Colossians: Part 5

Colossians: Part 5 - Living Faith Where It Matters Most

Colossians 3:18-4:6

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We are wrapping up our Colossians series, so we have been walking through Colossians from chapter one all the way through chapter four. And so we are finishing that up today. And it has been a really powerful series as we dove into this book of Colossians, into this letter from the Apostle Paul, and really kind of got to see how Paul shares who Jesus is and how He's above everything. And throughout the book, starting all the way in chapter one, he's been teaching us and reminding us how we can live a life that is worthy of the Lord. He gives really clear theological arguments for who Christ is, that He is the Son of God, that He did come in bodily form, that He did die and rise again, that He is who He says He was, and then because of that, we should live our life differently. He goes on to say that Christ is our life. He is everything. He gives us a new identity. He takes off the old and puts on the new. He just outlines this so well throughout the passage. But really, because of this, because of who Christ is, and because we are transformed and have this new identity, the natural progression is that our lives, our everyday lives, would be changed. Our behaviors, our attitudes, our actions, our words. Everything is impacted by Jesus. I shared a quote on the first Sunday of our Colossians series. I wanted to share it again because I think it's really powerful, but it also just really applies to how we're going to wrap up the series today. It's from the guys at the Bible Project. It says, "No part of human existence remains untouched by the loving and liberating rule of Jesus. We're invited to live in the present as if the new creation arrived when Jesus rose from the dead. With Jesus, no part of the human existence remains untouched." No part is untouched. This means that we are completely made new. No part of us is exempt. We don't get to just kind of pick and choose what parts are impacted. Or maybe what certain parts we'd like to change. Every aspect of our lives is put under the authority of Jesus Christ. I said in week one that a person can encounter Jesus, and when they do, they will never be the same in some shape or form. Even if they choose not to follow Jesus, they will be impacted in some way. They won't be the same. But when a person is truly transformed by Jesus, everything is different. Everything changes. What we read, the content we consume, the food we consume, the relationships we have, who we surround ourselves with and allow to influence us, how we take care of our health, how we spend our money, how we treat other people. Everything is impacted and needs to be submitted to the authority of Jesus.

Now here's the thing. Jesus isn't just trying to be a fun killer, and as soon as you decide to follow Jesus, you have to get rid of everything you love. That's not the point. But if you are actively surrendering every aspect of your life to Jesus, some things will stay. Some things will have to change in some shape or form, and some things will have to go. Maybe forever if they're a sin issue or something the Lord has convicted you on, but maybe it's just for a season. But when you are living the surrendered life, He's going to make it clear to you of what can stay, go, or be changed. But it all, everything has to be surrendered to the Lord. And that is easier said than done. Honestly, it's an ongoing process. There's times when we are in a new season or we're in a new part of life or something new comes up for us. Maybe we have new information or we learn something new from the Bible and the Holy Spirit convicts us on something and we have to re-surrender. We submit it to Him and say, "Jesus, what do You say about this thing? How can I surrender this? What do You want me to do with this thing? Is this okay for me? Do I need to change it or do I need to let it go?" Paul spends a lot of time talking about who Christ is. And then because of that, how we as individuals are changed. And just to kind of recap some of the things we talked about, he talks about how we should grow in our knowledge and wisdom and understanding. That we should allow the Holy Spirit to produce good fruit in us. That we should grow our roots deeper into good soil of the truth of who Jesus is so that we can be strong in that. That we should build our lives on the truth of God's Word so that we can stand firm when false teachers or other ideologies that go against the Bible come up against us. And we should remember that Jesus is enough, period. He is enough for our life, for our salvation, to sustain us. He is our very life. All of these things are good and necessary for us to live a life worthy of the Lord. But then Paul gets a little bit more practical in chapter three, as we saw last week. He said that we should put to death our old selves and put on this new identity. Get rid of the old self, the sin that is mixed up with that, and put on this new identity. We should clothe ourselves with the characteristics of Jesus. And we should live in holy community, in Christian community with other believers. These are just some really practical things that Paul is saying, "You can do this because you have been made new. These are the steps you can take.”

So we're picking up in chapter three, verse 18, and Paul moves into even more specific and practical things. He's gonna talk about relationships and how even those must be surrendered to the authority of Jesus. So today we're gonna talk about everyone's favorite topic, submission. Everyone loves the idea of submission, right? We love the idea of learning how we can be better about submitting to someone else. But really with this passage, Paul is kind of overhauling the family. He's overhauling the dynamics of the home and family, and then also the workplace. He's teaching us and showing us how the authority and love of Jesus should impact these relationships. In the first century, the readers who were originally reading this, they understood and believed that the man was over everything. The man was the head of the house. He was the head politically. He was the head socially. He had full control and authority over his household. Everyone just submitted to him because that's what you did. And Paul is going to flip the script, not in taking authority away from the men, but in how they behave with that authority. He's gonna turn some things upside down for these first century Christians, but in the upside down kingdom of God, relationships should look different than the world. It would be a problem if they all look the same. So Paul is reshaping the Roman household and the Christian household around Jesus who rules with this self-giving love. He leads and has authority differently than human authority typically operates. Some of these things that we're gonna talk about to our modern day ears may not actually sound very revolutionary. We have progressed in civil rights and human rights, and we have learned how to treat people differently in our Western culture. So they may not seem crazy to hear, but I think it's still a good reminder because just because we know something doesn't mean we always live it out. And so it helps us to remember to shape or reshape our relationships here and now around the rule and authority of Jesus.

So first, he starts with the husband and wife relationship. We're gonna be in chapter three, starting in verse 18. We'll have it on the screens, but if you want to turn there with us. Verse 18 says, "Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands as is fitting in the Lord." Little caveat here. This is not all women to all men. This is specific to the husband-wife relationship. This says, "Wives, submit to your husband." Okay? Just wanted to just make that clear. So wives, submit to your husbands. We are called as wives to submit to the husband. But here's the thing. The word in Greek here is referencing, it's similar to a military term, that is referencing to be under in rank. This is not talking about value. It's talking about position. A soldier could have more ability. They could be stronger or more intelligent than their superior officer, but that doesn't change their rank. They still have value as a human being. They still have value in their abilities, but they still have a certain position. And that is under the authority of their higher ranking officer. So in this case, Paul is not lowering the value of wives. He is saying you have a particular position to take. This is your position. Genesis 2 references this idea. And when God made Adam, he said, "You need a helper." None of the animals or anything else in creation was suitable for him. So God said, "You need a helper." Well, this word helper, it's the word "easer." E-Z-E-R. And the only other times, besides in Genesis 2, as far as I understand, the only other times that is used in the Bible is in reference to military, when they would come to help or support the nation, or referencing God himself, that he is the helper, the "easer" of Israel. That God is the helper of his people. So to me, to reference the wife as an "easer" shows strength. It shows stability. It shows support. This is not lowering a wife's value. It is giving her value. It is just putting her in the proper position. It also, this idea that Paul shares, it connotates a willing or a voluntary submission. This wife is allowing her husband to be in rank over her. She is submitting to his authority voluntarily. She is allowing him to rule over her in this marriage relationship. In the verse it also says, "As is fitting to the Lord." So this is not, this "as is fitting to the Lord" can be a little confusing of what this actually refers to. Well, it is not referring to an absolute submission as we submit absolutely to God. It is not the same. We don't say, "Well, I'm going to submit, or wives should submit to your husbands as you would submit to the Lord." It is not the same. It is not this complete absolute submission. It is also on the flip side, not a caveat for wives that says, "Well, if you are fitting to the Lord, husband, then I'll submit to you. If you are doing what is right in the Lord's eyes, then I will submit." It is saying that wives should submit because it is fitting to the Lord. It's part of our duty as Christian wives to operate in this way. It's one way that we as wives can live out our lives worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we do this, it honors God. God is not a God of chaos, but of order. And he has created order in the marriage relationship. So it honors him and it honors the order of authority he has placed in our lives. Really, submission is, this idea here is more about submitting to Christ than it is about submitting to your husband. You submit to your husband in order to also show how you submit to Christ. And it honors God when we do that.

So then Paul goes on and addresses husbands in the next verse. He says, "Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them." So wives, submit to your husbands. Husbands, love your wives. The word here is agapeo, for love. You may have even heard a different form of it called agape. This love is a specific type of, we have the word love for just about everything. I love tacos, I love my husband, I love my children, I love this show. We kind of just use the word love interchangeably. But in scripture, we see different types of love. And this one, one commentary states that agape can be defined as a sacrificial, giving, absorbing love. The word has little to do with emotion and has much to do with self-denial for the sake of another. This love is a sacrificial love that gives without expecting in return. A person who has agape gives because they love. Now, Paul is not lessening, again, he's not lessening the husband in any way, or lowering his value, or softening him. I think a lot of times we connect like lovey-dovey or feelings or emotion with like a soft man. He is not softening the husband. In fact, I would say the husband has a greater obligation put on his shoulders because of this charge to love his wife. He is called to put her first, to put her needs above his own, even to his own self-denial. It also, in the definition, it said an absorbing kind of love. I picture that when life's hardships and things come at you, at your marriage, the husband is the one on the front line absorbing the hits. That's the sacrificial kind of love. But that takes a strong man, someone who is surrendered to the Lord in order to love in that kind of way. He's calling husbands to love your wives as Jesus loves his kids. It is not self-serving. It is sacrificial. It is absorbing in the sense of you take on, you take the hits. It is, brings care. So husband, or wives, submit to your husbands, husbands love your wives.

And then he goes on to the parent-child relationship. Verse 20 says, "Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not embitter your children or they will become discouraged." Now, Paul is affirming that children should obey their parents because children, especially those who have already surrendered their lives to Jesus, they are capable of also living lives worthy of the Lord. And so this is part of that, is living in obedience to their parents. But he also addresses the parents. He says, fathers, or fathers and mothers, do not discourage your children. Parenting is one of the most refining things I have ever experienced. It is wonderful and beautiful, but it is also refining. Because when you parent these tiny humans that look and acts like you, it shines a magnifying glass on your own life. And it is not all pretty, unfortunately. So Paul is admonishing parents and he is saying, don't discourage your children by being too rigid or too overbearing. By being too controlling. Care for them. Expect obedience. Require respect. That is all good. That is all part of parenting. But don't be so harsh with them that you discourage them. That you make them bitter. So children, obey. Parents, don't discourage. My translation is, kids, if you live under your parents' roof, you need to obey them. Parents, don't be jerks. That is the Lawrence Nader translation. Honestly, this was pretty radical. Again, in this first century world, because children were just kind of along for the ride. No one was really concerned about hurting their feelings, or if they were discouraged or not. Kids just did what the parents said. The parents had the, really the father, but the parents had the final say. But Paul is saying, look, these are human beings made in the image of God. They have needs and desires and preferences just like you. So as a parent, as we are growing, helping these kids grow, and we are discipling them towards following Jesus. Again, we do require respect and obedience, but we do it in a way that is loving and caring, and points them to Jesus rather than brings them discouragement, or distress, or bitterness. Because that can impact your relationship. That could impact their relationship with Jesus. We care for them, again, just like Jesus would want us to, and how He cares for us.

So then the final relationship in this section is the relationship between slave and master. It's actually the longest part of this section, if you look at the different relationships here. It's actually the longest part, and I feel like in the first century there wasn't a plethora, nobody was typing up these letters, right? So if they took this much time to write out some words and use this much ink and paper, it's something we need to pay attention to. We're going to look at verse 22. "Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything. Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything, and do it not only when their eye is on you, and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and there is no favoritism." So what does this have to do with us modern readers? Because slavery is illegal, it still exists, but slavery is illegal, we don't have slaves anymore in our homes. So what does this mean for us? Well, we can look at it in comparison to our jobs, to our workplaces. Even if you maybe volunteer, if you are a stay-at-home parent or retired and you do some volunteer work, you can even look at it in that regard. If you are an employee or under someone's authority in some type of workplace situation, this applies to you. The first part is really talking about integrity. We actually just discussed integrity at Youth Group this last week, and I asked the students to define, or tell me how they would define integrity, and they said, "It's doing what's right even when no one is watching." And they're right. It's doing what's right regardless if anyone sees you or not. We are called to be good workers. We are called to be good stewards of what has been entrusted to us, even when no one sees it. So worker, operate with integrity. We may have bosses or superiors, managers over us at work, but everything we do must be done unto the Lord. He is the one we're working for. We do have humans that we serve or work under, but He is the one we're working for. So instead of trudging along through your day or seeing how early you can dip out, you're watching the clock go by, instead we're called to work to our best, do our best and work to the best of our ability because we're called to live and work with integrity.

Again, verse 23 and 24 says, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving." It says, "You will receive an inheritance from the Lord." Slaves did not receive inheritances. So what is Paul talking about here? Well, another translation says, "You will receive the inheritance from the Lord." He's talking about an eternal reward, that when our work and our jobs are surrendered to the authority of Jesus and we are operating with integrity, there is an eternal reward waiting for us. Now, let's be completely honest. I don't know if an eternal reward is going to be enough motivation on a Monday when you're walking in and you're ready to go home before you've had your first cup of coffee. But knowing that we have this eternal reward with Jesus when we live a life worthy of Him, it helps us to do better work. It helps us to work with integrity. It helps us to remember to work for Him. That when we surrender our work, we can do everything as if He's literally sitting right there. We work for Him.

Then in a really weird chapter division, we jump to chapter 4 where Paul finishes his thought on this topic of relationships. So chapter 4 verse 1 says, "Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a master in heaven." Bosses, employers, supervisors, managers, owners, any one of you that has authority over others, this part, they're talking to you. So authorities, do what is right and fair. You also in your role are being called up. You are being called to submit in this position. You're called to do what is right and fair. Right in the last verse, Paul said, "Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for their wrongs, and there is no favoritism." Yes, he is referring to the slaves or the workers that he just referenced in the previous section, but this also applies to the masters that he's talking to. God does not show favoritism just because you have a higher rank or more authority. You also must live in submission. In the Kingdom of God, last week we learned that there is no Jew or Greek slave or free. I've heard it said, "The ground is even at the foot of the cross." The ground is even at the foot of the cross. When we are living a surrendered life and we are submitting ourselves to Jesus at the foot of the cross, we're all on even ground there. So if you have a position of authority in your workplace, in your home, in whatever space of life, don't abuse that. Do what is right. Do what is fair. Because you serve one who has more authority than you. We, again, we work unto the Lord. So even in our work as the authority figure, it should also be done unto the Lord. It should also be submitted to him.

Well, with these verses, Paul has really flipped everything. He's flipped the script for these first century Christians. And he's challenged them to live differently, to surrender these relationships. But then Paul's not done. In true Paul fashion, he has more words. It's kind of like throughout Colossians, he's worked in concentric circles. He started at the middle, our internal transformation, and then he went out to the closest relationships, our family relationships, and then he moved out to the workplace.

And now he's finally going to talk about the churches, the church relationships, and beyond. So Colossians 4, verse 2 says, "Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful, and pray for us too that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders. Make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone." Paul tells the Colossian church, "Keep praying, be watchful, be thankful." So church, pray, watch, thank. This is our call too. We are called to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ, for those that we live in community with here at Spring Valley and in our greater Christian community here. But we're also called to pray for the global church, for the spread of the gospel worldwide, and for those that are doing the work of spreading the gospel. Pray for your pastors, pray for ministry leaders, pray for missionaries. Pray that the gospel would continue to spread. He says to watch. As followers of Jesus, we have to be on guard. We are in an information world. We have all the information we could ever want at our fingertips. But that also means that we have to be on guard against false teachers, against untruths or half-truths, against blatant lies from the enemy, against ideologies that are nowhere near what scripture says. We have to be watchful to be on guard against this. And then Paul tells us to give thanks, always coming back to thanks. He says, "Be thankful. Constantly give thanks." He says this over and over and over again because he knows it changes us. It changes our hearts, our minds, our perspectives. So we should always be giving thanks, regardless of our circumstances, because of who God is, His sovereignty, His provision, His love, His transforming work in our lives. And then he finishes with the final circle, the outsiders, the ones who have not joined the family of God yet. He says, "Make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone." We're called to be gracious and careful with our words so that we can continually point people to Jesus, to show them His love and grace, that in the everyday stuff of life, we're making the most of every opportunity.

Christ is above everything, and we have a responsibility to tell the world about it. Y'all have cards on your seats. We want you to take these cards, put someone's name on there that you want to invite to Easter, put their name on it twice, you're gonna put it on the top, and you keep that part to pray for them, and then you rip off the bottom, you can drop it in the back when you leave so that we can pray for the same person. That you would not only have the opportunity, but then you would have the courage to take it. That you would take this opportunity and make the most of it. 'Cause we get to go tell the world that He is above everything. He's above our past, He's above our failures, He's above our current circumstances. Nothing is left untouched by the transforming work of Jesus. We get to go into all the world. We get to tell others what He has done for us, so that all may know Him and His greatness. We're gonna head into a time of prayer, as Andrei said earlier. The band's gonna come up, and they're gonna play a song. You are welcome to stay in your seats and worship and pray where you are, but Andrei and I are gonna be up here. We are just gonna be available to pray with you. If you have something you want to pray about, or be prayed over, or maybe a praise, we would love to do that for you.

But before we head into this time of prayer, I just want to read you a group of scriptures that I think really exemplifies the idea of Christ above everything. You'll recognize some of the scripture from our Colossians series, but there's also passages from Philippians and Ephesians as well. And I felt like it was an appropriate way to end our series, to keep our eyes on the one who is above all things. So as I read this, I invite you to close your eyes and make this your prayer as you listen to these words of scripture. "We pray that the eyes of your understanding will be enlightened, that you may know what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us, word, who believe. And according to His might, the working of His power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and He set Him at His own right hand in heavenly places. He's far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this world, but in the world that is to come. And God has put all things under His feet and given Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness which filleth all in all, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For by Him were all things created, whether in heaven, whether they're on earth, whether they're visible or invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by Him and for Him, and He is before all things. And through Him, all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who was the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him should all the fullness dwell. And wherefore God hath also highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Amen.

Colossians: Part 4

Colossians: Part 4 - A New Way to Live

Colossians 3:1-17

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

I'm excited to be here with you guys today. We are gonna be continuing in our Colossians series, as you just saw on the video. The series we've titled, Call it Christ Above Everything. And this series has really been something I've enjoyed. I hope you guys have too, of just journeying together verse by verse through Paul's letter to the church at Colossae. And today we're gonna be diving into, if you wanna turn, tip, tap, flip, page, I talk for a living, it's okay, don't worry about it. To Colossians chapter three this morning. And anybody else in here enjoy like cop or like spy TV shows or movies? Anybody? Yeah? I love me some cop TV shows, especially like the NCIS, Oh, So Good, or the FBI series. I'm so sad they took away extra FBI series or just down to the original. But I love these shows. And there's always this point in the show at some time that the person has to go undercover, right? They have to go undercover and sometimes it's planned and they have a long runway up to that moment of going undercover. So they get a packet that tells them who they are going undercover, right? And it tells them their backstory. It tells them what they're doing, their role in this position, what the police, the investigators are trying to figure out, whether it's a criminal organization or they're trying to figure out where the drugs are coming from or who murdered who or some like some mob boss or something. And those just fascinate me because there's like a whole backstory. Sometimes this is like on the fly and a guy gets like three hours notice that he's going under, they gotta do a backstory, they gotta put him maybe onto a website with a story so that whoever finds him and meets him, they do a quick Google search on him. They know that he is who he says he is. But people are trying to memorize these facts and these people like sometimes, I remember I think the show called "Chuck" and he would go undercover, but he would like mess everything up and he would just kind of like play it off. And it was hilarious. You guys were watching the show "Chuck", it was so good.

So the thing I wanna talk to you about today is what if you woke up tomorrow morning and you had a completely new identity? Like I'm talking about, you got a new name, you have a new house, a new address, a new job, a new family, a new life. You're not living in Plaster County, Rocklin Roseville, Sacramento. You're not there anymore. You're just, you wake up some other place and you have a completely new identity. What would you be thinking? I would be freaking out, that's a great point. I would be freaking out. I would be like, how did I get here? What is going on? Where's my wife and kids? Like that's what the questions I would be asking. And it's crazy to think that when these people, they go undercover and they do this stuff, there's always that drama of they get so deep undercover, they forget who they were before on the outside and they have to make the hard choice of do they commit the crime to save the cover? Or do they not? Is the bigger part of catching the mob boss worth whatever crime they're about to commit? And there's this tension there that they have of their old self versus their new self. And I wanna dig in here. Paul is talking about this a little bit, kinda. He's not setting up a cop show to the Church of Colossae. But he's going into talking about an identity crisis that we face as followers of Christ. And so read along with me, it's gonna be on the screen.

We're gonna start in Colossians 3, verse one, it says this. It said, "Since then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above heaven where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not earthly things. For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life," remember that part, we're gonna come back to that, "Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will also appear with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, greed, which is idolatry, because of these, the wrath of God is coming. But you used to walk in these ways," Paul says. You used to live like this, you used to act like this, "in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these, anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language on your lips. Do not lie to one another," Paul says, "since you have taken off your old self in its practices and you have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge and the image of its creator. Here, there, there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised, uncircumcised, barbarian, Sicilian, slave, or free, but Christ is in all and is in all. Therefore," it's like one sentence that feels like, "Therefore, as God's chosen people, y'all, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with," what? "Compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, bear with each other and forgive one another. And any of you who has a grievance against someone, forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues, put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, since as members of one body, you are called to peace and to be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly, as you teach and admonish one another all wisdom through psalms, hymns, songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or in deed, do it all in the name of Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." Whew, it's a lot. We're gonna unpack that in a second here.

But here's what Paul is saying. Here's a quick summary. Here's your AI summarization of the last 17 verses. It says this, it says, "You who has accepted Christ, it transforms us completely. Your old self is gone and your new life is here now. So leave your sin behind, put on the ways as God's chosen people and live in unity with profound deep hearts of gratitude." That's where we're going today. I wanna unpack that for us.

But starting this first section in verse one through four, it says, "Since then you have been raised with Christ. Set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not earthly things. For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will also appear with him in glory." What's Paul saying here? Paul is saying, "Since you have accepted Jesus Christ into your life, you have taken that step of faith, you have asked him to come into you, then you are to set your things and heart and mind and soul on things above, heavenly things, not this stuff that's going on down here on earth." Because the reality is that you died in that moment. I don't know if it's explained to you when you accepted Jesus, you actually died. You are no longer who you were before. Your life is safe and hidden with God. And who's gonna appear in glory someday. But the key truth here is that Christ is not just in your life. I think we get this mixed up sometimes. It's really easy to do. We don't think about Christ as just in our life. What does Paul say? Christ is your life. The old is already dead, the new is already here. You have been given a completely new identity. It says right there, Colossians 3:4, Christ who is your life. We are to set our focus on the new. That is our priority. We are to set our focus on the new. What do you mean by new? Well, it says right there in Colossians 3:4, “Christ who is your life.” Christ who is your life. Not Christ kind of fits into my life. Christ kind of comes in and is kind of like melted ice cream and kind of fills all the nooks and crannies and just comes in and fills us up full. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You have been given a completely new identity. I love what this other translation in Colossians 3:4 says. It says your old life is dead. Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life, even through invisible, even though invisible to spectators, 'cause nobody around us can see really that change, right? It's a God change. Is with Christ in God, he is your life.

Let me ask you a question. Who or what is your life? If you were to have somebody ask you this this afternoon, maybe you're sitting, having lunch with somebody, and somebody said, "Who or what is your life?" What would you say? I think for me, I would probably say, well, I'm a dad. I'm a pastor. I'm a senior pastor here at Spring Valley Church. If I haven't met you, great to meet you. My name is Chris. I have a wife of 18 years. She affirms that. I did the math right. It's not in my notes. I didn't write it down. That's a tricky path to walk. I'm a dad to four kids, Adelyn, Elliet, Oakland, and Iliyah. I have friends in the area. I have friends who live in Nashville. I have a friend who lives in Idaho. I have extended family, kinda in Indiana, and Oklahoma, and Kansas. That's pretty much I would say summarizes my life. I like to barbecue. I play music. I'm the go-to tech guy in the area sometimes. People come to me, try to fix stuff. Nothing's certified, so I can't guarantee any results. But what is your identity? Or in whom do you have your identity?

Because do we truly believe these words of Paul that says that our old life is dead, it's gone, it's kaput, it's toast, it's smashed, it's extinct, it's croaked, it's kicked the bucket, it's six feet under, and we have a new real life. And that life is in Christ. That's the real deal. You have become a completely new person. But Paul is writing this because the reality is people in the church in Colossae, people in the church, Big C Church, people maybe even here at Spring Valley Church, have accepted Christ, but they're not living the way that life, that God has called us to. Verse five, put to death therefore. So if you've been raised in Christ, you have new life in Christ, you have a new identity, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, greed, which is idolatry, because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways. You used to do it. That was your old life, your dead life. You used to walk in these ways, in the life that you once lived, but you now must also rid yourselves of such things as these. Anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to one another, since you have taken off your old self in his practices. Jesus says that we are to put on a new identity. But some of us haven't stopped living our old one. And it keeps showing up in our lives. And we get surprised when all of a sudden, we find ourselves in the midst of sin. And we think, how did I get here? Paul says to get rid of sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, greed, idolatry, anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy talk, and lying. We are to put on Jesus. Paul says you used to live like this, but you don't anymore. We are to put the old self to death. We're supposed to put it to death. That doesn't mean we just keep it around when we get bored, or kind of dabble near it. No, you're supposed to put it to death. And it says in verse nine that because we're not putting to death, we are lying to ourselves and to others. I don't like this. Right? I don't like this.

There was a fifth century theologian and desert father called John Cassian, and he was known for his teachings on the inner heart. And he has this quote I want to share. It says, "It is not an external enemy we dread. Our foe is shut up within ourselves, and internal warfare is daily waged by us." John Cassian and other desert fathers had a story they used to tell of a moment they had somebody within their church community who was struggling with lust. And they say, we'll call him Brother Jim. Brother Jim came to them and said, "I need you guys who are my pastors. I need you guys to pray for me so I can overcome this sin that is just so on top of me. It feels like I can't escape from it. I can't run away from it. I can't find freedom from it. I can't proclaim victory over in my life. I continue to struggle with this." And so John Cassian and the other desert fathers, as they were known, prayed for this man, and he continued to struggle day in and day out. And he went before God and he prayed, and he's like, "God, why is this happening to my brother? How can this continue to happen? I have prayed for him. Other people have prayed for him. So many people are praying for him." And yet he continues to struggle in this sin, and the Lord gave him a vision in this moment of Jim sitting there. And there was an angel there with him, and the problem was that Jim was sitting there right next to lust and was playing with it, poking at it, messing with it. And the angel just had this look of just distraught sadness on its face. And he was talking to God, he said, "God, what is happening here?" He says, "The reason that Jim has not been able to overcome lust is because he continues to play with it." And that even though I've sent an angel there to help him overcome this struggle and this sin, he continues to dabble, be around it, play with it, and he is not throwing himself upon God. This is a pretty powerful story because I think for us, there's people in here that are playing with sin. And we do sometimes like to categorize it as, "I'm just being attacked by the enemy." "It's just who I am." "It's just something that I'll just have to live with for my whole life." But the reality is that that's your old self, and we have to put that to death.

We have to stop playing around with sin. "Well, well, well, well, pastor, you know, I'm just not as bad as that guy." Jesus doesn't call us to compare to other people. Jesus calls us to compare our lives to the Bible. That's the only standard, God's word. "Well, you, it just, I'm not hurting anybody." "It's not that big of a deal." You might not have any immediate ramifications of it, but that's a lie just straight from the devil. Let's just be honest. Let's just call it what it is. Because the reality is, yes, you actually are hurting yourself. You're hurting your marriage if you're married. You're hurting your family. You're hurting your friendships. You're hurting your kids. There is no way that you can sow bad seed into your life and expect to have good fruit from it. We've been talking about in the Christian-ish series about abiding to be the branch, right? God, Jesus is divine. We are the branch. We are to be the branch. Pastor Lauren has preached about abiding and being in the presence of Jesus to see and to judge people by their fruit. You cannot sow bad seed and expect good fruit. But what happens? We're sowing bad seed, and then all of a sudden we wake up in our lives, and it's just chaos, and there's all this bad fruit around us, and we go, "How did we get here? How did this happen?" I'll tell you. You've been sowing bad seed. I'm sorry. I love you enough to tell you. That's what's happening. We're playing with sin. It's mandatory that we step into the life that God has already done and actively put the old self away.

This is not optional. I'm sorry. It's not optional. There's no, "Ah, I feel like it today, and maybe tomorrow I won't." Or, "Oh, it's Sunday. Okay, put my Jesus on. I'm going to church. Here we are. Hey, everybody." And then we get home, and we just take Jesus off and throw him in the dirty clothes hamper, right? And then wait for our spouse to wash it and put it away for us. Oh, did I go there? We have to put our sin away. But when we put our sin away, what do we do then? Paul talks about that. Verse 10, he says, "You have to put on, then, the new self." And we've got that scripture here. We've got to put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised, uncertified, barbarian, sissy, slave, or free. But Christ is all and is in all. Therefore, another therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. And patience. As God's chosen people. You guys. That's who you are. This is where you come into the story. This is your part of the story. Holy and dearly loved. Did you know that? You are called to holiness and that you are dearly loved by your heavenly Father. Clothed yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience. Bear with each other and forgive, just as the Lord forgave you. And above all, put on what? Love. Put on love that binds everything together in perfect unity.

Some of us got some clothing struggles going on. We got some wardrobe malfunctions happening in our lives. That's okay. It's okay. It's okay because Jesus has already taken care of this. So I can tell you, maybe you got a clothing malfunction going on, okay? It's all right. It's all right. Jesus is here to fix that, okay? Jesus is coming in with all the good stuff needed to fix that. What do I mean by wardrobe malfunction? Here's what I'm saying. I'm saying some of us were probably, maybe, I don't know, putting on some Jesus on Sunday morning, right? We're coming here. We're worshiping God. Maybe we're raising our hands, being a little vulnerable, saying, "Hey, I'm worshiping you, Jesus." But then we go out that door. We get in our car. We drive home. And then at the end of the night, we take off Jesus and put on our PJs. But we're not clothing ourselves anymore. That was my Sunday shirt. That was my Jesus Sunday shirt. I got to get some comfies on this afternoon. Anybody love putting comfies on after church on Sunday? Oh, I love it. So good. We're big PJ people in our house. That's just kind of the state of life that we're in with 4 kids 12 and down. PJ time. Everybody loves PJ time. Some of us, we're doing that in our lives. We put on Jesus, and then just like a dirty shirt, we take it off and we cast it away. But Jesus is saying, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You have a new identity." That isn't something, Jesus just isn't something you just put on. But Jesus is calling us to put on our new nature in God. It's a new identity. We are to put on our new nature in Jesus. That's our calling. That's what we're here to do. That's our number one priority is to put our sin to death and to put on Jesus. This new perfect nature of God is what we wear.

Paul is saying here, you're going to take these old clothes of your old self and you need to throw them away. You need to completely get rid of them. I think some of us were holding on to an old t-shirt in the back of our closet because it was comfy at some time before Jesus. And we keep walking by it in our closet and we keep seeing it and we keep going, "Wow, that might be cool to put that t-shirt back on." But Jesus is saying, "No, no, no, no, no. Throw it away." And maybe some of us, we've thrown it away and it's gone, but then we're like, "Oh, man, I remember that old t-shirt I had. I wonder if they still sell that at the store." And so we go to the store and we just start browsing. We're just kind of flipping through the rack, just kind of, "I'm not doing anything." Just seeing what's out there. Scrolling Facebook. Maybe we're looking at stuff on Amazon. Kind of got that wish list you don't want anybody to know about. You're like, "I'm not buying anything. It might be in my cart. It might be just saved for later in my cart, but I'm not buying anything." But what happens? Keep flirting with it and flirting with it and flirting with it. And all of a sudden, it's in our cart and we purchase it. And in two seconds, it shows up at our door, it seems like now, right? Prime's like, "Here's your delivery." I was like, "I haven't even checked out." "We knew you were going to. We saw you. We were tracking your fingers and your eyes." It would be really creepy, but I think they are. I don't know. Sorry. All of a sudden, we find ourselves and we have that shirt again. And we're like, "Do I put it on? No. No. I'm going to fold it, put it back in my closet." Some of us got some sin, new with tags, chilling in our closet that we need to get rid of in our lives. We need to put that to death because that's not who we are anymore. That's not who we are. We have a new identity.

We have a new calling. Your calling is to be God's chosen, holy, dearly loved people. But there's something even greater at play right here. And I love that Paul doesn't stop there because I think sometimes we stop there in our walk in faith. We go, "Okay, I pray to Jesus. I accept Him. My sins are gone. I'm not going to sin. I'm just going to live my life for Jesus by myself." But there's something greater here at play. Paul says this in verse 15. He said, "Let the peace of Christ now rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace and to be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, through psalms, hymns, songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or in deed, whether you're saying it or you're doing it, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

Not only are we called to a new self and a new identity, we are called to a new community. Paul says here, as Christians, we are called to be part of a community, aka the church. And you're called to be members of one body. Here's the reality. Most of the current research and data and everything they're doing about church engagement and participation and attendance, it is at an all-time historical low. There has been a constant, slow, downward trend since probably the 50s or 60s. That was the peak, at least in the States. Okay, we're just thinking United States here, okay? I'm not saying what's happened, God's moving around the world. It's powerful and it's amazing. But I'm saying within the United States, there has been a downward trend. And most research right now, there's research that just came out, I think, the beginning, the early February 2016 this year, that says the average church attender attends church two times a month. The average church attender is in church two times a month. And I think there might be some numbers there of the Bible Belt, that area kind of in the middle of the United States, who is very committed and they're in church every single week and weekends and midweek and Thursday nights and Wednesdays and Tuesdays and Friday afternoons. I don't know how they do it. They're there like living in the church. And us on the coast, we probably might be a little bit less. Let's just be honest. But Paul says we are called to one body. It's extremely difficult to function as a full body half the time. I guarantee you, if you all of a sudden had something of your body only working half the time, you'd be going either to the emergency room or you're calling your doctor for a Monday morning appointment. Amen? Right? You've got to move your arm and it's just like, well, that was, I moved it last time. This time it's just not going to move. Well, I guess I'm going to stand here because I used my steps up already today and here's the end of my steps. Or your vision. Can you imagine half the time you can't see or can't hear? Can't breathe? Or your heartbeat? Okay, now we're talking some serious stuff, right? So think about that. It's extremely difficult to function if we're only in a community half of the time. Paul says we are called to a community, a body, members of one body. You and I are called to live in a specific manner as a community and as a family. I'm talking about this is a full-time job, not a part-time job.

Paul says you're called to peace, to let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. You are called to be thankful. You are called to let the message of Christ live richly among you. So how do we do that? Well, I'm glad you asked. Paul says right here in Scripture, straight and simple and easy. It's so easy I can say. He says to be to teach each other about God. To teach each other about God and to encourage one another. When we put a weekend service together, our Sunday morning service, the number one thing that we think about and try to process through is we want whoever walks in these doors to be encouraged, to be taught the word of Jesus and to be lifted up and to be sent back out into the world. That is our number one thing that we think about. Paul also says that we are to sing songs and hymns and songs of the Spirit. You ever wonder why you sing in church? Here it is. Right? See, the reality is that we don't just choose these songs flippantly. We don't have a giant randomizer and just hit a button and bloop, bloop, bloop, bloop, bloop, bloop, bloop, bloop, bloop. Oh, here's our three songs for Sunday. Every single song that we sing is actually put through a test of theology, of message, of truth, of who God is, what is happening. The words that we sing are deeply vetted.

Well, what do you mean by that? Well, here. You want to hear what you already sung this morning? You're here with worship with us today? Here's what we sung about. We sung about giving thanks to the Lord. Didn't Paul just say that? Right? Give thanks to the Lord. I didn't put that set list before I wrote that note. Okay? God put the set list together on my heart and then he helped me write the sermon and it lines up. It's beautiful. I love when God does this. We sung about God's nature, how it is love that endures forever. How God saved us, how he brought us from mourning to dancing. That we are here to praise the Lord together. How Jesus paid all of our debt of sin. That we were stained as crimson. Remember that song? Jesus paid it all. Stained as crimson. Now we are white as snow. Our sin has been washed away. How we are to live a new life in him. Hey, that's in here too. Right? That the battles in life we face, what has happened? God has already overcome and brought victory. How we hope in God for today, even in the midst of chaos. How we let God's peace outlast the darkness of this word. How God will provide for us no matter what comes in our life. Jesus is our savior. Jesus is our defense. And because of that, we don't have to be afraid of anything. The battle has already been won in Jesus. Amen? I don't know about you, but if I just had that read to me every single Sunday, I am pumped up, ready to go. Right? I haven't even finished my coffee today. This is amazing. I love this. This is why we're here. We now live together in unity and gratitude. Amen? Isn't this awesome? This is why we're here. This is why God has called us here. In our vision, to see our community saturated with really cool things. No, to see our community saturated with just happiness. No, to see our community saturated with the glory of God.

And how do we do that? We have to invite people in. And that's why you had that card when you came in. We had this challenge last year around Easter. We're going to have this challenge again this year. And for the next few weeks, you're going to have a card on your seat when you come in. And this is what we want you to do. We want you to begin to pray about an opportunity to invite somebody Easter Sunday. Easter and Christmas, the two biggest days of the year. The biggest days that non-believers, people who are just in either general spirituality, might be seeking, might be completely disinterested, might have just nothing going on, but they think all of a sudden in their mind, "I should go to church." Each of us has somebody in our lives that we can invite for Easter. Are they going to come? Maybe. But we love to have them. And so the little card here is really cool. What we want you guys to do is there's two lines, okay? There's two lines and there's like a dotted line. The top solid line, we want you to write that name down, okay? And then the bottom one down here, we want you to write that same name as above. "Well, why am I writing it down twice?" I'm so glad you asked because here's what's going to happen. "Oh, no. Mine's not perforated." What we want you to do, I hope yours is, write down the name twice and then you're going to do this. Tear it. You're going to tear it off. And what you're going to do is you're going to take this name and we're going to have some ushers back by the doors, we're going to have some buckets, and we want you to take the bottom section and drop it in that bucket. But we want you to keep this top section, okay? We want you to keep this top section because we want you to put it somewhere where every single day you can pray about this name. And what we're going to do is every single day we're going to pray for this name. As a staff and as a prayer team, we're going to take time and pray for this name. So they're getting prayer from you and they're getting prayer from us. Isn't that really cool? Everybody's getting prayer. So we want you to write down a name because the reality is every single one of us has somebody we can invite to Easter, right? Someone that has a neighbor, a friend, a coworker, a family member, somebody in our lives that needs to hear the message of Jesus. And we're going to share the message of Jesus on Easter because that's what we're celebrating on Easter. But we want you to begin to think about that. "Well, I don't have a name right now, Chris." That's okay. Don't worry about it. Take the card home and keep praying about it. Put that somewhere. You're going to see it every single day. And you go, "Jesus, who do I need to write down? What if I have multiple names?" Okay, wait until most people leave. Then go grab another card. Don't steal your neighbors, okay? Everybody needs to have one card. But grab another card. Write down another name. We love to pray for multiple names. How amazing would it be that come Easter Sunday morning, you've been praying about it, the Holy Spirit's been moving, God's been doing incredible things in their lives, and you get to bring a friend to church with you today. How amazing would that be? This place would be packed. We'd have to pull out more seats. It would be awesome. It would be fantastic. But what if we all brought somebody new to church on Easter? Maybe they're a Christian. Maybe they're not a Christian. I don't know. Jesus knows. He's taking care of it. But what if we did that together?

Because here's the reality. We are a new community that Christ has put together for all of us to do life together in the name of profound thankfulness. We put the unity in holy community. Okay, there's a little old school pastor, "We put the unity in holy community!" All right? It probably is not fully theologically sound, but it rhymes, so I went with it. But now you're going to remember it as you go. That is what we are about. It says, "Whatever you do, when word are due, do all in the name of Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

So put it all together. Because Christ, who is our life, right? The oldest dead. We now live as new identity, as God's chosen people, dressed in His character, loving one another in unity, and giving thanks in everything that happens in our life. That's what Paul is saying. And so, besides the Easter invite card, I have a challenge for you today. Okay? My challenge for you is to pick one area of this and work on it this week. Okay? What does that look like? Well, maybe you need to just start focusing on your new identity in Christ. Right? Maybe you have a sin in your life that needs to be put to death. It needs to be killed. It's a bad weed. Take some holy Roundup. Just get rid of it. Maybe you need a virtue that you need to start putting on in your life. Maybe you need a little more compassion. Maybe you need a little patience. Oh, do I sin! Maybe you need to have some steps towards unity in your life and your relationships. Maybe somebody in here, you need to have a conversation. You need to ask for forgiveness for something in here. You say, "I'm really sorry I did that. That's not right. God calls us to live in unity, to forgive one another, and I'm sorry. I need some forgiveness. Will you forgive me?" And I want you to act on this before next Sunday. That desert father, that fifth century monk, the guy I was talking about, John Cassian, he actually talks about, and he was the first to kind of set up the thought and the teaching among the idea of, when you remove something with your life, you need to replace it with something. Because if you just try to remove something from your life, there's just a hole there. And it's so easy for that thing that you just removed to come back in and fill that hole. So if you're thinking about, "I need to remove something from my life. I need to fill it with Jesus." You need to put Jesus into that place. I really, really, really hope that you guys today have heard that you have a new identity. That you are dearly and deeply loved. That Jesus has a new life for you to live. That you have to put this old stuff. Is it scary? Is it awkward? Is it weird? Yeah, it is. Because you've been living in it for so long, that's all that you know, right? And to step into something new can be kind of scary. Because it's different. You don't know all the ins and outs. You know all the ins and outs of that old life, right? Just step into that new life. And I hope that you guys have heard that we want this place to be a place of great unity and gratitude. We want this church on the corner of Sunset and Fairway in a tiny little business building in the back corner. It has a funny sign on the corner. That there is community there. There is love. There is patience. There is no judgment if you come in here and you're new. You're welcomed into the family. If you're first Sunday here, welcome to the family. This is a place where you can belong. This is a place where you can be encouraged and strengthened and built up. Because we want to be this kind of person that Paul is reminding us that Jesus calls us to. Not Paul. Jesus calls us to this. And we are to put the unity in community.

Let's pray. Jesus, we thank you, God, for who you are, for your word, for your just everything, God. Lord, help us to put this old self to death. Help us to put on our new identity. Help us to stop playing with sin maybe in our lives, God. To put on the virtues that you say, not just on a Sunday morning, but to put them on in our lives for real, permanent, forever, for all time. God, may we step into life with you and God, may we be a community that is a light in this world. A community that doesn't gossip about people like most do. That doesn't hurt people like most do. That doesn't stab people in the back like most do. God, we are a different community and the world is hurting and searching for that. So God, I pray that we think about these cards and these names, Jesus, that we would invite somebody to step into this community, into this life, into this world, into this relationship with you, Jesus. We thank you. We praise you. We love you. Everybody said, "Amen."

Colossians: Part 3

Colossians: Part 3 - Rooted, Built Up, Secure

Colossians 2:6-15

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Happy to be here with you all. Thank you for being here with us and for worshiping with us today. We are in Colossians. If you haven't been with us or didn't remember, we are in the book of Colossians. We're on week three of this series and it has been such a rich book to walk through together and I love the theology that Paul brings to us and the topics we get to cover. And really, just as a reminder that Jesus is above everything. He's the center of everything. He is all we need. And so the first week we really talked, we kind of laid the groundwork and we talked about praying for knowledge and wisdom and understanding through the Holy Spirit so that we can look like Jesus, so that we can live a life worthy of Jesus. And then last week, Pastor Andre talked about how Jesus is enough. He is all we need. Sure. There are other things he has given us that are good and for our benefit. The word of God, the body of Christ, the other believers, the church, prayer, communication with God. Those are all good and needed, but none of those are needed for salvation. It is only Jesus. And beyond that, he is the creator and sustainer of everything. And so we can know and walk in the truth that he is enough.

Well, today we're going to be moving in to chapter two of Colossians, and we're going to talk about what is needed for spiritual maturity. What do we need to grow in our faith? When we all choose to follow Jesus, regardless of our actual age, we start as spiritual babies. We are fresh and new and learning. But you don't want to stay in that infancy stage. You want to grow and mature. You want to get deeper into the faith and have a more mature relationship with God. So what do we need in order to grow and mature? Well, we're going to talk about that today, but first I want to show you something. I brought my plant. This is my pride and joy of my indoor plants, as I got it all tangled up. For those that don't know me well, I'm a recovering plant killer, a recovering black thumb. And so the fact that this is what it is, is amazing to me. Several weeks ago, Pastor Chris was talking about abiding in Christ, and he used the analogy of gardening and how we had gotten into gardening the last couple of years. And in his kindness, he said that I was the better gardener of the two. Now I'm not going to stand up here and tell you that your pastor is a liar, but I have to disagree with that statement. Because I'm not good at it. And the reason I'm not good at it is because I'm too impatient. See he will go and he will research, he will read discussion boards, he will go find different products and then he will try them and give them time to see if they work. I'm like, I gave you soil and water and sun, just grow. What do you need from me? I already have four children, I don't need another one. Just do your thing. Right? So I'm too impatient. But this time I let it grow its roots. See I will transplant a plant from the pot you get at the store into a pot in our home and then I will just think it needs to thrive and just be amazing right away. I don't give it time for its roots to grow down deep into the soil. I'm trying to rush the process. I just want it to do its thing and be great all on its own. Well on the flip side of that, we have an heirloom rose bush in our front yard. We have some pictures of these roses. And this, we inherited these, these were already there when we moved in almost a decade ago. And these things are hearty. They are sturdy. We have to do next to nothing for these roses. They get water from the rain and maybe the occasional sprinkler. They get the sun and then Chris chops them back every so often so they don't become overgrown. But these things grow year round. They just do their thing. I have to do nothing for them. This picture, it was taken several years ago, but these pictures were taken in January. I didn't realize roses would bloom in January. I know we're not like in snow and the tundra, but the little bit I know about nature is that most plants are dormant in the winter. But the thing with these is their roots are deep and strong. They can grow and bloom and produce regardless of the storms that come, regardless of the wind and the weather. They've survived hail and freezing temperatures. They just keep doing their thing because they've matured and they've grown and they have deep roots.

So we're talking about the day. Paul talks about us needing to have deep roots for our faith. We're gonna start in Colossians 2 verse six. Then we have several verses to go through, but we're just gonna break it down a little bit at a time. Verse six says, "So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught and overflowing with thankfulness." Paul says that in order to be mature, we must be rooted and built up. Now this rooted and built up, it's kind of a mixed metaphor. He's talking about plants being rooted and built up like a building. So he kind of mixes the metaphor a little bit, but the idea here is similar. You need strong roots to grow and you need a firm, solid foundation to build upon. See, we homeschool and I've taught my children the plant cycle three times now, right? And what I've learned is when you plant a seed, the first thing that happens is not a sprout. The first thing that happens is that the roots start growing. And you can't really see it because it's under the dirt, but the roots have to grow first and grow deep and strong in order to gather the nutrients and the water in order to produce the plant. We have to have a solid foundation. A building will not last very long if it is built upon an unstable foundation. If it's cracked, if it's unlevel, if it's not created properly, it will not stand. And Paul's saying the truth has already been taught to you. You already know the gospel of Jesus Christ. Those are the soil and which to grow your roots. That is your foundation.

Jeremiah 17:7-8 says, "But bless is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes. Its leaves are always green and has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit." It has strong roots that can go out and get the water and the nutrients that it needs. And because of that, it's not worried when there's a storm. It's not worried when there's a drought. It's strong and sturdy. In Matthew seven, Jesus says, "Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose and the winds blew and beat against that house. Yet, it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock." Jesus is our rock. He is the one we build our foundation upon. And when we do this, Paul says that we will be strengthened and overflow with faithfulness. That is just the natural repercussions of having a strong foundation in deep roots. We talked about it two weeks ago, being strengthened in endurance and patience, and then overflowing with thankfulness. That even when we are going through a storm or going through a wilderness, when our roots are deep, we're getting what we need to survive that. We don't have to worry. We don't have to stress. We need strong roots and a firm foundation. After this statement, Paul goes on to address the issue, the Colossians were facing and why Christ is the answer. He is our firm foundation and He is the ground in which we grow our roots. There's a big chunk of scripture here where he explains how and why this is true and why the Colossians can know that what they believe is real. And same for us, how we can know it too.

Let's go on to verse eight. It says, "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world, rather than on Christ. For in Christ, all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form. And in Christ, you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. In Him, you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through your faith in the working of God who raised Him from the dead. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us. He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross." You want to break that down? He starts with, "Don't be taken captive by these deceptive philosophies." We explained that the Colossians were coming up against some false teachings, some false teachers who were deceiving them. They were starting with Jesus and then they were building upon it. They were adding to it. It was Jesus and Jesus plus something. And Paul's like, "Guys, deceivers are gonna deceive. They're gonna try to trick you. They can be sneaky." Because here's the thing, someone who wants to deceive you is not going to tell you that they're deceiving you, for one. And they're also not going to make it obvious. If you say murder is wrong, they're not gonna say, "Oh no, murder's right. Murder's okay. Murder's good." 'Cause you're gonna spot that a mile away. You're gonna know, "Okay, they're clearly lying and trying to deceive me." You're gonna take the truth and twist it just enough to make it untrue. Just enough to get you off course. Paul also talks about that it's by the traditions of man. Now there are traditions and there are rituals and there are practices that are good. But what Paul's saying here is they're being burdened by the traditions of man that are not coming from God. These are not things that God is asking of them to do. But they are being put on these spiritual extras that they're being told they have to fulfill in order to truly be a Christian. One of these ideas was narcissism. And at this time it was very early in narcissism, but this idea of narcissism was spiritual versus material. They could not coincide. In fact, to the point that they would teach that God was so other and spiritual that he could not even have been the one who created the earth because it's material. That he used underlings or angels or other beings to do the creating because he couldn't intersect with the material. But we know from last week that that is not true.

Paul demolished that argument in chapter one by saying that he is the creator and sustainer of all things. Paul through this chunk of scripture is demolishing the arguments and the false teachings and the philosophies that are deceiving the people. And he says, "For in Christ," in verse nine, "For in Christ, all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form. And in Christ, you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. In him dwells the fullness of the deity," or Godhead in some translations. He was, Jesus fulfilled that when he came in bodily form. Again, the spiritual intersecting with the material. So it couldn't, it can't be true what they're teaching. If what they were teaching is true, then Jesus didn't actually come in bodily form, but we know that he did. He came to earth. He took on human flesh. He dwelled among us. He is the fullness, the completeness of the deity in bodily form. And because of this, because he did this, we were brought to fullness too. We are made complete in him. We're complete in him because he was full of God and fully man, because he allowed the spiritual to intersect with the material. See, if he isn't the fullness of deity in bodily form, then we can't be complete. We can't be made right. But he is, if we believe it, he is who we, well, whether we believe it or not, he is who he says he is. And so we can know that he came in human form, but he retained his divinity the whole time.

C.S. Lewis said there are three options for believing who Jesus is. He said there can't be an in-between. There can't be, oh, he was just a good person or he was just a good prophet. He said there's three options. He was either a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord. Either he made it all up, he lied for his own gain, which if that's the case, he failed miserably. But he lied and just made up the whole thing. Or he was a lunatic and he was crazy, making all these claims about being the son of God, that he was God, he was one with the Father. So either he was a total liar or a lunatic or what he said was true and he is Lord. But there is no in-between because if he was just a good person or a good teacher, then all the outrageous claims he made, people would have written him off immediately. You can't be a good prophet or a good teacher and also make those claims. Unless they're real. So I choose to believe that he is Lord. That he is the foundation that I'm building on. That he is the good soil that I can grow my roots deep into so I can abide in him. He is above everything. Paul continues on with talking about circumcision. Lovely little practice that they had in the ancient world for the Jewish men. And this was something that was continued even into the New Testament. It's continued today. But it was specifically a Jewish practice instituted by God to represent and show that the people were set apart. They were his chosen people. The problem is the Colossians were Gentiles. They were not part of the Jewish nation. But Jewish leaders were telling them they needed to also be circumcised or else they weren't truly following Jesus. Again, these traditions of men originally instituted by God, but they were burdening the new believers. And Paul saying, hold on, that was the old covenant. We are under the new covenant with Jesus and we are complete in him. We've had a circumcision of the heart. The work of Jesus on the cross and his resurrection is our circumcision. Through his death and resurrection, our old self has been put off. Our sin nature, our old self is gone because of his work. He made us new. He's given us new life. We don't have to have all these practices that were under the old covenant in order to be made right with him because he did the work. See, before Jesus, we were dead. We were dead in our sins. But after Jesus, we are made alive with Christ. After Jesus, we are made alive with him. This transformation of our hearts is often displayed through baptism.

And Paul talks about that. He says in verse 12, having been buried with him in baptism, which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead. We're made alive with Christ. So we also practice baptism as an expression of that reality. We go under the water to identify with Jesus's death and we come out of the water to identify with his resurrection into new life. Well, a side note, if you've never been baptized, that is the next natural step in your faith. If you have decided to follow Jesus, I would encourage you to let's look into that next option for you. You can write baptism on the card or shoot us an email and we would love to talk to you about that. Because baptism, it is showing that we identify with Jesus, that we are no longer dead in our sins, but we are alive with Christ.

Verse 14, he says, having canceled our charges of legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us, he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. Our trespasses are written out against us like a legal indictment of crimes committed or an invoice of debt owed. Our sins racked up a debt that we could not pay. We couldn't save ourselves because the reality is we can't live perfectly enough in order to earn our salvation, in order to earn our righteousness in the presence of God. We can't do that. And so the only other option is death. We pay the punishment through death, which means eternal separation from God. Neither of those options sound good to me. And Jesus said, no, that's not how it's gonna go down. I'm gonna pay the debt. I will be the one. Have you ever pulled up to a drive-through window and the person standing there says, it's already been paid. The person in front of you paid for your order. I love hearing those kinds of stories. The person who just got their order paid for did nothing to earn that. They just happened to be in the right place at the right time. But the cashier said, you owe zero. Your balance is now zero because the person in front of you paid for it. That is what Jesus did for us on a much grander scale. He didn't want to spend eternity without us. He didn't want us to stay dead in our sin. He knew he was the only option. So our sins were nailed to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made us, oh, sorry, I got it again in the head. Sorry, I saw it on the screen. It threw me off. It got me ahead. Our sins were nailed to the cross. Just like Jesus' charges were nailed to the cross above his head. See, when they practice crucifixion, they would write out the charges against the criminal and nail it above their head. But the thing is, Jesus didn't actually commit any crimes. He was perfect. So he took on our sins and he said, nail me to the cross instead. The words used in this passage regarding our sins means completely wiped out. Our balance is zero because of what he did on the cross.

Okay, now, Colossians 2:15. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. Through his death and resurrection, he disarmed the principalities and authorities of this world. See Paul already said in verse nine that he is the head over every power and authority, but now he disarmed them. He already ruled them, but now he disarmed them. See Paul often uses military language in his writings. And he mentioned in verse eight about being taken, don't be taken captive. Kind of that idea of being captive in a battle. Don't be taken captive because we are in a spiritual war. Our souls are in a spiritual war. As we said, don't be taken captive. And now he's explaining that the enemy has been disarmed. Praise Jesus. Jesus has triumphed over them. This idea of him triumphing over them. It would have brought pictures to the mind of the original readers of a procession or parade of the victorious army going through the streets, putting their enemies to shame by parading through the streets and announcing their victory. That's what Jesus did on the cross. He disarmed them and triumphed over them.

Isaiah 54:17 says, no weapon forged against you will prevail and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. And this is their vindication from me, declares the Lord. They no longer have the weapons to use against us. They have tactics like fear and discouragement and lies. That's why Paul tells us to put on the armor of God so we can stand against the devil's schemes. But we know how it ends. No weapon formed against us can remain. We already have victory because Jesus conquered death and set us free. He has given that victory to us. He put them to public shame and he did it with the cross. The cross is a symbol of torture and death, but he took that symbol and in the upside down kingdom of God, he made it a symbol of victory. And it is a reminder for us who followed Jesus that we too are triumphant and set free. This, this truth that Paul laid out for us, this is how and where we grow our roots. This is the foundation that we build upon. If you are a newer believer, keep growing those roots. Get in the word, stay in community, grow your roots deeper into the good soil of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Remember that he is your foundation. And if you are a more mature believer, if you have followed Jesus for a long time, don't stop growing. The bigger the tree, the stronger the roots need to be. So keep growing, keep building on that foundation, but then go the next step. Find another believer who needs your guidance or your help. Walk alongside them, invite them to coffee. Talk to them, be willing to share your faith journey as they are learning and growing themselves.

And if you've never chosen to follow Jesus, maybe today's that day. Maybe you've even been walking the walk for a long time. You've been in church, you've had a Bible, you've prayed, but you've never actually surrendered your heart and life to the Lord. I'm gonna pray a prayer for us today. It'll be on the screens, but I'm gonna pray it out loud. If you've never surrendered your heart to Jesus, and you wanna do that today, pray this prayer along with me in your own heart and mind. Father in heaven, I know that I have lived for myself instead of you. I have sinned against you, but I believe Jesus died for my sin. So I confess my sin and I ask you to forgive me. I bow to you as Lord and leader of my life. Help me to live for you from this day forward. In Jesus' name, amen. If you made that commitment for the first time today, we would love to talk to you and hear from you. We wanna encourage you and resource you, help you have what you need to grow your roots deeper.

Colossians: Part 2

Colossians: Part 2 - Jesus is Enough

Colossians 1:15-23

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We are continuing our Colossians series today. Pastor Lauren kicked us off last week with week one in a sermon called "Life Worthy of the Lord." If you haven't listened to it yet, I would encourage you to go back. We're going to continue today. I want to start off with a question for you guys. How many of you like to cook? Raise your hand if you are okay. Now, I've asked this question. A lot of people have conversations about cooking and I find there's a spectrum, right? There's some of us that like to follow a recipe to the tee. You bring out your recipe. Maybe you have done what some professional chefs say is the most important thing, which is to read through all of it first, not as you go along, but to read through it all at the beginning. You're prepared. You're leveling off every tablespoon. It's very exact. Then maybe on the other side of the spectrum, for those who like to cook, are those who, shall we say, are more creative and just want to ad lib? The pan is your canvas and you're the artist and you're just grabbing whatever and you're like, "That looks good, sounds good." And maybe you're somewhere in between, wherever that is.

My dad was kind of more the latter. He was our pancake guy every weekend. He made pancakes and that's pretty straightforward. He just made great pancakes. But every once in a while, he'd make scrambled eggs. And when we came down for scrambled eggs, we knew that we would never get the same scrambled eggs ever. And they were good. I don't want to say like, they were good, but we knew that if we come down and he'd be making scrambled eggs and the spice drawer was open and we're like, "All right, we don't know what he's added." And he might not know what he's added because he just kind of was like, "Yeah, sure." And self-admitted, he would say this himself, there were a few times that there were more spice than eggs and you'd take a bite and maybe there was a crunch, a lot of crunching. And we're like, "Dad, what'd you add?" And he's like, "Yeah, I'm not sure." It's open and it's over there. "Oh, nutmeg, really, nutmeg." And just a little pizzazz.

But yeah, a few times, I don't know if you've had that experience where maybe you've had a dish, you've eaten something and there's a lot, maybe you ordered something and you're like, "Man, I really wanted this, but I'm getting all this other stuff. And I'm not even tasting what I really wanted to taste." Or maybe you did it to yourself or maybe you ordered something and they did it to you and you're like, "Man, that chef just got carried away." But this happens in other areas of life too besides food, right? Maybe technology, maybe some of us are like, "Man, I just wanted a TV and I just want to turn it on and I want to be able to hit channel and scroll. But now I have to go to this app, to this app, and that app, and I have to push in this." And it's too much. It's too much. It's a lot. It also happens maybe in social conversations where you are engaging with someone in conversation and they just seem to force, like you walk away from that conversation, you're like, "Man, that was a lot of heavy stuff. And I wasn't signed up for like a big heavy conversation right now and we just got forced into going deep." Or maybe it's the other way where you're like, "Hey, I did want to talk about some real stuff and all they seemed to talk about was lighthearted weather and we never got to talk about anything real.”

It can also happen in our spiritual lives where we can happen in our Christian faith where we're trying to add too much to our faith, our understanding of faith. We try to add too much to the gospel. We try to add too much on how to get to heaven, how to live out the Christian life. And we can run the risk of going off course in our beliefs and getting away from what's truly needed and what's true to the gospel. And so the point, to the point where we believe in like the gospel and, we believe in the gospel and this and that. Where our faith and our faith practices might have started with the Bible, but we've added a bunch around it and proclaimed that all these other things are just as essential, just as important as the gospel.

As Pastor Lorne mentioned last week, this is some of what's happening in the church, in the early church, especially in Coliseum, where Paul was in prison and he heard a report about false teaching from this city. And people were saying, "Hey, Jesus was good and the gospel that he taught was good, but that's just the start. We need to add some other things to it. It's not enough." And they were saying that basically Jesus isn't enough. And we have to understand at this time in ancient culture, it was a very polytheistic view, right? Polytheism, the worship of many gods. We are monotheistic, the worship of one god. But embracing polytheism is what helped the Roman Empire spread and to have such a strong empire. As they were conquered different nations, they didn't say, "Hey, you got to get rid of your religion." They would say, "Hey, you can keep your religion. You just got to add our Roman gods to who you worship, especially Caesar." And then people are like, "Okay, that's fine. Well, we've already got a bunch of gods. We'll add a few more. That's fantastic." And so it just helped them spread. So the culture at the time was very polytheistic.

And even in our modern world today, we have people with similar tendencies who just kind of gather everything that's out there and just accumulate different beliefs and worship practices and styles. I was having a conversation sometime last year at this point and met a guy and just kind of casually mentioned that I was a pastor. And he was like, "Oh, I believe in God." And things can get squirrely when you mention that you're a pastor. And when they say they believe in God, I'm always kind of like, "Okay, well, I don't know what God. And let's see what you're talking about." So there's some follow-up questions. And come to find out, he did believe in his words, "Some of the Bible." So I was like, "Oh, okay, some of the Bible. You're familiar with the Bible." But I'm also Wiccan. And I also have these, I really like these Buddhist practices. And I was like, "Okay, gotcha. Yeah, I'm starting to understand." And again, just like it's the gospel and, right, this and a bunch of other stuff. Maybe you know some people who claim to believe in God, but once you get below the surface and you see who they worship or how they worship, your mind is, the flags are going off of like, "This isn't exactly what the Bible says. It's not aligned with the gospel." And so this is the situation that Paul is hearing. He's in prison, but he's heard that this is happening. And even from the church leaders, it wasn't just in the city, it was the church leaders who were sharing this. And he's like, "We gotta address this. This has gotta stop." They were saying the person and work of Jesus isn't enough. And it was like they were in the kitchen and they're at church and they're just like, "Yeah, we'll start here, but we're gonna add this. We're gonna add this.”

And so let's read what Paul says in response to that. If you guys want to turn in your Bibles to Colossians 1, it'll be in verse 15. It'll be up on the screen. Chapter 1, verse 15 through 23. It reads, "The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in Him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities. All things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood shed on the cross. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior, but now He has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you wholly in His sight without blemish and free from accusation. If you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel, this is the gospel that you have heard that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.”

You guys pray with me one more time. God, thank You for Your Word. What a gift to know the truth. And God, I pray that You would speak to us this morning, God, that we would know You in a deeper way, come to understand You and who You are and what You do. And I pray that we would leave this morning with a deeper faith, a stronger faith, and a deeper appreciation for the work that You have done on the cross and that You are doing in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. And God, I pray for everyone in this room. And I just sense that there's a lot on people's hearts and minds, and we all come with a certain burden. And I pray that You would help us right now to lay that before You, to surrender that to You, God, to trust You with whatever it is that we're going through, and to recognize that You are God over all, and that Jesus, You are enough. So I pray this in Your holy name. Amen.

Paul's point is that Jesus is enough. Nothing needs to, and really nothing can be, added to the person and work of Christ. As the Lord over all creation, He is more than enough for every believer. And this morning, I want to go verse by verse and dive deeper into Paul's response to what is happening in the early church. And again, a theme, I can't, if you only take one thing away, Jesus is enough. And I love how it continues this thread that we've had in our church over the last several months and several series of having Sundays where we just focus in on who God is or who Christ is. We've done this in our Advent series and our Christian-ish series, and now in our Colossians series, where we just get to have a Sunday where we just get to better know who God is and come to a deeper appreciation and knowledge where we can give Him more of our lives and worship Him in a deeper way. So that's going to be our morning today. The first thing we see in our section here is Jesus' work as creator and sustainer. Jesus' work as creator and sustainer. In these verses, Paul begins addressing the polytheism at the time. And he tells us that God not only created what no other God could do, but He also sustains His work. It counters this thought that we, you might have heard today, where God, maybe people might say like God might have created the world, but then He just stepped away from it. He hasn't been in touch with it since. And this says, no, He created and He sustains. He holds it all together.

Verse 15, it says, "The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation." That first phrase, "the image of the invisible God," this is garden language. What I mean by that is the Garden of Eden. The very beginning of the Bible, we hear that man was woman and man were created in God's image. And so this is again, bringing us back to tying this all in. Paul's trying to paint this whole picture in firstborn. It says, "the firstborn over all creation." This does not mean that Jesus was the first thing created. I think some people can read that and misinterpret that as like, "Oh, so God was there, then He created Jesus." No, not what he is saying. The firstborn in ancient culture was the one who had inherited the power and everything that the father had, the firstborn also had that privilege. And so that's the image that Paul is trying to convey here. It speaks to Jesus's sovereignty and supremacy over creation. He is the new and better Adam, the one with no sin, who has a perfect and harmonious relationship with God. And so he reigns over all creation.

Verse 16 says, "For in Him, all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through Him and for Him." So Paul is saying that Jesus was there at creation. He was there creating. And all of creation glorified Him because He created it all. The physical, the spiritual, the visible, the invisible, the natural and the supernatural, Jesus is over it all. Everything and everyone is subject to His authority and power. Now, this doesn't mean that we don't live in a world of sin. We do it. And it doesn't mean that Jesus is controlling everything like a puppeteer. That's not. We have free will in this world. People can and do deny God, reject God, rebel against God every moment of every day. But Paul is simply stating that Jesus reigns over it all and nothing and no one is outside His power and rule.

Verse 17 says, "He is before all things, and in Him, all things hold together." This is, I think, one of my favorite verses in the entire Bible and my favorite verse in Colossians. "In Him, all things hold together." I just think of the news headlines that we hear so often. How often do we hear things like, "The rainforest is going to be gone in 15 years." Or, "The glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising, ecosystems are collapsing, pollution is killing our oceans." It's very like the world is just falling apart. Now, don't get me wrong. All those are concerning and deeply like that's, I don't know how all that works. I just know that it's bad. And as Christians, I think we should care about the environment. We are partners with God to rule and reign over creation. We are partners with Him. So I do love hearing positive headlines about that where someone's created helpful ways to clean up the oceans or how deserts that have been expanding and the sands are just getting wider and wider and how people have started to be able to figure out how to plant things in the desert and reclaim. That's incredible. I love that. But whatever the headline, concern is a healthy response. But concern doesn't need to grow to hopelessness or doom and gloom demeanor because we believe that Jesus is holding all things together. That means He's actively, ongoingly, continuously holding our world together, working through humanity, but also supernaturally in ways that we cannot see. He is holding this world together. And that doesn't just mean the physical world, things that we, the world that we live in, but the world leaders and the powers that be, religious cults or terrorist groups that are hell-bent on hurting others for a better world, to the angry people in our neighborhoods who are so divisive on next door, you know, sometimes I wonder how this world hasn't fallen apart more and how there isn't more chaos and how people haven't succumbed more to the sin and selfishness that runs rampant in our society. And some people would say, well, it's because there's good people out there. It's the good in us that keeps this world together. And I, maybe there's some truth to that, but I know that we're all sinners, all of us, even the best of us are sinners. And so I attribute it to the goodness and grace of God, Christ's sovereignty over the entire world, humanity too. He is holding this world together.

So I want to pause right there after this first couple of verses, this section, and seeing Christ as our creator and sustainer, I want to ask us, who is holding your world together? Who is holding your life together? Is it Jesus or is it you? Are you trying to do it all? Are you trying to white knuckle your way through this life? Are you carrying everything that is going on in your life and saying, I will figure this out, I will do it. Or do you depend on and rely on and surrender to Jesus and let him sustain you? Who is more than capable, who loves you more than anyone else, who is holding the entire world together. And so certainly he can hold your life together. So who is holding your world together right now? So we continue the next section that Paul gets into, we see Jesus' work on the cross. In these verses, we see that Christ is the leader of the church and it is only in and through him that the body of Christ, the church, can mature and develop and grow.

Verse 18 says, "And he is the head of the body, the church, he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy." So it mentions the head of the church. This is an analogy that the Bible uses, Jesus taught on it, Paul teaches on it. We think of the church as a physical body. Some of us are an arm or a leg or a tendon, a ligament, an elbow, whatever it may be. Paul is saying Jesus is the head. He is the most important part. And he is affirming, and it says that he is also in the beginning and the firstborn of the dead. Paul is affirming here, sorry, the resurrection of Christ. Because some didn't think that he actually died, and so he's saying no, he did die. And he's affirming that Christ died and rose. And he's sharing the hope that we as Christians have in Christ's resurrection. As we share in Christ's death, he dies the death that we deserve. We will not be defeated by death at the end of our time here on earth. Our physical bodies will die, but we know that we will have eternal life with God in heaven. And Jesus is the first one to go through that and then ascend into heaven. And so that's the firstborn. He's the first one to do it. He paves the way, and we get to follow him.

Verse 19 says, "For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him." God was fully present in Christ. Christ was fully God and fully man. And Paul helps connect in the people's minds the realization and fulfillment of what God had been doing with Israel for centuries upon centuries. I think this is so fascinating. In the Old Testament, God dwelled in the tabernacle. So Israel was in Egypt. God brought them out of Egypt and brings them to the wilderness. And in the ancient times, people thought that all deities lived in the high places. So mountaintops were often associated with like up on that mountain. That's where this God dwells. And so God, Yahweh, brings Israel out to the desert, into the wilderness, and gathers them. And then he's up on the mountain, Mount Sinai. And he talks with Moses for a bit. He met them on the mountain. But God didn't stay on the mountain. He goes down and he makes plans to dwell with his people. This is one of the biggest indicators to Israel at the time that this God is different. This God doesn't stay up on the mountain away from us. This God comes and dwells with us. So he instructed Israel to build a tabernacle, which is a tent temple. So eventually they were going to have the temple, but they were in the wilderness. They weren't in the promised land yet. So he's like, "Hey, until we get there, build a tent for me. I'll come down and I'll dwell in this tent." So God came down and filled the tabernacle with his glory as a sign of his presence among the people. And the prophet Isaiah interprets this cloud that fills the tent as the Holy Spirit. Now, does this sound familiar to our reality today? This act was God's gracious act of friendship to Israel. And it's the same gracious act of friendship to us today. Jesus is the fulfillment of what God had been doing for centuries, embodied in flesh, incarnate.As John chapter 1, verse 14 says, "The word became flesh and dwelt among us." So Jesus came down to dwell with humanity like never before. They had had a taste of it in the Old Testament with God in the tabernacle, but now Jesus had come down in person. And why? Why did he do this?

Verse 20, "So through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross." He did this to reconcile us to God, to offer opportunity for a restored relationship with God, to how it was before sin entered the world. Theologian John Barry says, "The purpose of Christ's death on the cross was to bring all things created by Christ and for Christ into harmonious relationship." I love that, harmonious relationship. Because the entire world was touched by sin, marred by sin, affected by sin, every part from us as humanity to the ground that we walk on. And Christ came to redeem and to restore. And it's only through Christ's sacrifice that there is hope. Only through his blood on the cross, like that hymn that maybe you're familiar with, only through the blood. It's only through Christ's sacrifice on the cross that we can have a relationship with God. Only through Christ and Christ alone that we can live a life to the fullest and have hope of eternal life. Christ died so that we can live in harmony with God.

So I just want to ask this question right now, as we reflect on these verses and why Christ came and the possible harmony that we can have with God. Are you, right now in life, as you reflect on where you're at, what's going on, are you living in harmony with God? Do you live realizing that Christ died on the cross for you? That you might have a harmonious relationship with God? That your only hope is in the work of the cross. Nothing else on this earth, as good as it sounds, as helpful as it may appear, nothing can save you but Christ. His death equals your salvation. It's the only way. It's the only way to live a harmonious life. And so are you living in harmony with God? Paul continues. In the last section of our passage this morning, we see Jesus' transformational work in us. So we've seen him as creator and sustainer. We've seen what he did on the cross. And now Paul goes into what he does in our lives. Paul addresses the past, present, and future for believers. Past is our former reality, our sinful life. He addresses our present, which is our ongoing rescue. And he addresses the future, our hope of heaven. All of creation, humanity included, awaits the consummation of Christ's work when there is no more sin in the world, when Christ returns again. But until then, we wait with hope and we live for him. If believers, if we are to be presented as holy and blameless and above reproach, then we must continue to be stable and steadfast in our faith.

So Paul says in verse 21, "Once you were alienated from God and you were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior." Right? This is everyone's reality. We are sinners. And just as Adam and Eve were cast out from the garden because of their sin, we are born into a reality without harmonious relationship with God. So how do we gain that necessary right standing with God again? Well, it's through Christ and only Christ, verse 22. "But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight without blemish and free from accusation." I keep saying this, but it's worth repeating. Christ's work on the cross has done it all. There is nothing else needed, nothing to be added to get us into heaven, to get us into have a relationship with God. Christ is sufficient. And I don't mean that in the, like, he's fine. Like, it's okay. It's just enough. Like that negative connotation of sufficient. I mean, he is supremely sufficient. Jesus is enough. He is more than enough. Paul mentions here Christ's physical body. And again, this is Paul's way of just addressing some rumors out there at the time that Jesus didn't have a physical body. So what he endured and what he did wasn't all that special. But we know that Christ was fully God, fully man, had a physical body. And so he endured the pain, the torture, the suffering, and he died a gruesome, cruel death. And he did this to present you holy in the sight of God without blemish and free from accusation. Jesus did this so that the reality mentioned in verse 21, us lacking a harmonious relationship with God, could be flipped, could be undone. And that way, we don't have to remain banished from God's presence, but we can enjoy intimacy and personal relationship with God, the Lord of all. And again, what Christ did on the cross is the only thing that can change that status, our status with God. That phrase, free from accusation, is because as sinners, when God looks at us, all he sees is our sin. As great of a life as you can live, all he sees when he looks at you is your sin. But once we are saved, that means that Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, is now dwelling in us. And so when God looks at us, he sees the perfection of Christ, blameless, holy, free from accusation. And because of Christ, we are then able to be in his presence.

Verse 23 says, "If you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel." Paul is addressing the crossroads that the church in Colossae is at. With what they're doing, the practices that they're involved with, he's charging them to continue to trust Christ and live out the gospel message. It's that live out the gospel message and how you live your life. Every part of it must honor and worship God. They have to stop observing and practicing the different rules and traditions which threaten to lead them away from Jesus. He's saying that Jesus, or he's saying that faith in Christ isn't simply a way of entering God's kingdom, it's the way of life within the kingdom. Let me repeat that. Paul is saying that faith in Christ isn't simply a way of entering God's kingdom, it's the way of life within the kingdom. This is so important. This means faith in Christ doesn't just change where we go after we die, it changes how we live now. The way we live our life today should be changed because of Christ dwelling in us.

So I want to ask this final question. What crossroads are you at in life? What is the spirit calling you away from in order to pursue God fully? I don't know what other spiritual practices and habits or religions that you may have come from or are with right now. We all had different upbringings and grew up in different scenarios and so I think at this point in life we've been in touch with several other faith traditions. I think Paul is asking us just to hold everything up to the gospel and say, "Does this, whatever you're doing in life, does it align with what the gospel says?" And if you haven't taken the time to kind of assess what you do and how you live out your faith, I would encourage you to do that this week. What does your faith practice look like? Yes, you go to church, maybe you pray, but maybe there's some other things that are woven in there, or maybe some thoughts of when things get tough or whatever it is, and I tend to think this, hold that all up to the gospel and say, "Is this what Christ demands of me and how I live my life?" The gospel tells us what it means to follow Jesus. The gospel tells us what it means to be saved. The gospel tells us who Jesus is and that he is enough. As we close, I just want to say that we pastors are here for you, and we want to walk alongside you as we all walk together towards God. And our prayer is that God is working in each and every one of you to grow in your knowledge and faith in him, that we know better through time how he is the creator and sustainer of this world, of the world that we live in, that we know better his work on the cross and all that truly happened from his death and resurrection, and we know better through his spirit, the transformational work that happens in our hearts, and that we would all come to a place where we know and believe and live out of faith where Christ is enough and that Christ is over everything. I pray that that would be true for us, that we would know that deeply this week.

Would you guys pray with me? God, pray that your word would be a swift word passing from our ears to our hearts and from our hearts to our words and our actions, that we may be transformed to be more like Christ inside and out. And so as the rains don't return empty but yield life, we pray that your word would do the same and not return empty, but do what it was given for, which is to produce Christ-like life within us and from us. God, I pray that you would this week reveal to us ways in which we are not living in step with you. And God, that you would give us the courage and the strength to repent of things we need to repent from, that you would give us insight and wisdom on how to chase you and pursue you with everything that we have. And God, I pray for those of us who are dealing with doubt, that we don't know for sure if you are enough, that you would reassure us, give us the faith to believe and live every day knowing that you are enough, you are more than enough. Strengthen us, God, through your Holy Spirit. Give us what we need, that we would depend on you daily. We love you, God. We pray this in your name. Amen.

Colossians: Part 1

Colossians: Part 1 - A Life Worthy of the Lord

Colossians 1:1-14

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We are going to be in the book of Colossians, which I'm very excited about. I don't think I've actually had the opportunity to begin a series. So I'm happy to be here with you today and get to kick off a new series with you. So Colossians is a beautiful book. It's in the New Testament. It is a letter to one of the churches that Paul writes. And it is just so rich with theology and with learning more about who God is and how we respond to that and what our lives look like after learning more about Jesus. And so I really am just excited for us to learn and grow and kind of see how we as a church body, a Spring Valley church, and individually grow our faith deeper through this series. So we just finished our Christian-ish series. That was how we kicked off the year. And you know, that one was like a hurt so good kind of series. It really pushed us, I think, and I think it was really necessary. But that one was a little bit more about how we get off the fence, the importance of going all in on Jesus, of not having a lukewarm faith. And so Colossians is a little bit more about how we then go deeper. So we've said yes to Jesus. We've gone all in. Now, how do we go deeper with Him and in our relationship with Him? We really want to learn how to grow those roots deeper.

So I want to give us a little bit of background information on the book of Colossians for those that maybe don't know or aren't familiar. But it is, as I said, it is a letter written from the Apostle Paul to the church in Colossae. Now, side note, some people say Coloss, some people say Colossae, some people say Colossae. I have no idea what the actual way of saying it is, but we're going to say Colossae today, okay? So just so you have a heads up, there's three of us preaching on this same book, so we might say a little bit differently. But I'm going to say Colossae just for some continuity here. But Paul actually never met the church in Colossae. Typically, his other books, he was writing to the churches that he began. He started them, he went on several missionary journeys and he started multiple churches. But he didn't actually start the church in Colossae. And so there was a man named Epaphras who was a Colossian, and it's believed that he went to Ephesus. Ephesus is a place where Paul started a church, it's where we get the book of Ephesians. And it's believed that Epaphras heard Paul preaching in Ephesus and then took the gospel back and started a church in Colossae. So here we find that Epaphras has gone to Rome and is giving Paul an update on the church. Now, why Rome? Well, Paul is in prison in Rome. He is currently in prison because he is proclaiming that Jesus is the risen Lord and the Romans don't like it. So he is in prison for the gospel. But that doesn't let him stop, that doesn't stop him, he doesn't let it stop him from encouraging the church worldwide. So Epaphras brings the news to Paul that the church is growing, but they are having some struggles.

And so Paul writes to them, and Paul is encouraged to hear that the gospel is spreading throughout Colossae, but, you know, worldwide. And so that is encouraging to him as he is suffering in chains for the gospel. But he also really wants to respond to the issues of their day. And so the book of Colossians is really Paul, first of all, encouraging them to address the cultural problems that they are facing. It's a little unsure of what specifically the problems were, but one of the prevailing theories was that there was false prophets teaching and preaching things that were against the true gospel. They were tempting the Colossians to turn away from what they knew by preaching a false gospel. So Paul encourages them to address this issue head on. And then the second thing he does is he challenges them to a greater level of devotion to Jesus. And really these things are interconnected, because when we are coming against the cultural issues of our day, when we are standing firm on the truth of the gospel and not letting it tempt us to turn away from it, we will naturally grow deeper in our faith. And then as we grow deeper in our faith and we become stronger, we are more equipped to continue to stand firm against the issues we face and the temptations that come against us. So these are really interconnected ideas. As we will see throughout the book and this series, Christ, Paul acknowledges and says over and over again how Christ is the center of everything. He's the reason for everything. He's above everything. And when a person encounters Jesus, they do not leave the same way. Now, let me be clear. A person can encounter Jesus and choose to keep living the same way. They can choose to not leave a life of sin or allow their encounter to transform them. But when they encounter Jesus, there is an invitation to live differently. And so the person who does choose to be transformed, to be changed by the gospel, will be marked by a different way of living. They will turn from their sin. They will respond to life situations differently. They will show up in the world as a changed person because they encountered Jesus and chose to let him transform their hearts.

There's a popular resource called The Bible Project. I encourage you look it up. Us as a staff use it a lot to learn more about the Bible and books of the Bible specifically. But they have kind of a, they described the big idea of Colossians, and I thought it was really helpful. So I want to read it for us today. No part of human existence remains untouched by the loving, liberating rule of the risen Jesus. We are invited to live a new creation life here and now because the new creation began arriving when Jesus rose from the dead. So even now, even here on earth in our broken and hurting world, we can live as a new creation. Because for those of us who are in Christ, who have decided to follow Jesus, who have allowed him into our lives and made, we've made him Lord of our life. We are a new creation right now. Yes, the new heaven and the new earth is coming, but even now we can live as a new creation. That reality is available to us even now. So we're going to be in the book of Colossians for the next several weeks. But today we're just going to be on in verse or in the first chapter. We're not going to go past the first 14 verses. So we're in a park there today, but we're really going to set the groundwork for this whole series and kind of begin with the end in mind.

We want us to walk away from this series knowing Jesus better. And to see how a follower of Jesus is to live and operate in the world once they have been transformed by the gospel. So that's where we're headed. That's where we want to go. So if you would turn with me to the book of Colossians, it's in the New Testament. It's right after Philippians, if you get to 1 Thessalonians, you've gone too far. But you can turn there in your Bibles. There's Bibles in the seats underneath. We'll have it on the screens as well. But we're just going to read right now. We're going to start in verses one through six. So read along with me. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God and Timothy, our brother, to God's holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ. Grace and peace to you from God our Father. We always thank God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God's people. The faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God's grace. So Paul starts out by commending them for their faith and love for God's people. And he notes here in these first few verses where their faith and love come from. Verse five says the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel. It comes from their hope. Their faith and love come from hope. Specifically the hope of heaven and the hope of salvation.

These are the things, hope is the thing that bolsters our faith and love. When we have the hope of salvation because we know that Jesus died for us and rose again, that gives us hope and it bolsters our faith and love for God's people. And when we remember the hope of eternal life, the hope of heaven, that because of that gift of salvation, we get to spend eternity with Jesus, again, that's going to keep bolstering our faith and our love. So he commends them for their faith and love, but Paul knows that while their faith and love is strong, they need encouragement and they need to be challenged in the issues that they're facing. So he goes on, he shares their things for them and for what they are doing with the gospel. But then he writes a prayer. He tells them, I pray for you and I'm going to tell you what I pray about.

So let's pick up in verse nine. It says, "For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." Amen.

So Paul prays for the Colossians to have knowledge and wisdom and understanding from the Spirit. Not from themselves, not from the culture around them, not from the false prophets who are trying to preach a different gospel, but from the Spirit. Knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is typically referenced as having information, and wisdom is knowing what to do with that information. So the Colossians knew the gospel. They had heard it, they had accepted it, they had started their church. They knew the gospel. So they had some knowledge, but Paul is saying, "I want you, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to grow in knowledge and increase in wisdom so you know what to do with the truth that you have. You know how to stand firm against the issues of your day because of the truth you already have.”

He prays for knowledge and wisdom and understanding from the Spirit so that... I love these little connectors. They're all throughout the Bible. You have "therefore," you have "so that," you have "if/then." All of these things are a literary device to get your attention to know that something else is happening. So it helps me anyways to pay a little bit more attention. That we're not just growing in knowledge and wisdom and understanding for the sake of knowing more things, but there's a reason. So that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way. That's the goal. That is the goal of the Christian life. Once you have accepted Jesus, that's goal number one, but then the next one is to live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way. So what is every way?

Well, thankfully, Paul gave us a list. He said, "Bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father." Awesome. But what does this mean? We love a list. At least for me, I like checking things off my to-do list. Am I bearing fruit? Am I growing in the knowledge of God? You know, we have a list, but we need to know what to do with this. And also, Paul's writing to the Colossians. So what does that mean for us? Something that I want us to remember as we study the book of Colossians and really as we read the Bible in its entirety, is I want us to remember that some scripture is descriptive. It is describing a certain situation based on a person in a place and time under certain circumstances. I think of the Israelites. God told them to go pick manna up off the ground every day to provide food for them. That is descriptive. It is describing something that happened. Please don't go pick up food off the ground and eat it. That is not for you. Okay? That scripture is not for you. Not in that way. That is a descriptive of the circumstances that they were facing in that time and place. But a lot of scripture is also prescriptive, meaning it was written for an original audience, and in this case, the Colossians. But it is also for all believers spanning space and time. And in this case, this is for us too. And the reason I know that is because Paul is talking about what the Holy Spirit is doing in their lives. And we still have the Holy Spirit today. We all have access to the Holy Spirit when we invite Him into our life. So in this case, we are looking at some prescriptive texts here that we can glean from in our Christian walk today. So the first one, "Bearing Fruit in Every Good Work.”

Pastor Chris talked last week about abiding. Abiding in the vine, who is Christ? And when we abide, we bear fruit. Now to be clear, it is the Holy Spirit bearing fruit in us. We are not the ones doing the bearing. We are not the ones doing the producing. We are the ones abiding. And by abiding, that fruit is produced in our lives. Galatians 5:22-23 talks about the fruit of the Holy Spirit. It says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, or forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things, there is no law." These are the spiritual fruit that is produced in us when we abide. And Paul is saying that one of the ways we live a life worthy of the Lord is by bearing this fruit. When we have fruit, spiritual fruit, produced in our lives, it is proof of our faith and of the work that God is doing in our hearts. But he specifically says, "Bearing fruit in every good work." Not in some good work, not in a few things, but in every good work. That is the big and the small, the seemingly important and the seemingly insignificant. The platforms and the parenting, the promotions and the walking the dog, whatever it is that we do in the big and the small, we are called to bear fruit or really allow the Holy Spirit to bear fruit in us. The second thing that Paul talks about is growing in the knowledge of God. Again, this knowledge, getting more information. This isn't just specifically knowing more facts about God.

Okay, the more we know about God, the more we study His word, He reveals Himself so much in His word. And so the more we know about God, the deeper our faith is able to grow. When you get to know a person, you're much more connected. You're closer to them. You're more related to them. You're able to feel more connected and have a deeper relationship with them. You can know facts about someone and not really know them personally. You can know facts about your favorite sports team or an athlete. Shout out Super Bowl for those who celebrate. You can know a favorite celebrity, an actress or actor or a musician. You can know all kinds of facts about them, but you don't know them. And so Paul is saying, grow in your knowledge of who God is and get to know Him. Be in conversation with Him. Read His word so that your faith can be deepened and that you can live a life worthy of Him.

Jeremiah 9:23-24 says, "This is what the Lord says. Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this, that they have the understanding to know Me, that I am the Lord who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth. For in these I delight, declares the Lord." We are called to know God, to know His character, to know what He loves, what He delights in, what He hates, what breaks His heart. These are the things that we can know about God. We're not going to know everything, and that's a good thing. I don't want to serve a God that I can figure out, but we are called, and He desires for us to know Him. That's why He gave us His word. John 17:3 says, "Now this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." That is eternal life, is knowing Him. Seems pretty important. The third thing He says is being strengthened, specifically to endure and have patience. I don't know about y'all, but on a job interview when asked what my strengths are, I have never said endurance or patience. Maybe there's some of you out there who have. That is not me. Endurance and patience is something that many of us are weak in, that we need to be strengthened in. Why do we need endurance though? Well, Paul talks a lot about running the race, the spiritual race that we run, and it is a long road. It is not a short trip. It is a long road. And so we need endurance to stay the course, to keep going. We need patience when there are bumps in the road, when things don't go our way.

Thankfully though, it is God who strengthens us in these things. Ephesians 3:16 says, "I pray that out of His glorious riches, He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being." We don't have to white knuckle it. We don't have to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. We don't have to be our own hero or our own savior. We just have to be willing to let the Spirit strengthen us. Are we sensing a theme here? That is the Spirit working in us to do these things. Finally, Paul says, "Giving joyful thanks." I really appreciate this extra adjective that he puts in there, because the reality is we can give thanks half-heartedly. "Jesus, thank you for this food. Amen." We said thanks. I think of my kids sometimes, especially when they're little, and we're trying to teach them theirs, "Hey, say thank you." They get it. They say thank you. They get it out there. But we can even say thank you and genuinely mean it without letting the gratitude transform our hearts. And so Paul is saying, "Give thanks and do it joyfully. Let it change who you are." Paul is constantly giving thanks. He starts just about every letter with some version of, "I give thanks to God every time I think of you." He's constantly thanking God for people, and then he'll often thank the people he's writing to for their efforts in spreading the gospel. And the man lived through some wild times. We were just talking about this in youth group a couple weeks ago. Of all the things that Paul went through, he was shipwrecked multiple times. He was stoned. He was bitten by a snake. He was in prison several times. He suffered a lot for the sake of the gospel, but he constantly gave thanks. And why? Why should we give joyful thanks? It's because when we are giving joyful thanks over time and consistently, it shifts our perspective. It shifts our eyes up out of our circumstances and on the one who is above all of them. And really, it expands joy in our hearts when we practice thanksgiving. And I know that when we do these things, when we are bearing fruit, when we are growing in the knowledge of God, when we are giving joyful thanks and being strengthened, this pleases the Father. So we pray for knowledge and wisdom and understanding from the Spirit. We pray that we are transformed from the inside out so that we will live differently. And we will live a life worthy of the Lord and pleasing to Him in every way.

Well, after this section, Paul tells the Colossians and us as well, that the Father has qualified you to receive the inheritance of His kingdom. Colossians 1:12-14 says, "In giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of His holy people in the kingdom of light. For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." The Colossians were not Jews. They were not part of the holy nation of Israel that God had set apart in the Old Testament. They were Gentiles, just like you and I are. But thankfully, by God's grace, He invited them and us into His kingdom of light. He rescued them out of the darkness of sin and the hold that Satan had on them. He redeemed them and forgave them. And Paul is telling them, "You've already been rescued. Don't go back there. Don't listen to these false prophets that are telling you things that you know are not true, that are going against the Bible, that are going against the gospel that you heard and believed. You've already been rescued. Don't go back to the chains. Don't go back to the sin that keeps you in bondage." This idea of the dominion of darkness, this power of darkness is a sinister force. It is like combat in the spiritual realm. It is real. There is a spiritual darkness. And I don't say that we should live in fear because we have the power of the Holy Spirit in us. But it is real. And we have an enemy of our souls who wants nothing but to kill, steal, and destroy. And he does this through his power of darkness. One commentary I read this week was speaking to the effects of the power of darkness. And I thought it was really poignant, so I wanted to read it for us. It says, "The power of darkness lulls us to sleep. The power of darkness is skilled at concealment. The power of darkness afflicts and depresses man. The power of darkness can fascinate us. The power of darkness emboldens some men." It lulls us to sleep, making us believe that it's not that serious. It's sneaky. It operates in concealment and under the guise of goodness. It oppresses us by afflicting us with depression and anxiety and mental illness. Maybe even physical illness for some. It can also fascinate us. We are fascinated with things of darkness. We are fascinated with the sin thing that we can't have. And it can embolden some to believe that they can toe the line and walk with Christ while also dabbling in the darkness.

Thankfully, though, we have been rescued. We've been rescued from this power of darkness, and we no longer have to live in bondage to it. It does not control us. It is real, and there are times that we will have to fight. That's why Paul tells us to put on the armor of God. But we are not slaves to it anymore. We don't have to go back to it. Charles Spurgeon, a theologian, said, "Beloved, we still are tempted by Satan, but we are not under his power. We have to fight with him, but we are not his slaves. He is not our king. He has no rights over us. We do not obey him. We will not listen to his temptations." By God's grace, we are no longer bound to the power of darkness. By the shed blood of Jesus, we've been set free, and we should act like it. Verse 14 says that in the Son of God, in Jesus, the son he loves, we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins. Redemption is more like a legal term that we have been released by legal ransom. His death is our ransom. We're free. We're debt free. And then forgiveness here means ascending away. Jesus's death sent away our sins from us. The Psalm says that as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our sins from us. So because we are redeemed and forgiven, we are legally set free from the debt of sin, and then we are spiritually free through the sending away of our sins. We are able to live free by the power of the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit wants to increase us in knowledge and wisdom and understanding. He has promised that if we will abide, he will produce that fruit in our lives. And he will empower us to live a life worthy of our Lord that is pleasing to him. This is how we walk out our faith. This is how we live differently. This is how we live a life worthy of Jesus. And this is how we show the world that Christ is truly above everything.

I'm going to pray for us, and the band's going to come up. We're going to head into our time of prayer that Andre spoke about earlier. He and I will be up at the front. We would love the opportunity to pray over you. Bob and Chris are going to be in the back if you would rather be in the back and not have any eyes on you. But don't let that stop you. We're just praying. There's nothing magical about it. It's just taking our praise and our needs to God. And we just want to come alongside you and do that with you. The Bible says where two or three are gathered, he is there. He's here, friends. Let's just talk to him. Let us pray for you. God, we thank you for your word. We thank you that you have given us your word to learn more about you, to grow deeper in our relationship with you. We thank you that we don't have to stay the same. That once we have encountered you, you make us new and we are a new creation and we can operate like that here and now. Lord, we ask by the power of the Holy Spirit that you would cultivate these things in our lives, that you would help us to live differently, living a life worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We love you, Jesus. Amen.

We Are The Church: Part 3

We Are The Church: Part 3

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Well, we are on our last week of our series for We Are The Church, and I'm really excited for what we're gonna talk about today but before we dive into that, I just wanna give you guys a reminder that at the beginning of this series, we talked about the Church Pulse Assessment that has been sent out to you through our email list and I believe there's even a text going out this afternoon as another reminder, but we would just really appreciate if all of you would take probably 10, 15 minutes to just go through that assessment. It'll help us as a leadership team to know where we can grow, what areas of weakness and strengths that we have, what you are looking for in your church body, but this is just something that we are going to have you go through, have everyone go through so that it will help us as we focus in on this next year. So if you would take some time to do that, we would really appreciate our goal is to get everyone to do that, so we would love for you to help us out with that.

We as a leadership team have a desire to see Spring Valley Church, really the global church, but specifically for us here at Spring Valley, for it to be your third place. Now, what is the third place? Well, in our culture, we often have three places. We have our home, we have our work, and then we have a third place, wherever you spend a lot of time. So for some people, maybe it's a coffee shop. I actually think Starbucks is the one who coined this term, who started this idea of a third place 'cause they wanted you to come be at their stores. But maybe it's a coffee shop or a bookstore. Maybe it is the library. Perhaps it's a really close friend's house or the home that you grew up in that your parents still live in. Wherever it is that if you're not at home or work or school, you are at this third place. And we just, we kind of have this dream or this vision that we would be your third place. Now, even if it's not the church building itself, although we have a lot of events and things here, obviously we hold our church services here, even if it's not here specifically, that the body, the people, our SVC family, wherever you may be gathering would be your third place. We hope that it's a place that when service is over, you stay and you talk, you linger. That's why we got the picnic tables outside. That's why we try to have an all-church meal regularly so we can stay after and fellowship and be with each other. Maybe it's this idea of when the check has been paid, maybe you've gone out to lunch after service or you meet up with some church friends on a Friday night, that after the check has been paid, you don't rush off, but you stay. And you continue to be together. We want it to be a place where we are in each other's business, we're in each other's lives regularly. That is our hope. And honestly, that's what a big part of what we're celebrating today, is the fact that people have chosen to make Spring Valley their church family or their third place. And we are so excited about what God is doing here. So we're gonna look more into that, about what that means for us individually and corporately as a church body.

There was a Harvard study done that said that one in three people believe the following. It says that, they said, "You have needs in your life "and no one to meet them. "You have hurts to share and no one to listen to them. "You have love to give and no one to receive it." So one of the 36 of Americans are enduring ongoing feelings of loneliness, isolation and longing to be loved and to love. 36%. Honestly, I would imagine that's actually kind of low, to some degree. 'Cause it's not God's design or His intention for His kids. That's not how He made us, to be enduring feelings of loneliness, isolation and wanting to love and be loved. We're actually on a pause from our Genesis series for this We Are the Church series, but I'm actually gonna take us to Genesis again. 'Cause I think it's a really good reminder of why we are built for community. So in Genesis one, God, we see creation. God made order out of chaos and He created the world. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and He said, "It is good." Let there be light, light was good. Stars, planets, fish, plants, birds, animals. All of it, He said, was good. But then God said something wasn't good. After He made man, made Adam, and He saw that Adam had no one to do life with, had no one to laugh with or cry with or spend time with or share experiences with, He said, "This isn't good." Genesis 2:18 says, "The Lord God said, 'It is not good "'for the man to be alone. "'I will make a helper suitable for him.’"

And then moving on to 22, "Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib "He had taken out of the man "and He brought her to the man. "The man said, 'This is now bone of my bones "'and flesh of my flesh. "'She shall be called woman "'for she was taken out of the man.'" It wasn't good for him to be alone. God designed them to be together, to be in community. We know this because of what we've also talked about in our Genesis series of what came before man was made. What did God say before He made humans? Genesis 1:26, "Then God said, "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness. "Let us make them in our image." That's plural language. So we see that the Trinity exists in community. We have Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. There's this perfect community that exists, distinct persons, but united as one. Now, God didn't create us because He was lonely. We see that because He was in community. He wasn't lonely and God doesn't need anything. So He didn't create us because He was lonely. He created us because He is love. Love isn't what God did, it's who He is. And He wanted to make us, to be in relationship with us. That's where we get the greatest commandment. Matthew 22, Jesus says, "The greatest commandment "is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, strength, "and love your neighbor as yourself." So out of His love, He created us and then He gave us each other so that we can love Him and love each other. We were made for community.

The early church that we see in the book of Acts is really embraced this idea. They understood it. They knew that they needed each other. If you'll turn with me to Acts 2 in your Bibles or your phones, we'll also have it up on the screen. Acts 2:46-47, we see this picture of the early church embracing their community. It says, "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching "and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, "and to prayer. "Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs "performed by the apostles. "All the believers were together "and had everything in common. "They sold property and possessions to give "to anyone who had need." Verse 46, "Every day they continued to meet together "in the temple courts. "They broke bread in their homes and ate together "with glad and sincere hearts, praising God "and enjoying the favor of all the people. "And the Lord added to their number daily "those who were being saved." Every day they were together. They met together, they spent time together, they made food together, they ate and did life, they took care of each other. It was more than just physical proximity, although that was very important, but it created a spiritual intimacy and an emotional unity.

Why did they gather so often? Well, they needed each other and they knew they needed each other. They were aware of it, so they did something about it. Many believers, all believers, need that community too, but I think, especially in our modern day, we've forgotten it. We have forgotten how much we need each other. Maybe we have our immediate family, maybe we have our best friend or our spouse, but then beyond that, we forget that we need other people. A lot of us have embraced this, an isolating existence, maybe not even intentionally, but with the way of technology and advancement in conveniences, we work and shop and play online. We have social media that's not actually that social. We think it is, we pretend it is. And don't get me wrong, you can make real, I have made friendships with people online, but it's different, it's different when you are in person. We watch sermons, we listen to podcasts, we listen to audiobooks, all online. We think we don't need anything else, we don't need to go out or be with people. These are not bad things, please hear me on that. I do all of those things myself, these are not bad things. But I think we've lost the thread when it comes to truly living in community with other people, of seeing others and being seen by them. You can't do that when you're alone, you can't do that when you're just behind a screen, you can't do that when you're choosing to live in isolation. The reality is that as we all know, relationships can be messy. It can be scary to be vulnerable, to open ourselves up to people, to risk being hurt, 'cause we're all imperfect, we're all gonna mess up. And honestly, I think sometimes it's just inconvenient. We have work, we have our homes, we have our families, we have things we've gotta do, and so to put those on pause, to go be with other people can be really inconvenient, or even to invite people into that can be really inconvenient. So we don't, or we limit it. But see, being with each other is so good for us. It's good for our mental health, as science shows. It is good for the joy of our lives, it adds so much joy. It provides opportunity for encouragement and accountability. It helps breathe spiritual growth like nothing else does. You need each other, we need each other. Acts says that they met together daily, in person, in their homes, they went to each other's houses. They were all up in each other's business. They saw each other parenting, they saw their marriages, they saw what happens when they were stressed. And the thing with those kinds of relationships and that kind of community, it doesn't stay at surface level for very long, it can't. When you see who someone is when they are stressed out, you know who they are. I mean, if you think about what do we do when we have a loved one or someone we care about that suffers a tragedy or a loss? Maybe we send a text, hey, thinking about you, praying for you, let me know how I can help. Maybe we send flowers or drop off a meal on their porch. These are all good things, don't stop those things, do those things. But may I encourage you to pick up the phone. I think I'm probably more talking to my generation and younger, we have like an allergy to phone calls. Right, pick up the phone, let them hear your voice. Or, and hang with me here, go to them. Go be with them. Show up on their porch with a hot pizza and a hug and you are just ready to practice the ministry of presence. You are just there for them. You're a hand to hold, a shoulder to cry in, you don't have to say anything.

Sometimes people just wanna know that they are seen and they are known and they're not alone. I think sometimes we don't feel like we've maybe built up the relational equity needed to do that, needed to step into someone's space or to invite them into ours. But do you know where that relational equity is built? In regular, intentional community. When we are intentional about being with each other, it builds that relational equity so that we can show up for each other. Having Christian community, being the church, having this be your third place will not happen by accident. It has to be done intentionally. But when it is, it's what combats the loneliness. It's what fights against the things we talked about earlier from the Harvard study. It says, it's gonna provide someone who can help you meet your needs. It's going to give you someone whom you can share your hurt with, who will listen to you and pray for you. It's gonna give you someone to love and who will love you. When we commit to being in relationship with others, it combats the loneliness, it pushes it back in our own lives, but also in the lives of others. When we are committing to Christian community, we're creating the opportunity for ourselves to be in community, but also for others. What if, at least to some extent, God is asking you to live in Christian community, not for yourself, but for someone else? Maybe you're one of the two out of three that isn't struggling with loneliness or isolation right now. You still need community because other people need you. Someone else may need you to be there, to show up. And I promise you, one day, you're gonna be on the receiving end of that, but you have to be engaged consistently and intentionally in the body of Christ.

Our leadership team here has worked really hard to try to create some of these spaces and places for you to come and be a part of that. Our monthly men's and women's events, the guys just had an awesome time at ax throwing on Friday night. Yeah, I heard it was so much fun. Ladies, should we go ax throwing, maybe? No, okay. I'm just saying, the guys had so much fun. Well, we have our men's and women's events, we have our weekly Bible studies, we have youth on Monday nights for our students, family fun night we got coming up on Friday, and we want to create more. We're working to gather more opportunities for us to come together in addition to our Sunday morning. But we do this because like the early church, we know that we need each other. But here's where I might step on some toes. We can provide the place, but you have to choose it. You have to prioritize it. Just like we often choose things that cause us to live in isolation, sometimes we choose things that prevent us from engaging in that Christian community, from being there when we know we should be. And sometimes it's as simple as we over schedule. We say yes to too many things, not necessarily bad things, but we just say yes to too many things. Maybe we have all the kids' extracurricular activities or sports, maybe we take all the overtime shifts that we can. Maybe we just are hiding. Instead of opening ourselves up to other people, we would rather hide. We'd rather stay isolated. We'd rather protect ourselves. We don't want to be inconvenienced. 'Cause it is, it can be inconvenient. But it is so vital to our Christian life, to our spiritual growth and to our walk with Christ to do so alongside other believers. That is why we gather. The early church knew that and we can model our life after that. So what do we want our Christian community to be like? Well, I think there's many things, but we're gonna look at four things that we want our Christian community here at Spring Valley Church, your third place to be.

Number one, we want it to be full of grace. Acts 20:32, Paul is talking to the believers in the church and he says, "Now I commit you to God "and to the word of His grace, which can build you up "and give you an inheritance among all those "who are sanctified." We are given God's grace for the purpose of our sanctification, which means we are just being more, made more and more like Jesus. But because we have been given His grace, we can extend that grace to other people. So when someone walks in, it is not a place of judgment. Everyone is welcome. Come as you are. Jesus called people to Him. He didn't say, "Go clean yourself up first." He said, "Come follow me." So just like we have been given so much grace, we live in that grace and we extend that grace to other people. So we want our community to be a place that is full of grace. And all of these things require your participation. I can say these things all day long, but all of us have to embrace these practices so that we are all participating in this community, in this way. So we gotta be full of grace.

Number two, we want our community to be a place of healing. I read a pastor's quote this week. He says, "Confess to God for forgiveness. "Confess to people for healing." Now, we can be healed. God is the one who does the healing. But there is something supernatural that happens when we confess to someone else. James 5:16 says, "Therefore, confess your sins "to each other and pray for each other "so that you may be healed. "The prayer of a righteous person "is powerful and effective." I've said it before and I'll say it again, revival will not happen without confession and repentance. We cannot have revival in our own hearts or in our church until we confess and repent and turn away from what breaks the heart of God. Now, confessing often just means confessing your sin, admitting the sin you've had. You take it to God and you ask for forgiveness. But when I talk about confessing to other people, I'm talking about sharing that with someone, expressing that struggle to them so they can pray for you, so they can hold you accountable, so that they can be there for you. But it can also mean confessing something else that you are going through. Maybe it is a struggle, maybe it is a past hurt or trauma that you've never shared with anyone and you can't experience healing because it is keeping you in bondage 'cause you've never told anyone. When we practice confession with other people, when we surround ourselves with people that will pray for us and will intercede for us on our behalf, we experience freedom from bondage. Chains are broken, supernatural and spiritual healing comes through confession. So we wanna be a place of healing.

Number three, we wanna be unified in our mission. We wanna be on the same page when it comes to what we are called to as a body. Acts 2, again, 46 through 47 says, "Every day they continue to meet together "in the temple courts. "They broke bread in their homes "and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, "praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people "and all the Lord added to their number daily, "those who were being saved." Our mission is to spread the gospel. That's our number one goal, is to point people to Jesus and make heaven crowded. We want to see our community saturated with the glory of God. That's our mission, is to be filled up here and then go out and overflow to the world. When we are operating in community regularly, we become more unified in that mission. Are we adding to our number daily, those who are being saved? No, but we are growing. And again, that's something we're gonna celebrate this afternoon. That we are seeing numbers being added to us daily. And we don't celebrate them just for the sake of bigger numbers and seeing those numbers grow. We are celebrating souls that were lost that have now been found. Lives that have been surrendered to Christ. People that have joined our Christian community and chosen to be part of our Spring Valley family. That is what we are celebrating. But again, it's because we meet together regularly that we build up the body, that we become clear in our mission. That we're in it together, that we're stronger together and that it builds our faith and it builds our relationships so that we can be more effective for His kingdom.

Number four, it is where we become battle ready. Our time and community makes us ready for the spiritual battles that we face every day. In the church in America, I think we really downplay the spirit realm, spiritual warfare. And I think part of it is we're afraid of sounding a little crazy or even of running the risk of over spiritualizing things. But at the risk of over spiritualizing it, I'm gonna tell you there is a spiritual battle. We all face those battles. And so when we come together, it is an equipping of the saints. It is getting us battle ready for when we go out and we face those spiritual battles. The Bible says we don't fight against flesh and blood, but against powers and authorities and principalities of the dark world. We're not gonna be very good at fighting spiritual battles if we have not become ready, if we have not armored up and been prepared. So we come together and we're equipped through worship, through the teaching of God's word, through fellowship. Proverbs 27:17 says, "As iron sharpens iron, "so one person sharpens another." You can't sharpen something without contact. It has to come into contact in order to be sharpened. But when it's sharp, we become dangerous to the enemy. Through community, we are given the tools we need to combat, to combat the enemy, to combat in spiritual warfare, and we are just stronger in numbers.

Paul talks about this in Ephesians when he tells us to put on the full armor of God. When he's writing this, he's referring to the Roman soldier's armor. And he talks about the shield of faith, that that is the main form of protection. And the Roman soldiers would have a giant shield that would, basically big enough to hide behind. But when the enemy was sending flaming arrows arcing over into their territory, they would circle up and lift up their shields to create a shell. So not only was it protecting them, it was protecting their fellow soldier. So when we become battle ready, not only is it going to help us and prepare us to fight a spiritual battle, it's gonna protect our brothers and sisters. We have a couple guys in our church who are ex-military, and they have tattoos that say I-G-Y-6 And I asked them about it. I said, "What does I-G-Y -6 stand for?" And they said, "I got your six." Meaning, I've got your back. Paul talks a lot about soldiers and being ready and armoring up and military language. So just like our men and women in uniform, we as the body of believers, we have each other's backs. We can say that because we are operating in community, I got your six, I've got your back. But we can't do that if we don't know each other, if we aren't spending time together, if we aren't with each other.

When we live life together and have real conversations, when we open ourselves up to vulnerability, when we get equipped, we're gonna be more prepared to defend against the devil schemes. Friends, there's a lot of darkness in this world. We are not ignorant to that. We've seen that time and time again. More school shootings than I'd like to count. Oh, immigrant woman being brutally murdered on public transportation. Charlie Kirk being assassinated over and over. There are stories of terrible things. Evil is rampant in our world. But I'm here to tell you that the church of Jesus Christ is alive and well. But we have to get ready. When we are full of grace, when we are a place of confession that leads to healing, when we are unified in our mission, in our battle ready, we will together be able to push back that darkness. We'll be able to stand firm with clarity and courage against the lies of the enemy. We can push back against tribalism and division. Then we get to offer peace to the world, the peace of Christ. We get to be the peace bearers that go out and point people to Jesus. Our loneliness will be our downfall. Our isolation from each other will be our downfall. But Matthew 18:20 says, for where two or three gather in the name of the Lord, He will be there with us. So maybe loneliness and isolation will be our downfall, but victory through Jesus will happen and be found in community. So we are the church. Who's ready to commit to being a part of the body of Christ, to be the hands and feet of Jesus. Sign me up for that. Sign me up for that.

Let's pray. Jesus, we thank you that you made us for community, that you made us for relationships, that you put us together so that we can make each other better, so that we could sharpen each other, so that we wouldn't be lonely or trying to do this life in isolation. God, thank you for our church family. Thank you for this place that we can call our church home, that we can come together and fellowship with each other, that we can be with each other in the lows and celebrate in the highs. We praise you for designing us this way, for knowing that we would need each other. Help us to lean into that. Help us to be vulnerable. Help us to be open. Help us to be committed to where you have placed us in the body of Christ. We praise you. We thank you. We love you. In Jesus' name, Amen.

We Are The Church: Part 2

We Are The Church: Part 2

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Well, my name is Andrei, I'm one of the pastors here and we're glad that we're all together this Sunday. We are taking a break, as was said, from our Genesis series. We're doing the We Are The Church series. I want to remind you that we sent out an assessment, a church assessment via text, via email this past week and many of you have taken it, we really appreciate that. If you haven't yet, don't you worry, you're getting another text and another email and another opportunity to take that church assessment. And again, it's all to help us as a church and our leadership to understand where we're at and to move forward with the best steps possible. So if you could take some time this week, if you haven't yet, to take that church assessment, we would really appreciate that.

Last week, Pastor Chris started off our series, We Are The Church, and he had three mindsets for us, to be more devoted, to be more generous, and to share the love of Jesus, which we're going to talk about more today. But he ended with the encouragement to change the object of our devotion by taking one step. And he said maybe that is to begin tithing or to increase your tithing, to begin volunteering at church, to pray daily, and whatever that step was for you, I pray that God has been stirring within you clarity over what the step is to take and that you guys are taking those steps every day and these weeks ahead. So we are excited about what this series is going to mean for us individually and us as a church.

Today we're going to be talking about a question, why are we the church? Why are we the church? And while the verbiage may be different from every church that you go to generally, there are two things that are hidden in every kind of mission statement or vision statement for a church, and that is to bring glory to God and to bring people to Jesus. So those two things, to bring glory to God, to bring people to Jesus, this is why the church exists. We say it, it's on our wall here at Spring Valley, to see our community saturated with the glory of God through making disciples in the everyday stuff of life. So you can see in there we're trying to bring glory to God, and we're also trying to bring people to Jesus. Sometimes that can go from the forefront of our minds to the back, and we tend to forget why we are the church, why we're Christians and what our purpose is and why we gather together, even when it is a huge font on the side of our sanctuary. Sometimes we forget.

This reminds me of a story. When I was a pastor at a former church at East Parkway, there was a group. As I was pastoring, the group started coming to church, and it was eight to ten people, and they all came in this big van, this big 12-passenger van, and they were people who were in recovery or homeless, and they all came from a shelter up the road. They came from a long ways away, men and women, all dealing with, again, some point in their recovery, and they would drive over an hour to be here because someone, the person who was bringing them, had gone through recovery and seen the importance of church. They had a family member that went to that church, and so he was like, "Hey, I'm going to church now, and I think all these other people should also go to church." In order to be on time, I can give you the setting here, they would get there really early because they were driving far away, and so they'd often just be there in the parking lot for more than a half hour just chilling. For those who didn't know their story, it kind of looked a little odd. There's a group of 10 or 11 people, eight to ten, whatever, people sitting in the parking lot, smoking a lot of cigarettes, and not looking maybe like everyone else at the church. They were dressed in their best, but sometimes you go to a certain church setting, and there's just like, "Oh, well, we all look like this, and these people don't look like that." And again, it was a little off-putting for those who didn't know the story of why is there a group loitering in the parking lot and just smoking away, and then they come and they take all our brownies and cookies in the morning, and they keep drinking all the coffee. But for those who did know, it always put a smile on our faces to see that they were there. Why? Because we knew that this is why the church existed, to bring glory to God and to bring people to Jesus, and the person driving those people was bringing people to the house of God to go to church on Sundays. And as their story kind of came out over Sundays after Sundays, and people were asking, "Who are they? Who are they?" And then eventually the whole church knew, and the whole church, even if they didn't at first understand and see, but they were coming as they were, just love them as they were, and so the church had to learn to do the same.

And today we're going to be in a passage in Scripture where Jesus accepts someone just as they are, and the example that it is to us of why the church is the church. And so we're going to be in Mark 2. If you have your Bibles, you can follow along on the screen or on your phone. So we're going to be in Mark 2, and just to give a little background, Jesus has returned to home base, Capernaum, and he's teaching in a home, and there's no room left. As you can imagine, Jesus has quite the following, and when he comes into town, people want to hear, and so he comes to this house, and it is packed. It's like if Jesus showed up to one of your life groups, and you'd just be texting, like, "Hey, he's here, and you should get here," and your house was full. And this group at this house has got some pretty important people. You got everyone from the next-door neighbors to religious leaders who showed up to hear Jesus talk. From our passage, I want us to see the types of people that we see in this story and remind us that it's the very same types of people that we see in church today. So I'm going to pray, and then we're going to read. If you guys could bow your heads one more time with me. God, thank you for the chance to gather. We do not ever want to take this for granted. We can gather on a Sunday freely and worship you and hear your truth be preached. God, we pray for this message that you have prepared. I pray that it would reach our hearts, that it would draw us closer to you, that it would encourage us to give you everything we have and to live for you every moment of every day. And God, I pray that as we have a deeper understanding of who you are, we would have a deeper understanding of who we are and why we as a church exist. So be with us this morning. We give this time to you. We pray this in your name. Amen. All right. Let me go ahead and read our passage, starting in verse 1, Mark 2. A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, "Son, your sins are forgiven." Now some teachers of the law were sitting there thinking to themselves, "Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone?" Immediately, Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, "Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier, to say to this paralyzed man, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take your mat, and walk?' But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins." So he said to the man, "I tell you, get up, take your mat, and go home." He got up, took his mat, walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone, and they praised God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this.”

Another pastor, Pastor Greg Crochell, has some helpful insights into this passage, and I want to share some of those this morning. So we are going to look at five different types of people. In every church, you see five different types of people. The first is, you walk into a church, every church, you see someone in need. In our passage, it's the paralytic, in need of healing. Obviously, he has his friends there, but he needs something. He is living a life where he is not whole physically. And for that culture at that time, someone who was paralyzed, it was often associated with a generational sin. His parents must have done something, that he is now living a life like this. We won't get into all that right now, but this man is in need of physical healing. Today that could be in our church, someone battling depression, dealing with financial struggles, a single parent, someone feeling alone and hopeless, fighting anxiety. You come to church, and you are in need. There are people in our church today who are in need, in this room, who are in need. Sometimes that's us. We walk in, and we just need Jesus, and we need those other Christians in our lives. Other times, you go to church, and you're in a good place, you're experiencing a good season, God's blessing you, and you're able to think outside of yourselves, and you're aware of the needs around you, and that brings up our second person.

In every church, you will find someone who cares. In our passage, we see the four friends of this paralyzed man, who took it upon themselves to bring the man before Jesus. And they don't just stop once the house is filled. They didn't take him there like, "Hey, look, we couldn't get through. So sorry. Maybe we can meet Jesus next time, next week, at the Life Group, at this house." They care, they cared enough to keep going, determined to find a way to bring their friend to Jesus. Come back to that in a second. Today, in our church, there are people who care deeply for others, who have the capacity to care deeply. They are mindful of the lives that we are living, and people in need, and they want to do something about it. And maybe that's as simple as connecting with a person, sending them a text, "Hey, I know I was talking to this person on Sunday. I know they're going through a hard time. I'm going to reach out this week and just let them know that they're not alone. I'm thinking of them. I'm praying for them." Maybe that's meeting up for coffee and saying, "Hey, I know that they have a hard time getting out of the house. I'm going to go invite them to coffee. We're going to spend some time together." Maybe it's providing meals. Someone who's, "Hey, meal prepping is the thing that is very difficult right now. We're going to provide some meals for that person." Or maybe it's someone that we all cringe at, helping someone move. A classic, classic church help. And it's still good. We should all do it. We should help people move. It's a tough one. Maybe it's giving some money to someone who is in need and say, "Hey, I'm having a hard time this month. I'm doing my best, but it's just things aren't there." And there's someone who has the means to provide help. Whatever the need is, there are people in church who care. And I know, and I know that you guys know, I want to encourage us, there are people at Spring Valley who care, who have the capacity to care.

So you see, in church, you see someone in need, you see someone who cares, you also see someone who is preoccupied. In our passage, there's a whole house full of people, wall to wall, so full that four people could not get through. They had to dig a hole in the roof. I want to show, do we have the picture? There's a picture of a house. Can we put that up there? This is what they would have, something like this would have been what they were working with. So there's a kind of a courtyard, that was all full, just imagine that whole place packed with people. And the roof was made of some wooden beams, some straw and clay manure mixture, and then when it rained or if there was water put on top, that clay would kind of seal and harden. And so when it said they had to dig through the roof, they literally had to dig through some very hard materials to get through. And there was also like grass up there and people would work up there and just relax up there maybe after, I don't know. But there's, you could walk up on that roof, it was very strong. And so it was not a small thing to say, hey, we're just going to like put apart some straw. It was no, it was a whole material that they had to dig through. That's how committed these friends were, to get through all of that. And the friends could not get through that house. It was so packed. Even with, I imagine they were whispering, hey, we have someone here who needs to see Jesus. They're not just like, hey, we just want to go to the front. There's like, hey, we got something going on. Can we get through? And no one will let them through. They were all preoccupied. They had their backs turned to the person in need. I like how Pastor Craig says it in regards to how it can look today. It says there can be Christian circles that love Jesus. They have their Christian bumper stickers. They have their Christian language. They say, praise the Lord, hallelujah. They listen to KLOVE radio. They have their favorite podcast. And without knowing it, and without meaning it, just because they were preoccupied, their body language, their posture essentially says to people around them, you can go to hell as far as we're concerned, because we're doing our Jesus thing. They didn't mean to, but they can just have their little Christian thing going on, and it's a good thing. They all liked each other, but they didn't realize they were preoccupied and had their backs turned to someone who was in need. Are we too preoccupied that we don't see people in need? We all have our own needs. We're not denying that. But there's also, we need to be aware of the people that are sitting around us in this room that we encounter outside these walls in our lives that are needing Jesus. And even something good, like our own personal walk with God, should not deter us from lifting up our heads and saying, "Who's around me right now that may be needing Jesus? And can I participate in them seeing Jesus, meeting Jesus, hearing Jesus?" Those four friends, they didn't give up. They didn't let those circumstances stop them from getting their friend to Jesus. That's the kind of attitude and heart and action that we need to have as a church, willing to do anything short of sin to reach people who don't know Christ. Pastor Craig says to reach people no one is reaching, we'll have to do things no one is doing. Let's sink in for a second.

To reach people that no one is reaching, we might have to do some things that no one else is doing, to have the conversations that no one else is having, to go take the time and sacrifice our time to go spend it when no one else is doing it. The friends of the paralytic do that. They say, "You know what? We can dig a hole through the roof. No bad ideas. We are determined to get this man to Jesus. How are we going to do it? We're going to go up to the roof, we're going to dig a hole, we're going to lower our friend down to Jesus." Imagine the scene inside. You're sitting there, probably standing there, standing room only, shoulder to shoulder, trying to hear Jesus. All of a sudden, some dirt starts falling down from the roof. What is going on up there? And then a man, this gaping hole opens up, and there's a man being lowered down in front of Jesus. And I imagine Jesus with the biggest smile on his face as he sees what's happening. I think we know that Mark 2:5, it says, "When Jesus saw their faith," saw their faith. For those friends, faith wasn't just an internal belief. It was a strong enough belief that it led them to action. You ever know someone that had such a strong faith you could see it in their lives? I know I have. I've said this to people. I can see their faith in the way they serve. I can see their faith in the way they pray. I can see their faith in the way they love people who are really hard to love. I can see that person's faith in the way they give. I can see a person's faith in the way they have compassion with people. I can see a person's faith in the way they love, in the way they talk to their children as a parent. I can see a person's faith when they're talking with people who they disagree with, and they are loving them like Jesus. People can see the way, they can see our faith in the way that we live. And in moments throughout life when we are choosing to be like Jesus, those four friends had a faith that you could see. And Jesus says, "When I saw their faith, something amazing happened." I imagine the paralyzed man through all of this hoping and praying for physical healing. That's why he's there. His friends, that's why they're bringing him there for physical healing. I no longer want to be paralyzed. I want to walk. I want to be whole. And yet Jesus didn't just give him healing. In fact, he does something else first. Even though the man brought the paralytic to be healed, Jesus sees a need that is more important because Jesus can do that. He can see what we want but knows exactly what we need. Pastor Craig says it this way, "Sometimes God gives us what we need before he gives us what we want." The man is lowered down. It's probably clear what the situation is that he cannot walk. And before healing him, the first thing that Jesus says to him, "Son, your sins are forgiven." Sometimes God gives us what we need before he gives us what we want. The man wanted his body to be healed, but Jesus knew that his heart needed to be forgiven. Praise God that he can see what we truly need, not just what we want. And it's at this point though, there were some people in the house have issue with what's happening. And maybe it started with they got dirt in their face and they're a little upset by that. But definitely the healing of someone and claiming to be God, forgiving sins, is where some people got really upset.

And that brings us to the fourth type of person that we see in every church. It's the uncomfortable one. Brace yourselves. Someone who is critical. I don't mean like vitally important. I mean someone who is always critiquing what is happening in the church. Verses 6 through 7 say, "Now some teachers of the law were sitting there thinking to themselves, 'Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone?'" They're saying, "Jesus, you can't do this. That's not how this is going to happen. It's not how this is done." In churches today, there can be...that is present. There can be a lot of that. Someone who is critical, someone who is unhappy with things in church that aren't aligned with their preferences. They might not call them preferences. People who never seem to say anything positive, only negative, and complain and choose to see things through a critical lens. People who choose to ignore the work of Jesus that is happening in a church and instead make it about themselves and how they think, "This is not how I would do it," which means this is not how it should be done. But Jesus doesn't stop for the critics. Verse 10 says, "But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. So he said to the man, 'I tell you, get up, take your mat, and go home.'" Take up your mat and go. You don't need it anymore. Jesus continues his work. And he might be saying today, "Maybe not take up your mat, but hey, leave your struggles here. Leave that financial struggle behind. Leave that anxiety here. Let go of your bad habits. Leave behind the shame. Go and follow me in your day-to-day life." That's what the paralytic did. Who's no longer a paralytic, a healed man. He gets up, healed by the power of Jesus, walks out in full view of all of them, and everyone's amazed. They've never seen anything like it before. This man's life was changed when he encountered Jesus, both internally and outwardly. And his physical, his body was healed, but his heart was forgiven. His sins were forgiven.

So, we'll see. In every church, someone in need, someone who cares, we have them all listed up here, someone who is preoccupied, and someone who is critical. Which one are you? Take a moment here. Look at that list. Assess your heart, where you're at in life. Maybe you're more than one. That's possible too. Maybe you go through different seasons, and so at one season you were this, but now you're in a season where, hey, now I'm this person. You might be someone in need. And if that's you, if you've said, hey, I'm the person in need, then this is the perfect place to be. You're exactly where you need to be, because in every church is someone who cares about your need. You are around people who care about what you're going through. Unfortunately, there are also those of us who are preoccupied. I've been there before. We put our heads down. We go to church. We say, hi, hey, hey, nice to see you, great, great. We go on with our day. We go on with our week. Yeah, I've got to go to church. And we're just going through the motions. We're in a rut. We're not bringing people to Jesus. We're kind of doing our own thing. We might have our backs turned to the people in our lives who need Jesus. And we may need Jesus to help us a bit more, to enable us to be considerate and caring to the people around us. Maybe there are those of us who are critical. Maybe we woke up on the wrong side of the bed one Sunday. Or maybe we need a good look at our heart, at what's going on inside of us. We need to ask Jesus, why am I thinking these things? Why am I saying these things? Which one are you? Someone in need, someone who cares, someone who's preoccupied, or someone who is critical? There's actually one more type. I said five types of people in every church. The last one is this. We in every church, we are all someone who can be changed. We are all someone who can be changed by the grace of God. All of us, every single one of us in this room, changed by the grace of Jesus. When you walk into a church, whether this church or you've been visiting other churches, you've been to other churches, when you walk into a church, who do you see all around you? But people who can be changed by God. Scripture tells us that if anyone, it doesn't matter who or what you've done, if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation. The old is gone and everything is being made new. If you are in Christ, you have freedom. Says he who the Son sets free is free indeed. We don't come here as perfect people. We don't come here as a social event. We don't come here to top off our spiritual tanks and be like, "I was just missing a little and now I'm back to being perfect again. I'm good to go out throughout my week." It's not how this works. We come here, whether you've known Jesus all your life or you just accepted him yesterday, we are all in need of Jesus and the life that he gives us and the grace that he bestows on us. We are all someone who can be changed by Jesus.

Now let me shift gears here. Who do we not see at church and who do we not see in this passage? Sounds tricky, but it's really simple, I promise. We don't see the people who aren't there. Gotcha. See, you see what I did there? We don't see the people who aren't there. Maybe in today's circumstances, maybe it's the woman who almost went but was too afraid because she had so much going on in her life and she was afraid that if anyone were to find out anything, that shame would keep her from making connections and being a part of that church. Maybe it's the guy who was interested but didn't want to miss the Sunday morning football games. I was just like, "Hey, no one's really invited me. I kind of thought about it, but I don't want to go." Maybe it's someone who before COVID was interested in going to church and then COVID happened and afterwards they never re-sparked that interest of going to church and no one's talked to them about going back to church. The list goes on and on and on about people and why they're not here. But what's needed is people who care, people who will invite them to church or invite them to have a conversation about Jesus. People who will care about not just what that person wants but what that person truly needs. I think of that group at my old church. They were only there because someone cared and because that person took action, they had a faith that led to action, said, "I'm going to get a van. I'm going to load all you up. I'm going to take you there every Sunday." This is why the church exists, to bring glory to God and to bring people to Jesus.

You guys should have got a card on your seat today. I want to pull that card out right now. It says, "I'm praying for an opportunity to share Jesus with someone." There's space for you to write a name down or a few names down. Just take a moment and think about who in your life needs to hear about Jesus. Write those names down, there's pens in the seats in front of you. I'll give you a moment to think about that. Who in your life needs to hear about Jesus? Family member, friends, neighbors, co-workers? Hopefully by now you've thought of someone, someone's come to mind. You guys should do me a favor. If you know someone who has not yet given their life to Jesus, who does not yet believe, would you guys mind raising your hand? If that's you, if you know someone who does not yet know, take a look around. Almost everyone in this room knows someone who needs to hear about Jesus. Every single one of us has someone in our lives who doesn't know him yet. We are called to be the church, to partner with Jesus in His kingdom work. We are the people that can share Jesus with others. You may be sitting there saying to yourself, "Yeah, but I don't know what to say. I don't have all the answers. What if they ask these really hard questions? And what am I supposed to say to that?" Well, I want to say this. It's okay, I'm giving you permission to say, "I don't know." That's a great question. I don't know. That's a really, I see what you're saying there. It's a really hard question you're asking and I'm not sure. I'll let you in on a, it's not a secret. I have a Bible minor, a Masters in Divinity, I'm ordained in the church. I don't know all the questions about the Bible. I put years and hours and I don't know. And I still say I don't know when I come to certain people and I have certain questions and I say, "That's a great, I don't know." And I lead them to what I do know. And this is the encouragement to you. You lead them to what you do know. So you have experience. If you are a believer in Jesus, if you've been following him in your life, then you have experience with Jesus and you share your experience. I don't know that answer that question, but what I do know is I've seen God work in my life. I've seen him provide for me. I've seen him work a miracle. I've seen him heal. I've seen him answer my prayers. I've seen him and how he loves me and I think he wants to love you. I know he wants to love you too. That right there, that's all you say, that is sharing Jesus with other people. And they may come back with, "But why did this happen?" I don't know. I have no idea. But I know that he loves you and he wants a relationship with you. That is sharing the gospel. It's what we're called to do. So the band comes back up for worship.

Hopefully you have someone on your card. And so, yeah, a couple of things. You have that card. You take that with you this week and put it somewhere where you're going to see it. You're going to be praying for that person, where it's going to be in front of you to say, "Hey, I'm praying for an opportunity." And maybe you're as bold as to walk right up and be like, "Hey, we haven't had a conversation yet. I need to talk to you about something." Or maybe you're just praying and you're waiting for the right opportune moment. And then maybe this week, it may be months from now where you have a chance to share. You may also be sitting there thinking, "This person's pretty hopeless and I've tried and I don't know if I'm going to be able to reach them." I want to say this. Sometimes those who look farthest from God are actually the closest because God is doing a work inside of them that we can't see. And sometimes it's at the lowest of lows where they're most open to hearing about Jesus. Even when people we'd love to see come to Jesus seem far away, we need to have hope and believe that God is the God who can do anything. And so you have those names. So I exhort you to look for an opportunity to share what you know, your experience of God with them. And we do this because we are the church. We exist here at Spring Valley to bring glory to God, to bring people to Jesus, to see our community saturated with the glory of God through making disciples in the everyday stuff of life. Do not forget your purpose. Don't leave these doors and this sanctuary thinking, "I just go back and I leave church behind me." No. You go into your life. You go into the people, your neighborhoods, your family, and you carry with you the burden and the desire and the urgency to say, "When I get the chance, when God opens that door, I'm going to share the truth. What's so important to me and what I want someone else to value too." We are all someone in need and we can all be someone who cares about someone by sharing Jesus with them. We're going to head into a time of prayer. We've done this once a month now and Pastor Lauren's going to be on this side. I'll be on this side. And in this next song, we want to invite you to do a couple of things. If you want to respond to what you've heard today in singing, we invite you to stand and sing and praise God. You have those names on those cards. If you want to just pray for those people and take this moment to pray for them and that opportunity to share them, I encourage you to do that. We're going to be on the sides here. If you want to bring those people up and we can pray with you about reaching those people. And if you just have stuff going on in life and you're like, "Look, I barely got here today. I got a lot of questions about what's going on in the world today and I would love some prayer." And please join us up here and we'd love to pray for you.

We Are The Church: Part 1

We Are The Church: Part 1

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

This morning we are doing a first part in a series called We Are The Church and I'm going to get to the sticker on your seat there in a moment for this series, but I want to give you a little peek behind the curtain, okay? Can I do that? As a pastor, let you guys understand a little bit here. There are times when being a pastor is a real struggle. And there are times when I first started studying to be a pastor in college and I moved across the United States. I grew up here in Northern California, Carmichael. I packed up a truck and I moved all the way to Indiana, thousands of miles away from anybody that I knew. At the time, my lovely girlfriend came with me, my now wife. She was there. I had a buddy from high school. He was there. So I had some people, Lauren, she had family in the area, but no family that I knew or that she knew. And it was kind of a struggle. And when we started, when we got to college, we both made a promise to each other that we were going to find a church and we were going to plug into a church and we were going to get connected. And this began probably, I don't know how many months of going and attending a church and then going out to lunch afterwards and going, "Okay, what did we think?" Because honestly, the reality was that we both grew up in really awesome churches and the bar was set so high for us that we found it a struggle to find a church. And as we went around to different churches and we got to know a lot of really cool people, I'm not saying these churches were horrible, it just, it was hard. Midwest church versus West Coast church is a lot different. Way different. And so we would go to a church and we'd go out to lunch and we'd be like, "Okay, we love this about this." We're like, "This is like, oh, that one, that one, that. Not too sure about that. Could we go there?" We kept going. We eventually found a church and we said, "We're not going to just attend until things got weird.”

Because here's the reality. When you go to attend a church, the church isn't batting a thousand every single Sunday. Like, let's be honest. Church isn't perfect every Sunday. The church isn't perfect. So newsflash, if you're searching for a perfect church, welcome, we're not perfect. But as we started attending a church, we said, "Okay, we're committed. This is where we're going to go." And so we started serving. I started serving on the worship team. My wife started serving in youth ministry. And we said, "We're committed to this church." And as we went through college and as I studied the Bible, I felt this hypertension because I realized when I read about scripture and the church and the Bible, the modern church of today didn't look the same. There were some big differences. And as a pastor, we spend a lot of time, I'm not trying to toot my own horn here, okay? As a pastor, Pastor Andrei, myself, Pastor Lauren, we spend a lot of time during the week preparing for a weekend service. And we spend a lot of intention and thought and we try to do our best to think through all the details and we figure out the right songs. Andre spends every year, at the beginning of the year, he spends a good amount of time looking through, reading scripture, helping direct and plan our series for the year. We sit down together. We talk through these series of what each week is going to be like, what part of the scripture we focus on. What is the theme here? What do we want you guys to walk away from after you come to church? And I sit here and I still continue to look at the scriptures and I see, I go, "This church is different than what I see at the church and the Bible." And I think we do what I would hope, I think, a really good job here at Spring Valley, working to teach truth and teach theology and to teach the Word of God.

But when I look at, maybe, let's say outside of the church, I'm going to say Big C Church. You guys mean when I say Big C Church? I mean just the church in general. Let's say just the church in North America. I see churches that are sometimes playing it safe. Churches maybe that are disconnected. Some have slipped, maybe I dare say, into being boring. And I look at the calling of Jesus and the life that He lived. And as Christ followers, meaning we are to emulate Christ in our lives, there is nothing safe about Jesus, right? He touched lepers. He hung out with prostitutes. He called tax collectors to be on His team. There's nothing safe or comfortable about Jesus. And yet when I look at the church, sometimes I see comfortable. I see safe. I see not the picture of what the church was at the beginning. The church that Jesus established, that the Holy Spirit led, that brought down onto the disciples who became the apostles, who became the first pastors in the beginning when Jesus left and went back into heaven. I see a difference there. I see Jesus who was radical. He loved those who hated Him. He blessed those who persecuted Him. Jesus welcomed those who religion of the day had rejected. And this is where I struggle as a pastor sometimes. But not only as a pastor, but also as a disciple of Jesus as I read the Bible and I look at the church today, it pales in comparison to what once was. Jesus didn't come to condemn, it says, but He came to save the world. He came to bring life. And not just simple life, barely getting by life, but life that is full. Life that is vibrant. Life that is attractional to the outside world. And today, the next two weeks after, we're going to take three Sundays and we're going to seek to begin to please God as His church. Because here's the reality, it's not my church. It's not your church. Pastor Andre's church. Not the pastor who founded this church way back in the day. It's not their church. It's God's church. His church. And I want to look at specifically the beginning version of the church in Acts chapter 2 and to give us three mindset shifts. Mindset shifts. Easy for me to say, I speak for a living. For us to think about and walk away today and begin to really think through as we seek God and His church today.

I want to pray real quick. Jesus, we thank you for another wonderful Sunday. God, we thank you for today. God, a day to worship you, to give you praise, the honor and glory. Couldn't think of a better day of the week than right now, God, to gather together to worship you, to give you the praise. And everybody said? Amen.

Well, it says this, Acts chapter 2, if you want to flip there, it's going to be on the screens. You've got a Bible in front of you, a lot of people on your phone. That's awesome. But Acts chapter 2, we're going to start in verse 41, and it says this, "Those who accepted His message were baptized," being those that believed what people said were baptized. And they added to the church that day about 3,000 in all. Peter gathers together a giant group of people, and he begins to preach who Jesus was to these people. And 3,000 people that day say yes to Jesus. Whoa. I wouldn't even know what to do. Let's be honest. You have a program management pastor problem day one as a church. Don't get caught in that. Sorry, side note. "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions and gave to anyone who had need." Every day, every day, they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes, ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. The Lord added to their number weekly, monthly, yearly.

What was it? Shout it out. Let's go daily those who were being saved. Maybe I could just stop the sermon right here. A little bit different than today, right? A little bit different than Peter saying, "Hey, guys, we're going to meet temple courts Sunday 1030. Get your kids there at 1015. We'll check them into the side yard. We'll get them taken care of. And then service is over. You want to hang out. We're going to have some food. You can bring something to share. But we're going to be at Mary's house on Wednesday for a Bible study if you want to be over there." No, they met together daily. That's pretty awesome. Daily they're hanging out. And then they're Sabbath-ing together. They're having meals together. They're encouraging one another. Someone comes to them and says, "Hey, I need some help. I got it. What do you need? I'm here. Titus over here, he wants to hook you up. He'll take care of you. Just go see Titus." There's just this beautiful picture of this community in Acts chapter two.

So I thought it might be fun. Maybe look at the Big C church today and do today's translation or a modern-day version. This is me. I wrote this. Okay, I'm not saying. I'm not putting this in the Bible. But what if we wrote this about today? It may be something like this. Today's church, it says, "They devoted to their comfort, their happiness, their personal goals, their dream, their bucket list. No one really noticed the Christians because they were focused on themselves. Very few of the believers were together. And when we were, they fought over stupid things. If they sold anything, they used the money to buy something better for themselves. They claimed to love God, but they didn't even love each other. So they felt empty, alone, depressed. As a result, most people disliked them and very few lives were changed.”

Obviously, this isn't the picture that God has for His church. He wants something better for what the Scripture calls His bride, His love. And I think for us, there's been a lot of awesome, great churches and pastors. I don't want to discredit any of that. Okay? I'm here to just like, "Oh, church is so bad." But there has been a lot of things where we've gone astray in the church, right? And the only way that we can become better and to recognize where we can grow is to be honest with where we are at. If we want a different result, we have to have a different mindset. We have to change the way that we think, the way that we do church, the way that we live our lives because the reality is, as your sticker says, we don't just go to church, but we are the church. Say that with me. Say it. We are the church. The church isn't a building. The church isn't a campus on the corner of Sunset and Fairway or wherever in 123 America Boulevard USA. That's not where the church is. We are the church. They didn't have a building. I mean, they had 3,000 people and they didn't have a building. And yet what? God added daily those who are meeting Jesus and His saving grace for the very first time. So for us to become the best version of ourselves as the church, I see three things in this scripture about how the church operated, who they were, their priorities, and what they did. We will have to have three things changed in us to become more like the perfect version of the church from Acts chapter two.

The first thing we will have to be is we will have to be devoted. I just said we don't go to church. We are the church. There you go. You guys are catching. I'm proud of that. We will be devoted. We just don't go to church. We are the church. Oh yes. I love it. I love it. Acts 2:42, it says this, "They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, the teaching of Jesus and to fellowship, to community, to relationships, to breaking of bread, to food, to caring for one another, to loving each other, to prayer, to practically praying over each other by the power of the Holy Spirit, lifting one another up, going before God." And what the big fancy word would be, "intercession," which just means you're praying for somebody else so that God hears you praying for somebody else and that you love one another in the way that you care by taking time to think about them to say, "Hey God, I want to think about this person right now and what they're going through in their life." This is what the early church did. And when we look at this, I want us to focus in on that word, "devoted." I practiced this Greek word last night. My daughter came out. She's getting ready for bed and I'm literally online playing this Greek word to try to learn how to say it. So I'm about to butcher it real bad for you. But the Greek word for devoted means proskartereō. Yeah, see, you guys don't even know the difference. I love this. Proskartereō. And this word means devoted. It means to live in a constant state of relentless pursuit to be persistent, ongoing, obstinate, devotion. It's an imperfect tense. Ongoing action means it was and it is and it will be. Any English teachers in the room? I think I said that right. English was not my strength. But here's what this is. They were devoted. They were striving every single day to become more and more and more and more like Jesus. To be devoted to something is to strive to keep working at something. Consistency, repetition, habits, one after another after another becoming better and better and better even if it's an incy-binsy teensy-winsy little bit.

This weekend is the start of the NFL season. Okay, you knew I was coming here. You were waiting for it. And so for the past eight weeks, teams have been gathered together in what they call training camp. It's this ramp up period before the season actually starts. We started last Thursday night. And for the last eight weeks, players have done everything that they could to prepare for the season for one goal. One goal. To win a championship. And so for the past eight weeks, they have been obsessed, devoted, persistent with learning a playbook, developing their own personal strength, sharpening their skills, growing themselves hopefully to one time in February, I believe it is, to raise the Vince Lombardi trophy in victory with no other team standing. That's their obsession. And every day, they are persistent with their reps, repetitions. One rep after another after another. Because each rep builds on itself. Because then that begins a habit. And a habit develops a skill. And a skill will eventually show itself on the field when bullets are flying. They talk about some of these players who are just obsessed to a level that is probably unhealthy. Rep after rep after rep. Mental reps, not just physical reps, not just on the practice field or a preseason game or against a scrimmage against another team in a joint practice. But mental reps, too. On the field, off the field, in the classroom, with their coaches, in the weight room, at home, working out, studying their playbook on their own, watching videos of practice. Watching videos of practice. You guys realize that? They film all their practices and they go back and watch their practices again. Obsession. Each day. Because the most devoted, the most persistent are usually the players that are the best players. And they're the ones that can step up when their team is down, the game is on the line, and have ice in their veins and just go. But the players that settle never last long in the NFL. They just don't. Just don't make it. They might have all the skill in the world. I've seen some amazing football players come out of college that have all the skill in the world. But they're not devoted to the game.

And I think for us, it's easy to sit and to point at them and go, "Oh, look at them." But it's easy to settle, right? No, it's just a me thing? I think it's all of us in this room, if we were honest, deep down inside. We settle. But we don't think about settling. We think of just being too easily satisfied. We get to a point and go like, "Okay, I'm good. Life's good. Jobs, nah, not too bad. It's been worse. I'm doing okay. House is good. My marriage is fine. My finances are good. Life's good. I'm set. I don't need to think about anything." We get to a point where we're okay with just living life as it is in front of us, right? Here's the thing. We often settle for too little of God. We're good with a little bit of change of God in our life. And we're thankful for God's grace. Don't get me wrong there. We're thankful for God's grace, His love, and His mercy. Yet we become spiritually satisfied long before the grace of God has completed its work in us. See, I'll tell you today, right now in this moment, there are people in this room that have met Jesus very recently. And there's people in this room that have been following Jesus for a very long time. The truth about both of those people is God's not satisfied with where they are. He's not. And when I look at the early church and I see the apostles and those who follow Jesus and their devotion, their obsession with God and everything that God had for them, it wasn't like they had this big moment. Peter had this big Billy Graham crusade and prayed and 3,000 people came to know Jesus and he just gave them a high five and said, "Go with God." No, it didn't end there. That was just the beginning. And that's the same for us. That when we think about whether it was yesterday or a lot of yesterdays, the moment that we accepted Jesus in our heart, in our lives, we brought His salvation upon us, that was just the beginning. That was just day one of eternity. See the fact that God loves us so much that yes, He sent His Son to die for us on the cross, to give Himself for us so that we would have our sins forgiven. But God also loves us so much that He won't leave us as He found us. God is in the business of transformation, sanctification, and redemption. Now, I'm not talking about earning our salvation by the way that we live our lives and we have to do good and it outweighs. No, no, no, I'm talking about that. Your debt has been paid for eternity. But God's still got work to do in us. And when I look at the early church and I see this and their devotion and their commitment and their striving every single day as they met together in the temple courts, praising God and sharing everything that they had, breaking bread, loving one another, praying for each other, being with each other. I see a "proskartereō" see I said differently their time. I should have done that. Their whole selves in the early church was dissatisfied that they were looking and relentless pursuit for God to have more for them. This should be us too. This should be us. Church, I want to encourage you today, don't quit on the grace of God. It is not complete in you yet. Has God saved you, set your eternity in stone forever? Yes, your name is written in the book of life. You're good. But if you're still here, there's still work that God has for us. And I want us to be grateful for this. This isn't a discouragement thing. I want you to see that. It's just a mindset shift. It's not that we've done something horrible. It's a mindset shift for us to think about as we go forward that God is still working on His grace in our lives. And we are thankful that the Savior through the Holy Spirit continues to work even when we don't necessarily want the work. Okay, I'm done there. I'm done there.

The other thing we have to change is our mindset is that we will be generous. We will be generous. We are not spiritual contributors. We are spiritual contributors. We are not spiritual consumers. Acts 2:44-45 says, "All the believers were together and they had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need." It then says a couple chapters later, further on in the development of the early church. This wasn't just a moment in time right at the beginning. But it says, "And God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all," okay, "continuing to work in them powerfully that there were no needy persons among them. From time to time those who owned land or houses sold them and brought money from the sales." See during this time in the Roman Empire, there were no government programs. There were no food stamps. There was no healthcare. There was no Section 8 housing. There were none of these things, which I think are good things. But those things that actually are now today actually originated in the church. They started in the church. Think about that. Could you imagine today that if the church came to the point where they stepped up, that they actually got rid of all of the welfare programs and all those things because they weren't needed anymore because the church was meeting all those needs? Whoa. That's why the church shined so bright. Because the reality was if you didn't have those things, you were probably homeless on the street and you probably died. That was the reality. Maybe you got sick. Maybe you never got any food. You're begging for your life. And the church shows up and says, "We got you." Everybody contributed. Big, small. And I want to be careful here because we think, "Oh, he's just talking about money.”

No, I'm talking about everything. I'm talking about our all. Yes, I'm talking about money. Let's just call it what it is. Talking about money. I'm also talking about time. You know, these early apostles and people in the church helped other people. Maybe it was fixing something in their home. Maybe it was going out to their farm. But they took time to do that. Maybe it was a skill, a talent that I believe the Holy Spirit gives each and every one of us. He's created us in a unique way to give back in that way. And together they all contributed in a way. They contributed with their money. They contributed with their time. They contributed with their gifts. And when I look at the church today, I don't know if we're all doing that. I don't know if we're all into that point because this idea at this time was completely countercultural. You think life is hard today. Think about life back then. Roman Empire was dog-eat-dog. It was kill the person next to you so you can take whatever they have so you can scrape by. It was ruthless. And the church comes along and says, "We got a better plan for that. The Holy Spirit, Jesus, has a better life for us to live together in community." To the point that no one ever had a need that went unmet. But I want you to catch some things here in these Scriptures. It wasn't that just a few of them had some resources in common. It was everyone. All the believers. Yes, it says in Acts 4 that some had their stuff. They had houses and land that they sold to give. That's great. But all the believers contributed in some meaningful way. Money, clothes, food. This is what it means to be a church. And that also means that all the believers went with less. Because this stuff just doesn't pop out of thin air, right? The extra clothes, the extra food. I don't know. It says they sold houses and land. Was that a second home? A vacation home? Was that development property that they inherited? I don't know. Maybe it was their only thing. And they said, "The gospel is more important than my property." Did I just say that? And because of that, they were able to provide tangible needs to the point that nobody was needy among them. Can I ask you a question today? I'm going to ask it anyway. If someone looked at the way that you spent your money, would they know that you're a Christian? Would they know that you're just a steward of what God has blessed you with? Would they see how you spend or give away or contribute? Would they go, "Yep, that person's a Christian. I can tell." How they spend their money shows their heart. But Chris, you don't get it. You've seen the cost of things lately. Inflation, the housing market. Have you seen everything going on? Yeah, I have. I'm living here too, guys. Did you see the economy and the world and the cost of things in the Roman Empire? The taxes? You think taxes are bad here. Taxes, like Roman Empire robbery, aka like... But they still had generosity. This past year as a church, we had some real financial struggles. I think you guys follow along in the program. But at the bottom on the back, we talk about our finances. And we want to be honest with you. We have budget presentations. We talk about how we spend all of our stuff.

And this last year, unfortunately, we were not able to contribute to certain things in ways that we had previously. Times where there were new churches starting that we knew about and they were planting. We wanted to contribute, but we weren't able to. They were contributing to education of future pastors and church leaders, and we weren't able to. There were times with missions. You guys remember Vivek from India. He came. We've had Shane and Sarah who are doing gathering of nomads. We wanted to contribute to them, but because financially, things were too tight. Here, we did not have enough. We weren't able to contribute to those. And I wrestle with this because I think, okay, it doesn't matter. We still need to contribute, right? We still need to give. Things are tight. Who cares? God's got it all. He's going to take care of it. But it's an us thing. And I will tell you, we have some incredibly generous people in this church. Gosh, guys, I am blown away. I don't know all the details of everything, but I know that there are people who give so much. They give the way the early church did. They go with less so that the church can have more, and they give, and they give, and they give. And it blows my mind. It's amazing. But all of us have a role to play. All of us have a peace to contribute. All of us probably are spending money, myself included, on ourselves in a month that should probably go towards the work of God in His kingdom rather than the work of Chris's kingdom. Relentless devotion. It's hard. I know it is, guys. I get it. But I also get on the other side of eternity, a lot of stuff that we're chasing after just doesn't matter. And the kingdom of God matters. God's work matters.

Final thought for us today as we close is that we will share the love of Jesus. We will be devoted. We will be generous. And we will share the love of Jesus. We are the church, and we exist for ourselves. No, we are the church, and we exist for the world. Acts 2:46-47 says, "Every day they continue to meet together in the temple courts." They're having Bible studies all day long. "They broke bread in their homes. They ate together, glad and sincere hearts. They praising God and enjoying the favor of all God's people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." See, here's the reality of Spring Valley Church. Spring Valley Church exists here for now, for this moment, for today, and for tomorrow, and for any other day that God continues to allow this church to be here on earth. But you think, "Oh, the big church right over there, big one. They got all the money. They got all the resources. Have you seen how many campuses that church has?" They're the ones that's going to be here. They're the ones that's going to reach everybody. No. There's people in your life that only you can reach. There's people that God has placed next door, the next cubicle, in that staff meeting, at that restaurant you love going to, a coffee shop, your family. Your best friend. God has placed them in your life for you to share Jesus with them. And you are the only person that can do that. You are plan A and there is no plan B. So when we think about why we exist, no one else is you. It is our desire to see our community saturated with the glory of God. But here's the thing about saturation. See, that was a very critical word we put in there. Saturated. Water. You guys remember probably back in the day, it's been a while, I might do the sponge sermon again. Let me bring that one back. But I had a sponge up here and I had this bucket of water and I splashed the sponge and I still got the water spots in my Bible from it. But I had this sponge and I took this sponge out and I squeezed it and all this water ran out. I said, God has given us for us to absorb who He is into us, so as we go through life we leave a little wet mark of Jesus with everybody that we meet. But here's the reality. That bottle of water that I poured over that sponge, I have to open that bottle to get the water out to saturate the sponge. Some of us are bottling up Jesus in our life and we're keeping Him on the shelf and He's great. We go see Him, we hang out with Him, we maybe drink a little bit, put the cap back on, send Him back on the shelf. God wants to rip that bottle off the top and dump it out in your life. Dump it out in the lives of your family, dump it out in your friends. He wants to flood their lives with His love to where things they have no idea are coming for Him. He wants to knock them down like a wave of the ocean with a kid not paying attention. That's what He wants to do to them. He wants to just all over them with His love. And you're the only person in their life to share that Jesus with them, to saturate them with His love and His glory.

Heard this quote this week from Paul David Tripp. He says, "This is your mission and every relationship in your life to make the grace of the invisible king visible." Spring Valley Church, we are going to be a faith-filled, big thinking, bet the farm risk takers we will never insult God with small thinking or safe living. Are we a small church? Absolutely. Are we the average in America? Absolutely. Does God have more for us than that? Absolutely. God is moving in this church in powerful ways, but it's gonna have to take all of us. It's gonna have to take all of our devotion. It's gonna have to take all of our generosity. And it's gonna have to take all of us sharing the love of Jesus with our worlds. We got a pretty cool group of pastors here. Can't do it all. God has that calling on your heart and your life. So what do you want me to do about it, Chris?

Here's the final closer here. I want to give an open invitation for each and every one of you to change the object of your devotion with one step. Change the object of your devotion with one step towards Jesus. What does that look like? Well, for you, it may be reading God's Word. You're gonna say, "Pastor Chris, I'm gonna commit. Every single day I'm gonna start reading God's Word." If you haven't, okay. No shame, no guilt, no nothing. Change. Do it. Go forward. But I want to give you a warning. You gotta be careful. Because the Word of God, as it says, is alive and is active and is living. It's gonna begin to change who you are. So be careful.

Maybe you need to start stepping up and serving in church. We just launched three classes today. It's awesome. We got three classrooms rocking. We have an amazing team back there, but we still don't have enough volunteers. We got other slots where we got holes and we're kind of putting things together. We're trying to make things happen because God's doing some amazing things here. And we don't want to just sit and wait for everything to fall into place perfect and then step forward. We got to step forward in faith. But I want to warn you, if you start serving in church, it's addictive. You start loving on people. You start loving on them. Start loving on people. Start helping kids. Start talking to people on a Sunday morning saying, "Hello, you want to talk to more people? You want to see how they're doing? You want to serve in a tangible way?" It'll be addictive.

Maybe some of us need to start tithing. When you start with our finances and our time and the talents that we've been given, we need to start tithing into God's church. But we got to be careful because your heart follows where you give. You start giving, you might want to start giving more and more. And you might hear about this need over here and go, "God, I want to take care of that." You might hear about this need. You might see this person in your life. "I want to do that. I want to do that. I want to do that." We gather up the ties and the offerings every week. We have the envelopes. You guys put your stuff in there. There's a guy in church he writes down, he says, "For God's work." Every week. And I love it. For God's work. Sometimes you think about, "Oh, the church just wants my money for the church to have my money." It's for God's work. It's for other churches to start, for more people to find Jesus. It's for more pastors to have the call, to be developed, to go out and to do more churches and to lead churches better. It's for God's work around the world and missions and missionaries putting their lives on the line in some of these places where they can't even talk about where they are. One of those is Vivek. We don't know where exactly he is. He can't tell us. Because he's had police show up on a Sunday morning and shut their church down. It's happening around the world, guys. What if together with our generosity we could change the world for God? That's something that's worth investing in, right?

Maybe you need to start praying daily. You go, "God, sometimes I just come to you when I need something. I need to come to you when I went just to be in your presence. I want to lift up my brothers and sisters in this family who are going through some really tough times right now." But I want to warn you, God, be careful. Because you're going to start seeing miracles and you're going to start praying more. And you're going to start seeing more miracles and more miracles and more things. You're going to see God moving in his church and in his family in powerful ways. You see lives transformed. Maybe you've seen some scary spiritual stuff happen in this realm. Maybe you start praying more. One thing I want to ask of you is the saffron of the Bible.

One thing I want to ask of you is this afternoon you're going to get a text from the church. And it's going to be an invite to answer some questions. And this is going to be what we call our church pulse assessment. And what it's going to do, it's going to take about eight to ten minutes of your time, maybe a little bit more. But it's going to ask you some questions about your personal focus with Christ. But it's also going to ask you about the church health. And this is going to be a critical tool for us as a team to be able to help lead and guide this church into the next seasons. And it's going to measure across seven dimensions. Not like weird matrix dimensions, but just like seven different ways. That makes sense. Seven different perspectives. We'll say perspectives instead of dimensions. But you're going to get this text. I'm going to ask of you. And the expectation is here. And this is what we want. We want each and every person in the church to answer this 100%. Honestly, there is no right or wrong answer. There isn't. But for us to be able to become forward and grow and to become the church that God, that He wants us to be, we have to address where we are and how we become better and areas of growth that we see in ourselves. And so you're going to get this text. You'll probably get a couple of these texts. We're going to bombard you over the next three weeks. I don't know about all apologize right now, but I'm not really apologetic. I want you to fill out this survey. So that we can help become the best church that God wants us to be.

The church is not a place to go. It is who we are. We're here to proclaim the good news that Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. And I want to be honest. Come with your doubts. Chris will never go there. We'll never be there. Okay. God's a little bit bigger than that. But bring God your doubts. Bring Him your fears. Bring Him your anxiousness. Bring Him your brokenness. Bring Him your sin. Bring Him whatever. He's not too scared of it. He's not going to be pushed away by it. I want people to come to this church and when they come that they see Jesus. That's what I want. And I read the early church was the church that came and saw Jesus. I think we're doing a good job. But I know we can do better. I know we'll become better. I know we have places to grow.

Close with this scripture. Love the scripture. Ephesians 3:20. I'm just going to close out Pastor Andre if that's okay. We're just I'm just going to close this out. And I want us to just really look at this scripture. Can we put that on screens? Ephesians 3:20. And this is my prayer for this whole series, this whole time, for all of us that we're doing right here. And if you want to receive this as a benediction and just kind of a blessing as you go today, do that. You want to see receive this as encouragement. You want to receive this as like, let's go. I'm ready to go. I'm pumped. Get me out there, coach. I want to do this thing. Read it as that. But it says this, actually, let's read this. Just read this all together. Okay, here we go. “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine, according to His power that is work within us. To Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen.”

Amen. Amen. Go with God today. Excited to see you back next week, part two. Answer that assessment with the text later this afternoon, sometime this week. I love you guys. Go with Jesus. Amen. Thanks for listening. And if you would, please take a moment to subscribe and leave an encouraging review to help others find our podcasts on whatever platform you are listening on. We hope you have a wonderful day. We'll catch you next week.