we know it when it is. Life. Life. By him. Through him. For him.
He's before it. And he holds it together. And it's all about Jesus. Every bit of it. Everything we do is about Jesus. All of existence.
All of creation. How we live and move and have our being. It's in him. Everything we do. When you go to the store. By him.
Through him. For him. You buy milk. The people that came up with the idea of how to package milk. Invented plastic. The guy who squeezed the milk out of an udder into a jar for you.
The ingenuity that came up with the diesel engine that brought it to you. And the idea for refrigeration. All of it. For his glory. For his name. For his praise.
Every bit of it. So, real quick. For fun. We're going to walk through and look at some things that he has designed. That he has created. That are by him.
Through him. And for him. For his glory. For his praise. For his name. That are just to give us a glimpse.
A hint. A shadow. Into his greatness. And his goodness. And his massiveness. This is the New England mohawk bird.
I actually don't know what the name of that bird is. But. But it was made by Jesus for his glory and for his name. I know that. That. Okay.
That's a micrograph. And all right. First of all, I've got some people in here. We're going to look at some stuff that has to do with like science. And I've got some people in here that are like doctors and science people and all that. If I say something dumb and someone looks at you because they think it was dumb, just do this.
Like, that was correct. Okay. The last time I was in a science class, I was in high school. So, but I did do some research. This is a micrograph, which is basically, they looked at it under a microscope, took some pictures, and then digitalized it so you could see it better. That is a dust mite.
Those exist in your carpet, in your couches, in your pillow. So when you go to sleep tonight, just listen very carefully. You'll hear them crawling around, partying, celebrating. But don't worry, they just eat skin cells, so that's not creepy. By him, through him, for him. That, those are, to take away the horrible image of the dust mite, those are baby foxes, by him, through him, for him.
That is the angel oak that is in Charleston, South Carolina. When the person took that picture, it was taking in sun's rays and popping out oxygen all over the place. A lot of good oxygen around that tree. That is a really cool looking fish. That's the Norwegian, spiky fish. By him, through him, for him.
For his glory, for his praise, for his name. Moment of silence for the Krispy Kreme. I'm just kidding. That is DNA. That's like a digital version of it. It's not actually DNA.
I don't think we have actual pictures of it. But DNA is in every cell in the human body. All of the DNA for all of the cells in the human body is in every cell in the human body. So if DNA filled up this room, each cell comes to the DNA and takes this much information so that it knows what it's supposed to do. But all of the DNA for every cell is in every cell.
But each cell knows what information it needs so it can do the appropriate thing. for his glory, for his name. Those are red blood cells and a white blood cell. It's pumping through your body right now, taking oxygen, nutrients, white blood cells fight off disease. It's part of your immune system. That's why they look so gangster. That is the human circulatory system.
That's where all the blood is going right now in each of us. except for it's not going to the feet or the hands of every female in this place for some reason. Those are negative 10 degrees right now. That's a sunset on the Pacific Ocean by Jesus, through Jesus, for Jesus. This is the Himalayan mountains. He carved them out to display his glory, to show his greatness, to give us a glimpse into who he is. All of culture, all of creativity, in the Old Testament, God makes man and woman and He tells them to go Edenize the earth, to go, He gives them the cultural mandate to go build the earth into what it's supposed to be.
All of that is to point to Jesus and to give Him glory. That is the horsehead nebula. Nebula are gases out in space. That's just floating around out there doing its thing. I took a picture of it with the Hubble telescope. The next one is the crab nebula, also just gases floating around out in outer space.
Just beautiful things that, as far as I know, have no purpose whatsoever other than to show off God's glory, His greatness, His majesty and His power. The next thing, we're not going to go there yet. Oh, what? We just, maybe we are. All right.
The next thing, I want to explain it real quick before we look at it. They took the Hubble telescope. They pointed it off at nothing. They just pointed it in an area of sky that when looking through the Hubble telescope was completely black. And then they took a picture and they opened up the shutter, which is how light comes into the camera of the Hubble telescope, for 11 days. So for 11 days, they just opened it up and received as much light as they possibly could.
They pointed the most powerful telescope out in outer space into nothing, opened the shutter for 11 days. And what they came up with was the deep field, ultra deep field. That's the picture it took. 10,000 galaxies. 10,000 galaxies when they pointed our best telescope into nothing. I'm going to read it.
Leave that up there. I'm going to read a passage. Short one from Isaiah 40. It says this, Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand? Do that real quick. That's the hollow of your hand.
90% Of the ocean is unexplored. We can't even get to it. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span? That's the measurement of a span. Enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains and scales and the hills in a balance. Every time I see something like that, every time I hear that the universe is expanding, we don't know how big it is, we just know it's getting bigger.
Every time I hear that, I think, well, Jesus' hand is bigger than I thought. Creator of the universe marked it off with his hand. 10,000 galaxies when we point into nothing. It's all about Jesus. Only, always, about Jesus. Just to give us a glimpse, to give us a hint at his greatness, his massiveness.
See, he created it all for his pleasure, his will. Let's read the next section here. So it's all about Jesus and it says, 17, And he is before all things and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. The church is all of those who have been rescued and redeemed by Jesus, by what he accomplished on the cross. Those who have placed their faith in him for salvation, for him to rescue us, not by our good works, not by our morality, not by our hard effort, but by his.
He's the head of the body of the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. So Jesus came to earth, this massive God, creator of all things, came to earth, existed as a human, and died. He humbled himself to the point of death, even death on a cross, and then he rose from the grave, which makes sense because I don't think death could handle it. But he's the firstborn from among the dead, meaning that we might would be raised from the dead as well, but he's first.
It says he's the firstborn from among the dead that in everything he might be preeminent, meaning he's before and over everything. That in the church he's the head and he's the firstborn from the dead, so that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of the cross. You see, we have a cosmic God, and through the cross we have a cosmic gospel. You see, when God created everything in the Garden of Eden, our first parents rebelled against him, desired to be their own gods, and when they did, not only were we cursed with sin, not only are we broken and off and marred, but the earth was cursed because of our sin.
So that Romans 8 would say that the earth groans in pains waiting for Jesus to come back, waiting with eager longing for the revealing of sons of God. So you have sin of moral kind. The reason we lock our doors, the reason we have police force, the reason we have jails is because of humans running around being sinful and broken and messed up. And then we have brokenness in the earth so that what should have just given nutrients to the earth, what should have just given water to the crops now goes through and tears down and demolishes cities. We have hurricanes and floods and earthquakes because the earth has been marred and broken by our sin.
And so Jesus, in being after his glory, it says he reconciled all things to himself, making peace by the blood of his cross. That it wasn't just about us, but that it's about him and him reuniting everything that he created for his name, for his praise, and for his glory back to himself. It's all about Jesus. And in reconciliation, it is not about us. And when he made us right with himself, it wasn't about us, it was about him. It was about his desire to bring everything back in alignment with himself.
At this point, there may be a bit of... kind of taking those verses, just a few verses, and kind of pulling a lot out of them, trying to say that everything was about Jesus. Because we want to push back and say, no, no, no, no. It's because he loved us so much that he saved us. Yeah. He loves us. But because he's loving, not because we're lovable.
You have a roommate. You know people aren't lovable. Those foxes, maybe. Humans, not so much. So yeah, he loves us because he's loving.
And so for the praise of his name and for his glory and for his fame, he rescues and redeems. But I'm going to show my work. We're going to go through the Old Testament. All of it. I'm just kidding. We're going to go through some verses in the Old Testament that God declares.
We're going to look at one in the New Testament where God just declares this is about me. This is about my glory, my name, my fame. So here's what we're going to do. It's a good bit of verses. I'm going to read through them quickly. But you're going to have to kind of stay with us as we go through this.
They will be on the screen if that helps you. If that doesn't help you, then don't look at the screen. But we're going to run through verses where God clearly says this is about me. This is about my glory, my name, my fame. Ephesians 1, 4-6. Paul says this.
He says that he chose his people for his glory. It says, In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ. That's where Jesus died on the cross and rescued us and made us into family. For 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. It says he rescued us for his praise of his grace. God created us for his glory.
Isaiah 43, 6-7 says this. I will say to the north, Give up. And to the south, Do not withhold. Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth. Everyone who is called by my name whom I created for my glory. Whom I formed and made.
Glory just means to show off my worth and my greatness. It says God called Israel for his glory. Jeremiah 13, 11 says this. For as the loincloth clings to the waist of a man, and so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares the Lord, that they may be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory. God spared Israel in the wilderness for the glory of his name. So in Exodus, when the people he had just rescued from Egypt rebel against him, he spares them, doesn't destroy them for his name.
Ezekiel 20, 14 says it. I acted for the sake of my name that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out. God later, when he takes them into his kingdom and when he has prophets and they rebel against him, he makes them into a nation but he doesn't cast them off for their rebellion. Isaiah, I mean, 1 Samuel 12, 20 says this. Do not turn aside from following the Lord for the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name's sake because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself. Isaiah 49, 48, 9, and 11 tells us that he defers his wrath, that he doesn't destroy us when we deserve it for his name and his glory.
For my name's sake, I defer my anger. For the sake of my praise, I restrain it for you that I may not cut you off. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it. For how should my name be profaned? My glory, I will not give to another. John, 1 John 2, 12 says this.
I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake. We're going to end in this one in Ezekiel. It's long, but it's good. Ezekiel says this. Therefore, say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God, It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. In this section, he's going to talk about what he's doing in salvation, what he accomplishes for us in Christ.
So he's explaining that in salvation, he's doing it for his glory, his praise, his name. It says, And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations in which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God. When through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes, I will take you from the nations and gather you from the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your uncleanliness and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you.
And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. That's what he accomplished for us in the cross, that he sent his spirit into us, gave us a new heart, he doesn't make us better, he makes us new. It's what he accomplished for us in the cross and he says, I'm going to do this and he ends with this, it is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord God. Let that be known to you. God is for his own glory.
It is all about Jesus. He is the creator God and in salvation, in reconciling everything back to himself, he is for his own name, his own glory, his own praise. It's all about Jesus. All of it. Okay. So how is that good news for us?
How is it good news for us that God would be about God's glory? God's glory. First of all, we hear that and we're like, well, isn't that a little narcissistic? Who does God think he is? God actually has a very good view of himself. He thinks he's God.
And that question, when we're tempted to ask it, is a little bit like, okay, bro, who do you think you are? Honestly, if God was pointing to someone else, something else other than himself, he would not be God. If God created all things and then said, you know what? A really good thing to pursue with your life is? Money. Oh, go for power.
Power's the best. You don't want to praise me. You don't want to give me glory because power, I made power greater than me. Go for comfort. If God was pointing to something else, he wouldn't be God. And actually, in being good and being holy and being loving and calling us to himself, he's actually being very good and gracious to us.
So we look and say, okay, how is God, in being for his own glory, good news for us? Okay. God created everything and it rebelled against him. But in his goodness, he didn't destroy it because he is good and he is loving. He rescued and he redeemed to bring it back in alignment with himself because of his great name, his holiness. We're going to see how this comes together for us.
Here's what happened. Let's go back to 18. He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him, through Jesus, to reconcile, bring back into a right relationship, to reconcile to himself all things whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. You see, we weren't reconciled to God.
We weren't in a good relationship with him. We were rebellious and separated from him. But Jesus, who all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, Jesus came and he lived a perfect life on our behalf and for his glory and for his name and in reconciling all things to himself, he bled out on a cross. You see, the creator of wood, of trees, of human ingenuity was laid out on a piece of honed wood specifically designed by creative humans to inflict the maximum amount of torture. See, the creativity of humans that he had created had gotten together and decided a great way to torture someone and to extend and prolong agony before death.
See, the hands that marked out the expanse of the universe were laid out on that wood and had a metal spike driven through them. Oxygen was pushed past vocal cords into a mouth manipulated by a tongue that shot through the air and entered into his ears and all that was designed to praise and glorify him was used to revile, curse, and bring him shame as he hung on a cross. The creator of oxygen had it denied his lungs as he hung gasping for breath. He who designed red and white blood cells and the circulatory system that pumps through all of us right now had his falter and fail him as his ripped open body poured his blood and his DNA out onto puddles in the sand so that the animals that were designed for his glory might come lick it up.
The creator of everything took our wrath to make peace by the blood of his cross for his glory and for his name and to show his magnificent love and greatness. That he didn't destroy us and he didn't tell us to earn it but he humbled himself and he stooped on our behalf. You see, if you saw a man stop and pick up a hurt baby bird your mind would not immediately think wow, that must be the best baby bird of all the baby birds. No, you'd think the man was good and gracious to care for something that couldn't care for itself. And so when we see Jesus stooping to rescue and to redeem we don't think wow, we must be so lovable.
We think wow, he must be so good and he must be so loving that this God who created all things might have a part of his creation rebel against him, hate him, run from him and that he instead of destroying them as he ought would stoop become one of them and suffer at their hands so that he could rescue them so that he could make peace by the blood of his cross. He is great and he is holy and we praise his name. So God is for his glory and he's for the praise of his name. That's what Ephesians says that he rescued us he adopted us as sons to the praise of his glorious grace. If God is for his glory if Jesus and the cross is for his glory and for the praise of his glorious grace he is not for your begrudging submission.
He's for your joy. If he's for his glory he's for your joy. If he's for his praise he's for our joy. He can get our begrudging submission. The God who measured out the universe can get you to submit to him but he's for his glory and his praise. So we start asking how do we respond to this?
The band's going to come back up and I want to unpack for us quickly how we respond how we look at this God this creator God this Jesus who made all things by him through him and for him that he's before all things and in him all things hold together and that he was willing to die to rescue us not because we were worth it but because he's worthy not because we're good but because he is and so there are these moments when I periodically be talking to someone and they go I just don't I just don't feel worth it I just don't feel like I deserve this there are these moments when we sit back and we think about the cross and we think I'm small I'm insignificant and I'm dark and twisted and off and I don't deserve this exactly see it's in those moments when we think that that we've actually gotten it right it's in those moments when we think I don't deserve this I'm unworthy absolutely that's why he's to the praise of his glorious grace that's why Ephesians 4 says that he rescued us for the praise of his glorious grace grace is that he gave us unmerited love favor unearned we can't morality God into owing us something we can't behave enough so that he has to give us life and joy and peace none of that but we can in those moments when we realize our lack of worth we can praise his grace we can praise that he rescued and redeemed us because he's good because he's holy and you see God being for his glory and being for our joy comes together in our praise of his glorious grace praise is joyous grace is good that we didn't deserve this and we didn't earn it but he gave it to us because he's good I like football I'll be watching football games sometime and something will happen I'll be sitting down and I'll just I just can't stay seated like I'll be at my house by myself holding nachos jump up after like a big hit because I used to play defense and just be like boom son you'll be at games sometime if you're in the stadium and someone will break a play and everyone just hits their feet and you just start yelling because you've been caught up in something beyond yourself and when he's after the praise of his glorious grace he's not after your begrudging submission he's not after you to be afraid of him and so you've been to him he's after you to be so overwhelmed by his goodness to have the spiritual synapses and receptors of yourself just be overwhelmed and flooded by that this God this creator God would rescue and redeem that he would love us when we're unlovable that he would those of us who don't deserve it who haven't earned it that he would give us unmerited grace and favor and he would rescue us and make us right with himself because of his own goodness and so we praise his grace with everything we have we praise him with all of our lives we praise him not to earn anything but because it's already been given to us not to put him in our debt because our debt's already been paid we just praise him with how we live with how we work with we stand and we sing we praise him because it's all about Jesus and he is for his glory have no doubt about that he's for his own glory but that means very much so that he's for our joy that we would be so engulfed in his greatness that we would cease to worry about ourselves we would cease to seek our own small glory and we be caught up in a greater story invited into something so much hugger so much bigger so here's what we're going to do we're going to praise his grace if you're in here and you don't know Jesus I'm going to tell you that he is after his own glory but he's not after your begrudging submission he doesn't want you to work harder he doesn't want you to go earn it he wants you to know that he's already accomplished everything on your behalf and that you can praise his name because he is good and he is loving and he is holy and he does redeem and he does rescue and that he did make peace by the blood of his cross and the rest of us are going to stand up and we're going to sing we're going to praise Jesus because it's all about Jesus we're going to praise his grace because he rescues and he redeems and we who in making much of himself invited us into a life that we can believe and poured grace upon grace upon grace upon grace upon us I'm going to pray and then we're going to praise God we praise your name Jesus it's all about you and I pray that through your Holy Spirit you would teach us how to praise you would teach us how to give you glory how to be so caught up in your glory that we are overwhelmed by joy Jesus you've created and made and hold everything together and you stooped and you died on our behalf and you poured grace on us so God we praise your name Holy Spirit move and show yourself to us in Jesus name we pray amen to
Maturity in Christ
Colossians 1:9-14
Transcript
You got to be strong to move the new podium. Goodness. Everybody give. Where's Charlie? Charlie, raise your hand. Charlie.
Charlie. Charlie made this for us. It is actually very beautiful. Well, I hope everybody's doing good tonight. Just wanted to say thank you for coming and worshiping with us. I know it's Memorial Day weekend, and so I hope you have taken some time to just rest and relax and spend time with family, but also to remember the sacrifice that people have made on our behalf so that we can actually have the religious freedom that we have together as a church family.
For those of you who don't know me, my name is Matt Freeman. I'm one of the pastors of Mill City Church. And you're not usually used to seeing me in this context. I'm usually leading worship. But I am humbled and honored to share God's word with you tonight.
So if you've got a Bible, you're going to want to have it. We're not going to be putting the scripture on the screen because I want you to have a Bible in your hand. So if you've got one of the ones that we had by the door, that's actually going to be page 638. And I've got a couple of guys. Basically, they're going to walk to the front of the room and then walk to the back. And so if you need a Bible, just lift your hand up.
They'll be happy to hand one to you. And that's our gift to you. So if you don't have one, we'd love for you to take that one and keep it. Or if you know somebody who doesn't have a Bible and you'd like to take one with you, we've got plenty. That's what they're for. All right.
Thanks, guys. I appreciate that. All right. So last week we began a brand new series and it's entitled Colossians. It's all about Jesus. And so we're going to be spending the next 10 or so weeks, basically the entire summer, walking through Paul's letter to the church at Colossae.
And what's really neat about this is, first of all, Paul's writing to a relatively young church, a church that's about six or seven years old. So it's good for us to hear what Paul's writing to a young church. And he's writing to a relatively healthy church. So what we're going to see is that Paul is writing to encourage this church in the gospel. And he's going to do so in a couple of different ways. He's going to point them to the sufficiency of Jesus.
He's going to point to how they should be living out their faith in the context of community. And he's going to take some time to talk about how their actions are actually lived out, how they walk out their faith on a day in and day out basis. So I'm very excited to talk with you tonight. But before we do so, I just want to pray and ask that God would speak to us. If you would, let's bow our heads and pray. God, truly, I am unworthy to stand before your people and preach.
I'm thankful that your grace has covered me and has made me new. God, that I do not stand here in my own flesh. Holy Spirit, I'm asking that you would speak through me, that you would encourage your people tonight. In Jesus' name, amen. So as we're hopping in, I want to ask a question.
How many of you in this room, at a heart level, in some form or fashion, just wish you were better? Okay. I would say that most of us would follow. At some stage in the game, we just wish we were better. Wish we were a better dad. Wish you were a better wife, a better student, a better athlete, a better worker.
So you start thinking things like, if I could just get that promotion, if I could just set aside a once a week date night with my spouse, if I could just get my bench press up 15 pounds, if I could move from a B to an A, if I could move from getting $3 an hour, getting paid $3 more an hour. So I don't, in fact, I don't think there's anything that we do or anything that we experience, even ourselves, that we don't wish in some form or fashion was a little bit better. And I'll show you. All right, so let's say you go to a nice restaurant and you sit down and you start eating. What's the first thing you're going to start talking about?
Five other places. Kids, that's great. Ha ha, yeah. Five other places that you've probably eaten. So instead of appreciating the piece of bacon that's on your plate, you're going, oh, I've had peppered bacon before.
In fact, I've had beef wrapped in bacon. What is this? So at some stage in the game, we wish things were better. Another way to look at it would be if you are walking out of the movie theater and you said, that was the best movie I've ever seen. And it would have just been perfect if Mark Wahlberg would have been the lead actor. Yeah, you're right.
Nobody says that. That's true. Oh, Mark Wahlberg. And I know some of you are sports fans. Okay, so let's say you're watching Carolina play, and Carolina pulls it out in the last couple of seconds of the game. The quarterback throws a game-winning touchdown.
In fact, he threw four touchdowns in that game. But all that we can seem to talk about is the two interceptions he threw in the third quarter that might have cost us the game. Instead of realizing that he won the game, we always want things to be better. I do this. Some of you guys know that my wife Katie and I make pallet art. You can't tell, right?
I mean, there's not pallets anywhere. But I'm sure you guys are familiar with Pinterest. But Katie was on Pinterest, and she found this cool do-it-yourself project. She goes, why don't we try this? So we did.
We took a Sunday afternoon, and we took an old pallet, and we cut it down, and we put the boards together and basically just made a frame. And then we painted it and painted the South Carolina flag on it. And, of course, we painted the base color orange because we're Christians, right? And we hung it on the wall. And it took us about five hours to do it from start to finish, and we were really proud of it. Honestly, we were very proud of it.
But now that I look at it on the wall, I realize that it's gigrundous. It takes up like a whole wall in our man cave. And if you look at it, the boards are kind of cattywampus. It's not actually square. It's not the dimensions of a flag. And so we started to do more and more of them.
And I was like, okay, I want to get better. The next time I actually put the boards side by side, and I made sure it was square. And then it was still a slow process. I mean, I was hand sawing things, guys, like this. Okay? So I bought a Sawzall.
So I have a reciprocating saw so I could cut the nails and cut the boards. All along the way, I wanted my process to be better. And the reason we approach things in life like that is that we, deep down, we have a deep desire within us to actually be better, to accomplish something, to do something big, to make much of the lives that we've been given. And I would say that this is especially true for those of you in the room who are Christians. Christians, I'd imagine that some of you sitting there as Christians have had the thought, I wish I was a better Christian. I'm sure you have.
I'm sure you've had that thought. I wish I was a better Christian. I wish I read my Bible more. I wish my prayer life was stronger. I wish I had faith to submit my finances to Jesus. I wish I had boldness and courage to serve in Kid City.
I wish I could just tell my boss about Jesus and his people who are wired to do better, to be better, to search for more. Paul is actually going to be writing this letter to the Colossians, the section we're looking at. He's going to be talking about what it looks like to grow in maturity, to grow into maturity in Christ. So, again, if you've got your Bibles, we're going to be at Colossians 1, verse 9, 638 in the Bibles that we have by the door. Let's read this together.
And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. So, that's the chunk we're going to be looking at tonight.
And if you're a note taker, our title for tonight, the title of our sermon is actually Maturity in Christ. That's what we're going to be talking about. And when you hear that word maturity, you're automatically going to associate it with growth. I think that's the thing we think about the most when you're putting maturity in your mind. You're thinking about growth. And that's going to come in all different forms and fashions.
Okay? So, you're going to see physical maturity like Mitch Stoiku, who has all of a sudden grown four inches in like four days. For real. I don't know what the Stoikus are feeding him, but he's ginormous now. So, you've got physical maturity. You've got emotional maturity.
I don't know if you guys got to see the kids playing around before they went back to Kid City. But we've got parents who are getting to teach their children to obey, to be able to control their emotions. So, that's fun. And they need your prayers. Thank you. I'm sure they're wanting that.
There's also like mental and intellectual maturity. So, we've got students of all ages in the room. We've got middle school students, high school students, college students, those that are doing postgraduate work, and some students that are in seminary. And what we're actually going to be dealing with tonight is spiritual maturity. And we're going to be seeking to answer one question. And I'm going to ask it in a few different ways.
That way, we can actually put a handle on it. The question we're going to try to answer is, how do we spiritually mature in Christ? How do we do that? How do we grow to be more like Jesus? How do we learn to follow Jesus more closely? And as you might have picked up in our first reading of the text, Paul's going to address this idea of growing in maturity in Christ in two different ways.
So, he's going to talk about the pursuit of knowledge. As he says, I want you to grow in knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. And he's going to talk about the pursuit of actions. So, how do we actually walk that out? And if you think about it for a second, we're going to lean probably one way or the other when it comes to those two ideas. The pursuit of knowledge to grow or the pursuit of action to grow.
You're going to grow in one of those two ways. So, some of you are like, okay, I want to read a book. I want to take a class. I want to go sit down and have a conversation with somebody who can actually help me grow, help me mature, tell me things. Some of you are like, nah, I don't want a book. I don't want anybody to tell me.
I just want to jump in and give it my best effort, and I'll learn as I go. I'll learn from my mistakes. I'll give you an example of how this plays out. Okay, so let's say you're going furniture shopping, and you're looking for a bookcase. So, of course, the first place you're going to go is Big Lots because you're classy because you want a good Big Lots. This is a true story, so I'll go ahead and give the spoiler.
So, Katie and I moved to Columbia, and we were actually looking for a bookcase. We went to Big Lots, and we got the $20 bookcase in a box. And the way that – I know, it's shameful – the way that Katie and I would build that bookcase would be completely different than each other, completely different. If Katie's going to build that bookcase, here's how it's going to go, and I can say this because she's in Kid City. Katie's going to carefully cut the box open. She's going to take the front that actually has a picture on it and set it to where she can see it.
She's going to pull out all the tools and lay them on a rag because she doesn't want to get the carpet dirty. She's going to take all the pieces and lay them out all over the floor so that she can see them and organize them by size, color, and shape. And then she's going to take the owner's manual, and she's going to read it three times to make sure that she's got it all done. And seven hours later, she's going to have a perfectly built bookcase that will actually hold books. Now, me, on the other hand, I'm going to rip this box up beyond all recognition. I'm going to find the owner's manual, too, and I'm going to unfold it so that I can put my tools on it.
I don't want to get the carpet dirty either. And then I'm going to find pieces as I go, and I'm going to put this thing together. And seven hours later, I'm going to have a bookcase, too, and it may or may not hold books. I don't know. I don't know. So Paul's going to address the church at Colossae in how they grow in Christ.
And he's going to talk about the pursuit of knowledge and the pursuit of action and how those are actually going to work together. And as people who are wired to actually be better, to do better, to strive for more, I want us to listen as to how we can grow in Christ. Let's jump back into the text, verse 9. And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.
So, the first thing that we're going to see in the text is actually our first point for tonight. So, if you're a note taker, this is going to be our first point. We grow in maturity through both knowledge and action. So, while we may have a propensity to lean one way or the other, what we're actually going to see is we're going to grow in both. We're going to grow in both knowledge and in action. And I love the way this verse starts off.
I love it. Jump back there with me. It says, And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray. Who? Who's praying here? What we looked at last week is that Paul and Timothy are actually writing this letter together.
And it actually, verse 3 that we looked at actually begins kind of the same way. They're talking about what they're praying for the church at Colossae. And what they're actually praying is that they would be filled with knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. They're praying for wisdom, understanding, and the knowledge of God's will. And it even qualifies it there. It says spiritual.
And that word spiritual is going to be of the Holy Spirit or from the Holy Spirit. That's a big prayer that Timothy and Paul are praying, that they may be filled with the knowledge of His will, growing in understanding and wisdom. And I love that. I love that. Paul and Timothy are imprisoned in Rome. They don't even know these people.
And in a jail cell of sorts, they are praying. They are laboring in prayer that they would grow, that they would be filled with the Holy Spirit, that they would grow in wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. And I just love that. And so if you're wanting to, that's a great prayer. If you're wanting to pray something for our church, if you're going, man, I actually want to grow in praying things for our church, that's actually a great place to start. And so that's what Paul's praying.
He says, I want you to grow in understanding, in knowledge, and in wisdom. Why? Why does he pray that? Let's keep going. As we're going into verse 10, it says, So as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. Okay, so we see it.
He clarifies why he's praying that. So Paul and Timothy are praying that they would grow in wisdom, knowledge, and understanding so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. And the word that Paul's going to use there for to walk is literally going to refer to all of life. So Paul says, I'm praying for this so as to help you walk in all of life. And I think he's being very intentional there. He's using that word because he doesn't want them to grow in understanding, wisdom, and knowledge for knowledge's sake.
He wants them to grow so that it will actually affect all of their lives. How many of you have ever seen the show, Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? You ever seen that show? Okay, I was down on it when it first started. I didn't know if I was going to like it. But the premise of the show is that they take architects and attorneys and surgeons and they put them on this TV show.
It's basically like a game show where they're having to answer questions against elementary students based off of the standards that the elementary students are learning. And so you'll have an architect standing there and they'll say, okay, you choose a category. And he'll go, okay, fourth grade geography, fourth grade geography. Okay, sir, what is the capital of Wyoming? Idaho? Yes, Sally?
Cheyenne? And it's just a really funny show. And what that show is actually exposing is the fact that all of us, all the way through school, have learned things that we're never going to use again. Ever. I don't need to know what the capital of Wyoming is unless I'm there or I'm on that show. Those are pretty much my two opportunities.
But basically what he's exposing here is that we're not to learn things just to know them. It's that knowledge should actually lead to action. So what he's showing here is that this idea that we pursue either knowledge or action is not what we're going for, but actually that both of them work together as we follow Jesus. I want you to think about it like this. The more you know about Jesus, the more you want to follow him. And that leads you into action.
And by doing things, you actually learn in the process, which drives you deeper into action. You see how those work together? As you start to grow and know things, you start to do. And as you start to do, you learn more things. And it becomes a cyclical process. And what Paul is saying here is that knowledge should lead us into action.
And the group that we can look to that exemplifies this the best is the disciples of Jesus. I want you to think about this for a second. I want you to think about the disciples of Jesus. This was a ragtag group of numbskulls comprised of tax collectors and fishermen. And Jesus comes to them and he says, come follow me. And so they drop everything and they start following Jesus.
And Jesus teaches them and he trains them. So he helps them grow in knowledge and understanding. And then he sends them out. He sends them out two by two and they cast out demons. And they heal the sick. And then they come back.
So their knowledge impacted their actions. And they came back and they talked about it. And Jesus continued to pour into them. And then we see the disciples getting to be involved in things like the feeding of the 5,000. Jesus used them as part of that. So we see this cyclical process of knowledge leading to action, knowledge leading to action.
And we've read the Gospels. We know that the disciples don't get this right all the time. Peter, right? That's who you want to think about? Peter. So in the same chapter in Scripture, Peter says, you are the Christ.
And then a little bit later, Jesus has to say, get behind me, Satan. This is the same Peter that would deny Jesus three times. But what we see is they continue to grow. Even as they messed up, even as they screwed up, they continue to grow and mature in Christ. And when Jesus died on the cross and was raised from the grave, he gave him a new commandment. He said, go and make disciples.
And what we're going to see is these same disciples that were the stumbling bumbling as they followed Jesus, the same disciples that Acts is going to say in chapter 17 that they turned the world upside down. They turned the world upside down. So that's what it's actually going to look like for us. And the way that we do this as believers, the way that we grow in knowledge and action, is we do that in the context of community. That's going to be our greatest place to actually grow in these things. And remember, Paul's writing to a church.
He's writing to a group of believers. And so every time you see that word you, I want you to think about it not as you rugged band of individuals, but you in the context of community, you the church. What Paul's saying here is you can't live out your faith. You can't grow to maturity in Christ outside of living with other believers. We did a series back in the fall. I'm actually wearing the band from it called One Another, where we actually walked through the one another's in the New Testament.
We only did like seven or eight, but there are even more than that. And I'm telling you, you can't do one another's without others. See how that works? How those words work? And this is where I think I've seen our church grow a lot. So we see where it says, be hospitable to one another.
We see that in scripture. So as a church, that means we open up our homes. That means we host community groups in our homes and we welcome people in and we serve them a meal. And when guests come, we want them to feel welcome too. That's why we have a host team for our gathering, so that as people come in, that they feel welcome, they feel loved. We want to be hospitable.
We see where it says, forgive one another. We do that in the context of community. So that when someone in my community group, I say something that's offensive or hurtful because I feel conviction, I get to go to them and repent of my sin and ask for their forgiveness. And they get to extend that forgiveness and grace back to me because of what Jesus has done on our behalf. And we get to be reconciled. Scripture is also going to say that we should bear one another's burdens.
That means that if someone doesn't have enough gas money to get to my house to hang out with our community group, I'm not okay with that. That I'm going to step in and bear burdens. And I'm going to tell you, this is where I have seen our church grow. And I'm glad to be a part of believers like you guys. I've seen people bear each other's burdens like never before. And it's been beautiful.
And it's been messy. And we've gotten to walk through it together. I've seen car payments made. I've seen people go and buy groceries and take it to someone's house. I've seen a mortgage paid. I've seen rent paid.
I've seen power bills paid. And not just monetary things. Just giving of their time. People moving from place to place. When the Pabones were moving off of Fort Jackson, I saw our church family rally around them night after night after night to make sure that they could get out. I'll give you an example.
On Friday, I was driving back to my house. And this is the worst, okay? Because this happened a lot. I was rolling up my passenger side window. And I got it to the top. And I went, kick, kick.
I said, oh, no. And I looked. And slowly, my window began to fall into my door. And there it was. And I knew that storm was coming. I knew that storm was coming.
And I was freaking out. And I didn't know who else to call. I knew one person. If anybody would try to help me get it back up, it was Daniel Gillett. And so I texted Daniel. I'm like, dude, I don't know what to do, man.
Can you help me? And I knew Daniel. I was going to the northeast. I knew Daniel was about 30 minutes away. He was on the way. And he's like, come on, man.
We'll get it up. And so at 2.30 on a Friday, when he had multiple jobs to do, he and I were out there sweating together, not knowing what we were doing, pulling parts of my door up, using like little wooden shunts to put up in there to just block my window up. And 30 minutes later, the window was up. That guy, he bore my burdens. He did. And that's how we grow together as a church family.
I want you to think about it like this. I'm just trying to give us some handles. If somebody came to me and said, Matt, I want you to run a race, I would immediately say no because that doesn't sound fun at all. But if they came and said, Matt, I want you to run a race, but you can only pick one leg. I don't even know. Okay.
I like that one. I like that one too. I can't run without two legs. Okay. I've got to have both my legs. And the same thing is true as we grow into maturity in Jesus.
I want you to think about it as two legs that you have to have. You have to grow in knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. And that has to be put into practice so that as you grow in your understanding of who Jesus is and what he wants for your life, that leads you into action. And through those actions, you continue to grow in your knowledge of him. It's a cyclical process. And what I want you to understand is that we get to grow.
We don't outgrow the gospel of grace. We don't. We grow more deeply into it over time as we pursue Jesus and give our lives chasing after him. That's what it looks like. That's what it looks like. He's praying this prayer.
He said, I want you to grow in wisdom and knowledge and understanding so you can walk through all of life with other believers, bearing each other's burdens, loving one another, walking that out together. And he's going to continue. He actually qualifies how we're to walk. Jump back into verse 10. Verse 10. He says, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.
So that's a game changer. He says, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. Guys, my nickname in our house is destructor. Guys, I'm clumsy as all get out. I can't walk a straight line. How in the world am I going to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord?
How are we going to grow in this together? He keeps going. Keep reading. So as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. What an incredibly intimidating task. What an incredibly intimidating task.
Walk back through it again. It says, walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. Fully, not partly. Not sometimes. Not on our best days. Fully pleasing to the Lord.
Bearing fruit. Good fruit. In our lives as evidence of our salvation. And ever increasing in the knowledge of the God who holds the universe in the palm of his hand. And as people who are wired to be better, to do better, this creates a problem. Because we were tracking with Paul's prayer.
We were really excited about it. Yes. I want to grow in my wisdom and knowledge and understanding of who Jesus is. And I want to let that play into my actions so that I can follow him and I can walk in a manner worthy of. And that sentence starts to go. And what we start to do, as you hear that, you start to think, huh.
I wonder if I walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. I mean, I don't really think I do. Maybe I need to start doing this and this. I mean, I need to stop doing that. I need to stop doing that. And I need to do this and this.
And what we do is we start to pile up all these things that will actually help us walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. And as you're listening, you're probably starting to feel a tremendous amount of weight and pressure stack up. Because you're saying, yes, I want to grow in knowledge. I want to grow in my understanding of who Jesus is. Yes, I want that to impact my actions. But if I'm supposed to walk this out in a manner worthy of the Lord, I don't think I can do it.
And so you start thinking like this. Okay, all right, so what can I do to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord? All right, so I need to start listening to more sermons. I'll start listening to more sermons. So I'll listen to a guy like Francis Chan.
But maybe not just Francis Chan. I probably need a more intellectual thinker, a reformed guy, somebody like John Piper. But I don't just need Piper. I need somebody who's more of like a topical communicator who's easy to relate to. I need somebody like Perry Noble. So I need to be listening to all of those sermons.
And I need to make sure I'm doing my devotional every day. Oh, but before I do my devotional, maybe I should go check my email and see when the next Beth Moore series is coming out. Because I want to make sure I do that study. Got to be in that one. And when I'm doing my Bible reading, I need to make sure that I'm reading from the Pentateuch, from the history of Israel. I need to read from the Psalms and wisdom literature.
And I need to read from the New Testament. Every day. Twice, let's say. Maybe I should find out what the Pentateuch is. Who knows? But I probably need to start going to more conferences.
I probably need to go to a conference once a month. I can go to a conference about how to love Jesus more. How to be a better dad. How to help dads be better dads. How to be a dad of dads. Like God is a good dad.
Two dads of dads. Yes. Huh. But I know I work eight to ten hours a day. But I need to make sure I take some time to go by the homeless shelter before I go to my Bible study group.
Wait a minute. I need to spend time. I need to spend time praying. Prayer. I need to make sure that I'm praying for everyone. And he's not just talking to individuals here.
He's talking to a church. So how are we going to stack up as a church? We need to have a prayer calendar with everybody's name on it. We need to make sure that each one of our community groups is multiplying every two months. And we need to make sure that anybody who comes in our doors meets Jesus as soon as they walk in. Because the Holy Spirit is so present.
And all of a sudden, what we realize is that we'll never stack up. And on top of that, you start saying to yourself, I could be doing better. I could be helping people more. I could be making more time for Jesus. And the truth is, a lot of the things I said were actually good things. They were.
Reading our Bible is great. Praying is great. But what we do is when we're faced with this walking in a manner worthy of the Lord, we realize we can't do that. We don't stack up. There's no way I'll be able to do that. Yes, I want to pursue Jesus.
Yes, I want to let that affect my actions. But I just don't know how I'm going to walk that out. And if I can't do it, there's no way that the people around me are going to be able to help me do that. But the good part is that was only the first point. And so Paul actually keeps writing. So let's keep reading.
Verse 11. May you be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. And our second point tonight is going to be this. We are redeemed and reconciled to God in Christ. Everybody take a deep breath.
Let it out. So while Paul calls on the Colossian church to seek after Jesus, to pursue him and know more about him, to grow in our understanding of who he is, and to let that impact our actions as we grow in maturity, he's quick to remind them that it is not those actions that make them worthy of the Lord, but it is the work that Jesus has done on our behalf. And that's good news. So church, what I'm saying to you is that you don't become a better Christian. You can't. And that's actually good news.
And some of you might have just pushed back right there. Oh, no, no, no, I can get better. I can, I can be better. What I'm, what I'm telling you is you can grow in maturity, but you can't qualify your role. You cannot change your relationship to God on your own actions. And that's good news because Jesus has actually done that on our behalf.
This is what Paul's doing. He's actually encouraging them in the gospel. He's saying you get to pursue Jesus. And because you've already been qualified, he's already made you right with God. That's what this whole section is actually encouragement. Pick it back up in verse 11.
He says, may you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the father. So Paul's going to step in here with encouragement. He said, I want to encourage you to be strengthened with all power. What power? The power that raised Jesus from the dead, the power that exists in the hand of an almighty God who created the universe from his glorious might. And he's praying this so that in the midst of being in a culturally diverse area as a young church, they might be able to continue to endure, to be patient, to have joy all the while giving thanks to their father.
Why? Because it's already been accomplished by Jesus on their behalf. You see, the language here is not, look, look back at it. The language here is not what you do, but what he has done. Catch that because it's the most important thing you'll hear tonight. It's what he has done.
This is the past tense. This is what already has been accomplished. Paul says, it's not about what you do, but what Jesus has already done. Look at the verbs that it used. He says, he has qualified you, has delivered us, transferred us, redeemed us, and forgiven us our sins. It's already accomplished in Christ.
This life is going to be difficult. We're going to have our ups and downs as we pursue Jesus. But what Paul's encouraging him, and he's saying, you're already saved. This has already been accomplished on your behalf. You get to pursue Jesus. So let's walk through 12 through 14 to see how that encouragement continues.
Listen with ears, trying to hear what Jesus has already done. He says, beginning of verse 12, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. And so as a people who are wired to be better and do better, we hear this and we go, no, no, no, no, I can do it. I can earn it. And what Paul's saying is, you don't have to.
It's already been accomplished on your behalf. And so I want us to walk back through these verses and see how Jesus was already better on our behalf. We talk about as a church that we want to be fluent in the gospel of Jesus. We want the gospel of Jesus to be so ingrained in our hearts that the only way we can speak to each other is to encourage each other in the gospel. That when we're having life issues, it's not just wisdom and advice. It's hope in the gospel.
It's truth in the gospel. And that's exactly what Paul's going to do here. He's offering them hope in the gospel. Verse number 12. It says, Giving thanks to the father who has qualified you. Who qualified who?
Did we qualify Jesus? No. It says that Jesus has qualified us. That's not based off of our actions. In no way can our actions, even on our best day, can they stack up and give us a better quality of relationship with Jesus than what Jesus has already done on our behalf. But not just that.
He didn't just qualify us. It says that he's to share in an inheritance of the saints in light. Not only qualified, but giving us an inheritance, an eternal inheritance, an inheritance that started when the gospel was proclaimed to Abraham, that he was going to make, that God was going to make Abraham into a nation, that they were going to be a blessing to the whole world. And we see the history of redemption go through the Old Testament until it gets to Jesus. We are part of that inheritance. Until we step into an eternity, it's an eternal inheritance.
And not just that. It says an inheritance of the saints. We talked about this last week. In no way would I ever qualify myself as a saint. Some of you are shaking your head yes. I agree.
What saint means is holy ones or consecrated ones. What that means is those who have been made holy. You get that? It's past tense. Again, we're holied ones. You're holied.
You're actually made holy by Jesus. He keeps going. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness. Did you do that? Can you do that? No.
But when Jesus went to the cross, Satan thought he'd won. He thought he had seen the Son of God dead on a tree. He thought it was over. But three days later, by the power of God, Jesus walked out of that grave, conquering sin, death, Satan, and hell on your behalf. And in doing so, it says he transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son. Guys, as peasants, we don't walk into the presence of a king.
That's not how that works. The only way that you get audience with the king is you get invited in. It says you've been transferred into the kingdom by the king. The king has invited you in. He keeps going. The kingdom of his beloved Son in whom we have redemption.
The root word there is redeem. That means you have been bought with a price. The price of the Son of God that would give his life to shed his blood on your behalf. He did that. It's already been accomplished. And in doing so, it says the forgiveness of our sins.
He paid the penalty for the forgiveness of our sins. So in no way can you shove your 401k before God and say, this gives me, I've earned it, I've made enough money. But what this is saying is that Jesus has already accomplished this on your behalf. The price he paid was much greater than anything that you could offer to God. And that's actually really good news. That though we have done nothing to merit redeeming, yet God in his grace has given us forgiveness.
And so church, what I want you to feel is the burden lifted. That pressure that you mounted on yourself that says, I'm not good enough. I want to be better. Feel it lifted. Because what Paul is saying is, it's already been accomplished. You've already been qualified.
You've already been redeemed. So go and live this life pursuing Jesus. And if you're sitting in this room tonight, you're going, I want that to be true for me. And it's not. I want to tell you how. The way that you're qualified by Jesus, the way that you're redeemed by Jesus, is that you place your faith in him.
Is it believing and understanding who he is and what he has done for you. You confess your sins. You confess your faith in Jesus. You ask for the forgiveness of your sins. You place your faith in him. And you follow him for the rest of your life.
And if you want to talk a little bit more about that, I'd be happy to sit down with you after we're done tonight. But that is how you get to be qualified. And so to kind of sum up where we are, we looked at in point one that we're pursuing Jesus in both knowledge and action so that we can walk to live a life that is worthy of the Lord. And what we realize is we actually can't do that. We don't have the ability to. But the good news is we've already been qualified.
We've already been made right with God. So where does that leave us in terms of growing in maturity? It brings us to our third point. We are set free by Jesus to grow in maturity in Jesus. That's what it brings us. That's our third point for tonight.
We are set free by Jesus to grow in maturity in Jesus. And we like to say this phrase a lot. And I think it's very helpful in this situation. You may want to jot this down. Grace is not opposed to effort. It's opposed to earning.
Grace is not opposed to effort. It's opposed to earning. So what we're seeing here is that Jesus in his grace invites us into a relationship where we get to give much effort, but not in a way that earns our salvation, but because we actually already have salvation. So our attitude begins to change. Instead of I have to do these things so that Jesus will love me, it becomes I get to do these things because Jesus loves me. We actually want to grow in maturity through knowledge and action because of the great love that Jesus has shown for us.
And this is a cyclical process. That as you grow in knowledge, it's going to lead you into action, which will lead you into more knowledge and more action. that the gospel would actually impact our actions and that we continue to grow more and more in spiritual maturity. And we get to do this together. This gets to affect all of our life together. It's not because I know things about God and do good things that I get to be in Christ. It's because of what Jesus has done on my behalf.
I get to be in Christ. Therefore, I pursue him in knowledge and wisdom that lead to action. And it gets even better than that. So you're not just left on your own to have to do that. From the very beginning, he said that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in spiritual wisdom and understanding. He actually gives us the ability to do that.
I want you to understand this. Check this out. It says that he has give thanks to the father who has qualified us through the work of the son. And we are given the ability to follow him that we may be filled with his Holy Spirit. You see how that works? Salvation actually begins and ends with God.
We say we see the work of the Trinity all through salvation. And I want you to realize, as a church, this is going to be messy. And that's the best part. Are we always going to be good at this? No. There's going to be times where we mess up, where we make mistakes.
And in that, we get to repent. We get to ask Jesus to forgive us. And we move forward learning from the mistakes that we've made. You want to see somebody who's growing in maturity, who's growing to be more like Jesus? What do their actions look like? How do they relate to community?
What does their schedule look like? Where does their money go? Are they building intentional relationships with people who don't know Jesus? Because knowledge without action doesn't make sense. As we grow in our understanding of who Jesus is, it's going to lead us out, and that's going to impact our relationships. And that's why we as a church, we're wanting to read through the book of Colossians.
That's why as a church, we want to grow in our ability to read Scripture. We want to read the Bible. We want to pursue Jesus and let that affect our actions. We want to grow in setting aside time to intentionally have relationships with each other. We want to gather as a church family. We want to get together with our community groups.
We want to set aside time where our community groups are inviting friends who don't know Jesus to come hang out. We want to grow in serving other people. So be encouraged. You are free to actively pursue Jesus because you have already been qualified. So that when you're reading your Bible, you're doing so because you get to, not to earn God's favor.
That when you're praying, you're praying because you want God's will to be done, not to earn God points. You tithe and give your offerings, not to pay God off, but because he who is rich became poor on your behalf. And so I'm going to invite the band to come back up as we're closing up. Church, I want you to be encouraged tonight. I want you to know that you get to pursue Jesus wholeheartedly because of what he's done for you, because he has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sin.
That means as a church, we pray for one another. We confess and repent of sin with one another. We bring people into community. We make disciples. We're generous with our money, with our time, with our resources. It means we meet the needs of people in the church and outside of the church.
Why? Because of what Jesus has done on our behalf. Jesus has qualified us. Jesus was better on our behalf so that we could live a life not trying to be better, but instead giving much effort to grow into maturity in both knowledge and action as we follow Jesus because it's all about him. Let's pray.
God, I thank you that our relationship with you is not based off of our actions. It's not based off of how much we know. But God, it is fully based off of you. What you have done on our behalf, that you have changed us from the inside out. You've qualified the relationship. And so I pray that you would lead us in a life where we are free to give much effort as we follow you.
In Jesus' name, amen. Let's stand and sing as we respond.
Our Identity in Christ
Transcript
We're going to be walking verse by verse through this book of the Bible over the course of the summer. So we're spending the next 10-ish weeks in Colossians. And so I'm going to pray and we're going to hop in. We've got a good bit of stuff to do tonight to walk through and to kind of intro this series. And so I'll pray and we'll hop in. God, we thank you for the opportunity to gather as your people to study your word.
Pray that you would speak to us tonight, that you would move among your people, that you would draw us closer to yourself. And that we would see more about you and who you have designed us to be. Who you have made us through the gospel. And so God, we thank you and we praise you. And we just thank you for this opportunity to try to make much of your name and to learn what it looks like for us to follow you. We ask your Holy Spirit to be present, to be moving among us, leading and changing and pointing to yourself.
And so we love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. So we will be in Colossians chapter 1, verse 1, where we'll be starting tonight. We're going to do three-ish things tonight. First, we're going to talk a little bit about why the book of Colossians, about just kind of intro the book of Colossians and why we would study it verse by verse, walk through it.
Then we'll talk about some major themes that we'll see in the book of Colossians as we walk through it over the next 10 weeks. As we spend the summer hanging out in the book of Colossians, we're going to talk a little bit about what we'll see, what we hope to learn, what we hope to understand from it. And then we'll actually unpack the first eight verses and kind of see how Paul starts this letter off to the Colossian church and how he lays out kind of their identity and how we see that in his beginning of this letter. So as we saw in the video, Paul's in jail. He writes this letter to the Colossian church.
He writes a letter to the Ephesian church, which is very similar to the letter he writes to the Colossian church. It's longer, kind of unpacks some scenarios a little more clearly, whereas Colossians is pretty dense. And so we'll have to take it chunk by chunk as we walk through it because of how dense he makes it. One of the cool things about the book of Colossians, one of the reasons we're excited to look at it, is he's writing to a church that was fairly young and fairly healthy. From what we can tell, the Colossian church was doing OK. And the reason I say that is because when Paul is writing to a church that is not doing super well or that it's off in certain areas, he doesn't mince words and he's pretty clear about what he's talking about.
So book of Galatians, Paul starts off like this. Hey, I'm Paul. What the heck is wrong with y'all? And so he kind of jumps right in. In Corinthians, he's dealing with specific issues that they're dealing with and he addresses them very clearly. He says, you've got an individual who's doing this.
That's not OK. I always laugh when I see that a church is like Corinth Baptist Church because I'm always like, have y'all read the letter to the Corinthians? Because they were pretty messed up. I don't know if you necessarily want to line up with them. But in Colossians, he doesn't really do that.
When you read commentaries on Colossians, they're all over the place as to why people feel like he wrote the letter. And so you'll have people say that it was false teaching outside of the church that he was addressing. It was false teaching inside of the church because Paul does in this letter use some words that he doesn't use other places. And so it seems like he's addressing something. One, I've heard some say it's Gnosticism. Some say it's Judaism.
There was one commentary that said Paul's addressing Judaistic Gnosticism and Gnostic Judaism. What the heck does that mean? It's like the guy didn't want to make a decision. So he's like, well, kind of a little bit of both also and as well, too. And so when we look at it, though, because he doesn't come out swinging against anything specific, what we feel like he's addressing a relatively healthy church that was relatively young. So it's a fairly young church plant and they're doing pretty well.
And so I'm actually really excited that we'll get to spend some time here because in some ways, as Paul writes to this church, it is it's addressed to us in some ways because we are a young church plant just trying to figure out what it looks like to follow Jesus and to be church family. We don't have any major issues. We don't have a building that's about to get repoed because we don't have a building. See how that works? We we don't have major issues with dissension or people causing problems or huge sin areas that we've got to deal with. Like we're we're doing OK.
We're learning what it looks like for us to be church family, for us to grow together, for us to follow Jesus well in the city. And so in some ways, I'm excited because I feel like Colossians is a little bit addressed to us. And Paul's just going to because he doesn't have things he's got to address. He's got a pretty clean slate to say, hey, here's what it looks like to follow Jesus. Here's what it looks like to be church family. And he's going to address some areas where they kind of maybe have gotten off.
But for the most part, it's a pretty clean slate. I honestly think he's writing to the Colossian church because he wanted to write to Philemon about Onesimus. And he was like, well, it would be awkward just to send that guy a letter. So I'll also send one to the church and we'll address some things they need to work on. But that's what we're looking at.
So we see Paul's in jail. He's writing this with Timothy. He's writing to the Colossian church. One of the things we hope to see. So there's a little bit of like, why would you go through a book of the Bible verse by verse?
That may be a question in some of your brains. It may be a, why haven't we done this sooner in some of your brains? And that's fine. Some people will argue that the way to get together and teach the Bible as good Christian people is through the Bible verse by verse. I would argue that that is a good way to teach the Bible. And we'll talk about why in a second.
I don't think it's the way. If I did, first of all, that's what we would have been doing all along. Second of all, the problem with that, the problem with people that come out and say this is the only way to teach the Bible is that when the people in the Bible teach the Bible, they don't do that. So when you read the sermons in the Bible, they're all over the place. Jesus will be like, I did this. And he just quotes two sections of Isaiah and just skips all the stuff in the middle.
Peter and his sermon in Acts 2, he's all over the place. He's like this, and we know this is true, and this from this passage, and this. Y'all want to meet Jesus? And people were like, yes. So it's hard to make an argument in my brain that you have to work through the Bible that way because the Bible doesn't work through the Bible that way.
The people in the Bible don't. But here are a few reasons why we do think it's good and healthy and helpful. One is for context. We often study the Bible, and we'll look at something in one. We'll look at something in Luke. And then the next week we'll gather together, and we'll discuss something in Corinthians.
And the next week we'll gather together and discuss something in Zechariah. And after a while, you just don't have a whole lot of context for where we are in the biblical narrative. And so it's helpful to stop and to just go verse by verse through a book of the Bible so that we have context. Because context is important. If I told you that I stood up and at the top of my lungs yelled, you slant-faced moron! Well, you might want to know what the context was.
Like, was I talking to a slant-faced moron? Was I at a football game? Was I at a candlelit dinner holding my wife's hand? Like, context makes a difference. It changes what we're looking at. And so as we read through Scripture, it's very helpful to know what came before it, what we're looking at here, and what's coming after it.
I'll give you an example. Philippians 4.13 says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I love that verse. Paul says it, though, right after he talks about being poor and wealthy, hungry, naked, well-clothed, well-fed. And he says, I've learned to, in all circumstances, be content. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
It had very little to do with his benchmarks or ability to win football games. It's a good verse. I like it. But what he meant was I've learned how to, in Christ, be content no matter where I am in life. And so it's helpful for us as we study Scripture to know what we're studying, where it lies, and what comes before and what comes after it. And so that's one of the reasons.
Another reason we want to do this is we want to grow as Bible people, as Bible readers. And so we're very excited for our church family to just be able to walk through a book of the Bible together over the course of the summer. I think it will be good for us. I've heard of a professor who would start off his class. He was an atheist professor. He would start off his class in college by saying, who here believes that the Bible is the Word of God?
People raise their hand. And he'd go, okay, who among you has read the entire thing? And then he'd go, I don't think you believe it's the Word of God. I think he's got a point. For people who say, I believe that the Bible is the Word of God, and then we don't spend a lot of time studying it, reading it, learning it, growing in it together. It's a little bit like, ah, something's missing there.
And so I think it's helpful for us as a church to just say, hey, we're going to just unpack this book of the Bible together. We're just going to walk through it together. Another reason we do this is Paul later, when writing to Timothy, when they're not in jail together, maybe they slipped each other notes while they were in jail together, but he definitely wrote him letters when he wasn't. So we have 1 and 2 Timothy later, when they're not in jail. Paul tells Timothy, who is a young pastor, I don't know if you all know this, relatively young as far as pastors go. Paul tells Timothy, who's a young pastor, he says, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture.
And to devote yourself to these things so that everybody can see your progress. And so it's actually really healthy and good for us as a church who have young pastors to just say, we're just going to walk through a book of the Bible. We're not going to jump around. We're not going to try to come up with topics to discuss. We're just going to walk through a book of the Bible. And guess what?
One of my goals, and our goals as we lead as pastors, is for you to see progress. Not that we'd be great at stuff now, but that you'd see progress. That we'd move from like a D minus to like a D, and we could just be really excited that we have a D. So that's the goal. We're going to move that way. And so one of the reasons we think is that it's helpful for us to do that.
So before we hop in, I want to unpack three major themes that we'll see in the book of Colossians as we spend 10 weeks here. So three major themes that as we walk through Colossians, we're going to unpack and spend time talking about. And then we'll actually get into one of those, really kind of two of those tonight as we enter into the beginning of this. So the first major theme we'll see is that it's all about Jesus. It's all about Jesus. Everything.
Colossians is going to have some of the highest Christology in the Bible. And Christology is just how we understand Jesus. It's the study and theology of Jesus, and it's going to have some of the highest Christology where Paul just goes off on how amazing and massive and great Jesus is. How terrifyingly huge Jesus is. And then he's going to, as he unpacks Colossians, he's going to say, we do this and we're these kind of people because of Jesus. And we walk through life like this because of Jesus.
And so as we unpack the book of Colossians, we're going to see that it's all about Jesus. That he's the head of the body of the church and that we take our cues from him. We talk often about Jesus as a Galilean peasant. We think of him as a poor, homeless man who lived 2,000 years ago. And he was. So Jesus pre-exists in eternity past.
He comes to earth for like 33 years. That's what we just spent time talking about. That Jesus was a man who was a God who became man, who died in our place for our sins, and who rose again. He did that in about 33 years span. And then he exists. He rose, ascended into heaven in bodily form, and exists in eternity, future, forever.
He was a Galilean peasant who suffered for about this much of time. Creator. King. Everything exists in him, through him, and for him. And he made all things. And he will rule all things.
And so we often think of Jesus as a Galilean peasant. And he was. And he humbled himself for our sake. And we need to love that. And we need to grow to understand that. But we also need to realize he's high and exalted, massive and scary and good.
And so we get to talk about that. We'll get to see that it's all about Jesus. We'll get to see that we have a communal identity as we unpack the book of Colossians. We have a communal identity, which means that we exist in relationship with each other. One thing about a lot of the books in the Bible, and especially Colossians, every time you see the word you in Colossians, Paul is actually using the word y'all. The Greek word y'all.
So for us, we can use you as a singular you or you as a plural you. But most of us in the South would use y'all as a plural form of you. And so when you see the word you, he's referring to them as a people. One of the things that annoys the snot out of me is when I watch movies and they have someone pretending to be a Southerner and they just can't get it right. I was watching one where a guy was supposed to be from North Carolina and he called chicken barbecue. And I was like, nope.
Now, North Carolina does make vinegar-based barbecue. So they hadn't quite got it right. But they at least know it's pulled pork. But there would be movies where somebody would look at somebody and call him y'all, and it's an individual. And it's like, unless you're talking about him and his family that you know about, you wouldn't call him y'all. You'd call him you.
And if you were talking to a whole group of people, you'd call him y'all. And every time Paul uses the word you in Colossians, he's saying y'all. And so as we read through it, we'll say y'all some just to help us frame up our minds around that. Now, here's the other thing. When we hear y'all, we think of, yes, a collective group of us made up of rugged individuals. There's a bunch of us individually.
That's how we think about it. That is not how they would have thought about it. They would have understood themselves in community, as a team, as a people. That's how they thought about it. When we try to, the term for self-sufficiency in the U.S., there are certain cultures, when we try to translate that, we can't. They don't have a word for it.
The closest word in certain cultures is a form of a mental disorder where someone believes they exist outside of community. So they were trying to translate self-sufficiency, and they were like, I don't think you want to use this word because it's a mental disorder. We don't exist outside of community. And that's much closer to how they would have understood themselves. They lived and exist in relationship to other people. And when they became believers, they had a new family.
A lot of them would have been disowned by their family, but they would have had a new family. They would have been y'all. They would have understood themselves communally. The best thing we have to this would be maybe the military. So if Patton stood in front of his troops and said, we must take this land, and I need you to do it.
There wouldn't have been a guy in the middle who was like, I don't think I can do that by myself. Well, come on, Carl. That's why you're part of a platoon, which is a part of a company, which is a part of a battalion. When he said you, he meant the team, and they would have understood that. Just as if a coach stood in front of us and we were on a team, we understand ourselves in context of the team. And so when he says y'all, understand yourself not as a rugged individual who's a part of, but as a y'all, a team, a collective, a family, interconnected forever.
So we have a communal identity. The next thing we'll talk about, and I'm really excited about because we're awful at this, is we need a discernment radar. Discernment is basically the ability to tell if something is true or not true, good or not good. And so as Paul writes to the Colossians, it seems as if they have all of these outside influences, and he's helping them figure out how do we decide, how do we filter what we bring in. For the most part, you will see one of two operating systems for that among American Christians. There is no filter whatsoever.
Or if someone says it, and they were on TV, they got their own show, so they're probably pretty smart. The guy was holding a book. His name says doctor. Like, there's no filter whatsoever. It's just this person said it, and he had cool hair, and his wife looked like she lost a paintball match, but she's sitting on a throne. So I'm pretty sure we need to believe it.
No filter whatsoever. Or we only believe these 12 people who say things, and we're going to start our own little compound and our own little commune, and we're not going to trust the internets. Like, there's that. So our goal would be to be somewhere in the middle, to have a discernment radar, to actually filter what comes in, but to filter it well. And so we are bombarded by all kinds of other influences. We see thousands of advertisements, each of them preaching a false gospel to us, which says that you need this to be happy.
Your life is not complete without this. We have television shows that would say they promote no religion whatsoever, but they're promoting a worldview. Every movie you see promotes a worldview. We are bombarded with ways to think about life, ways to think about romance, ways to think about God, ways to think about our relationship with each other, ways to think about politics. We are bombarded, and we have to have a discernment radar. So we'll get to spend more time on that later.
We're not very good at it as a whole, but we'll get to spend some more time on it later. We won't spend much on it today. We're going to spend a couple weeks on it, and I'm really excited about getting into more of that, just mostly because we suck at it. All right. So tonight we're going to be looking at the intro of Colossians, and basically we're going to see how Paul frames up for them.
What we're going to do, so we're going to read through the first eight verses, and then we're going to read through the first eight verses, and we're going to read through the first eight verses, and we're going to read through the first eight verses. several times and unpack how Paul addresses this group of people. So we'll talk a little bit about what he says, but we'll also talk about how he understands them to exist because it's foundational for us as we grow as a church and as we move through the summer. All right, I'm going to pray again. We're going to hop in and talk through this stuff.
God, we thank you for the opportunity to gather, to study your word. I pray that you would speak to us, that you would lead us as we walk through Colossians, as we kick off this series where we try to study and learn more about you. We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, Colossians 1.
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and Timothy our brother. So Paul, apostle means sent one. He's specifically talking about those who had seen Jesus after death. So he says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and Timothy our brother. To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae, grace to you and peace from God our Father. When Paul starts writing this letter, he writes to them and the first thing we're going to see is that they have a gospel identity.
That they have a gospel identity. How he understands them to exist. So he's writing to the church and they have a gospel identity. He says, to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae. Saints is the Greek word that means holy ones. So in the Bible, God is called holy.
So in the Old Testament, they say God high and lifted up and there's these angels next to him and they're singing, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. And when Paul writes to the Colossian Christians, he says holy ones. And when he says saints, he doesn't mean like St. Patrick. He means all believers have an identity of holiness in Christ. That we are holy.
We're made right before God because of Jesus. So he writes to them first in their gospel identity. So he says, to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae, grace to you and peace from God our Father. We always thank God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you. Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints. Because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of this you have heard before in the word of truth, the gospel which has come to you.
As indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing. As it also does among you since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth. Just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant, he is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf. And he has made known to us your love in the spirit. All right, so what we're going to do is we're going to quickly walk through and see how Paul addresses them in their gospel identity, their communal identity, and their missional identity.
So his gospel identity. We'll just walk back through and I'm going to point out the areas where he's talking to them as a gospel people. To the saints and faithful brothers, that's verse 2. So he calls them saints, he calls them holy ones. In Christ at Colossae, grace to you and peace from God our Father. So he says our relationship now is that God, the creator of the universe, is our Father.
We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you since we heard of your faith in Christ. So they have faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of truth, the gospel. So what Paul says to him is he says you're holy because you have hope laid up in the gospel. That your hope is laid up in heaven because of the faith that you have in Christ. So we praise God who is our Father because of who you are, who he's made you into.
And so through the gospel, Jesus died on our behalf. He took our sins. He rose again and he gives us his righteousness. So Paul understands them to have a gospel identity. He also talks to them out of their communal identity, that they exist in relationship with one another. So he starts off and he says to the saints and faithful brothers.
So that's the Greek word for brothers and sisters. What he's saying is siblings, those who've been made into a family. So that they have a communal identity. To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae, grace and peace to you from God our Father. We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints. They go hand in hand.
Faith in Christ and love for all the saints. He says we're praising God for this. We thank God that you have faith in Jesus, that he's allowed you to have faith in Jesus, and that you have love for all the saints. And that's how that works. I've met people before that say, man, I love Jesus. I just don't have much time for the church.
I just don't care about it. And it's like, that's not how that works. They're one and the same. Like, when we have faith in Christ, we have love for all the saints, all the other Christians, all the other believers. I was talking to a guy at work one time at Sears, and he said, yeah. He said, he found out I was a Christian.
He said, yeah, if I was a Christian, if I was religious like that, if I was a Christian, he said, I'd just keep it to myself. He said, I wouldn't feel like I need to go be a part of a church or go to church or whatever, hang out with other people. I'd just read, do my own thing, study or whatever, and then I wouldn't have to be around people. I said, that's cool. You wouldn't be a Christian. He was like, what are you talking about?
I said, well, that's not how Christianity works. I was like, you get reconciled to God because he pays for our sin. He fixes the relationship we have with him. But he also, because he takes care of sin, he reconciles us to each other. So I said, every relationship you've ever had broke down because of sin.
They sinned against you, you wouldn't forgive, or they wouldn't apologize. You sinned against them, you wouldn't apologize, or they wouldn't forgive. You slowly drifted apart because you're sinful. You hurt each other and wouldn't fix it. I said, but the gospel gives us the way to fix that. That God reconciles us to himself and to each other.
I said, so you get relationships, you get family, and you would get to walk through life being able to have the ability to reconcile and to forgive and have relationships with one another. He looked at me, and he was the quietest he'd ever been. He never shut his mouth. But he looked at me, and he said, I've never heard of it like that before. I said, yeah, this is how it works. I said, so you could have your own little private faith and not be a part of the church, but I'm not sure you'd be a Christian.
Because Christianity involves us and gives us church family. So, yeah, we grow in our love for Jesus, but automatically his spirit comes in and makes us begin to love one another and to grow in our love for each other. So, he talks to them out of their communal identity. He says that you have faith in Christ Jesus and love for all the saints. Because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of this you have heard before in the word of truth the gospel, which has come to you. As indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing, as it also does among you since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth.
Just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He's a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf. So, we have, he talks to them out of their missional identity. That they are, the gospel bears fruit and grows. Just what it does. He says the gospel bears fruit and grows just as it has among you since the day you heard it.
Like the gospel just moves. It grows. It bears fruit. And it changes people. And so he says just as you learned it from Epaphras, just as this guy came in and began to proclaim to you the gospel. That in Jesus you can have forgiveness.
You can have life. You get family. He says it bears fruit and grows. And so we have an identity that moves forward. That we can be met by Jesus. Our sin can be covered.
And we can have life in him. And the gospel bears fruit. It grows. It expands and it moves. And so more and more people get to be a part of it. And so when he talks to them, he talks to them out of gospel identity.
He refers to them as saints. He calls them brothers. He talks to them out of their communal identity. How they exist in relationship with one another. And then he says the gospel keeps moving. It keeps bearing fruit.
It keeps growing. And people keep learning the truth. The grace of God in truth. That we're sinful. That we're broken. And that we need Jesus.
And that we're met with overwhelming grace. That we don't have to earn it. And we don't have to be good enough. And we don't have to be smart enough. And we don't have to be moral enough. We don't have to keep it together.
But we're met with grace through truth. So, if you're a Christian in the room, you have a gospel identity. You have it. You're not seeking to earn it. You're not working for it. You have it.
You are a saint. You are holy. You are holy. You are holy. You are holy. You are holy.
You are blameless. You are holy. You are holy. You are holy. You are holy. Now, I don't know about y'all.
But I know humans. And I know y'all in this room. Holy isn't a super good descriptor for us. It just isn't. But it's not based off of us.
I remember when I was growing up, my older brother Logan. He used to lie. Oh. He'd lie. He's like four or five. He'd look at grown people in their face and just lie.
He was good at it, too. But you could tell he's lying. He's like four. His stories didn't make sense. But he would just lie.
I ain't never heard of that before. I ain't never seen that. I don't know that kid. Like, just, I mean, just lie. And my dad used to tell him, he'd say, Logan, there's going to come a day when you're going to need me to believe you. There's going to come a day when you're going to need people to believe you.
And if you keep lying, that's going to be a problem. If you lie all the time, swear and lie through your teeth at people, it's going to be a problem because you're going to need people to believe you. So we were hanging out with my extended family. And Logan basically, like, led a rebellion. Logan, he got all of our cousins, like 14 or 15 of them, and just led them in the most, like, heinous of crimes he could possibly think of as a four- or five-year-old. And so my aunts were livid.
I mean, they were ready to string him up. And so they had all gathered. And it was really funny the amount of anger they had towards, like, a five-year-old. And so they had all gathered, and they were standing there, and they were like, he did it. I know he did it. He got all them involved in it.
And, I mean, they had lost it. And so my dad's sitting there, and Logan's sitting there. And my dad looked at him and said, Logan, did you do that? He had. Everybody knew he had. And Logan went, mm-mm.
I didn't have anything to do with that. And my dad looked at him, and he looked at my aunts, and he said, Logan doesn't lie. And if he said he didn't do it, he didn't do it. My aunts almost lost it. And he stood in between them, and he said, he doesn't lie. That boy doesn't lie.
He wouldn't tell a lie. And if he said he didn't do it, he didn't do it. And Logan went and looked at my dad like, now, you and I both know that's not true. I mean, couldn't believe that that's what my dad did, that my dad stood in the gap and took the blame and was willing to lie and take sin and on my dad's integrity get him off. And there are times when Jesus looks and he says that we're holy and blameless and above reproach. And I look and I go, you and I both know that's not true.
That's not a good descriptor for me. That's not how that lines up. But we have a gospel identity. We have been made holy and blameless and above reproach because Jesus took our sin onto himself and he was crushed for it and he gave us his righteousness so that we stand before God as Christians who have placed our faith in Jesus holy, blameless, and above reproach as if we had never sinned and always done what we were supposed to. That there is no reproach, no complaint, no sin that can be levied against us, no condemnation, nothing. We're holy and blameless and above reproach.
And if you're a Christian in here, you have a gospel identity. You do stand before God holy. If you're a Christian in here, you have a communal identity. You've been invited into a family. It says that to the saints and faithful brothers, he says to the faith you have in Christ and the love you have for all the saints. So we have a communal identity.
We've been invited into a family. Later in Colossians, he's going to say that Jesus is the head of the body, his church. So he's the head, we're the body. We are interconnected and designed to exist in relationships with one another. We have been made into family together. You're in it.
If you're a Christian, you're in family. Just the way regular family works. You didn't get to pick them. You're in it. Jesus rescues and he makes us into family. And it is a beautiful, hot mess.
It is. Every holy person in this room is a part of your family. And we're holy because we have a gospel identity. We ain't keeping it together too good. We get to walk through life together, repenting and forgiving and getting on each other's nerves and celebrating together and growing together because we've been made into family. It's who we are.
In Christ, we are brothers and sisters. The Bible says that Jesus is the firstborn among many brothers. And Paul here says that God, our father, who's the God and Savior, God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So he calls him our father and then he immediately calls him Jesus' father. And later he's going to say Jesus is the firstborn among many brothers. That we are family.
An eternal family. That will last forever. And that's our identity. That's who we are. And then if you're in here and you're a believer, you have a missional identity. You are sent on a mission with Jesus.
That Jesus in eternity past, when we sinned, when we rebelled against him, that they chose that Jesus would come, that he would be perfect on our behalf, that he would die for our sins and that he would rise again so that we might have life and hope and faith in him. And then he invites his church into that mission to share that, to spread that, to move that along. And we can't help but share it. I remember when I first found out that the gospel was actually good news. Like I always thought that the gospel was this. I thought it was that Jesus could save me from my sins.
I deserved wrath and punishment, but Jesus died so that I could not be punished, not go to hell, and that he saved me from my sins. And then I was supposed to learn how from the Bible to be a good moral person. To behave well. That's not really good news. It's like when your dad's like, I got good news. We're cleaning the garage today.
I don't see how that... I don't think you know what good news is. And so when I've got good news, Jesus saves you from your sins, and now you get to be a really good person and try really hard and be moral and keep it together. Ugh. When I realize that the gospel applies to everything, that I'm already holy, already blameless, I just get to follow Jesus? That the gospel applies to how I treat my wife and how I see my money and how I walk through life and that I've been given a family to walk through life together?
That actually became good news. And I love sharing good news. My wife and I, we run a pretty tight budget, but any kind of excess money we have pretty much goes to food. We thoroughly enjoy eating out. And when I find a good restaurant, I'm going to tell you about it. I actually base directions off of restaurants.
So people will be like, you know where Thomas Road is? And I'll be like, do restaurants. They'll be like, you know where Taco Bell is? Yes, I know where Taco Bell is. All right, well, you're going to go over there, you're going to take a left of Krispy Kreme.
All right, I got it, I'll be there. Like, that's how, if they say a restaurant I've never heard of, I'll be like, I haven't heard of that, is it any good? Like, we quit talking about directions. I need to know about this restaurant you know about that I don't know about. So I'm going to tell you, I'm going to tell you, I'm going to help you all out right now.
I'm going to share some good news with you all. If you've never eaten at J Gumbos, it's in downtown. It's open only in the middle of the day. So if you want J Gumbos at suppertime, you were wrong. You won't have it. But you can have it at lunch, and it is delicious.
My personal recommendation would be Jean Lafitte, or Jean Lafitte. If you call it Jean Lafitte, just to mess with them, they don't appreciate that. Although that is how it would be pronounced if you're, I don't know, not Cajun. But anyway, and then the other one is Egg Roll Station. Right down the road, super, super good Chinese food. Super, super sketchy.
So if you have a problem with that, do takeout. It's still delicious, and their egg rolls are great. So, but when I find out about good news, I can't help but share it. Like, when I find out about good restaurants, I can't help but tell people about it. You don't have to talk to me long for me to start sharing things that I enjoy and appreciate. And it's the same way with us, and when we begin to realize the goodness that is in the gospel for us, we can't help but share it.
We can't help but say, hey, look, I know you think that you're supposed to work this out on your own, and that you're supposed to be a rugged individual who gets everything done, and is super good, and super holy, and that earns your right. You're not going to. But you don't have to. You get to have faith in Jesus that he already accomplished that on your behalf, and you get to walk through life with a new family and a new identity. And we can't help but share it. And the gospel, it's just what it does.
It bears fruit and grows. So, this is us. This is who we are. Paul's writing to a church plant. He's explaining to them as he goes through the book of Colossians what it looks like for them to follow Jesus. But he starts off, and he kind of just lays out.
We see how he approaches them, how he speaks to them as to who he thinks they are. So, he talks to them about how the mission, how the gospel's moved forward among them. He talks to them about who they are in Christ and who they are in relationship to one another. And that's us. When we talk about being a gospel-centered community on mission, when we say that's what we want to do, we want to be a gospel-centered community on mission, we didn't make that up. We made it the way we word it.
But we see it here. We see it as how the Bible lays it out. So, it's just what we do. It's what Jesus does. It says here, I want to read verse 5. We started as a church plant in March of last year.
We just started meeting in my home. Just a handful of us. And then we actually got to watch the gospel bear fruit and grow. We got to watch it bear fruit and grow among us, personally, individually. And we got to watch it bear fruit and grow among a people. So, when Paul is writing this, he's saying, We also thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for y'all.
Since we have heard of y'all's faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that y'all have for all the saints because of the hope laid up for y'all in heaven, of this you have heard before in the word of truth, the gospel which has come to y'all, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing, as it also does among y'all since the day you heard and understood the grace of God and truth. And that's what we've gotten to see. We've gotten to see the gospel move and grow among a people. And it's been beautiful. And that's who we are. That's who we get to be.
And so we began to multiply more community groups because we just want to live in relationship with one another, centered underneath the gospel, around the gospel. Jesus is the head. We're the body. We just follow him. And so we look to Jesus to see what it looks like for us to walk through life. And we live on mission, which just means that we get to invite people into the gospel and into family.
That's us. That's what we've gotten to do. And it's been exciting and it's been great. Sometimes I look at my community group and we're all over the place. Age-wise, thought process-wise, there are some conversations in my community group that just get downright painful. Because people are trying to talk to each other and they just don't connect.
It's like they have nothing in common whatsoever. We had a conversation about heavy metal music the other day. And that was just hilarious. Because a couple of the guys knew what it was. One guy didn't. And I stood there making jokes just to be annoying.
But I was really confusing people. And so that was a lot of fun. And after a while, our group just was like, well, do you like food? Yes. Do you like Jesus? Yes.
All right, cool. We can be friends. Like that's just how it works. That's how our community group connects. We are just a bunch of people brought together by the gospel. And we get to walk through life together.
In a minute, they're going to release some children from back there in Kid City where we try to put the gospel on their level. And they're just going to be like running laps around here. I'm pretty sure they teach them the gospel and then just inject sugar into their faces. Like I don't even know really what happens back there. But it's going to be a mess and it's going to be beautiful.
That's who we get to be. When my family gathers together at Christmas, there's a whole bunch of us. People knocking stuff over, but we're family. People getting on each other's nerves, but we're family. And that's what we get in the church. That's who we get to be.
If there's one thing we know from every Christmas movie we've ever seen is that life's better with family. That's all we know. You can have anything else you want, but family makes life better. And so the truth is for us as a church, we get a gospel identity and we get a new family. We get people to walk through life together with, through good times, through bad times, to celebrate, to enjoy life together. We get brothers and sisters in an eternal family that will last forever.
So we set aside time for it. We carve out time in our busy schedules. And it's going to be hard for us as Westerners, but we carve out time to be family. To hang out with each other, to share meals together, to laugh and do fun things together, to throw parties together. Because we care about it, because it's who we are. It's our identity.
So when we talk about being gospel-centered communities on mission, all we're saying is we're just going to be who we are. So that's how we operate. That's what we do as a church. So we gather together on Sundays as groups to talk about Jesus, to open the Bible and see what it says. The rest of the time, we're just community groups for people being church family throughout the week. And that's how we function.
I talk to people periodically because we're a church plant. And they'll be like, so what are you all going to do when you grow? So more of what we're doing, I guess. Like we're going to have more groups. We've got five community groups right now. We started as one last year.
We're praying that we would have ten towards the end of the year. That more and more people would hop into what we have in the gospel. That more and more people would be freed up by the fact that they don't have to be good enough. Jesus was good enough on their behalf. And that we get a family. We're not alone.
We don't have to do this alone. As we read scripture, sometimes I feel like that private that raised his hand to Patton and said, I can't do that by myself. We read scripture and we're like, man, that sounds really hard. Right. But it's not designed for us to do it by ourselves.
It's for us to walk together in relationship with one another. To have life together. To be in community. To be family. To be family. To be the body that God's made us into.
And so. If you're here. And you're not a Christian. Here's what I would say to you. Hop into a community group. Be a part of us as we walk through life together in relationships.
We'll get together and we'll talk about Jesus. And this is a great place for you to hang out and hear things about Jesus. But we'd much rather you got to see what it looks like among a bunch of people. We'd much rather you got to see what it looks like when somebody can't pay a bill. Somebody's got a flat tire. When somebody gets really annoyed with someone else.
We'd love for you to see what it looks like for us to be family. To tangibly walk out the aspects of the gospel. When we connect with one another. Love one another. Relate to one another. And have nothing in common other than we eat food and love Jesus.
So if you're hanging out and you're not a Christian. We would invite you into a community group. To come be a part of what it looks like as we're a gospel people. If you say, no thanks. I don't know Jesus and that makes me uncomfortable. And I don't want to go hang out at your house.
I would say, I understand that. And would welcome you to keep hanging out with us on Sundays. We'll play can jam. We'll go eat meals afterwards. Not at people's houses necessarily. We'll study and talk about Jesus.
And this is a really safe place for you to do that. Because we're not here because we're good and moral and awesome. We're here because we know we aren't. And Jesus is awesome. We don't use a lot of big words. Because we don't know a lot.
And the big ones we do use are Bible words. And we'll try to explain them. So we think it's a really safe place if you're not a Christian to hang out. A really good group of people to be around. Actually, when I moved, I felt like I was moving to plant a church. That God had called us to plant a church.
And after a while, I realized that Jesus was just saying, Ah, you can come be a part of what I'm doing. You can come be a part of the family I'm starting. You can come be a part of the people that you'll get to know and love and walk through life together. You can come be a part of that. And I don't know about the plant a church thing, but you can come hang out with my church. Be a part of my people.
And I was like, all right, Jesus, that sounds good. And I've actually gotten to see the gospel bear fruit and grow, and it's been wonderful. If you're hanging out and you are a Christian, we would say hop into a community group. Walk in family with us. Be who you're designed to be. So we have a gospel identity.
We have a communal identity. We have a missional identity. Hop in. Walk through life. Carve out time in your schedule to be in relationships with others. And that's difficult, and sometimes we have seasons of life where our schedules don't line up and work around it.
But figure it out. It's good for us. It's healthy. If someone's a Christian and they say, I want to hang out, but I don't really – I just want to do the Sunday thing. But with as much love as I can say, I don't think that's good for us.
I don't think that's – I think you're missing out. And I think it – we're not designed as a church to operate that way. So the way that we use our spiritual gifts, the way that we walk through life, the way that we serve and pastor and love and shepherd one another is only in our community groups. That's how we are. And so there are a lot of churches where service opportunities and being able to use your gifts take place other places, and you have that opportunity. But for us, we feel called to be this, to be in community throughout the week, loving and serving and inviting people into what we have.
And if you're a Christian in here and you're a part of a community group, hop in more. Pour into what it looks like to be in life with each other, to walk through life together and to live out the identity we have where we get to bear fruit and grow together as the family that Jesus has made us into. Paul says he's a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the Spirit. That we get to, as Jesus changes our hearts, grow in love for one another and grow as we walk together on mission. And so some of the things that we're praying through is we'll walk through Colossians, but we're praying that we would grow in what it looks like to be community.
That we would grow in the depth of understanding of what it is for us to be gospel people. And that we would continue to invite more and more people into normal, everyday life of us following Jesus. Messing up, repenting, growing, getting to see what that looks like as they walk with us as we pursue Jesus in obedience to him. And so that's our hope. That's our prayer. And we pray that we'll continue to multiply more and more groups of people who love Jesus, walk with Jesus, and follow Jesus in normal, everyday life.
And we pray, and we're going to sing and celebrate the fact that we've been made into Christ's family. God, I thank you that my identity is not based off of who I am, what I do, what I accomplish, how smart I am, how hard I work. I thank you that you have made us holy. That we are saints. And God, I thank you for as difficult as it is that we get to be a part of family. That we get to walk through life with a team.
That we don't have to be alone, but that we get to have successes and failures together. As the people that you've made us into. God, I pray that you would help us to grow in our understanding of what that looks like. To grow in what it looks like to invite more people into that. To open our homes and open our hearts and to grow in our understanding of who you've made us. So that we might move forward in what it looks like to invite more people into that.
God, we pray that you would bear fruit and grow among us. So the gospel, through your truth and your grace, would bear fruit and grow. More and more people would hop in and we'd have more and more growth and maturity. And repentance and love. God, we need your presence. May you help us to grow in our love in the spirit.
May we make much of your name. Help us to be your people. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. You've got to stand and sing with me.