Missional Community

Colossians 4:1-18

Missional Community

Matt Freeman

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All right, well, again, I'm glad you guys are with us for tonight because we're actually coming to the close of our summer-long series, Colossians. It's all about Jesus. And it has just been so good for us to walk through this as a church family. And if you're adding up, we've covered Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3. And so tonight we're actually going to be looking at all of Chapter 4. So if you've got your Bibles, go ahead and grab them.

We've got much ground to cover tonight. If you don't have a Bible, if you just look kind of in between the seats, we've got some of our blue and white Bibles for you. If you don't have a Bible, we'd love for you to have that one. Take that one. That's our gift to you. And church family, if you know someone who doesn't have a Bible and you'd like to take one to them, please, that's what those are for as well.

Okay, so again, we've got much ground to cover tonight. But it has been so good, so good for us to walk through this letter as a church family over the summer. Wouldn't you guys agree? It's been good just for us to study this because Paul is writing this letter to a relatively young church and a relatively healthy church. And so it's been great to walk through because he's legitimately pointing them to the fact that it's all about Jesus and how that plays out in their personal faith and in their relationships. And so for us as a young, healthy church, we've been able to look at that and see how can we continue to grow and continue to move forward.

And we've gotten to grow in a couple of different ways. First of all, we've been able to grow in our understanding of the gospel. So if you think back over the last, over the first chapter and the second chapter, we see beautiful language where Paul basically makes us drink from a fire hydrant in terms of trying to understand about Jesus. He's going to use beautiful language like Jesus is the image of the invisible God. He's the creator of all things. He's the son of God.

He's going to talk about what Jesus does, that he reconciles all things to himself, making peace by the blood of his cross. And in light of that, the gospel being who Jesus is and what he's done, what does that mean for us? Paul's going to write and say that we were a people who were alienated, hostile in mind, doing evil deeds. We're incapable of fixing that relationship on our own. But based off of what Jesus has done on our behalf, it's going to use language like redeemed, transferred into the kingdom of his beloved son, qualified, forgiven.

And so we've been able to walk through that and grow in our understanding of the gospel. And over the last four weeks, what we've done is we've transitioned a little bit. And we've moved from this vertical idea of focusing on Jesus. And in light of that, in light of who we are, we've transitioned and started to look at, okay, in light of that, how am I supposed to live? So in light of who I am in Jesus, how am I supposed to live?

And basically we've seen the way that our faith impacts relationships. Paul's going to say things like seek things that are above, put to death sinful practices. He's going to talk about the things that we should put on, characteristics, marks of a Christian should be that we love one another, that we forgive one another, we bear with one another, patience with one another, that we should be open and honest with one another. We should encourage each other with the word of God. We should let the word of God dwell richly in us. And this past week, what we looked at is how the gospel impacts some of our most important relationships.

We talked about husbands and wives. We talked about parents and children. And we talked about masters and bond servants, whereas the way we looked at it, we looked at employers and employees. And so what we're going to see in chapter four is that Paul ends this letter with a resounding call. And what we're going to see is that churches that are focused on the gospel and are living that out in community, the natural outflow of that is going to be mission. And that's what we're going to be talking about tonight.

We're going to be talking about mission. And so I'm really excited about it. We've got a lot of ground to cover. And so before we jump into the scripture, I'd like to pray for us. You guys join me. Let's pray.

God, thank you for inviting us into what you're doing. Thank you for bringing us into a relationship with you, for bringing us into a church family, into a community of believers. God, my prayer is tonight that you would teach us what it looks like to be a part of your mission, to live on mission. In Jesus' name, amen. Okay, so if you've got your Bibles, we're going to be in Colossians chapter four, beginning in verse two. And if you've got the blue and white ones, it's actually going to be page 639.

Here we go, 4-2. Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ on account of which I am in prison, that I may make it clear which is how I ought to speak. Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. And again, we're going to start with the first couple of verses, so read it with me again.

Verse two, verse two and three. Once again, continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ on account of which I am in prison. I love this. I really do. All throughout the letter that Paul is writing to the church at Colossae, he is talking about prayer.

From the very beginning to the very end, he's encouraging them in what it looks like to pray. And he's encouraging them to be steadfast in prayer, and he's saying, pray for us. Now remember, Paul's currently in prison, and his prayer is not, Lord, help me get out of jail. What is he praying? Look at it again. He says, pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ, to declare the gospel to those that are in.

I love that. Chapters one and two, we're going to use language where Paul says things like, I struggle and I labor in prayer. We're going to see that even later in this chapter. And every time I get there, it just strikes me. And I have to stop and think, man, when was the last time I struggled and labored for something in prayer? What about you?

And that just strikes me as odd, because I know that Paul and Epaphras and others that we're going to see later are in jail. And I'd be praying to get out of jail, but they're not. And the reason that they're not is they've realized that they get to still be part of the mission right where they are. They're not praying to get out of jail. They're praying that they would make the most of the opportunity that they have in jail to share the gospel. Because Paul, Epaphras, and some of these guys realize something that's hugely important for us as a church.

And I want us to grasp this. What we see in Matthew 16, Jesus says that he's going to build his church. And then he gives his mission to his church. And we're going to see that Jesus is going to send his Holy Spirit on the church to bring about repentance, to bring about change. And I'm going to use that word a lot tonight, so I want to make sure we unpack it. Repentance is realizing that we have sin.

It's confessing our sin, believing that Jesus can forgive it, and turning away from it. That is active repentance. So the Holy Spirit bringing about repentance. Paul realizes that he gets to be a part of the mission still. And he's asking for opportunities because he realizes that it's not about him. It's not his job to save people.

He just gets to be obedient. That's why he's praying for opportunities. And so Paul is pouring himself out for the gospel and for the mission. And since mission is what we're looking at tonight, I want us to have a good working definition of mission. I want us to really understand what it means. So think about it like this.

Paul is going to say in Colossians that it's all about Jesus. Everything. All of life is all about Jesus. It's all about the gospel. It's all about the Son of God who stepped out of heaven, who died on the cross for our sins, who was risen from the grave and gives his mission to his church. It's going to be all about the gospel.

And he gives the mission. Here's the mission. We see it in Matthew 28. He says, go and make disciples. So it's cool.

He looks at his disciples and he goes, go and make more. Go and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. So what we see is the mission is the people of God sharing the gospel in relationship with each other to make more disciples. It's relational. It's relational. It's disciples living in relationship with each other in community, going out and making more disciples.

So with that in mind, let's keep moving. Check out verse 4. And I'll tag it with a little bit of 3. That God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ on account of which I am in prison, that I may make it clear which is how I ought to speak. Okay. So what we're talking about is making disciples.

We're talking about sharing our faith, sharing the gospel. And for some reason, when we start talking about this in church, all of us begin to get anxious. Our heart rate begins to raise. We just get nervous. I don't know about you guys. It's just one of those things.

When I start thinking about telling somebody about Jesus or sharing my faith, I just get nervous sometimes. Because it's hard. And our culture says be tolerant. And I want to share my faith. And what we see here is that Paul is saying that he wants to declare the mystery of Christ. And in verse 4, his prayer, he's asking them to pray that he would make it clear which is how he ought to speak.

And so for us as we're moving forward, as we're talking about how do we actually share the gospel with people, I want to give us just a few quick things. And if you're a note taker, you're going to want to jot these down. A few quick things that we can think about that will help encourage us in terms of sharing the gospel. The first thing is this. Paul asks for prayer that he would make it clear. So we get to do the same.

So when you're thinking about sharing the gospel, Paul asks that he would be able to make it clear, which is how he ought to speak. And he's talking about the mystery of Christ. And so what he's talking about there is the gospel. He's talking about the gospel of Christ that he would be able to make it clear. So part of our prayer as Christians is asking God, help me to grow in the gospel so that when I have opportunities to share it, that I will be able to make it clear.

This is why we talk about our community groups all the time. Because that's actually where we get to grow in how we share the gospel, how we speak the gospel to each other. Think about your community groups. When somebody has a prayer, we're going to encourage them with the gospel. When somebody's struggling with a sin issue, we're going to point them to what's true in the gospel. When people are making life decisions, we're not just going to give them wisdom or advice.

We're going to give them the gospel. So in our community groups, we get to grow in the first stage of sharing our faith, which is knowing, knowing the gospel, growing in it. So the second thing is this. We're going to mess this up. We're going to mess this up. There are going to be times when you're intentionally building a relationship with somebody, and you go to start telling them about Jesus, and you're going to get about two minutes in.

It's going to be great, and then a dog's going to start barking, and then your 12-year-old cousin with braces is going to walk over, and it's just going to, like, dissipate in front of you to the ground in a pile of ashes. And it's just going to be, oh, okay, well, that was good. Even in those circumstances, when it doesn't go the way you want it to go, you get to grow in your understanding of the gospel, that it's not about you. It's about the fact that Jesus does the work, and as you think about it, it's not over. You get to go back and have another conversation with that person. You get to try again.

The gospel is true for you. Third thing is the gospel is true for you. On all accounts, the gospel is true. It's Jesus that builds his church, and it's the Holy Spirit that brings about repentance. We're just, whoa, yes, resounding. We're just called to be obedient.

So realize that we get to grow in our understanding of the gospel. There's going to be times that we mess that up, but ultimately, we're just called to be obedient. And one of the most encouraging things for us is that as we begin to grow in our understanding of the gospel, the Holy Spirit will begin to use that and teach us what to say in conversations. Now, that's not always going to be this warm, hair-tingling experience where the Holy Spirit just takes over. It's not always going to be like that. Sometimes, yes.

Sometimes, no. Now, I'll give you a couple examples. I remember walking into work, and the first person I came in contact with, I just asked them how they were doing. And five minutes later, they have tears rolling down their face, and I just walked over, and I just shut the door. And we kept talking, and we talked for probably 30 minutes. And I got to, he talked about his family and about his job, and I just encouraged him.

I told him what was true for him in the gospel. I had been praying for this opportunity for months. I got to pray with him. It was unbelievable. And I walked out, and I can't tell you. I can't tell you what I said.

I cannot tell you parts of that whole conversation because the Holy Spirit just took over. It was amazing. On the other side, around that same time, I was having a conversation with a guy, and he was talking about his girlfriend and how, well, it wasn't his girlfriend. They were talking, as the kids say. They were talking, and she wasn't returning his phone calls, and he was texting her all the time. At the same time, he was getting passed over for promotions at work.

And the whole time he's talking, I'm sitting there praying, God, help me encourage him in the gospel. Give me the words to say. And we literally got to the end of the conversation, and he's looking at me, and I'm like, yeah, yeah, man, that stinks. That stinks. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

I'll pray for you. That's all I had. That's all I had. I got to the end of that conversation, and that's all I had was I'll pray for you. And I did. And I got to come back and have more conversations.

But the pressure's off. The pressure's off for us as believers because we get to live our normal, everyday lives asking for opportunities and watching Jesus do work. What Paul teaches us here is as we ask for open doors that we can speak the gospel into, that we would speak it clearly, he's going to start doing work. We just get to be obedient. And he's going to turn a little bit. Look with me in verse 5.

So there's going to be a little bit of a change. He says, walk in wisdom towards outsiders, making the best use of the time. Walk in wisdom towards outsiders, making the best use of the time. What is the best use of our time? What is it? One of the best ways we can think about this is what was the best use of Jesus' time?

Jesus spent time with people. All people. And Jesus didn't sit around waiting for people to come to him. He went out to them. He went to the lonely, to the rejected, to the hurting, to those that were sick. And at the same time, he went to those that were religious, those that were wealthy, those that were popular.

And Jesus, as he walked through normal everyday life, he took the opportunity to pour into others. Normal everyday life, he did the extraordinary. Walking. Fishing. Sharing meals. Having conversations.

And that's what he's calling us to do. That's what it looks like, church, for us to make disciples, is to use our normal, ordinary, everyday lives that he's given us with the gospel being of first importance. And letting that impact our conversations, our relationships, our activities. And I want us to catch the beauty of this. That's ordinary, but not insignificant. Ordinary, but not insignificant.

And as we begin to pray for open doors, asking for the Holy Spirit to work, no day will ever be small. Think about that. No conversation will ever be a waste of time. No family meal will ever be a drudgery. No day at work will ever be just a day at work. Everything has meaning.

Everything has purpose. And so this is actually a really good gauge for us as Christians to see how we're walking in wisdom towards outsiders is, how are you spending your time? I want you to think back on this last week. This is the easiest way to do it. Think back over your last week. I'm going to keep talking to this.

Start thinking back. In our day and age, we have more time than any generation on the face of the earth has ever had. With the advancement in technology, we've got microwaves and fast food restaurants and dishwashers. We've just got more time to do things, which means two things. One, we can waste more time. All right?

So we've got more time to waste. And the second thing is, with all these advancements in technology, we've got more to distract us. So a really good diagnostic for us as Christians is, how are we spending our time specifically towards outsiders, towards those who don't know Jesus? How are we doing there? Because what we start to think is, did I go out? Man, I didn't go walk.

Okay. No. Think normal, everyday life. Normal, everyday life. How are you walking in wisdom towards outsiders? How are you making the best use of your time?

Think about your family. This is kind of what we talked about last week. Husbands and wives, are you making the best use of your time? Are you spending time together? Are you pouring into each other? Are you encouraging each other in the gospel?

Parents and children, are you spending time together? Are you spending more time staring at the TV than you are staring at each other's faces? It's a good gauge. It's a good gauge for us, especially for those of you who have family members who don't know Jesus. How are you leveraging your time so that you can be around them in normal, everyday life? Loving them, serving them, helping them, encouraging them.

What about at work? This is a big one for us. Think about work. Think about this last week. You at work. How well did you work when your boss was around versus when your boss wasn't around?

How about this? When you finished your tasks at work, did you just do your own thing or did you look to go help somebody else? When you were on break at work, did you sit and look at Facebook for 30 minutes? Or did you have a conversation with people that were in the break room? Who's having a tough time at work that you know about and just needs some encouragement? Who's lonely, isolated, just needs somebody to love them?

That's what it means to make disciples. It's to live like the gospel is true in every relationship, in every conversation, in every action. No action, nothing that we ever do is without meaning. And it's everything. This is your waitress. This is the lady at the bank when you go to deposit your check.

It's everywhere. It's every circumstance. Let me let you guys in on me a little bit. I'm not standing up here saying I'm perfect at this. Not. It's hard.

And you guys know me. I think you know me well enough that I love people. I do. I love you guys. If you don't know it, I'll hug you afterwards. But I do.

I genuinely love people. But I'm slightly introverted. I know. You wouldn't know it. But being around people drains me big time.

It just sucks the life out of me. It just makes me really, really tired. And so there are days when I wake up and I'm excited about spending time with people. And every person I meet, every conversation, I just want to encourage them. I want to point them towards the gospel. And then there are days that I wake up and I just want it to be about me.

I don't want to answer my phone when people call. And so this is hard. This is something that we've got to learn and grow in and realize that we get to be a part of Jesus' mission of saving the world in our normal, everyday lives. Like I said, I'm not perfect at this, but let me give you a couple of good stories. Over the last two weeks, excuse me, not two weeks. Over the last two years, I've had the opportunity to work at Dick's Sporting Goods.

And it's been incredible. So much I have learned there. And I'll give you a couple of stories. I remember walking into the break room one night and there was a girl on the phone. She was talking to her grandma and she was visibly upset. They were arguing, you could tell.

She hung up the phone. And I just, I remember what I was having to eat that night. I was having spaghetti. That's important. I would remember that detail. And I asked her, I said, you okay?

Everything okay? She goes, well, my grandma and my whole family, everybody's putting all this pressure on me to get married because I'm the last of my sisters to get married. And I mean, I've got a boyfriend. I guess he's my boyfriend. He cheats on me all the time. And if he just wise up, he could be my, she just went off.

And she just went on. And I finally stopped. I said, hey, can I encourage you for a second? She's like, you know, she was just letting it go. I said, can I encourage you for a second? I said, your boyfriend sounds like a jerk.

I said, I'm really sorry. I said, I'm really sorry that your family's putting this weird pressure on you. But let me tell you what's true for you. You have a father in heaven who loves you very much. So much so that he sent his son, Jesus, to die on a cross to forgive you of your sin, to bring you into a relationship because he loves you and because he pursues you.

And your identity and your value don't have to be wrapped up in some guy. It can be in him. Tears just welled up in her eyes. Thank you. You're welcome. Hope you break up your boyfriend.

He's a jerk. That was great. It was just a really cool opportunity. Here's another one. When somebody new shows up at work, you have a full license to play the 20-question game daily for a month at least. So this guy named David Hoewaler shows up at Dick's Sporting Goods.

And he's a recent graduate from Clemson University. And so I knew he was great, obviously. And so I just took that chance to build a relationship. I started asking him questions. We figured out that we had a lot in common, that we had a lot of the same interests. We started hanging out outside of work.

I invited David and his wife to come hang out with the first community group of Mill City Church. When it came time to multiply, David and his wife came with our group and started meeting in our house. It came time to multiply that group again. And the guy who was going to be leading the group was in the military and was going to have to do some training. And he was going to have to go overseas. And so David stepped up.

David said, I'll lead. And so we trained him as an apprentice. David started leading a group. In the spring of this year, David did an internship with our church where he got to be a part of our teaching team. And he got to learn more and be over kind of what happens on Sunday in terms of sound and music and videos. We got to the end of that semester and he wanted to keep doing everything that he was doing.

David just took a job this week and we asked him, David, what do you need to pull back on? He said, nothing. He said, I'll keep working my job. I want to keep doing the things that I'm doing. That guy's a leader in our church. And it started with a conversation of, when did you graduate from Clinton?

Normal, ordinary life. And eternity's impacted by that. But it's not just work. Don't think work. Katie and I lived in an apartment when we first moved here. And the last weekend we were there, they threw a pool party.

So it's like, oh, great. Now that we're leaving, you're throwing a party. It's like, bye, guys. There, Katie struck up a conversation with a lady. And they were about our age. And so we invited them to come hang out with us.

They came and had a meal at our house. We invited them to start hanging out with our community group. And five months later, Daniel Gillen became a Christian and was baptized. The Gillens were so pumped up about what was going on, they invited their friends, the C's. The C's started coming. And two months later, DJ met Jesus.

And DJ's going to be baptized in the fall. Started with a conversation by a pool over a hot dog. Normal, everyday life. Ordinary, but not insignificant. We begin praying for open doors and we get to see what God does. We start looking at every conversation, every relationship as an opportunity to encourage people in the gospel.

And we get to watch the Holy Spirit begin to change people. When Jesus calls us to go and to make disciples, this is what he's talking about. Everyday mission. No second of any day is ever a waste of time when it's lived to the glory of Jesus to see his mission go forward. Verse 6. May your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

The speech of a Christian should be generous and gracious. Not complaining. Not whining. Not cutting. Not cursing. But the speech of a Christian should be gracious.

And it should be seasoned with salt. It should be seasoned with the richness of the gospel. That for us as Christians, the gospel should be our native tongue. The gospel should be the lens through which we start to look at the world. How we start to analyze everything. So that when somebody comes to me and asks me for marriage advice, I can't help but tell them about Jesus.

Because I'm called to love my wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. When somebody comes to me and wants to talk about finances and how I handle my money, I get to tell them that Jesus gave everything for me. And so nothing that I have belongs to me. I have everything that I need in Jesus. So I'm going to handle my money a little bit differently.

When somebody comes to me talking about trials and struggles, I get to point them to a Savior who suffered for them on their behalf. Seasoned with salt. Not open the salt shaker and dump it out. Okay, so you don't have to walk around with your Bible at work being like, Oh, you look down. Can I encourage you? And just seasoned.

Seasoned with salt. Asking for opportunities that you would make it clear. That's what it says. So that you may know how you want to answer each person. Seasoned with salt. The gospel impacts everything that we do.

And salt's cool. The fact that he uses this is interesting. Salt brings out flavor. It preserves. Salt can also irritate. So don't be that characteristic of salt.

But what's cool about salt is it doesn't necessarily have a flavor in and of itself. But if you take salt and you put it on five different types of food, it's going to bring out the flavor in different ways in all five of those different foods. It's going to bring out five different types of flavors. And so when he says be seasoned with salt, he's saying be you changed by the gospel. You. You in love with Jesus.

Your personality. So some of you in the room are introverts, even more introverted than me. And you're freaking out right now. You're like, oh, he's talking about people. And I just, I want to go sit in the corner and read a book. No, no, no.

Be, be you in love with Jesus. You have been uniquely and wonderfully designed by Jesus to make disciples just the way you are. So you get to pray and look for those opportunities as well, just like all of us. See, church, that's the mission. People that have been changed by the gospel, that are living that out in community, begin praying for opportunities. They begin looking at their lives, looking for every day, every second opportunities that they can encourage someone.

Speak the truth of the gospel to them. That's what mission looks like. Get this. Disciples begin to live like the gospel's true, letting it impact their relationships. They begin inviting their friends into community. Their friends meet Jesus.

Their friends become disciples of Jesus. We're back here. Those people begin to make more disciples. It's cycles of disciples. We go make disciple after disciple after disciple. That's what the mission of the church is.

It's to go and to make disciples. So let's keep going. Look at verse 7. We're going to walk through this kind of quickly, and I'm going to try to highlight who all these people are, because there's a lot of different names in here. But what we're going to see is a lot of different names, a lot of different people, and what that means for the mission of Jesus.

Tychicus will tell you all about my activities. He is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts. Okay, so Tychicus, the first time we're going to see him is actually in Acts chapter 20. We see him in Acts chapter 20. Paul picks him up in Asia Minor, and now he's with Paul in Rome, and he gets the honor of delivering the letter, just like the video showed, to Ephesus, to Colossae, and to a person.

And he gets to deliver the letter to Philemon. So he's a part of the mission. It continues. Verse 9, And with him Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. Now, from the video, Onesimus was a runaway slave. Onesimus ran away from Philemon, and he's found himself in Rome.

And then Rome, he hears the gospel, and he becomes a Christian, faithful brother. And Paul is now entrusting to him also the letters. Go back to Ephesus, to Colossae, and to Philemon. So you can see this playing out, right? Onesimus is walking with the letters. Okay, all right.

Ephesus, Colossae, Philemon. That one wasn't so comfortable for him. But Paul sends him back. So a runaway slave gets to be a part of the mission. Keeps going. Verse 10, Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, greets you.

Aristarchus. We see that Paul picks him up in Acts 17 in Thessalonica, and that he's with him in Rome. It continues on. Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, concerning whom you have received instructions. If he comes to you, welcome him. Mark got to be a part of one of the first missionary journeys.

And during the journey, Mark leaves. Mark leaves in the middle of the journey. And so Paul and Mark are actually at odds. And what we see here is years later that they've been reconciled because the gospel is true. And now they're together in Rome. A prison is a pretty good place to get over your differences, right?

So Mark is a part of the mission too. And Jesus, who is called Justice. All we know about him is the next part. These are the only men of the circumcision among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me. All we know is that he was a Jew who converted to Christianity. He became a follower of Jesus.

That's all we know. And now it starts talking about people who didn't have a Jewish background. They were Gentiles. Epaphras. We know this guy. Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.

For I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those in Laodicea and Herapolis. So this is Epaphras. Epaphras who planted the church of Colossae and is now in prison with Paul in Rome. And again, we get to see that struggling. He's struggling for them on their behalf in his prayers. I love that.

Luke, the beloved physician, greets you. We see him pick up. He's picked up in Acts. I think it's Acts 18. Luke. Dr.

Luke. Namesake of the Gospel of Luke. Author of the book, The Acts of the Apostles. And Demas. All we know about Demas is that he's with them now and later we're going to see Paul and Luke together and Demas isn't there anymore. It's gotten hard and Demas has left.

It says, I think he chased after worldly things. Give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea, another church that's in the area, and to Nympha and the church in her house. Nympha got to host her church family in her home. How cool is that? And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans. And see that you also read the letter from Laodicea.

All these names, all these people, what we get to see is that the mission is big. That we get to go and to make disciples, but it's a team sport. It's fishermen. It's slaves. It's men. It's women.

It's all of us working together. It's a bunch of people that have been changed by Jesus and joined together in his mission. And it's not a super special team. It's a bunch of people that have been changed by Jesus and invited in. It's a team sport. We all get to make disciples as a part of a team because the mission's big.

Continues on. I'll read 16 again and keep going. And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans. And see that you also read the letter from Laodicea. And say to Archippus, see that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord. I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand.

Remember my chains. Grace be with you. One of the major things that we've talked about all throughout Colossians is that anytime you see the word you, it's actually kind of the Greek translation of y'all. So Paul's writing this to the church. And so they would have understood this not just as individuals, but as a collective, as a body of believers. And this is one of the only times in the letter where it's the singular version of you.

Look at it. Verse 17. And Paul writes for them to tell this guy, Archippus, see that you fulfill the ministry that you received in the Lord. Archippus, this random guy who is not a major character in this story at all, has a specific ministry that he's been given in the Lord just for him and for him alone. He has a personal ministry as a part of the team. And I want us to realize tonight that just like Archippus had a specific ministry in the Lord just for him, Jesus has a specific ministry for each one of us as a part of the team.

That he has uniquely and creatively designed each one of us to be right where we are doing the things that we're doing with the gifts and abilities that we have for the gospel so that we can go out and make disciples. And in doing so, we grow in our relationship with him. You see, the epic, grand narrative of the history of the world has been given to us. Jesus promises to build his church and to send his Holy Spirit to bring about repentance in people that the church can move forward and make disciples. And 2,000 years later, we're still doing the same thing. It gets better.

I've read the end of the book. Jesus comes back to get his church. We ain't going nowhere. We're not going anywhere. The mission is big and it's going to continue until Jesus comes back. That's a big promise because you've been invited into a mission where the victory has already been won.

And that's huge for us. So this epic, grand narrative of saving the world is accomplished in the ordinary. In the ordinary, but not insignificant. Every one of us has a mission. Every one of us as part of the mission of Mill City Church has a role. Let me help you see it.

I want you to ask yourself these questions. This is how you start seeing it. What are the gifts and abilities that you have? What are you passionate about? Where has the Lord placed you currently in this stage of your life? Where do you work?

Where do you go to school? Who is your family? What are the names of your neighbors? What are the worst areas in our city? You see, each one of us has a part in the ministry. Don't miss this.

Jesus calls us to make disciples. And the way that we do that is we begin praying for open doors with our family and our friends, with the people that we serve so that Jesus would build his church. The Holy Spirit would bring people to repentance. And the gospel would move forward. And what we see in the narrative, in the letter of Colossians, is that Paul is going to say that people that have been changed by Jesus, living that out in the context of community, led by the Holy Spirit, the mission is going to move forward. And every one of us has a different Job and a different role.

Each person has a role as a part of the team. And this means that we've got to constantly remind ourselves that the church is people. The church is not a building. The church is not an activity. It's not a club or an organization. It's a group of people that have been rescued by Jesus, transferred from death to life.

The church is people. And the church is God's chosen vessel to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, and there is no plan B. We are the mission. We get to take the mission forward. In the 1940s, around the time of World War II, there was a ship that was commissioned to be built. It was the SS United States.

And it was supposed to be the biggest and baddest ship on the ocean. It was a troop carrier. The SS United States was built to carry 15,000 soldiers at 51 miles per hour and make it to any destination in the world in less than 10 days. That means she was faster than any ship on the ocean at the time. But see, by the time it was finished in 1952, World War II had ended.

And in the 17 years of service that the SS United States had, it was only put on standby one time, and that was during the Cuban Missile Crisis. And so at the end of 17 years, a ship that had been designed to carry troops into battle was retired and was converted into a luxury liner. The SS United States, which could carry 15,000 people, had its barracks converted to state rooms that could carry 2,000. It became a luxury liner for presidents and for heads of states and for celebrities who wanted to make it across the ocean in style. Mess halls were converted into four restaurants, three bars, two movie theaters.

The deck was kept open, but they put in a heated swimming pool. They installed 19 elevators. And people that rode on the SS United States got the luxury of being on the first air-conditioned ship on the ocean. The SS United States was designed to be a troop carrier and was converted into a luxury liner. You see, the faces of soldiers that are preparing for battle and their conversations are much different on a troop carrier than they are sitting by a pool eating bonbons. The allocation of resources on a troop carrier are different than that of the opulent wealth of a luxury liner.

The troop carrier is going to go as fast as it can because it's got an urgent mission where the luxury liner just takes its time. It just goes at its own pace. And what Paul is going to consistently say throughout this letter, he's pointing to the church at Colossae that Jesus is the image of the invisible God, that all things were created by Him and for Him, that He spoke creation into existence, including us, humankind, and we rebelled. We decided we wanted to be like God, and we broke the relationship. We brought sin into the world, a relationship that we were incapable of fixing, that the Old Testament sacrificial system and the laws were a mere shadow of the atonement and the reconciliation that needed to be done.

But God promised that He would rescue, that He would redeem, that He would save, that He would accomplish salvation for His glory, and Jesus steps into history. Conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin, Jesus lived a perfect, sinless life. He trained up His disciples. He did miracles. He taught. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and I'm going to give my life as a ransom for many.

And Jesus goes to the cross. And on the cross, the wrath of God is poured out on Jesus so that we could be forgiven of our sins, so that we could be offered redemption. And Jesus dies, and they place Him in a tomb. And three days later, Jesus walks out victorious, showing that He conquered sin, death, Satan, and hell. And He hung around with His disciples for 40 days. And He told them, I'm giving you the mission.

Go and make disciples until the end of the age. And I'm ascending into heaven, but one day I'm coming back. But don't worry, I'm going to send my Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit descends on 120 ragtag believers, and the gospel moves forward. The believers go from 120 to 3,000. The gospel begins to move from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the ends of the earth.

And now Paul and Epaphras are in prison. And 2,000 years later, the mission is still moving forward. The church is a troop carrier, not a luxury liner. We have been designed for mission. We have been invited into the mission of Jesus. The ministry of the church is not designed to be a blessing to the body just as a means of itself.

But we're to be the agent through which Jesus works by His Holy Spirit to save the world. We're the mission. And so as Paul comes to the end of this letter, he's shown them that the gospel is the most beautiful thing in the world, and changed by it as people who are living in community. We get to use our ordinary, everyday lives on mission as we make disciples. That people who have been changed by the gospel and choose to live that out in community will change the world on mission. Mill City Church is a gospel-centered community that has been called into the greatest mission the world has ever seen.

Mill City Church is you and you and you and you, y'all, us. And we've been called into it. The band's going to come back up. This summer's been great for us. We've grown. We've been able to grow in health and what it looks like to be healthy.

And when I say healthy, I mean we've grown in our understanding of the gospel. We've begun confessing and repenting of sin. We've grown in what it looks like to live in relationship with each other and community. And we are at one of the most beautiful places in our church history that is a people that have grown to understand the gospel and are living that out in community. It's time to go all in. The church is a troop carrier and we've been designed for mission.

And I just want to tell you a little bit about our future. Here's where we're going. That because of those things, we get to, over the next couple of months, we're going to be focusing on mission. Next Sunday will actually be our last Sunday here at FBC West Columbia. And then we're moving our gatherings to Glen Forest School. And the reason we're doing it is we're doing it for mission.

We've got the opportunity to go into a school that is underloved, underappreciated, underfunded, that has very little volunteers. And we get to go in. We get to go from a place that's free to where we're actually going to pay to use the space because it's going to help the school. We're going to go from a church to a school. We're going to get to serve them. We're going to adopt them.

We're going to be moving our gathering time from the evening to the morning for mission. We're leveraging ourselves for mission because what we're saying is we want our church family to get up and to worship together on Sunday mornings and then to use the rest of the day to live normal, everyday life with people on mission in the afternoons and evenings. So that means that to see the mission of Jesus go forward, you might have to invite people over to your house to watch the Broncos play. It may be that you need to go play a round of golf. Or invite your neighbors over for a cookout. That's what it looks like to live on mission.

We're going to get into that neighborhood. We're going to get into the neighborhoods around Glen Forest. Not only that, the teaching of our church is going to be very missional over the next couple of months. Dawn of the church is Acts 1 and 2. It's the beginning of the mission. And then the Sunday in between, we're going to be throwing a party.

We're going to be inviting people from the surrounding neighborhoods. And we're going to be inviting our friends. Then on September 7th, we're launching Kingdom Come. It's a series where we look at how the kingdom of God moves forward in the lives of people. Our community groups are going to be focusing on a who. We're going to be focusing on areas like West Hill, like Glen Forest School, USC, and Midlands Tech.

And all along the way, we're going to continue to see our church family make disciples and bring people into community. We're going to continue to see group leaders trained and groups multiplied out. We're going to see our church continue to grow. And then we're going to multiply more churches. We're going to continue to have an impact in the city because we want to see marriages mended. We want to see children and parents relating to each other the right way.

We want to see darkness driven back in our city. And so in a second, we're going to sing. We're going to sing and pray that God would give us the courage that we need to step up and to step out. The mission's big and we've been invited in. And so I'm going to ask you that as you sing, pray for courage. Pray that God would lead us.

Jesus has called us into a mission that he's already won. And we need everybody to get on board the truth carrier. It's time to go all in. And it's time for each one of us to fulfill the ministry that Jesus has given to us. Let's pray.

God, we are humbled by the fact that you would call us in. That we would get the opportunity to be a part of your mission of saving the world. In normal, everyday life. God, when it's about the mission, when it's all about Jesus, we put our preferences to the side. We put our wants and desires to the side. And we chase after you with everything.

Because the gospel's true. Or teach us what it looks like to live on mission. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's stand as we respond and sing. That we, when we yap. If we love others.

Amen. Amen.

Cosmic Jesus, Cosmic Gospel

Colossians 1:14-20

Cosmic Jesus, Cosmic Gospel

Chet Phillips

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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