The Hidden Hope of Suffering
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In Tenderness
In tenderness he sought me
Weary and sick with sin
And on His shoulders brought me
Back to His fold again
While angels in His presence sang
Until the courts of heaven rang.
Oh, the love that sought me!
Oh, the blood that bought me!
Oh, the grace that brought me to the fold of God
Grace that brought me to the fold of God.
He died for me while I was sinning, needy and poor and blind
He whispered to assure me: "I've found thee; thou art Mine"
I never heard a sweeter voice, it made my aching heart rejoice.
Upon His grace I'll daily ponder, and sing anew His praise
With all adoring wonder, His blessings I retrace
It seems as if eternal days, are far too short to sing His praise.
O Praise the Name
I cast my mind to Calvary
Where Jesus bled and died for me.
I see His wounds, His hands, His feet.
My Savior on that cursed tree
His body bound and drenched in tears
They laid Him down in Joseph's tomb.
The entrance sealed by heavy stone
Messiah still and all alone
O praise the name of the Lord our God
O praise His name forever more
For endless days we will sing Your praise
Oh Lord, oh Lord our God
Then on the third at break of dawn,
The Son of heaven rose again.
O trampled death where is your sting?
The angels roar for Christ the King
O praise the name of the Lord our God
O praise His name forever more
For endless days we will sing Your praise
Oh Lord, oh Lord our God
He shall return in robes of white,
The blazing Son shall pierce the night.
And I will rise among the saints,
My gaze transfixed on Jesus' face
O praise the name of the Lord our God
O praise His name forever more
For endless days we will sing Your praise
Oh Lord, oh Lord our God
O praise the name of the Lord our God
O praise His name forever more
For endless days we will sing Your praise
Oh Lord, oh Lord our God
Oh Lord, oh Lord our God
Life in Jesus
Colossians 3:1-11
Transcript
Apostle Paul has been writing this letter to a church in Colossae. And they, it's a relatively new church, relatively healthy, but they've kind of been having a bunch of nonsense pumped into their brains, both inside and outside of the church, as to what it looks like to follow Christ. And so Paul, for the first two chapters, has just been, here's who Jesus is, and here's what he's accomplished for us. So here's, he is the image of the invisible God. He's the firstborn among all creation. Before by him all things have been created in heaven and on earth.
I mean, he just goes in this massive, here's how glorious, how inconceivable, how uncomparable Jesus is. And then he goes into, and he died so that we could have a right relationship with God. We've been rescued and redeemed by him. That he's paid our debt. And so there's no more, no more work and effort that we have to put in and nothing else that we have to do that by which we are judged as to whether or not we're right or wrong. And so Paul's going to, in the first two chapters, he just, this is who Jesus is, and this is what he's done.
This is who Jesus is, and this is what he's done. This is who Jesus is, and this is what he's done. That's the first two chapters. And then in chapter three and four, he's going to turn and say, okay, so because that's true, here's what we get to look like. Here's what life gets to look like. Here's what it gets to look like as we interact and live life together.
And so the book of Colossians is written to a church. Every time he uses the word you, it's the word y'all. It's the Greek version of y'all. And so he's talking to a group of people, and he's saying, this is what it looks like for you to live in community, for you to be people affected by who Jesus is and what he's done. And so we get this backwards all the time. We almost feel like it has to be backwards.
And so what I mean by that is this. Every other religion and even what we try to operate in, the mode of operation we try to work in in our own souls is do these things, be this type of person, and then God will love you. So do these things, be this type of person, and then God will love you. So we try to work it out here. We try to try really hard here, and then we earn a goal here that God loves us, that God accomplishes us, or that he gives us worth or that we have worth because of what we've accomplished. And so every other religion is going to be don't do this, do this, don't dress this way, dress this way, talk this way, don't talk this way, have your hair this way.
All of these rules and regulations, and if we follow those, if we're good, if we're moral, if we're right, if we have the right nationality, whatever it is, then we'll earn nirvana or we'll be accepted by God or we'll be loved by God. And that's actually the way humans want to operate. We want to believe that I can do something, that it's within my power to make myself right with God. And so Paul, in the first two chapters of Colossians, has been crushing that. He's been saying, no, it's not inside your power, it's who Jesus is and what he's done, and now we live in light of that. So we operate in a certain way because he loves us, because he gives us worth, because he gives us value, not to earn it.
I heard it explained this way, and I thought it was helpful for my brain, so I'm going to share it with you all. If a king has a castle and an enemy is approaching, So the king brings all the people in around the castle, he brings them inside the city, he closes the gates, he sets up some military units and soldiers and archers, he sets them all up, and then he and most of the force, most of the military rides out to meet the enemy. So he wants to go meet the enemy on the battlefield, and he wants to have some units left to protect the city. And so what happens is one of two things. If the king wins, he gathers some men and he sends them back to give the good news.
He gathers some men to be heralds of what has been accomplished. And so these men just come back, and all they do is give good news. All they're good newsers, they're giving a report of, all right, so here's what happened. The battle went like this, the enemy came this way, we did this, which was awesome, and then like a bunch of them died, and then they ran away, and we won. King went out, and we won the victory. And so now you get to live in light of the good news.
So open the gates, bust out the mead, get the cheese and the meat, and let's have a party. We get to celebrate the fact that we don't have to be in here preparing for battle, we don't have to be huddled up in fear. Victory's already been won, we get to live in light of it. Or, king loses. And then he gathers some men, and he sends them back, and they are advisors. Military advisors, and they're there to give good advice.
So they ride up, and they say, okay, king said this many men are coming, we were able to stop this force, but we know what's headed our way, and so we need to have extra men here prepared to do this. And he said to line up all the men here, and all they can do is give good advice. And what they can say is if we do these things well, if we try hard enough, we may live. But there's no guarantee. It's one of two options. And what Christianity is, is the king already came.
The king already fought the battle. The king already won the victory. And we get to live in light of it. That's Christianity. It's not good advice that if we do these things, if we try hard enough, if we're prepared enough, we might live. It is no.
We now get to live in light of what has already been accomplished for us. And so that's what Paul said in the first two chapters. Here's what the king did. He left heaven. He lived on earth. He was crushed in our place for our sins.
Our debt was nailed to the cross when he was nailed to the cross. And we're free, and we have life in him. That's chapters 1 and 2. 3 and 4 is, so here's what it looks like for us to live in light of that. Here's what it looks like for us to open the gates and start the party. Here's what it looks like for us to be in relationship with one another.
And so that's what we're doing. That's what we're hopping into in chapter 3 and 4. And so it's going to be Paul telling us more. This is what you do. This is what this looks like. But at no point is it do these things, and then God will love you.
It's no. Here's what he's already done. So we live in light of that. I'm going to pray, and we're going to hop into chapter 3. God, we thank you that the battle has already been fought and the victory has already been won. That at no point as we talk through what it looks like for us to be your church are we trying to earn anything.
We're honestly just getting to live in light of what you've already done. So God, I pray that you would impress that on our souls, that you would make that real to us, that we would know it to be true. We love you, and we praise you. In Jesus' name, amen. So Colossians 3, verse 1.
If then you have been raised with Christ. So he's saying if you're a Christian, if you've placed your faith in Jesus. In chapter 2 he just said that you died with Christ, so your sin died with him, and you've been raised to life in Christ. So that the old you died with him, and the new you has life because of him. So he took our sin and gave us his righteousness.
He took our death and gave us his life. That's what Jesus did when he died on the cross and when he rose again. And so Paul says if you've been raised with Christ, if you've placed your faith in Jesus, if you have been given new life in him, this is what it looks like. So I know some of you may be in here hanging out and are just kind of checking this whole Jesus thing out. We think this is a really safe place to do that. Paul is talking specifically to those who've placed their faith in Jesus, what it looks like to follow him in that.
And for those of us who haven't placed faith in Jesus yet, you get to approach him knowing that he pays for your sin and gives you new life through faith. So if then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is. Seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you will also appear with him in glory.
So what Paul says is if you've been raised with Christ, if you've placed your hope in Christ, set your mind on the things that are above. Live as if you understand what has happened. Live as if eternity is real for you because of Jesus. That Christ who is your life. That our life is in him. So we're not going to find it here.
Basically, Paul is saying that Jesus in his death and resurrection and when we placed our faith in him has reset the way we view the world. So like I remember middle school. There were some things that were super important and intense in middle school that when you got to high school, you were like, huh. That wasn't as big a deal as I thought it was going to be. I remember a couple stories. Anna told me that when she was in middle school, the first day she wore chapstick, she thought people were going to notice and it was going to be a big deal.
So that her lips were going to be more glisten-y and less chap-y than normal. And so she just felt like, because when you're in middle school, everything just feels like this is going to be way more intense than it is. And everything seems bigger than it is at that moment. And as you get older, you're like, that wasn't as big a deal. In middle school one time, I wore, I don't want to tell this story, but I've started. So I wasn't planning on telling it, but it popped down my mouth.
I wore some short, like gray, kind of cut-off sweatpants. And I was like, I don't know how I feel about these in middle school. Like people may give me a hard time. But I was like, whatever, I'm going to go for it. And they were comfortable. And so I was like, I'm going to do this.
And then at lunch that day, I sat in gravy. Brown rice gravy in the worst place possible. And so I was like trying to walk down halls up against the wall for the rest of the day and stuff. And the way I found out was one of my friends, I was walking down the hall. He was halfway away. And the way I found out was one of my friends yelled to me something that I'm not going to preach right now.
But just a question. He had a question that he had for me, giving him a pants situation. And I remember thinking, I don't know if you live this down. I think this may go with me forever. Like I may have earned a nickname. And it may stick with me forever.
Got to high school. People didn't remember. I didn't bring it up. Like it wasn't a thing. And I realized that it was less important than I thought it was. And the truth is, this happens to us all the time.
So you'll meet people that went on a trip to a third world country. And they come back and they just, they're like, oh, toilets are the best. It's like they just appreciate things that we don't appreciate anymore. Like we've gotten used to it. If you're watching a good movie, this can happen to you. Have you ever seen the movie Hidalgo?
It's like a guy rides a horse through the desert. There's this part where he's like crawling along in sand. His face is like cooked by the sun. His lips are split in half. And if you're drinking water while you watch that, you're just like, I love water. I forgot how wonderful this is.
And so what Paul is saying is that Jesus has given us the ability to see life differently. And that we get to set our minds on the things that are above. We get to realize that what is here is enjoyable. We get to realize that what is here is for his glory. And that we get to partake in it. And we get to enjoy it.
And we get to celebrate. And we get to have friends and family. And all of the good things that he's given. But it's not about that. And life isn't found in them. So he says that set your mind on the things above.
Not on the things that are on earth. For you have died. And your life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. And so often we think that we're going to find life hidden somewhere. And for those who place their faith in Jesus, our life is hidden in Christ.
And when he appears, our life appears. I was trying to think about how that plays out. And I've got two separate examples that I'm going to kind of smush together just to try to give us a picture of what that's going to be like when our life appears. When Christ who our life is hidden in appears. C.S. Lewis and J.R.R.
Tolkien and a couple other guys were in a, they hung out with each other. And so C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien wrote books like Chronicles of Narnia and the Lord of the Rings. Yeah, thanks. So they hung out together in this thing called the Inklings.
And at one point one of their friends named Charles died. And there's this quote by C.S. Lewis saying that not only does he miss Charles, but now he gets less of Ronald, which is what he called J.R.R. Tolkien. So I'm assuming his name was like John, Ronald, Ronald, Tolkien or something like that.
Named after both his granddads, both their names were Ronald. I don't know how that works. But he called him Ronald and he says, not only do I get, I don't get Charles. He said, but you would think that now I have Ronald all to myself. He said, but that's not true. I actually get less of Ronald.
Because there's only certain ways that he interacts with Charles that I'll never get to see again. He said, I'll never get to see Ronald laugh at a distinctly Charles joke. And he said, so you would think I get more of Ronald, but I actually now get less. Hold that in your brain. I've got another example that we're going to try to smoosh them together to help just paint a vague picture of what this looks like. Anna, sometimes when she would go out of town or when we hadn't seen each other for a while, she would ask me, like we'd be on the phone and she'd be like, do you miss me?
And I've since learned, but originally I would say, uh, no, not really. After I said that several times, I realized this isn't going well. That conversation never takes a good turn after I answer that way. And so I've learned how to answer better. But the truth was I never had moments because I always understood missing her as like having these moments where I was just like, oh, I wish she was here.
Like I just felt it. And that wasn't how it was. And that's what I thought missing was. So I was just like, nah. I'm busy. I got stuff going on.
Like I was working on something. So no. But the truth is every time I would see her and if she goes out of town now, every time when she comes back, it's there's this moment when she first shows up that it clicks in my brain. That's what was missing. That's what's been off for the past two days. And I didn't stop and think about it.
And I never really sat and allowed that to sink in. But it's just been something's been missing. And there's, in a very small way, some of my life, some of who I am is tied up in Anna, but not the way that it's hidden in Christ. And so what Paul's saying is that the fullness of who we are is brought out in Christ. And that when we see him, there's going to be this moment for all believers that we go. So that's what's been missing.
That's what's been off in me so often that I've thought I've needed something else to fill me up. That's the hunger inside of me that I've never been able to quite quiet down. That's where my life was. And I've been thinking that these cheap substitutes would replace it. And that he's going to bring out more of us. And we're going to get to, as we enjoy him in church family forever, see more of him than we'd ever get to see if it was just us and him.
And so there's this amount of life that's multiplied as he calls his church back up into him. And Paul says, your life is hidden with Christ. And so for believers, we're not looking for life other places. And so Paul's saying, chapters 1 and 2, here's what Jesus has done for you. Here's what he's accomplished on your behalf. He's taken away your sin.
He's paid your debt. And your life is in him. And now he's going to start saying, so this is what it looks like. For us to have our life in him, for us to be gospel people, here's what it looks like. Five. Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you.
As Paul says, our minds are on the things above. Our minds are on eternity. We realize that what is here is enjoyable, but it's not the goal. It's not where our life is. There's more important things than just having comfort or amassing success. There's more important things.
Life isn't here. We get to see things from an eternal perspective. So put to death what's earthly in you. Paul says, put to death. You kind of read that and you're like, all right, Paul, tell us how you really feel. It's intense.
He says, put to death what is earthly in you. And then he's going to give us some examples. Sexual immorality. What we're going to do is we're going to walk through this list and just explain briefly what they mean. And then we're going to kind of zoom back and go back through them as Paul kind of puts them together in categories. Sexual immorality.
That's the Greek word pornea, which is the word we get pornography from. It is just a sexual junk drawer. It's a sexual junk drawer, which just means that he's not being specific here. He's saying all sexual sin. He's not going to give a big list of this is sexual sin and this is sexual sin and this is sexual sin. All of it.
So get rid of that. All sexual sin and sexual sin in the Bible is any sexual activity outside of heterosexual marriage. So God invented sex. Made it enjoyable on purpose. Knew what he was doing. But it's for marriage to create oneness, to create unity for health and life and procreation.
Like it's it's a good thing, but not outside of marriage. And so he says sexual immorality. Put it to death. And so we immediately ask the question. Well, like what? How far is too far?
If it's this vague term. And he clarifies for us. Sexual immorality. Impurity. So he says it's not a line that we work our way towards.
It's purity or not purity. So like if you have water, it's H2O. It's water. And you can't be like, well, it's water with just the hint of battery acid. It's like, no. No.
That's impure water. It's no longer drinkable. That's not a good thing. It's water, but just a little bit of dead animal bacteria from up the creek here. It's like, no. And so what Paul is saying is the question isn't how close can we get before this becomes a problem?
The question is how can you be pure? How can you honor Jesus with the way you live and act? And so Paul says for those of us who've been rescued by Jesus and had our debt paid, get rid of this. Put it to death. Passion, evil desire. So we use passion in a good term, and so I don't think it's necessarily wrong.
What he's talking about here is overwhelming desire for reaching our goals, for having success. It's this passion and evil desire, this overwhelming, I have to have what I want. I have to achieve what I want. And he clarifies this further. But that's what he's, passion and evil desire.
And covetousness, which is just wanting things that aren't ours, desiring things that someone else has, greediness, which is idolatry. So idolatry is when we love anything more than God, when we worship anything that isn't God, when we seek in something what only God can give. So Paul says your life is hidden with Christ. So quit seeking life in these other things. It's idolatry. It's us pursuing this to give us something that we think it will fulfill us, we think it will give us worth, we think it will give us value, and it's not going to.
So he basically, when I was reading through this, I was like, dang, Paul. I feel like he read our mail a little bit when it comes to how we operate in American culture. So I'm going to put these into three kind of categories, and I think he kind of does as well. He talks about idolatry. So the God of sex, the God of success, passion and evil desire, and the God of more covetousness.
Tell me our culture doesn't tell us that joy and life and hope are found in sex. It does. That's how you know you have... If you watch any amount of film, television, the way you know you're successful is your sex life. The way you know you're okay, the way you know you're valuable, the way you know you have worth, the way you know... Sex.
It'll complete you. It'll fulfill you. You can look at magazines. Sex. This is what you need. Does your partner fill you up?
Do they complete you? Are they doing what they ought to? We have bought into the lie that sex is somehow going to fulfill us, make us whole, and give us worth and value, and that our life will be found in it. Paul says it's not. He says for Christians who've placed your life in Jesus, who's died for your sin, put it to death. Truth is, this shows up in the church as well.
This belief, this cultural belief that sex somehow will fix us, will fill us up. It shows up in the way we treat single people in the church. Like they have a disease or something. Where you can't be single in the church without having people constantly ask you like... Because we have this assumption. We know you can't be having sex now.
We're in the church, so stop it. But won't you like it later when you can? Like there's this... This you're not complete yet. You're not full yet. You're not fulfilled yet.
Your life will be found when you're married. The problem is... Paul says our life's in Jesus. Not future magic marriage. It doesn't exist, by the way. And Paul says our life's in Jesus.
And the truth is, biblically, it's okay to not be married. It's a perfectly acceptable way to honor Jesus and walk through life. Marriage is good too. It's a gift. But Paul says that not being married is a gift and that he wished more people had it.
The God of sex. Paul says, put it to death. Live as if the gospel is true. The God of success. This is another one that we buy into. Passion and evil desire.
That our life will be found when we've made something out of ourselves. So we have the concept of the self-made man. That when we've become successful enough. When we've earned enough. When we've achieved our goals. So we pump this into little kids' brains.
Like every little cartoon ever. Some animal shows up. Like a grasshopper or something. And it's like, follow your heart. Live your dreams. It's like, kill that grasshopper.
He's lying to you. I go to children's movies just so I can yell, No, don't do it! I don't, but that would be fun. But we believe that. We believe that if I earn, if I achieve, if I get the things I desire. Then I'll have life.
Then I'll know I'm complete. Then I'll know I'm fulfilled. If that were true. The happiest people in our society. Would be movie stars. Musicians.
That have made it to the top. Got everything they ever dreamt of. So just as a brief case study. Is that true? No. The reason we can continue to believe it's true is because we haven't succeeded and grasped everything that we've desired.
So we can still believe it holds the promise of life because we haven't found it, caught it, and seen that it comes up empty. And Paul says, put it to death. Your life is not going to be found in your ability to succeed. Your life is not going to be found in your ability to get everything that you want. Covetousness. Man, we've this hook, line, and sinker.
The God of more. That we need more. That life would be better if I could just have... Oh, this would work out well if I could just... If this would just... Our whole economic system is based off of the fact that you need more.
Because we produce way more than we actually need. So we have to buy more to keep our economic system going. So that advertisers have figured this out. They don't sell you on need. I saw a commercial the other day for a Buick. And all it did was inside of the car tell you features.
And it was like this old man talking really slowly. And it was like, plush leather seats. A knob that controls the radio. And I was like, this is the weirdest commercial I've ever seen. Because he's trying to sell me this car as opposed to something that the car will bring me. Because he's acting as if I need the car.
But we don't need the car. I think it was directed at really old people. But the better example of this and the way our society works... I used to work at the mall at Sears before they shut down. So I apparently wasn't crushing it or anything.
But I used to work at the mall at Sears. People would come in with Hollister bags. And that's the best. Hollister is a clothing store that sells clothing. And on their advertisements, on their bags, is a picture of a guy from about ribs up with no clothes on. That's how Hollister advertises their clothing store.
A clotheless guy. Now, if they're not selling me something other than their product, I don't know what they're selling me. Like, you look at that and you go, Oh, I need to buy my clothes at Hollister. So I'll be cool enough to not wear clothes. Maybe if I buy enough of those shirts, I'll get abs like that guy. I'm going to need a lot of those shirts.
But the truth is, we're sold on the idea that we need more. That we're incomplete. It's the absolute antithesis of the gospel. That Jesus has completed everything on our behalf, and we're sold on the idea that if we could just have a little more. That we'd be better off if we just had a little more. And Paul says it's idolatry and put it to death.
But all of us walk around saying, Life will be good if. I'll know I'm okay if. I won't have to worry anymore if. And Paul says, Christ is your life. He's already done everything for you. So put it to death.
And the truth is, for some of us who have placed our faith in Jesus, we're still operating. Paul says this is earthly in us. We're still operating as if this were true. And Paul says, Get the guillotine out in your soul. Have an execution. And put it to death.
And for some of us, that's going to be a daily process of taking this and putting it to death. And reminding ourselves that Jesus already died. We died with him. He already rose and gave us life. And this does not hold the promise of life. And we don't have to live up to it or be enslaved to it to know that we have worth and value.
Jesus has already done it. So we can put this to death. That this died with us when we died with Christ. He keeps going. He says, On account of these, so on account of idolatry, on account of rebellion, the wrath of God is coming. We, I think, often like to believe that the wrath of God is not coming.
Or that God does not have wrath. And he does. He has wrath for sin, rebellion against him, worship of anything other than him. So we read in chapter 1 how magnificent, how holy, how exalted, how worthy he is, and how he created everything. And that his little creation turned around and said, nope, we want to worship ourselves. And we want to chase after smaller things.
And it says, on account of these, the wrath of God is coming. And the truth is, God has wrath and love. And that's what we see in the cross. Where God loves us enough to take wrath for us. So that he can bring wrath towards rebellion and not have to destroy everyone.
So that we who placed our faith in Jesus, he took our wrath on our account. Some of you in here have been hurt by evil people. God has wrath. He loves too much to not have wrath. The God who is love cannot sit in heaven and watch molestation, murder, lying, pain, heartache, rape, and not have wrath. If you show me a God who doesn't have wrath, I'll show you a God who doesn't love.
God is love, and he has wrath. And he loves enough to take our wrath for us. But those of you in here who have been hurt, and who have seen those who hurt you, go free. You don't have to pick up wrath. You don't have to take up the sword. God does.
And those who harmed you will have one of two things happen to them. They'll receive the same overwhelming, undeniable, undeserved grace that we've received. Because Jesus will have paid for their wrath. Or they'll receive the wrath of God. Sin will be paid for. The question is, will Jesus pay for it or will we?
So Paul says, On the count of these, the wrath of God is coming. In these two you once walked when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Jesus at one point says that, that from the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. And so some of us just have anger, and wrath, and malice, and bitterness inside of us. I've heard the example, and it's a simple one, but if I was holding a cup up here, you wouldn't know what was in it until I shook it.
And so some of us like to pretend like we're pretty nice people, but the truth is, we don't really know what's in our heart until it begins to overflow. Until we're pressed. And then we realize that, man, we're angrier than we thought. We have more wrath and slander and malice than we thought because of what I just shouted at my wife. Because of what I just yelled at my roommate. Because of what I'm saying about my parents behind their back.
Paul says, put it away. That we've been rescued and redeemed. We don't have to dwell with that anymore. Like, I know that there have been times in my life, people have told me before I'm not super emotional. And I used to be like, yeah, I'm emotional. I get angry and hungry.
Like, I have emotions. But there's been times where, that's all, that was really all I operated in was anger. Malice and wrath and slander. Paul says it doesn't fit with a Christian who's been forgiven. So put it away.
And we don't have to walk around with that. And we don't have to, because his wrath is coming, we don't have to be wrathful. We get to know that we're forgiven, so we get to forgive, and we get to know that God's sovereign, and that he'll take care of it. Then he says this, do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices, and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge, after the image of its creator. It feels to me, so he goes through this list of major idolatry, and then he goes through this heart level anger, and then he goes, and don't lie to each other.
And it's like, okay, that's helpful. That's good advice. And I know it's in a list of how we ought to exist with one another, but it's the first time he says one another, and he's not just kind of talking about what we pursue. And so it feels a little bit like he's showing us something more, and trying to help us more than just saying, hey, lying's not going to be helpful for you. See, what he says is, do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices, and put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge, after the image of its creator. we're being made to look more like Jesus.
And so Paul says, just be honest. He's taking a very real look at sin here. You see, he's not condemning us at any point, because condemnation would mean that we're judged based off of our ability to behave, and chapters 1 and 2 says that that's not true. That we couldn't behave, we couldn't get it together, we aren't moral enough, we aren't going to control our sexual desires, our desire for success, we're not going to be able to get rid of all the idols in our soul, and that Jesus had to die so that we could have life. And so, and then Paul goes right into chapter 2, right before he gets here, he says, you're not judged by morality, spirituality, effort.
You're judged by Jesus paying your debt. And then he says, so he says, put to death what is earthly in you. In these two you once walked, when you were living in them, now, now you must put them all away. So what he's saying is, look, I know this is in you. Paul's a human, he knows it's in him. At no point is he taking an unrealistic view of this, and acting as if you're judged or condemned by it.
And so what he says is, don't lie about it. Be real. We get to be real about the fact that we're broken. About the fact that we often pursue things that we think are going to give us life and that they aren't. Everyone in this room who's a Christian knows that value comes from Jesus, not from us. And so that when I stand up and tell you, here's how I messed up, we're not surprised.
People often would, non-Christians that were friends of mine, would be like, I can't believe you did that, you're a Christian. And I'd be like, whoa, entry exam to Christianity. I'm a horrible person. Listen, Jesus is awesome. It's not about our ability to behave. But that means we get to live like we're free.
We get to live in light of what's already happened. We get to live in light of the victory. So we get to throw open the gates and start the party. We don't have to live as slaves to chasing after other things and seeking life and small things anymore. As Paul says, don't lie. Be real about it.
John says this. He's one of Jesus' disciples. John says in 1 John, and we're going to put it up on the screen. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So John says, look guys, if you're going to say you're not sinful, if you're going to say you're not broken, you're going to say you've deceived yourself.
And I think you've deceived yourself in one of two ways. Either you believe that you're not sinful or you've actually deceived yourself enough to believe that you've got it together or you're deceived in thinking that we believe it. But I'm a Christian. I know everybody in this room is messed up. And I know that we all need Jesus. So Paul says this.
Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in the knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is no Jew, here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all. What Paul just said is, all the categories that we use to assign worth are gone. He's talking to a society that just knew that there were certain people that inherently had value and certain people didn't. That certain races were just worse than other ones. That certain types of people, certain people were just born to be slaves than they were supposed to be.
They had less value than the people who were supposed to be not slaves. Paul says, all the categories that you use to gauge whether or not you have value and worth are gone. Paul says, there's no good people and bad people. There's no moral churchgoers and heathens. There's no people who get it together and act right and those people that keep falling short. He says, Christ is all, which means that everything is about Jesus.
All worth and value and joy and hope are found in him. And he says he's in all, which means that Christ, as he dwells in us, gives us worth and value and joy and hope. So if Christ is all, all that matters, he's the only category that matters and he's in all, then we don't have to lie to each other. We get to be real about where we are, where we're struggling. We get to confess and repent and we get to put to death what's evil inside of us, what's earthly inside of us, where we're trying to pursue life, where we're angry and slanderous and off. So here's what we're going to do.
We're going to play some music so that we don't have a band up here that can't also do this and can't also operate as church family. We're going to play some music and we're going to repent, which is just that we confess that we're off, that we've been chasing other things and that we begin to change because the gospel gives us the freedom to do that. We're not repenting. We're not turning away from the sins so that we can have life. We're getting to live in light of what's already been accomplished. Every time I don't want to share and confess sin, all I'm saying is that deep down inside of me, I still believe that my value comes from me.
Deep down inside of me, functionally, I can say all I want to. I can stand up in front of you as much as I want and say that Jesus paid everything for me. If I'm not willing to be open with where I'm off and where I'm broken, what I'm saying is I don't really believe it. So Paul says, put it to death. I know it's there. Put it to death and live in light of what's already happened.
All Paul's saying is fling open the gates and start the party. No longer live in the slavery of my value comes from what I do. My value comes from what I can accomplish. No longer live in the slavery of if I could just have more, if I could just, I would find life. No longer live in the slavery. He's saying, you don't need to be huddled up in fear anymore.
The enemy's defeated. You don't need to be gathering weapons and coming up with plans of how you're going to succeed. The enemy's been defeated. Fling open the gates and start the party. And what that looks like as we put it to death is that we confess and we're open with where we're off and we're open with where we need Jesus to rescue and to fix and to redeem and to change us and to pay for a debt that we can't pay. So here's what we're going to do.
We're going to repent. We're going to play some music. We're going to sit in here and we're going to, as church family, we're going to move around. Some of us are going to need to talk to Jesus about some areas in our lives and our hearts, areas where we've been pursuing something else to give us value when our life's actually in heaven. Some of us who don't know Jesus, haven't placed our faith in Jesus, is open for you to repent, to ask Him to rescue and to redeem because life is only in Him. You're not going to find it anywhere else.
Some of us are going to need to talk to each other because there's been wrath and malice and slander. We're going to need to confess. We're going to ask for forgiveness. We're going to forgive because Jesus forgives. We're going to live in light of what's already been accomplished, that our worth and our value doesn't come from us, but it comes from Him. That we get to be real.
Some of us are going to need to step outside and make phone calls. We're going to do that. Some of us are going to start a conversation off like this. I'm going to want to lie to you the entire time we talk. I'm going to need you to ask me some real questions because I want so badly for the gospel to functionally dwell in me like it's true and the whole time I'm going to fight against that and try to hide. But I don't want to lie.
I don't want to hide. I don't need your help. Some of us are going to invite people in our church family to just end on what we're struggling with. I've been believing this is going to give me life and I just want a teammate. I just want somebody to pray with me. I don't want to pursue this anymore.
I want to live like the gospel is true. I want to fling open the gates and start the party. Then we're going to take communion. After we confess, after we talk, after we repent, Jesus says if we're at the altar and we realize that someone has something against us or we have something against someone else that's on us to go talk to them. So we're going to talk.
We're going to pray. We're going to actively live as if the gospel is true. We're going to do chapter 3 because we know chapter 1 and 2 are true. That Jesus paid our debt. He disarmed the enemy. The victory has been won.
We're going to fling open the gates. We're going to be honest. We're going to be real. And then we're going to party. We're going to sing and make much of Jesus and celebrate the fact that we get to be church family because of what he's done for us. I'm going to pray.
We're going to move around. We're going to talk to each other. We're going to live like the gospel is true. God, I thank you that at no point does my value come from my ability to behave. I thank you that at no point does my value come from my good morals, my wise decisions, my pure heart. God, we so often in this room believe that other things hold our life, that our life is hidden in something other than you.
God, and I pray that through your Holy Spirit you would convict us, that you would lead us to repentance and to the joy that comes from the freedom from slavery to sin. God, so impress upon us the victory that's already been won that we will come out of the darkness, out of fear, fling open the gates, and live in light of the fact that you give us worth by your death, that you give us life by your resurrection, that our value and our hope is not seated in us, that our life is not hidden in us, but it's hidden in you. Lead us now. In Jesus' name.
Discernment Radar Wk. 1
Colossians 2:1-7
Transcript
Okay, so we're in chapter 2. Here's the thing. Our culture is confused when it comes to a lot of stuff. Like, we're all over the place. I think some of it has to do with we have the internet now, and so we have all this access to information. I saw a thing that said, if you met somebody from 100 years ago, the most difficult thing to explain to them would be that you have a device in your pocket that gives you access to all the information in the world, and you use it to watch videos of cats and to get into arguments with strangers.
So, like, that's what we have access to. We got a phone book was sent to our house the other day, and my wife was like, do you want this? And I was like, no, I know where the internet is. Like, I can get there, so I don't need a phone book. But the truth is, we've got a lot of information, and not a really good way to sort it.
We have a lot of information. We have access to studies. We have access to what scientists are learning. We have access to what great minds in the world think, but we don't have a really good way to filter it. And so I even got to just thinking about simple things. I remember when I was growing up, milk was, like, super good for you.
And then for a while it was like, well, we're not so sure it's good for you. Like, it doesn't help your bones as much as we thought, and it might be the reason you're fat. Like, there was just like, so now you can have skim milk, which is basically white water. It's just lying to you. It's not actually milk. And so, like, there was, and then it came back, and it was like, no, milk's good.
And they had the big advertising. And so I was just, so I just got on Google and started typing in why blank is, and then Google fills it in for you. So I did milk first. Why milk is, and immediately my options are bad for you, because Google fills in related searches. So why milk is bad for you, why milk is good for you, why milk isn't good for you, which is the same as the one above it.
It's just trickier. Why milk is white and why milk is bad for cats. Those are the things you can search when it comes to milk. So I could get on Google, and I could stand up here and give you reasons why milk is bad or why milk is good just as easily. So I started thinking, okay, if milk has this, what else do we have that's pretty baseline stuff that Google's going to help me either fight for or fight against.
The next one is water. Why water is important. Why water is good for you. Why water is so important. Why water is bad for you. Why water is important for life.
At least bad for you is further down the line than on milk. But there's probably some sort of a study that proves that water is bad for you that scientists did. Just for the record, water is not bad for you, unless we're in one of the boil water things that Columbia does constantly, because we can't apparently not need to boil our water on a regular basis. So water, I did eating. So eating, pretty baseline thing.
Why eating is important. Why eating is good. Why eating is important for weight loss. I need to check that one later. Why eating is bad for you. Here to tell you, there's two things you need to stay away from.
It's water and eating. The internet says they're bad for you. I did sleeping, because I thought if people had a problem with eating, why sleeping is good, important to your health, healthy, so important, why sleeping is awesome. The internet agrees. Nobody's making an argument against sleeping. Sleeping is great.
It just got better. As you went, ends in awesome. Nobody's like why sleeping is bad for you. The internet would get rid of them. That person would be wrong. So we have people willing to argue that you shouldn't eat, but nobody's against sleeping.
Then I started doing some things that are really important to me. Bacon. Why bacon is bad for you. Why bacon is healthy. Why bacon is amazing. Why bacon is called bacon.
Why bacon is the best food ever. Which really doesn't even need to be on the internet. If you've had bacon, you know why it's the best food ever. And then I checked another one that really means a lot to me. It's fried chicken. Why fried chicken is bad.
Bad for you. Unhealthy, good for you. But right there in the middle, why fried chicken is racist. And I'll tell you, that made me feel so good about fried chicken. Because you know how people would be like, meat is murder and stuff. This fried chicken is racist.
I'm glad we killed it. People would be like, you shouldn't eat so many chickens. What about a chicken? I'd be like, you want this racist chicken to live? This chicken hated Filipinos. And I'm glad that it died.
It deserved it. Now pass me the hot sauce. So just so you know, fried chicken deserves to die. It's racist. All of us should eat fried chicken and get rid of racism. Because those racist fried chickens.
I guess if you bake it, it's not racist. They only take the racist ones and fry them, I guess. I don't know how that works. But here's the thing. We have access to an inordinate amount of information. We have access to studies and all of this kind of stuff.
And people would back these things up with facts and reasons why. And you'll hear all the time, well, studies have shown or doctors say. And we've got all of this coming in. And we don't have a really good way to sort it out. We have a constant flow of information. But we don't have a good way of filtering what's good and what's bad and what's healthy and what's right.
And I'm not even just talking about, those are just fun examples. I'm not talking about when it just comes to food. But in more important life issues, we are constantly bombarded with ways to think, ways to feel. And we just don't have a good framework in America for how we handle that. How we process what's good and healthy, right, wrong, or otherwise. And so we're in the sixth week of Colossians.
And Paul is writing this book to the Colossian church. And a lot of times Paul would write a letter to a church and he'd have a specific thing that he was mad about. Like that he was angry about or that he was fighting against. In 1 and 2 Corinthians, he's answering specific questions. There are even times where you can tell he's like quoting them in response. Like you said this, let me respond to that.
In the book of Galatians, he's arguing against people that said you needed to be good Jewish people in order to be good Christians. And so Paul doesn't beat around the bush. He starts off with like, hey, my name's Paul. What the heck is wrong with y'all? And like he says some really mean things in the book of Galatians. That's why it's one of my favorite books.
He just goes after them when it comes to adding religion to Jesus. And so in the book of Colossians, he doesn't really do that. He talks about, you can see that he's talking about different concepts. And so it seems as if more he's combating just culture around them and culture inside the church that was slowly pulling them away from Jesus. And so it wasn't a big thing. It wasn't this one specific area, but it was just this constant onslaught.
And so it actually is helpful for us because we're in the same situation. I saw a statistic that said, because studies have shown, that the average American is going to see 2,000 to 5,000 advertisements a day. 2,000 to 5,000 advertisements a day. So thousands of times a day, we're going to be told, you need this to be happy. You need this to be complete. You need this to have fun.
You need seven razors to shave your face and not just four. Loser. Like we're going to be told over and over again that we need something else to make us happy, to make us complete, to fulfill us. I saw a statistic that said the average American watches 34 hours of television a week. Now in some places, that's a full-time job.
Definitely a part-time job. 34 hours a week. That's average. So some people in this room probably watch a little more, some people a little less. But here's the thing.
Each of us for hours a week are having worldview pumped into our brain. How we should think about romance. How we should think about finances. How we should look at success. How we should know what masculinity and femininity is. Like what makes a man a man and what's to be honored in females.
Like we're having that pumped into our brains. And how do we sort out what's helpful, what's right, what's good, and what's not. So that's what Paul is going to point them to. And so what we're working to do for the next two times that we get together is to build a discernment radar. We just want to have something. Discernment just means to make a good decision, to judge rightly.
And so Paul's giving them, he's equipping them in chapter two to discern well, to judge rightly. And so radar just means something that, you know, the little, when you're watching a movie and the little thing's spinning around and they're like watching for an enemy aircraft or something and it's just the little green thing. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah, radar, yeah. And then it goes, boop, boop. You know, they can see it or whatever.
That's what we're talking about. So we're talking about we all have some sort of a system to gauge what's coming in and whether it's healthy, good, or right. And so some people in this room, we all have one. You all have some way that you gauge what's coming in. Some of us, super intense, like we're way over here. We believe like stuff our grandmother said and maybe some things Billy Graham said.
And if you're the president of the United States, but it depends on which team you're on. We'll listen to you a little bit. Like that's it. Like we have like a very tight amount of who we'll listen to. And then some people more in the middle. Well, we have some gauge for how we what we believe and what we won't believe.
And then some people just pretty much we don't have a system at all. If it just sounds good. It's like, cool, that's true. And so here's the thing. We've gotten to where we're so used to having information pumped in that we've stopped sorting it. We've stopped thinking through what's good and right.
And the truth is, it's the same way that water can run over a rock and and bore out a channel. And it's happened slowly and it happens over time. But eventually, a river running over rock will dig its own hole. And for some of us, that's what culture is doing to us. We have constant cultural onslaught of information and ways that we should believe. And we don't notice it.
But it's happening slowly and slowly and slowly to where we're drifting and how we think and what we believe. And so that's what we're going to be looking at in Colossians. We'll be in chapter two. And so I'm going to go ahead and start reading. Verse one. For I want you to know.
This is Paul writing to the church. For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea. And for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the fullness of assurance and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. And so he says, I want you to know how much I struggle for you, how much I'm fighting for this, that you may be encouraged being knit together in love.
So he says that y'all would be together. Being knit together in love to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom, in Jesus, are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible argument. So he says, I want you to be knit together so that you can grow in Christ. And I'm telling you this so people won't delude you, trick you with things that sound smart. That's what he's talking about.
So here's the thing. Paul's going to say that what our discernment radar is, and that's all we're talking about tonight is what it is. The next time we get together, we'll talk specifically about how it functions and how we kind of catch things. But what he's talking about tonight is what it is. And he says this. It's submission to Jesus in the context of community.
So we hold things up to Jesus in the context of community, that we were knit together so that we can grow in the fullness of understanding of Christ. You can go ahead and skip to the Colossians slide. Don't show the one with the other. Yeah, there you go. We'll get to the other one later. There you go.
Yeah. That we would be together and we would submit things to Christ. So here's what happens. We constantly have a lot of viewpoints pumped into our brains. And so I think sometimes as Christians, we like run into the bookstore and we run over to the Christian living section and we feel like we're at home base or something like safe. That sign says Christian.
Or we flip it through the channels and we cut it to like, oh, TV preacher, we're good. He's going to talk about good Bible things. That's not actually always the case. We have to submit everything to Jesus. We have to submit everything to Christ. It's about him.
And so what's the criteria for how we do this? Like what's the criteria for even with Christian things? Like they have cool hair. Is that like what we're shooting for? They have a TV show. So obviously, I know what they're talking about.
That they pastor something. I wish that was true. I wish that if someone was pastoring a church, that meant that they were pointing people to Jesus. But that's not always true. What is it? They seem trustworthy.
Like they wrote a book. They have a doctor in front of their name or a PhD after it. See, a lot of times we have information being sold to us, given to us, we're reading books about, and it actually isn't pointing us to Jesus. And so what Paul says is it's got to be in submission to Christ. It's got to point us to Jesus. It's got to be about him.
So you heard about blood moons? Anybody? Not in a long, some people have heard about blood moons. People, a guy wrote a book about blood moons, because there's going to be blood moons this year, which a blood moon is a way that Jewish people describe a certain type of lunar eclipse, I think, or solar eclipse, but I think it's a lunar eclipse. And so they're freaking out because there are blood moons, which is a type of lunar eclipse, landing on major Jewish holidays. There's a big book written about it.
And it's a Christian book about how we as Christians should be thinking about, worried about blood moons and what they mean for us. Okay, first of all, it's not a super big deal that blood moons land on Jewish holidays, because Jewish holidays follow a lunar calendar. So if there's ever going to be a blood moon, it's going to be on a Jewish holiday, just for the record. So that's how that works. Secondly, the Bible mentions a few things about prophetic, the moon will turn to blood, but it does not camp out there, and it's not a major thing, and it's not super described. And so for us to run off into some sideline small issue that doesn't point us to Jesus is actually not appropriate.
Because Paul says, the understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. So if we have any Christian teacher standing up and pointing us to some hidden treasure, some hidden mystery, and it's not in Jesus, they're actually pointing us in the wrong direction. And so I've actually gotten into conversations with people before, Christians who are telling me, oh, but these blood moons. Somebody said, but Jewish scholars say, and I let them just talk for a while, and then I said, yeah, Jewish scholars miss Jesus when they're studying the Old Testament.
And the Old Testament's about Jesus, so I'm glad they found this blood moon stuff, but I'm not sure they're hitting on much when it comes to how we're supposed to grow and know and what we understand to be true. Harold Camping, anybody know who this cat is? He had a radio program. He did Bible math. Numerology, I think is what they call it. It's where you take random Numbers in the Bible, and then you do math, which sounds horrible.
And then he figured out when Jesus was coming back, when the world was going to end, I think is how he did it. And so there was a bunch of, like, billboards. This was a big thing up in Lynchburg, where I was at the time, but, like, it was a thing. And he said the world was going to end at 6 p.m. Which time zone, bro? Like, how's that going to work?
Is it Eastern Standard Time? And some people asked him, because he said that, and people asked him, and he was like, at 6 p.m., wherever you are. Which means that the world's going to end until it hits a time zone and wait. No, no, no, wait for it. Wait for it. There we go.
It doesn't make any sense. And what he's saying is he's found secrets, he's found mysteries, he's found knowledge, he's found understanding, and it's not in Jesus, it's in something else. And so what Paul's going to say is that if anybody comes with mystery, secret, knowledge, wisdom, and they're pointing you to something other than Jesus, it's not right. Now, those examples are a little bit easier, although they are big mainstream Christian things. But how do we do this in a very simple day-to-day basis?
How do we know if the information that our aunt or our best friend just told us over coffee points us to Jesus or doesn't? How do we have a functioning radar for when people are talking to us that we grow in our knowledge of the gospel, that we grow in following Jesus or something else? So I'll give you a few examples. You're a dude, and you're wanting to get married. You have a desire to meet a lady and to get married. And so you're talking to someone about this, and it's like your aunt, and she's super nice and has really cool blue hair, and so she's talking to you about how to meet a lady.
She's Christian, you know, in church, and her advice to you is make yourself a good gift, that God gives good gifts, and so you need to make yourself a good gift. So you need to get your finances in order. You need to have a job. You need to, you know, if you're a little bit overweight, like you need to get healthy. Like her advice is make yourself a good gift, and then God will give you as a good gift to someone else. And that's the advice.
Okay. That's actually not bad advice, but does that point us to Jesus? Is that what the gospel says? That we work on ourselves, that we make ourselves good, and then he owes us? Is that the gospel? That you do good religious things, and then God owes you something?
No. It's that we're completely messed up, that we don't deserve anything, and that in his grace he grants us things. That in his grace he gives us things. So yes, good advice. Take a shower. Yes, use shampoo.
Get a job. Sure. Quit eating things that end in Edo. Absolutely. But God doesn't owe you anything on the back end of that.
You don't earn a spouse from God that way. That's not how that works, and that actually doesn't point you to Jesus. It points you to legalism. It points you to moralism. It points you to hard work, and then he owes you something. And so nice advice, but wisdom, knowledge, mystery wasn't found in it because it didn't point you to Jesus.
Okay. You're a, um, you're female, and you've gone from guy to guy. She's gone from guy to guy, and she's constantly just needs a man to be in relationship with, to have a relationship with, to know that she's okay. She has to have a man, and so this has been a problem. It's kind of derailed some things in her life, and so she's sitting with a counselor, and the counselor tells her, here's what you need. You need to get a job.
You need to be successful. You need to be able to stand on your own two feet, and then you won't need a man. You'll be your own person. That's the counsel that's been given. Okay. Is that good advice?
Does that point us to Jesus, or does that point us to something else? Where, where are we trying to grow? Do we, as we take in advice, as people say these things to us, we have to submit it and see, how does this fit with the gospel? How does this fit with what we know about Jesus? Okay. The truth is, she does need a man, and his name is Jesus.
She's not complete by herself. She doesn't need to be self-sufficient. Getting a job is fine, if she needs to be able to operate on her own, but the goal isn't to be a successful, self-made woman, to be empowered. She actually needs to find rest, and hope, and life, and be a complete person because of Jesus. And then, yeah. Have a man, don't have a man.
Be successful in a job. Don't be successful in a job. But the goal isn't to find something outside of herself on earth to make herself complete, but to find Jesus, to rest in him, to find fulfillment and satisfaction in him, so that what she's looking for in a man, she finds in Jesus. So, yeah. Get a job. Don't have to have a man.
Sure. But realize that hope and life is found in Jesus. All right. Here's one. I've seen this a good bit. Hanging out with some people, Christian people.
Somebody's, like, super depressed. Just, maybe not even depressed isn't the word, but, like, just feels, unworthy feels, like there's no, there's no way God loves me. They have this guilt. And so what I've seen people do is they'll sit around them and start telling them why they're special, why they're good, why they're loved. Here's all the great things about you. And so it could be a spouse, sit down and say, here's why you're wonderful.
Here's why you're good. Here's why you should feel good about yourself. Or it could be a group of guys in, like, a community group, and one of them is just like, man, I just feel, every time I mess up, I mess up so much, and I just don't feel like God could love me. And everybody says, no, you're doing great. You're trying really hard, and you did that nice thing for that kid two months ago. Remember?
Remember that? You pumped up his basketball. Like, God wrote that down, and he loves you. And, like, they do this, like, you should feel good about yourself. And the truth is, that's encouraging. That's nice to say to someone.
But if my standing before God is based off of how I feel about myself and how good I feel like I'm being at the moment, you're not pointing me to Jesus. You're pointing me to me. And as soon as I stop feeling good about myself, I bottom out again because my rest and my hope is in something other than Jesus. And so what they ought to say is, hey, man, be encouraged for these things. This is where Jesus is at work in you. And know this.
You don't have to feel good about yourself. Jesus loves you regardless. And you don't have to have it together. Jesus died for you because you don't and because you never will. And then we get to point to Jesus and we get to grow in the gospel and we get to find riches of knowledge and wisdom and mystery because we submit everything to Jesus. And so we have to have a functioning radar for how we do that so that when someone says something to us, we can gauge, is this gospel?
Does this help me grow closer to Jesus? Are you pointing me to Jesus or is this something else? Are you pointing me to me? Are you pointing me to something outside of me? Do I need a job or a man? Like, what are you pointing me to?
And just for the record, don't point me to a man. I'm not going to take the bait. We have to have something, some way that we functionally walk that out. And so Paul says this. He says he's praying that their hearts would be knit together in love, their hearts be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the fullness of assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this, that no one may delude you with plausible argument.
He says, I want you to be together and I want you to know that everything's found in Jesus. And I'm telling you that so that you won't be led astray by plausible arguments. He doesn't say dumb things. He says stuff that sounds smart. Plausible argument. Yeah, actually sounds pretty good.
That's what leads us astray. Not when someone tells us something blatantly stupid. But when someone says something that sounds pretty good. So he says, I want you to be together. And so that's our discernment radar. Submission to Jesus in the context of community.
That we actually have people around us that we're knit together in love. So that we can reach the fullness, the full assurance of the gospel and that we won't be led astray. So really practically, we're going to land on a few things that we just need to know. Here's what we do. Here's how this happens. Oh, sorry.
I already went to my last page and then I hid it for myself. Anyway, here's practically how this happens. Somebody tells you something, you hear something, you read something, you don't just accept it, you think. Does this line up with the gospel? Does this line up with Jesus? And then when you've thought about it, you take it to a team, you've got a team, and you say, hey, other believers who know me, this is what I think this is saying.
Is this smart? This is what my aunt told me. Didn't seem to make a whole lot of sense, although I did take a shower. Like, is this, is this, does this line up with the gospel? And then your teammate gets to say, well, have you thought about this? Have you thought about that?
Like, this doesn't really line up. And this passage says this, and we get a team. We get to do this in community. So practically, just a few things this means for us. It has to be Bible, not just books. We have to have Bible, not just books.
What I mean by that is this, we have to know what this says about Jesus. We can't just read what other people say this says about Jesus. So in college, I used to work out a good bit. I worked out a good bit in high school, playing football, and different times I was trying to put on weight. And I would take supplements like protein powder and creatine and, you know, Explode, some different supplements. And so there's stores at the mall that sell just straight up supplements.
And so, they are to help you put on weight or bulk or whatever. They tell you they do all kinds of things. Some of them, I think, are more helpful than others. But they're supplements to you exercising, to you lifting weights, working out. They're supplements. If somebody asked me, hey man, what kind of workout program are you on?
I was like, I eat creatine three times a day. Yeah, but what kind of workout program? I just told you the creatine plan. It's like, you know, you've got to lift weights and run. There's got to be, that supplements what you're doing. The truth is, books, commentaries, devotionals, they supplement us spending time with Jesus.
Now, here's the thing. One of the pushbacks a lot of times for reading the Bible is a couple of things. One is, I don't know where to start. Start in the book of John. Or if you're walking with us, start in the book of Colossians. Study it along with us.
Read it ahead of us and be studying in it. I don't know where to start. I don't know what Bible version to use. There's a bunch of them. We can have conversations about that. And some people will be like, well, the Bible's confusing.
Yes, sometimes it is. But here's the thing. The disciples who hung out with Jesus all the time were constantly confused by him. Because he'd be like, here's the gospel. It's like a tree. You plant that tree in your garden.
And he would talk and then he'd walk off and they'd be like, I don't know who he's talking about. What kind of tree did he say it was? Like, constantly confused. He would look at them and say just straight up, I'm going to die. They're going to deliver me over into the hands of men. They're going to kill me and three days later, I'm going to come back.
And then it would say that he left and it would be like, none of them knew what he meant, but they didn't ask him. So you know they were having conversations. No, no, John, you ask him. I ain't asking him. I asked him last time. See the look he gave me?
So, here's the thing. Study this. Catch 60% of it. And grow and grow and grow in your understanding of the Bible. You should rather be confused by Jesus than to understand completely the nonsense that someone else tells you. You should rather that happen.
We need to be Bible people. It has to be Bible, then books, then movies. All right. They made the TV show The Bible miniseries. Okay. Then, the show did well.
Then they wrote a book about the show. So they took the Bible and they made a show about it. And then the show did well, so they took the Bible show and wrote a book about it. Which is great, because now we have all our favorite Bible stories in book form, which we already had. And here's the thing. Some of us are, we grow, we learn by watching Bible shows and by reading the Bible stories, Bible show, miniseries, book thing, which it says, based off of the Bible miniseries.
And I wanted to say, that was based off of the Bible. We've got to read the Bible first. We've got to grow in that. And that way, when somebody tells us something, we have a framework for, uh, not, because I read this. And here's the thing. We say the Bible's confusing.
We get to do this in community. So we read the Bible and then we go talk to other people. I was reading this. I think this is what it's saying. Is that what it's saying? Is that what he means here?
The other thing is this, and you need to realize this as a Christian. For those of us in this room who've placed our faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit of God actually dwells in us, which we talked about. Paul says this is a profound mystery, that Christ is in us. The Holy Spirit authored Scripture. So he knows what it means and can teach us.
So there are times, this happens probably about once a week. I'll be reading Scripture and I'll read something and I'll just be like, I don't fully know what that, what you're trying to say, like what I'm supposed to take from that, what that's supposed to mean. It just seems like it's a story or just, and so I'll pray, God, if you want me to understand this, tell me. He wrote it. It'd be like if you had the author of the book with you and you could say, what was this whole thing about? Chapter three was weird.
Like you get to do that and so I just ask, tell me. And then I'll read it again and if I still don't get it, I just assume he didn't want me to know and I move on. I don't let it stress me out. I understand enough of the Bible to stress me out. Like I understand enough of it to know where I ought to be doing and how I ought to be walking and the things that I don't get, I just assume he'll teach me later. We get to do that.
So we get to be Bible first so that we get to know Jesus, so that we know if things submit to him. It has to be community, not just crowd. So Bible, not just books, community, not just the crowd. What I mean by that is don't take, oh yeah, I talked to other Christians because I read a review online. You actually have to, if we're going to process what's coming in and what we're being taught and what we're trying to believe and how we're trying to function, we actually have to have people around us. He says be knit together.
It should almost be awkward if we're doing things on our own because we're so used to being in community. It has to be people that are actually around you, that actually know how you walk in life because the truth is this. The people in my community group know that approval isn't a big thing for me. I don't super struggle with approval. It's more success. I don't care if you like me, I just want you to think I'm awesome.
That's a thing for me. And so I talk to my community group about this. And so when I have a life decision coming in, something I've got to think through, I get to bring them in on it and they already know me so they can actually give me helpful advice. They can see where I'm chasing after wrong things. They can say, well this isn't really something that you're pursuing for wrong reasons because we know you, we've been around you. And you want actual community because you need people to say hard things to you sometimes.
You need people that care enough about you to say real stuff and that know enough about you to be able to do that accurately. So it's got to be community. It's got to be actual people around. Here's the difference between me watching somebody I don't know about to do something stupid and me watching someone I do know about to do something stupid. Someone I don't know. That fool's about to hurt himself.
And then you just watch. You just, I think this is going to be really bad. So I'm watching this. Like this is what I'm doing at the party now. I'm going to watch this guy hurt himself. And then if I know them, I'd be like, hey fool, you about to hurt yourself.
And then you still get to watch. And that honestly is some of the difference between community and just people that are around. You need people around you enough to call you out, to talk to you, to say real things with you and to know you well enough to be able to do that accurately. You need people around you. The thing about blind spots is that you can't see them. And so if you're processing things and there's a giant blind spot in your life and you just don't realize it, you may make some poor decisions or you may not line things up well.
But if you've got people around you, just say, hey, you don't realize this about yourself, but I see this pattern and actually be helpful. And it makes life way easier and way better. That's what Paul says he struggles for. He says, this I'm struggling for, that you'd be knit together in love. I want you to be community. I want you to actually care about each other.
Okay. We've got to study the Bible. We've got to know the Bible. It's got to be Bible, then other things. And then we can actually decide whether those other things are helpful. And it's got to be community, not just a crowd of people, not just people around that we every once in a while sit down and say, hey, here's the situation.
I'm going to give you the gist of it. Is this smart? Because all you did was give them the stuff you're seeing. So of course they'll agree with you most often. But if you've got people around you who say, actually, yeah, but don't you know this is how you're pursuing this and this is what's going on with you?
It's actually more helpful. So it's got to be community, actually people around. We get to have faith. So don't freak out. We get to have faith. I've gotten to go out of the country a couple of times.
Not a lot, and I hope to do it some more, but it's always funny to me when you're leaving the country and coming back into the country because there's customs. And customs is like when you come in or out of the country as a foreign person or coming back into the country and they have to check your passport and they ask you questions and stuff. And it takes a super long time to walk through. But like I've been in four and you walk up and they're like, are you checking anything into the country that you should not bring with you? Like do you have anything that is illegal? They just ask you.
And you're like, nope. No ma'am, I am not. And then she looks at you and she's like, checks out. And like they don't check at all. Like they don't look at your bags. They just ask you.
And you're like, okay. Like I could have smuggled all kinds of things in here. And so some of us, that's been our radar. Is this bad for me? No. Seems legit.
Like that's how, that's our customs process. This person said it with their mouth so it's got to be true. Read it on the internet. Like that commercial with that guy. It's like everything on the internet is true and he shows up and she's like, he's French. And he's like, oh yeah, bonjour.
Like that. Like that's our, that's our process. We just believe it because we read it or because someone said it. And then, all right, so, but don't, don't freak out. We get to have faith and so sometimes you're somewhere and they've got like the drug dogs. So it's like an armed officer.
Got one on the side. Maybe he's holding one. He's got a, an intense looking dog. Like a scary, pointy ear. No nonsense. Like you don't see that dog and think, I need to pat his head.
Like, you know, that dog's got a job to do. He means business. He's got this look that like scares children and stuff like that. Like he's, he's in the zone and, and they're looking for drugs and it's a serious thing. What I am not saying, when we build a discernment radar, I am not telling you to go live in the woods and be afraid of everything or to start a website where you just look for stuff to argue with. That's not, that's not what we're talking about.
Fruit beagles. That's what we want. When you're coming back into the country, they have fruit beagles, which is a beagle, still an officer, walking around with a dog that is smelling for fruit because it's actually not good for us to go to another country and bring fruit back to the U.S. because it can have bugs that we're not ready for. And it can actually, like, you could bring an apple back and it could decimate crops here. And so, that's what we want. We want something that, we're not always having to be super intense, we're not always having to start pick fights with people, but we have some process for how we bring things in, how we know to check whether or not something's good.
We have the ability to submit it to Jesus in the context of community. I always like it when the fruit beagle comes by because I know he's being helpful. You do look at him and think, I can pet this dog if I wanted to. Like, he's still got a job to do but he's not crazy and I'm never worried because why would I have fruit? Now, if they bring a bacon beagle by, I might be in trouble but it's like, I never have fruit. We're okay.
Me and you, we're okay beagle. And so, we just, we want to have some process. So, you just need to be willing to know that we have to have a process and we get to have faith. Here's the thing, we're not going to always get this right. We're going to believe some stupid things. We're going to not believe some good things.
And we get to walk that out in the context of community and we get to constantly push towards finding hope and depth and wisdom and knowledge in Jesus. And here's how he lands this. This is what he says. We'll start in verse 5. For though I'm absent in body, yet I'm with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. Therefore, so therefore meaning all this stuff we just talked about, that you would be knit together, you'd have a community, you'd submit everything to Jesus.
Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him, established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. We get to rest. We get to have joy. We get to be in community and we get to talk about real stuff and we get to have joy. We get to abound in thanksgiving. We get to, therefore, as you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him, established in the faith.
Here's the thing. All of us received Christ Jesus in the same way. We were messed up. We had fallen short. We were not going to fix our lives or get it together. And Jesus came and lived perfectly on our behalf and died for our mistakes, died for our rebellion, died for our errors, died for our inability to fix the situation.
And then he rose again three days later so that he could fix the problem for us. So that he could take care of our errors, so he could take care of our sin, our rebellion, our brokenness, and we place our faith in him. Not our good works, not our intelligence, our faith. That he was good on our behalf and that he gives us life. That he paid for our sins. He paid our penalty and he gives us life.
That's how we receive Christ. That's how we're rooted in him. That's how we're built up. Not in our ability to work really hard. Not in our ability to have a really good discernment radar and not do stupid things. That we get to follow him.
Yeah, we get to have that. We get to follow him in faith. That he's good and that he'll teach us and that he'll train us and that ultimately it's up to him, not up to us. And then we get to do this in community and we get to abound in thanksgiving. We get to have joy in relationship with each other as we try to follow Jesus and we try to point each other to Jesus. That's us.
That's what we get to do. That's our discernment radar. Submission to Jesus in the context of community. Band's going to come back up and we're going to sing. We're going to abound in thanksgiving. We're going to make much of Jesus.
And then we get together next time, not next week, but next time. We're going to talk about specifically things that we need to be on guard for. Specifically why we have a discernment radar. What it is we need to be looking for. What it is we need to be in defense of. But ultimately we get to rest in Jesus and our faith is in him not in anything else.
I'm going to pray and then we're going to sing. God, we thank you for your grace. We thank you that we get to be built up in our faith in you. That in you is found knowledge and wisdom and life. So we praise you and we thank you.
We ask, Lord, that we would submit things to you. That we would be willing to test what comes in. Know what's good and keep it. Know what's bad and get rid of it. We ask for you to lead us in this. Give us community.
Help us to grow closer to you. In Jesus' name. Amen.