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.

Philippians: Part 8

Philippians: Part 8 - A Caring & Content Heart

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

We are wrapping up our series in Philippians today and I'm so thankful for the Spirit's leading through this series as he's provided us with truths that we needed to hear, and reminders that guide us through life and guide us to endure. And clearly, God knew what he was doing as he gave us. He led us to this series and led us to these words that I think we need more now, yeah, more than ever. And so it's a series that has, through it all, through the four chapters, has encouraged us to rely on Christ in every situation, to see the joy in all things, which means trying to see things from God's perspective. It's helped us to recognize the need we have for spiritual examples and spiritual role models in our lives, while also at the same time recognizing that we may be that for other people. It's encouraged us to shift our perspective to see the positive, to see the good, to see the work that that God might be doing. And it's a series that has called us to be honest with God and to lay before him our desires. As Paul wrote to the church in Philippi from his prison cell, we can be thankful that God gave him the clarity and the words to encourage the church that needed to hear the truth and the fact that we need to hear that truth today. So as we mourn through these times of sorrow, I think the words of Paul will help us in grieving and offer a glimpse of Jesus in the darkness.

Paul is wrapping up this letter, giving his final encouragement, signing off. As we know from the Apostle Paul from this series and really also from Romans, he likes to talk. He is a talker. He's a bit of a rambler. I learned in my marriage that when leaving some kind of function, my wife and I had different approaches. And at one point, it caused a bit of tension. We're very much now on the same page. But if we were to be somewhere and she said, "I'm ready to go," she could be in the car in five minutes. And what I didn't know is that she had already done all the prep to leave at that point. I would hear that and say, "Great!" And I would talk for another hour, and be there and be there and talking and wrapping up and all this stuff. And so I would linger, I would say goodbye, because I hadn't done that prep work. I would just--and even if I were to say, "Hey, I'm ready to go," I wouldn't mean right then. I would mean later on, I'd be ready to go. So I think Paul is kind of like me. I think he says something earlier. He's like, "Hey, we're coming to the end of this letter," but he just keeps going. He just keeps writing and he's getting more thoughts. And so we--even though we're wrapping up this letter, there are some new ideas, even in this conclusion that we're gonna dive into today. And so just pray with me one more time as we focus here on God's word. God, again, we come before you, Lord, and our desire is to know you and know your truth. So be with us as we read your word, give us insight and understanding. And God, I pray that you would help us to see how this truth right now is needed for our lives, for our church, but also for where we are individually. So God, we give this to you. Amen.

Alright, we are going to be going verse by verse through the rest of this chapter. We're starting in verse 10. You guys can follow along. I'm going to go ahead and read just this first verse. It says, "I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it." Pause right there. "Some of us are great at being ready. We leave the house and we are prepared for anything." I was a Boy Scout for one year, so always be prepared. So I'm kind of ready. I'm not super ready. I didn't go all the way, Eagle Scout or whatever. But some of you guys know you're ready. And so Paul is saying, you know, it is important to be ready as we walk by faith with Christ in our lives, to be ready to respond to God in any way that He may bring before us. And he's encouraging the church who was ready, who had the desire to help Paul, there just was no opportunity. So as we think again about this scripture and applying it to our lives, do you have desire? The first question is, do you have that desire to help? If God were to put an opportunity in front of you, do you have the desire to step up and meet that need? He says, "Now after desire, you still need that opportunity, right?" The church in Philippi didn't have that. Eventually they did, we'll get to that. But as you think about your life, again, just do a quick survey. Are there opportunities in your life that you're passing by, that God is bringing before you, to say, "Hey, you have the opportunity to help someone, to provide for someone, to be there for someone." And then when the opportunity did arrive, and we'll get to this in a little bit, the church did act, and they did step up. And as Pastor Chris said today, I want to encourage you, you have done this. You have done exactly this. And if Paul were writing about you, he would be full of praise, that this week you stepped up immensely for the Morgan family. Be encouraged. Feel the appreciation. And I also want to say with all grace and love, don't become complacent. Stay ready. When that next opportunity comes about, be just as ready as you were this time to give in whatever way that would mean. Don't become so callous that we no longer want to provide when God brings about that opportunity. Don't think, "Last time I did something, so someone else has turned to be God to those people, to be Jesus." Or, "Don't think, 'God, I'm dealing with so much stuff right now, so I just can't do that.' Can you have someone else provide for those people in need?" Again, we'll get some more of what that looks like, but I just want to encourage you to be ready. Stay concerned with God's people and caring for others, and be ready to step up when the time is right.

Paul continues in verse 11, he says, "I'm not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. Paul shares some of what God has taught him through his own life, which is to be content in all situations. This is back to back weeks now of really difficult positions of the heart that Paul is calling us to have as believers. A couple things about being content in all situations. One, it is learned. I want you to have grace with yourself. I think oftentimes we can beat ourselves up when we say, I'm just, I'm not content and therefore I'm a failure and therefore I'm not doing what God is calling me to do. But Paul says that he had to learn how to be content in all situations. This means going through experiences that will leave us feeling unfulfilled, empty, broken, confused, desiring more, and it is a process. Just as Paul talked about last week, as we lay our desires at the feet of Jesus, and we learn to surrender, and we walk with Him with those feelings, then we can learn to be content. But it's a process, it is learned. Secondly, he says, "Whatever the circumstances." This is an all-encompassing list. These could be the hard times, the bad situations that we face, like financial issues, mental health, poor friendships, loneliness, tough work situations, persecution, faith issues, loss of loved ones. And Paul's writing from experience, I mean, to his credit, in his time of following Jesus, He has experienced so much of this. But it's also in the good times, in the good experiences, in all situations. So this could be a better work situation where you got to raise a promotion, a better living situation, successful friendships, a new car, a vacation, a growing family, or a growing faith. And you may be wondering why would we need to be content or to learn to be content in the good times. Well, sometimes the good times grow that desire for more. And we're never content. We're never thankful. We're never praising God for what we have, but we're just continuing to reach and say, "This isn't good enough. And I want more of this." See, whether dealing with a lot or a little, the temptation of discontentment can be present, can be very real. And it can start so subtly, but it grows and grows quite rapidly. Paul knows this. He grew up in affluence and abundance, and after coming to saving faith, his life changed, but he still had moments of having a lot, but also having very little. And he learned to be content because he knew that God was everything that he needed, and would give him everything that he needed. be it physical food or spiritual guidance or mental fortitude or just provisions that he needed, Paul had experienced the love and the compassion, the provision of God, and had come to such a deep-rooted faith and trust in Christ.

To the point where he writes verse 13, which says, "I can do all this through him who gives me strength." You probably heard that verse before. It is well referenced, sometimes out of context. But we understand now reading this passage that that context is through all things, especially the hard times and especially in times when you have to endure. Paul lives with this assurance that he will get through anything because of Christ in him. the Creator of all, the King of kings, the giver of life, God the Father, Holy Spirit, the Comforter. Like it says in verse 9, "The God of peace is with him." God is with him through all those situations and has taught him to be content. But again, to reach this place of contentment, Paul had to endure some of the most difficult situations here on earth. And so it's just such a good reminder for us that as we strive to be content in Christ, one, we need Christ. We can't do it without Him. We need Christ to be content. And it will mean going through some of the hardest things we will ever face. And our goal at the end is, as we walk with Jesus, to become content. So as He endured, there was more and more opportunity for God to provide for Paul.

Let's continue in verse 14. He writes, "Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles." This can be so hard, because for Paul, he first had to share his troubles with the church. In order for the church to then respond and provide, Paul had to share, "Here's what's going on with me." And this is really hard, because, as you know, I know you have shared what's on your heart before, it can take a lot. There are often reasons why we don't want to share. And those voices can be really loud and sometimes we wait too long to share before we really enable others to reach us. But it requires us to be vulnerable, to be honest, and to trust with those whom we share. Because in our minds, there can be this fear, there can be this risk of being judged, of being ridiculed, of being condemned, of losing face or losing a friendship. And oftentimes, those things where we feel the affliction or the struggle are just things that we don't often talk about. Maybe it's finances or maybe it's relationships. It's usually some area of weakness or insecurity within us, where we don't want to appear weak. We don't want to appear in a certain way, and so we just hold it within. We say, "God, you and I can deal with this. I don't want anyone else to help me deal with this." And yet Paul recognized the need to share his troubles. So as we talked about earlier in the passage, by doing that, it provides an opportunity for God to work and to provide through other people. There can be miracles where just out of nowhere God will give something, but oftentimes He works through other people. And part of that may mean that we have to share. He continues to praise the church and Philippi that they had a desire to help. And as the opportunity came about, then they acted. And it was so good for them to practice being in a church in that way.

And so in verses 15, let's read about Paul's testimony of what happened. It says, "Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, "Except you only. For even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid more than once when I was in need. Not that I desired your gifts. What I desire is that more be credited to your account. I have received full payment and have more than enough. I am amply supplied now that I have received from "Paphroditus, the gifts you sent, they are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God." So Paul shares that he's so thankful for the gifts that the church provided. He's being careful not to infer more. We read this and we were like, "Great, he doesn't need anything." In other cultures, once you compliment someone, they may have the response of just giving it to you, because maybe you would only compliment by saying, "I actually want that." And so Paul's just being careful to say, "Hey, thank you so much for the gifts. I don't need anymore. Don't send me anymore." But he's just trying to encourage them in the evidence of their growing faith. The fact that they did this shows evidence that the gospel took root in their lives and that God was working through them to provide for Paul. And at the end of verse 18, Paul describes all this support, all this provision, as a fragrant offering and acceptable sacrifice pleasing to God. And this language is pulled from the Old Testament in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Ezekiel, of moments of sacrifice. Moments in the Old Testament where they would have to slaughter an animal, put it on the altar, and burn it. It's a moment where the people in the Old Testament were making a sacrifice for their sins, coming before God to follow Him. And those sacrifices are an act of obedience and worship. And that smell of a burning carcass, which may not have been pleasant to anyone around, was so pleasing to God because of what it symbolized and what it meant. That His people, who were meant to love Him, who had gone away and sinned, we're coming back to Him and wanting to make right their relationship with Him. Obedience and worship to God. It's something so pleasing to God. It brings Him such joy. So Paul is reminding us that sincere Christian service, which at times means sacrifice for us or self-denial, not only spreads the gospel, but it strengthens those who serve. It's an act of worship to God. It's this picture of a moment where everything is right, where we are in God's will, doing just as Jesus did. Loving others, sometimes at the sacrifice of ourselves. It's accepting that partnership with Jesus on earth, and loving for God's kingdom.

Paul wrote something similar in Romans 12:1 which says, "Therefore I urge you brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship." And so we no longer are in the Old Testament. We don't have to go to a temple and bring an animal and sacrifice it on the altar. But the way that we live our lives, the way that we love other people, the way that we sacrifice and serve others and serve God is our way of worshiping and our way of making an aroma that is pleasing to God. So we should strive. We want to live a life that as we go about our day to day in our work, in our families, in our neighborhoods, the way that we're talking, the way that we're interacting, All of it is just a rising scent to God, an aroma that He's looking down saying, "Yes, that is pleasing to me. That is a life that is sacrificing for the gospel, for me, for my kingdom.”

Verse 19, Paul writes, "And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus." I love this because Paul gives the assurance that what God has done for him, God will do for the church in Philippi. We read this today and we know that God will do the same for us. Even if it means continuing to give, when we don't have a lot to give. It doesn't say that explicitly in our passage, but referencing other passages in the Old Testament, we come to know that the church in Philippi wasn't well off. They weren't giving from this like storehouse of excess saying, "Well, we got a lot. Just go ahead and take whatever you need." They were also struggling and yet they continued to give. It's that part of sacrifice. It took sacrifice on their part. And Paul is saying that God will meet your needs. I think we often struggle with that today. That we want to give from a place of security. We want to give when it doesn't mean a lot to give. We have a lot. We have extra. Yeah, it's easy. I got some extra things to give for the food pantry. the food pantry, that's fine, I'm not using that anyways. That's not the kind of giving that God talks about. There's no verse in the Bible that you'll find that says, "Hey, once you have extra, then I want you to start caring for others." He says, "Give, I will bring opportunities in front of you. I need you to step up. And as you do that, and as you trust me, I will also provide for you. You will give and you will still have need. Let me provide for you." Trust me that I will provide for you. That's hard. That means that we're not in control anymore and we often wanna be in control. I know that if I don't give, I will have enough, so God, I'm not gonna give. And maybe we can even justify it with some spirituality of saying, God, you wanted me to be a wise steward of what I had. So that means saying no to someone in need because I gotta take care of myself. I think Chris, Pastor Chris used this analogy earlier in the series of being on a flight, and I just flew this week, and I heard the safety protocols, and they say, you know, in case of when the mask drops, and you have someone that you take care of yourself first, and then put the mask on the person next to you, the child. You don't put it on a stranger, but the child. And I think that's how we go about our spiritual life. "God, let me make sure I'm good first, and then as I see need, I will then take care of other people." And that may work on a plane, but it does not work for the Christian life. Give. Be generous. Step up when God provides the opportunity. And watch God provide for you. I'm sure you know this or maybe have experienced this. I think some of the most generous people in life are those who have very little. I was talking with Becky this week and she brought up the point that it's probably because once you're in that place of having little, you know what it means to have very little. And so when you have anything to give, you know what it means to receive. And what a blessing that is. And you're just more likely to say, "Yes, I know that you need this right now." And what a blessing this will be for you. And I know that I'll be taken care of. will somehow provide for me. I think of a family at a previous church I worked at who just always lived within their means, but their means were very small. But whenever an opportunity at church arose, whether it be a meal train or someone was in need and we collected something to give, they were first. And they didn't necessarily give a lot, but they were so faithful to give. And it was just such an example to me that I knew that they had worries. We were praying for God to provide for them on the prayer team that we had for that church. And they were concerned about rent or whatever. And yet, whenever the call came in, they would be first to give. And it just exemplified a trust, a deep rooted faith, just like Paul, that God will provide. God is their biggest need. They need Him, and by their need in Him, they'll experience and witness God providing for them.

So this is what Paul wants us, this is how he wants us to live. To be generous no matter what we do or don't have, and as we give, that we can trust God and trust that He'll meet our needs. According to the riches of His glory. Because we know that He is sovereign, and He knows what we need and when we need it. There's this common thread through Philippians that as we go through our own hardship, we have to learn to trust God. And as we go through our own hardship, we are also still called to care for others. And if we're all doing that, despite what we're going through, we're still reaching out in whatever capacity we have. It may be very little, it may be a lot, but as we continue to rely on Him, love others, That is a beautiful picture of the church. That we're coming together, gathering on a Sunday, knowing that everyone here in this room is going through their own things. And yet we're receiving love from people, and we're giving love to others. And Christ is in the midst of all of it. And as we each, we have to each rely on Christ, because our tanks are finite. We'll run out of energy. We'll run out of love. We'll run out of just whatever to give. We'll just say, "I don't have anything to give." But if we are all relying on Christ as we walk, we can continue to support each other, to be there for each other, to encourage each other, and to just be the church for each other. I think that's happening here, and I love being a part of it.

As we end today, and as we end our series, I just want to ask a few questions. From verse 11, "What situation are you going through that you need to learn to be content in? I'm not saying you can't voice your frustration to God or to others, you can't share your discontentment with God, but are you continuing to work on surrendering and trusting Him? I shared about this last week that this is my situation, I'm learning to be content. And once we learn to be content in one situation, Sure enough, there's another situation where we're going to have to learn it all over again. But hopefully as we learn and more and more it becomes easier, and maybe we reach that place of surrender quicker. So what situation are you in where you are needing to learn to be content? Secondly, from verse 14, what trouble are you facing that you might need to share? Maybe you need to share with the church. Maybe you need to share with your spouse. You haven't even shared it with them yet. Maybe you need to share with that close, trusted group of friends. Maybe you need to share with some pastors. But it's going to require you to be vulnerable. It's going to require you to be honest and to trust. But then by doing that, you'll be opening yourself to seeing how God can work through others in your life. So what do you need to share with someone? Maybe this week your spirit is prompting you to say, "You've been keeping this in. You've been thinking that you can handle it. You didn't want to share. You don't want to be embarrassed. But now it's time. It's time to let other people know and let other people by the work of God come to support you." And lastly, from verse 19, where has God met your needs lately? It is so important to take time to pause and reflect and thank God for what He has done. The needs will be never-ending in life. We will always be in need, and so we'll always be praying, "God, I need this. God, there's another thing." But if we don't ever pause, if we don't ever just look back for a second and reflect, "God, I have seen how You have done so many things," those prayers become heavy and there can be doubt that works its way in and say, and say, "God, I don't know if you're working." But if we pause just for a moment and say, "God, I still have a lot of things that are concerning me, "but I have seen, I do recognize that you met this need, "that you loved me in this way, "that you met me in this place," it's so good for our hearts. It brings us closer to Him, and we're more likely to recognize the work of God in our day-to-day lives. Those mercies that are new every morning. I mean, that can be a prayer, just, "God, let me see you work today. Let me recognize something today, just one thing that is of you, and I can give you praise for it, as evidence for the faith that I have. That can be an encouragement, that can be an affirmation of following you. So as you reflect back on your week, on this month, on this last year, where has God met you? Where has He provided for you? And give Him praise.

Our goal in this series, as we just finished Philippians, was by the end of it, that we'd be able to connect and reinforce in our minds that being a Christian means in some way participating in the life of Jesus. Through every aspect of our lives, whether joy or sacrifice, that it could all be used for God's kingdom. And in that, that God would use whatever we go through, enduring hard times or the best of times, there's joy that we are a part of God's plan. That as we serve, as we give, as we're generous, that we are deeply transformed by the work of the Spirit. And so even though we're done with this series, there is an ongoing invitation to us to participate in the life of Christ, to partner with God and the work that He's doing. And so we started this series with a question, and we'll end with this question. Will you accept that invitation from Jesus to partner with Him in the work that He's doing in your life and in the lives of those around you? And that way we can endure with joy. Let's pray. God, Again, we come before you with probably a lot racing through our minds. And I pray that you would cut through all the noise to make clearly your voice and your truth. And God, through your spirit, you would put on our hearts so clearly the truth that we that we need to focus on, that we need to remember, that we need to grow, that we need to be more like You, or maybe that we need to implement this week.

God, I pray that You would make it clear to us the work that You've done in our lives. We do want to praise You. We want to see the things that are of You, so that we can recognize that You are at work. And God, I pray that you would help those here who are feeling alone, struggling with bearing the weight of their life all by themselves. It's not what you meant. That's not what you intended. So I pray that you would, through your Spirit again, that you would encourage them to share that burden with someone this week. Give them the confidence, the courage to share, knowing that they won't be judged, that they won't be condemned, that they won't lose face, but that they will be met with love. That they will be embraced and say, "Yes, I'm so glad that you said that. I would love to help you." And maybe we're on the other end of that, God, and maybe we're going to hear someone say that they need something. I pray that you would encourage us to step up and to provide. Granted, we have our own needs, and we may not know how those are going to be met. But as we serve others, as we meet others, God, I pray that you would encourage us and give us a peace, a deep, deep peace, that it will all be okay, that you will provide for us. God, we want to be your church. For each other, for those who are not yet believers, for those who are not yet in this church, we want to be Christ to others. So help us, guide us this week to do so. We love you and we give you all the praise and glory because you are deserving. Amen.

Philippians: Part 7

Philippians: Part 7 - Learning to Ask and Trust God

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Welcome this morning. Glad that you're with us. My name is Andre, I'm one of the pastors here, and excited to be together. Missing everyone who's streaming from home. I know there's a few of you, so welcome from afar. I want to begin today by going back in history for a second. November 22nd, 1873. Would anyone randomly know why that date would mean anything to anyone? I don't expect to. I didn't know this before this week. So it's a date that, on this date, a steamship was heading across the Atlantic, and on it, this man, Horatio Gates Spafford, had his family besides him, his wife and four daughters on this steamship. And tragically, another vessel, an iron vessel, collided with this steamship, and 226 people perished, including all four of Horatio's daughters. A couple weeks later, he finds out because his wife sends a telegram when she arrives at her destination across the Atlantic, sends a telegram back to Horatio that says, "Saved alone." He goes to fix another ship a couple weeks later, and he goes out to meet his grieving wife. And while he's on his journey, his ship crosses the point where his four daughters perished. And he was inspired in that moment to write the hymn, It is Well with My Soul. I wanna read the second verse of that hymn. It says, "When sorrows like sea billows roll, "though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, "let this blessed assurance control "that Christ has regarded my helpless estate "and has shed his own blood for my soul. "It is well with my soul." How could someone enduring such grief write the words, "It is well with my soul"? I believe it's only possible for Spafford to have written those words because of his deep, deep trust and faith in God. A faith that endured one of the most challenging moments of his life up to that point. And I'm sure Spafford had to ask God to sustain him daily, to carry him through each moment as he was grieving the loss of his children. I don't know if you've ever had to do that. If you've ever been in a place in life where you have to ask God daily just to get you through that day because of what you're going through, because of how little you feel you you have of your own energy, strength, confidence, whatever it may be, and you are depending on God saying, "I don't feel like doing anything, "so God, I need you to get me through the next minute, "the next hour." Have you ever, think of a time in your life when you've had to ask Him for that and then trust Him. You've had to ask and then wait in that trust that He will provide. Paul definitely has, the apostle Paul, who has written the book of Philippians, I think has gone through that multiple times in his life. We're getting to the end of our letter in Philippians, and he's wrapping things up. And as a reminder, our series is called "A Joy That Endures." Paul knows what that's all about from experience. He's in prison, unsure of his future, whether he's going to die soon, or if he's just gonna be kept in prison alive. But he's writing to the church of Philippi, persevering through his difficulties to continue the work of the gospel.

And I began with the story of Spafford, it is in this hymn, "It is well with my soul," because I wanted to preface this morning with the uncomfortable truth that for many of us, at some point, there is tension in our lives as we are devoted to following Jesus, and how that interplays between the realities that we face and what it means to follow Jesus. There can be tension in different seasons. Or maybe there's just, you're thinking like, I felt tension ever since I've been conscious and I just feel this tension of following Jesus and the world around me all the time. We are people who tend not to like tension. I don't know about you, I avoid it at all costs. I am very uncomfortable when it comes to tension, whether it's between another person or a situation is making, I feel the tension, I have to resolve it, or I have to do my part to get away from it, remove myself, or whatever it may be, but I don't like tension. Sometimes tension is good because it informs us that something's off and something needs to be addressed. But the uncomfortable truth is that other times, God wants us to just sit in tension. I think of the Psalms, and so many of the Psalmists have tension in those passages. There's deep despair and anguish, and yet they're also praising God. We'll get to more of that in a bit. If I'm being honest, one of the most frustrating parts of following Jesus in the day-to-day life is dealing with this tension. By the way, Jesus felt tension throughout his life, being fully man, fully God. There's a moment that I'm sure we recognize of when that tension becomes unbearable. It's in the Garden of Gethsemane. when he's praying to God, if there be any other way than what has to happen tomorrow or that morning, please let that happen. Jesus felt the tension. The tension in our Christian life too, doesn't have to be between just a bad thing and a good thing that's probably less tension. We just know that there's a clear cut right answer. There's a direction that God wants us to go. But sometimes the tension comes in two good things and trying to discern, God, What do you want me to do? Maybe you've been in situations where you're wondering, "God, is this a moment to humbly suffer for your kingdom, or do I stand up for justice here?" Or maybe it's, "God, are you calling me to my dream job across the country, or do I stay put in my community with my family?" Those are two good things. What is God calling you to do? There's tension in that. "God, do I continue in my friendship with a person who's not a believer, and I know that I am the only Christian friend they have, or do I distance myself because it's unhealthy for me?" "God, what do you want me to do?" Or maybe it's more focused on what we want to happen, like Paul might have prayed as he's sitting in prison. I think God had - or Paul had many prayers to God, thinking, "God, can you just either - can I join you in heaven? I'd rather be dead, can you just have them kill me so I can be with you in heaven, or have them release me so I can go about fulfilling my gospel mission. I don't like being here in prison. But sometimes the tension means sitting in silence, waiting to hear from God.

And although we feel the absence of clarity or direction, we can know that He is in the waiting with us. Oftentimes, our hearts experience the most transformation, the act of being molded by God in the midst of tension. So as we'll find out today, even in the midst of tension, of having to endure things, there is a call on our hearts to rejoice. What does that mean? Let me go ahead and pray. We're gonna dive into Philippians 4, and we're gonna find out what Paul's talking about. So would you guys pray with me again? God, thank you for our time this morning, And as we come before you, we pray that your word would illuminate our hearts to your truth and that we would understand better the life that you are calling us to. Speak to us through these words in Philippians, God, and I pray that we be encouraged and empowered to follow you with everything that we have. We pray this in your son's name. Amen. Well, if you have your Bibles, you can turn to Philippians 4. We're going to start in verse 2, or you can pay attention to the screen. I'm going to read the first couple of verses here. Paul writes, "I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, I ask you, my true companion, help these women since they have contended at my side in the cause of the Gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the Book of Life." Paul is here admonishing them to seek and strive for unity. Again, this has been present throughout the entire book, But he wants the church, again, to understand that the biggest threat to God's church is divisiveness that comes from within. And one of the best ways to unify people is to get them together around a common cause. To unify them, have them have the same target in mind and say, "Hey, I need you to all to focus on this because you understand how good this is for the church." And so Paul tells them to have the same mind, there's unity, and then to help the women who have helped him. There's also a beautiful reminder here and request by Paul for the church to work out conflict as a community. And I love that picture and that idea.

The modern church for the past several decades has really emphasized an individual faith in Jesus, which is good. But sometimes they've emphasized it at the point of losing this communal aspect of our faith. And there are things that need to be done as a church, as a community. We just finished our community group about fasting, and in there we had a beautiful reminder too of the need to fast together as a church, and how that's different than just fasting alone. Jesus meant for the Christian life to be done in community, and so that includes conflict resolution sometimes. This is a part of bearing each other's burdens, of exercising love and compassion and understanding and forgiveness. So I want to remind us today that we at Spring Valley believe that, that if the situation were to arise and it was needed, we would be a church that would want to resolve whatever conflict together as a church. So that's Paul's little snippet there. And then we go into another final encouragement, summarizing the point of this whole entire and it's a lesson that is easier said than done. Let's go ahead and go to verse four. It says, "Rejoice in the Lord always. "I will say it again, rejoice." Guys, we could have a whole sermon on just this verse. I can't, I have to go through more verses, but this is, there's a lot to unpack here. This is easier said in the good times, right? Rejoice in the Lord. If you're in a good place in life, you're like, amen. I can do that. God's been blessing me, I'm in a great place, I'm feeling his provision, life is good, I'm gonna praise him. And you should, we should be praising God in the good times. But the reality is, the good times, I think, are one of the smallest percentages of our life. Pure, just great, a great time where there's nothing else that's going on in your life that's bringing you down, that's a very small percentage of your life.

The reality is, for many of us, it's not often - I would venture to say it's not often - that we just feel like rejoicing and praising God. More often, I think more likely, life is complex, full of difficult-to-parse situations where there is good, but there's also something else going on. All of our lives are connected, And so, when you feel stress, anxiety, disorder, or chaos in one area of life, it often affects the other areas of life too. So the question becomes, what does it look like to rejoice always in those times? How do I rejoice when maybe there's seemingly nothing to rejoice over? Hence the tension that I was talking about at the beginning. Well, I want to restate what we've talked about earlier in the series that rejoicing is not just being happy, having a smile on your face, though that may be what happens sometimes, but that's not what Paul is talking about here. Paul is saying to rejoice always and not in everything. He's not sitting there in prison saying, "Man, I'm a rejoicing guard. Can you give me another lashing? This is great. Love it here in prison." It's not what Paul is saying. He's saying, "Rejoice always." So what does that mean? And before you may quickly have this answer of like, "This is what it means," and that's good, hold that answer. I want to throw some scenarios at you, and I just want you to wrestle with maybe how you would answer. If this is someone you knew, and they were saying, "This is my situation. How should I rejoice?" So what does it mean to rejoice always when someone you love is slowly dying? What would it mean to rejoice always when a relationship in your life continues to cause you pain and hurt over and over again? What does it mean to rejoice always when your job is no longer feeling fulfilling and you're starting to feel the sense of loss? And just what am I supposed to be doing? What's my purpose? How do you rejoice always when you look at your budget and you're wondering how you're going to afford the necessities of life or how to provide for your family? What does it look like to rejoice when your faith in God starts to feel full of doubt and questions? I'm sure you have your own situations that you can fill in the blank there. How am I supposed to rejoice always, whatever you're going through or have gone through? Can I confess something to you? I'm still figuring this out. I mentioned tension in the Christian life earlier, and this is one of those areas that I feel tension. I don't always know what it means to rejoice always. There are situations we face where we may know we're supposed to rejoice, but as much as we want to muster it out of our own strength, there's just not, there's nothing there. Sometimes we may ask, "How do I bring myself to do that?" We may feel like we have conflicting emotions or desires within us. I do think we often think of emotions as all or nothing, in the sense of, "If I'm feeling happy, then I shouldn't be feeling sad. If I'm feeling this, then I can't be feeling this other thing." But you may already know this. I did some research this week. We, our human bodies, God created us to feel multiple emotions at the same time, hence more tension in our life.

For me, one of these situations where I feel this tension, People will ask how my dad, who has Alzheimer's, how he's doing and how I'm doing with it. And I love, I always appreciate people caring for me, but that is one of the hardest questions to answer. Because it's a mess inside for me. While I'm feeling so sad and grieving the loss of someone who's slowly dying and forgetting everything, I am also so happy and grateful to be getting time with Him, for that my family, my daughter, can be getting time with Him and making memories with Him. So the sadness I feel does not mean that there isn't any happiness, and the times that I am happy doesn't mean that I'm not deeply grieving. It's just both, and there's tension there as far as what I'm supposed to be feeling, and what I feel the most, and what I want God to do about it. I think rejoicing often means sitting in the tension of multiple emotions or desires and realizing that we aren't in control, that God is, and that the outcome that we may want, we can express to God, but ultimately we'll have to surrender it to God. most basic level, I think it means trying to see things from God's perspective and resting in His sovereignty. That's a working definition for me, so in a year I may have a different definition.

But there's so much and there's so much more we don't have time for. There are people, amazing pastors and theologians who write books on this about rejoicing always. So this is a very condensed version, but again down to its essence, I think a part of rejoicing always means rejoicing in the fact that we're trying to see God's perspective and we're resting in his sovereignty and the fact that he's in control. I think that could include praising him in that moment for who he is and what he's doing in our lives. It could mean rejoicing in the sacrifice that Christ made for us and the provision and the and the salvation that he offers us. It could mean rejoicing. Rejoicing could look like, well, we cannot see and understand everything. We serve a God who does see everything and understands everything. Rejoicing always could mean rejoicing in the temporary duration of this life and knowing that eternity is spent with God. Or rejoicing always just may mean thanking God for this day and that we're looking forward to the very next day. And that's it. And I understand that some of these things during the hardest times, if you were to say this to someone, it might sound cliche. It might sound like lip service. But at the very least, when someone hears this, hopefully, and even the mere attempt to do any of these things, to look at God's perspective, to try to see what God is doing, to try to rejoice, The mere attempt of this is turning our eyes and our hearts to Jesus. Even if we aren't successful in the sense that we don't start singing, maybe we don't start singing, maybe we don't become very happy in that situation, but we're at least looking in the right direction towards Christ. And we may not be bounding to Jesus, running to him, being, "Praise you, God, love you, everything's great." We may just be crawling. But even a slow crawl is us heading toward the Almighty. The implication of this verse, when Paul writes, "Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice," the implication is that we will be suffering in this life. He knows, that's why I think he says it twice, right? He's, "Rejoice always." They're like, "Yeah, yeah, good times, we're gonna rejoice." Again, I say, "Rejoice." See, your life as a Christian means suffering. Another pastor spoke on Matthew 16:24, where Jesus tells his followers to take up their cross and follow him. And the pastor pointed out that people don't often think about what that really means. If we were to pause and think about the journey that Jesus took with the cross, after being tortured, beaten, then he had to carry his own cross to the hill that he would die on. And Jesus says, "Take up your cross and follow me.”

That's not life is gonna be great, we're gonna be Christians, it's gonna be so happy. He's inviting us into suffering. He's inviting us into trials, difficult times. 1 Peter 4:12 says, "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange was happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed." It's encouraging to know that both Peter and Paul are on the same page here. always, no matter what you are going through. Alright, we're not even close to halfway done. That was just one verse. The rest will go quickly, I think. Verse 5 says, "Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near." Paul is instructing the church in Philippi to continue in their compassion and love towards other people. It's one of the markings of the church, it should be something that stands out about a Christian, a follower of Jesus, is that they are prone to gentleness, to caring for other people, extending grace and mercy, as opposed to maybe the chaotic spirit as one who is prone to selfishness and stirring up strife and is all about their own pride and their own gain. Paul says, "Continue in gentleness. Be compassionate. Have a godly approach, a Christ-like approach. And he says the Lord is near trying to spur on urgency saying this is so important. We don't know when Jesus is coming back but you need to, he's coming back soon, so you need to live your life, this Christian life, with urgency. Don't slack off on this. Don't think you can push this off until like let me get some stuff figured and then I'll start being gentle and compassionate and gracious.

I think we need that reminder today. That this is, that life that we are called to live needs to be lived right away. All right, the next two verses bring us right back into the tension that we can feel as we walk with Jesus in the midst of difficult situations. It says, "Do not be anxious about anything, "but in every situation, by prayer and petition, "With thanksgiving, present your requests to God, "and the peace of God which transcends all understanding "will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." I hear this verse, and it makes sense to me on a head level. Like up here, I understand. I even have a piece of art over my desk that has Matthew 6:26, says, "Look at the birds of the air. "They do not sow or reap or store away any barns, and yet the Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Meaning God will provide. There's no need to worry because God will provide for you. God is in control. Do not be anxious about anything. That's what Paul says. That is so tough. That is really tough. Paul is writing this from prison. So it's not like I can say Paul you don't understand. He's in prison. He's got a lot going on. I think he's battling anxiety. Our series is about a joy that endures through all things. Oh man, Paul is writing this and he's well aware of the hardships that the church of Philippi is going through, just like God is very much aware of the things that we are going through. And yet, we are to trust and depend on Him daily. Another plug for the practice of fasting is part of the growth that I experience, I think others experience too, is in this practice of fasting, you're learning to trust God with something small. You skip a meal or a couple meals, and you are trusting that when you're hungry, when you're feeling low energy, He will provide for you. He will give you what you need. And by doing that, if you do that over and over again, it's like a muscle, right? It's easier for us to depend and trust in God so that when something difficult in life happens, We are ready, we are more prone to trust and depend on Him in that situation. So I think it's kind of what Paul's talking about here. Don't be anxious about anything. Trust in Him. As you do this more, it's going to get easier to not be anxious because you're going to realize all that you can trust Him with, which is everything.

The end of verse 6 instructs us to present our requests before God. Now, this is, again, I'm confessing a lot to you. I start to have trouble here. This is hard for me. I grew up learning to trust in God's sovereignty, like that Matthew verse, trust. God knows everything that I need, so why do I need to tell him? Why do I need to err? Like, "Hey, God, you know, you see me, "and you are gonna look out for me. "You say you're gonna provide for me. "I don't really need to tell you what I want "or what I need because you know. "So God, please just give me what I need." But recently in the last six months, in the last month a lot, I've been challenged with the thought of being specific with God in our prayers. Let your requests be made known to God. Now I know that God answers specific prayer. There's so many examples. I love being a part of the prayer chain here at this church because we see God answer prayer. I mean, just this morning we were talking about Arthur's housing situation. How God provided a place for him. Shelley, who's not here with us, but prayer came in that she was given notice for 90 days that they were going to have to move. And within five days of that notice, they found a new place, a better situation. Amazing! I know that God answers specific prayer. I even think of, we go back in church history, George Mueller in England who ran an orphanage And he started this orphanage and he didn't have anything. And daily he would pray, he's like, "I have no food for all these kids tomorrow. God, we're going to pray right now that you would provide a meal." And over and over again, the next day, someone would show up who had no relation, he had no idea, but there would be money or food to provide for these children. countless stories of God answering specific prayer. Even in the Bible, and this is a passage that I've just been dwelling on for a month now, it seems, Matthew 20:29, Jesus and the crowd are leaving Jericho, and he's walking along the path, and there's two blind men, and they cry out, "Jesus, have mercy on us!" And the crowd hushes them, says, "Hey, can you stop, knock it off? We're trying to listen to Jesus here." and they cry out even louder, "Jesus have mercy on us!" And Jesus says, "What do you want me to do?" And they answered, "We want our sight." And the verse says, "Jesus had compassion on them and healed them." Now I read that, and I say, "Why?" Jesus, you of all people would know what two blind people want. They probably want to see. Why are you asking them what do you want? And it starts to become clear to me, even though I'm wrestling with it, that it's a heart issue. God cares about our hearts and getting us to this place of trust and surrender. See, but putting all this is difficult for me.

We're not supposed have any anxiety and yet we naturally have expectations of what we want for life and what we want God to do for us. We hope that God will provide certain things. We are to pray for what we want and yet we are to trust that and surrender that He will just whatever God sees best. And mixing that all together is so difficult. God I'm supposed to pray specifically what I want and yet at the end of this prayer I'm supposed to come to a place where I just surrender if that happens or not I'm going to praise you?" I think the answer is yes. And some days I'm okay with that, and other days that's really frustrating to me. So how do we surrender our will and our desires to God? Trying to exercise trust and yet present requests before Him. Well, He says in verse 7, When you do this, when you present your request to God, it's like Paul knew what people are going to be wrestling with, then the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts. I love that phrase "transcends all understanding." I think that's a really fancy way of saying you're not going to understand. You're not going to get it. It's not going to make any sense to you. God's going to work in a way that you will not comprehend. I like to comprehend. I want things to make sense. This is challenging for me. But it is true that the peace of God will guard our hearts. See, I'm just formulaic. I want 2+2 to equal 4, and that's not how prayer works. It's not, "God, if I pray this, then I will receive this." If I present this request, and I surrender, then God will give me ultimately what I wanted. I think of Solomon and I'm like, "God, can I just have that? You offered him money, you offered him power, you offered him wisdom. He was supposed to choose wisdom and he got everything else. God, can I do the same thing? Can I get the wisdom and everything else if I got to that?" No. It's about this process of learning to trust God with our hearts, of surrendering our wills and saying, "God, your will be done," just as Jesus prayed. And as we voice our hearts when we're vulnerable with God, and we trust him that he'll provide however he sees fit, whether it's what we wanted originally or not, the peace of God will guard our hearts. Paul is bringing the imagery of a soldier guarding our hearts against fear, anxiety, and doubt. So when we pray, petition, we reach this place of surrender, then we trust Him, and then we can praise Him. Because we know that only He is in control, and we know God's character. And there is no one better to be in control of everything than God. And in there, there is room to praise Him. There is reason to praise Him. All right, I hope and pray that that made sense. Because that was a lot and it is still stuff that I am processing in life right now. as I wrestle with this passage. But we have this pattern developing here. Don't be worried, rejoice in all things. Don't be anxious, God will give you peace.

And then to help remain in Christ, Paul says do the following and we come to verse 8. "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, If anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put it into practice and the God of peace will be with you." Oh, we don't have enough time. There's so much good in here. Okay, this list, "True, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy." This is a good list. it has been proven that the most successful way to stop doing something that you don't want to do is to set yourself a new target, to focus on something new. For example, if you were to eat a donut every morning, and you want to stop eating a donut every morning, you couldn't just not eat anything. You need to replace that with something else and say, "I'm no longer going to do this. I'm instead, I'm going to do this." That's this list right here for Paul. He's giving us something new to focus on. If when you are living like Christ, if you need something, you're going to stop, you're going to refrain from doing these other things, here's what you want to try to do now. And he's also saying, "Look at how I have followed Jesus. Do as I do." Not in a boastful way. He's not saying, "Look, I'm really great at this. I'm kind of awesome at following Jesus." He's just saying, "I know it's helpful to have someone to model it for you." Jesus is ascended, He's in heaven. Look at me as an example of what it means to follow Christ, to live like Christ. And then it says, the most amazing part is that He assures us that God will be with you. Did you notice this? That earlier in our passage, it mentions that the peace of God, the peace of God will be with you. And now He assures you that God Himself will be with you, who we know to be the Holy Spirit. How amazing is that? Now we can have comfort and peace in our hearts knowing the Holy Spirit God is with us in everything we go through. Even more reason to not be anxious. God knows what we need and what we need is Him and He gives Himself to us. So in the midst of this tension we have the God of peace with us and as we wrap up I want I want us to reflect on what God is calling you to do and what areas of your life need to be re-centered around Christ.

And so I just have a couple of questions I'm gonna ask you. Just think of these things this week. Number one, what situation are you in right now that you need to rejoice in? Whether it's a good one and you need to praise God for what God is doing or whether it is one of the most challenging situations in your life. What is that situation? And what does it look like to rejoice always in that situation? Second question, what requests do you have that God needs to hear? Are you being specific with God? I'm asking myself that question every day. How can I be more specific with God? And then as you ask that, Are you trusting and surrendering your will to His? Saying, God, this is what my heart desires. I hope that this desire comes from you, that this is a godly desire, but ultimately your will be done, God. Third question is, who is your model? Paul was talking about him being a model. And I love that last week, Pastor Lauren brought up this idea of spiritual godfather God and mother, that we are an example to other people. I'm gonna flip it this week and say, who's your example? Who is your model of the Christian faith? If you don't have one, this week, this is your specific prayer, ask for one. God, give me someone I can follow in life. God, give me someone who has walked with you longer than I have, that will help encourage me, that I can go to in times of trouble, of anxiety, that I can lean on and depend on. And if you have one, I would encourage you to connect with them this week. If it's been a while, just ask them out to coffee. Text them, thank God for them. But who is your model? And then lastly, which one of this list from verse eight, the whole list of just good things to focus on, which one do you need to focus on in life this next week? Right, our hearts are prone to wander. And so we need to focus our hearts on something good, excellent, praiseworthy, noble, true, whatever that list. Pick one, pray about God, which one do you want me to focus on? Our prayer as a church, as a staff, as pastors, knowing that so many of you are going through difficult situations, is that you walk with Jesus in that tension, whatever tension you're feeling, and that you are trying to see things from God's perspective, and that you're able to rest in His sovereignty, and the fact that He is in control, and that ultimately that you can rejoice.

Let's go ahead and pray. God, we are so thankful for who you are, what you've done, and how gracious and patient you are with us. So much of this Christian life of trying to live like you, we don't do perfectly, we're trying to figure it out. We're wrestling with things of, what does this mean? How do I do this? And yet, I think that you love that we are trying our best to live like Jesus. And so as you empower us through your Holy Spirit to live like you, I just pray that you would also encourage us, God. There are so many things that are happening in this world, in our lives, that easily just bring us down, that bring discouragement, that bring discontentment. And God, we pray that as we surrender our expectations, that we lay our desires before You, that You would give us a peace that surpasses all understanding. and that You, God, that we would feel You with us. God, be with us this week in every situation. We love You and we trust You. We pray this in Your name, amen.

Philippians: Part 6

Philippians: Part 6 - Our righteousness only comes through Jesus

SERMON TRANSCRIPT

Happy Mother's Day to all the mamas. I know that today can be difficult for some people for a variety of reasons, but I do want to make sure that we celebrate the moms and the grandmas and those that have children in their care. You all are amazing. And to those of the moms that aren't here, maybe you're streaming with us this morning, welcome, happy Mother's Day, or you're catching up later. We're just so glad you're here, and we hope you feel loved and honored and celebrated today. I got chosen to preach on Mother's Day as the resident mom here, I guess. I'm just kidding. It was, I volunteered. But I'm excited to be with us, be with you all today. It's not gonna be a traditional Mother's Day sermon. We are back in our Philippians series. So that is gonna be our focus, but I'll try to wrap in some mom stuff for us today.

So, Philippians, our series, The Joy That Endures. we're talking about, through this whole book, about how we can have joy in Christ and what that looks like. What does that look like for our everyday lives? The book, or Paul specifically, talks a lot about this throughout, how we can live this out, how we can find joy in Jesus, regardless of our circumstances. So we've covered chapters one and two. We're gonna be in chapter three today. So if you wanna get ahead and pull that up on your phones or your Bibles, There's Bibles underneath your seats. We'll also have it on this screen. And you can go to Philippians 3. But our buddy Paul here, the early church leader who wrote Philippians and much of the New Testament, packs a punch in this book. All right, we have only covered two chapters in the five weeks that we have been in this series. And we have already gone over partnering with God to spread the gospel, choosing joy and positive attitudes despite difficult circumstances, falling after Jesus, becoming more like him, pointing other people to Jesus, being an influence to those in our lives, and more that I'm sure that I miss. And that's just the first two chapters, all right? There's only four chapters in this book, but it is a lot.

Paul has a way of doing that. He just kinda just packs it in, has a lot of run-on sentences, if you've ever noticed, lots of therefores. He wants to get his point across. In chapter three, we're gonna cover the whole chapter today. We won't read it all, but we will cover it. And so just a little synopsis of the beginning verses. He is calling out legalism in this early church. Now, I'm a rule follower by nature. I don't know if it's just personality or being a firstborn or maybe a combination, but I am a rule follower. I like to police people. I like to know what is what, where I'm supposed to be. I want to do it the best. I want to be the best at it. And usually that requires following the rules. But I will say there is one particular area where I do not follow the rules. And that is my driving. I get it from my father. Completely honestly. But I like driving in the left lane. And if you are not going at least five over, please get out of the left lane. Can I get an amen? Okay, all right. Now here's the thing. The people in the left lane, we got places to go, right? I'm usually late, all right? So that's probably why I'm driving in the left lane. And I'm still a people pleaser, so I don't wanna be that late. So I'm trying to get there as least late as possible. Okay, so that's why I'm in the left lane. I'm just trying to get there quickly. People in the far right lane, I think you're holier than the rest of us, because you're following the rules, you're practicing road safety, we love you, we need you, do you? The people in the Middle East, I'm not sure what you're doing. I don't know. That's fine. I just don't understand it. But I just struggle to follow the rules. I haven't got a speeding ticket, though, so praise Jesus for that. (Laughter) Maybe I need one to learn my lesson. I don't know. The problem is not following rules. That's not a problem. That can actually be really beneficial when it comes to learning how to live rightly. There is a right and wrong way to live in a lot of issues that we see in the Bible. And so being a rule follower can be really helpful with that. The problem comes when we fall into legalism. Legalism is essentially where we are trying We need to follow the rules so closely that we lose sight of the end goal. It's to the detriment of the end goal. And the end goal as believers is to have a relationship with Jesus. And so if we are so caught up in legalism and following the rules that it is at the expense of our relationship with Jesus, we're missing the point. Paul here is addressing an issue where Jews at the time, Christian Jews, were telling Gentiles, these new Christian believers, that they had to become circumcised in order to be a Christ follower. They weren't truly a Christian if they weren't circumcised. And essentially they were saying, "You have to become a Jew before you can become a Christian."

They were adding to scripture, if you will. Now here's the thing, God used, in the Old Testament, when he was developing this nation of Israel, he chose circumcision as a way, as a sign, that the people would be set apart. Why he chose this particular sign, I am not really sure, but this was the sign, that they were a set apart people. They were different than the nations around them. So there was nothing wrong with the Jews choosing to follow that and be circumcised. The problem came when they were saying that it was required to be a Christ follower. were falling into this legalism. And Paul is flipping the script here and saying that those who follow Jesus who are Christians are the circumcision. They don't have to be circumcised, they are the circumcision. They are the ones set apart. They are set apart to God, Jew or Gentile. If they are a professing follower of Jesus, they are the circumcision. They are the set apart ones. See, what Paul knew is that if anyone could claim that following the rules would save you, it was him. He was like the best Jew. He grew up this good Jewish boy. He was a Pharisee, which was like the cream of the crop of the Jews, and they knew scripture inside and out. They followed all of the rules. They told everyone else how to follow all the rules. He was so passionate about following the law that he persecuted Christians in the early church because he believed they were going against the law. went to their homes and pulled them out to the street to be stoned, persecuted them. That's how passionate he was. That's how in line with the law he was. So he's saying, "If that doesn't earn me my salvation, if that doesn't earn me my righteousness, you have to understand that that's not it. No amount of legalism or keeping the law will justify us. We're not made right with God by anything we do, but only by the blood of Jesus. And that's just the first six verses of this chapter. Okay, three to jump into verse seven.

All right, so follow along with me. We'll have it on the screen. Verse seven of chapter three. "But whatever were gains to me, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith." Our righteousness, our right standing with God comes from God by Jesus, by the sacrifice of Jesus. Paul knows that everything else, compared to being in Christ, everything else is trash. And that's the kind word, the kind version of that word. He uses a much stronger word in the Greek, but it's garbage. It means nothing compared to being in Christ. He's not trying to make rule followers out to be the bad guy, 'cause that's not the issue. The issue is not following the rules, it's when it's the only thing that's important. That's when it becomes a problem. We miss the mark when we are so focused on following the rules that we miss the relationship with Jesus. Romans 5:9 says, "Since we have now been justified by His blood, "how much more shall we be saved "from God's wrath through Him?" It doesn't say been justified by our works, been justified by circumcision, been justified by how good we follow the law, by how closely we follow all the rules, by how good of a Christian we look like, it says, "By his blood." Friends, that is good news, 'cause it's not on us. The thing is, if we believe that we can save ourselves, if we believe that legalism and following the rules to a T can save ourselves, we're gonna be in a world of hurt, 'cause one, we're gonna fail miserably and still not be reconciled to God. And two, we are in effect denying the sacrificial work of the cross of Christ. If we, we may not say we believe that, we may not actually even think we believe that, but our actions speak loud. And if we are living in such a way that we are saying that we believe that we can earn our justification, we can earn our salvation, we're saying that what Christ did on the cross isn't enough. I don't think we want either of those options in the Christian life. That's not what we're looking for. So how do we do this? How do we move away from legalism into the freedom that is found in Christ?

Well, Paul goes into this in verse 10. I want to know Christ, yes, to know the power of His resurrection and participation in His and suffering, becoming like him in his death. And so somehow attaining to the resurrection from the dead, not that I have already obtained all this or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Paul's whole goal was to know and love Jesus, full stop. Nothing else mattered, nothing else compared to knowing Jesus. As Christians, we can be a Christian, we can say we follow Jesus and say we can know a lot about him without knowing him. We can look like a good Christian. We can go through the motions and follow all the rules and do all the right things and still not have a relationship with Jesus. Paul had his priorities straight. He knew that becoming more like Jesus was more important than just checking a box and following the rules. He knew his calling. He knew where he was going, and he understood the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Here's the thing about this power. This resurrection power is what justifies us. The debt has been paid. The sentence that we are supposed to, that is put on us for our sins has been served. It's done. Can I get an amen? That is some good news, people. Thank you. Okay, we're awake. The sentence has been served. We are justified by His blood. That resurrection power has been given to us. The same power that rose Jesus from the dead is in us because if we profess Jesus as Lord and Savior, we have Holy Spirit in us. And so no amount of legalism, no amount of doing what we think is right will justify us because the work's already finished, friends.

Have you ever tried to give directions to someone who just took things a little too literally, maybe didn't quite understand, maybe it was a child, maybe it was a coworker, maybe it was your spouse, no judgment, I don't know. I think of my kids sometimes, I try to give directions, and it just doesn't quite go the way I hoped. Imagine you're giving directions on how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. To someone who's never made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich before. So you say, "Okay, put the peanut butter on the bread." So they put the peanut butter on the bread. And then you realize, okay, you're gonna need to back up a little bit. So then you say, "Okay, no, take the bread out of the bag." So they take the bread out of the bag. Didn't actually tell them how to open it. Well, so next time maybe give the instruction to open at the seal, but it's fine. They follow the rule, right? So then you say, "Okay, put the knife in the peanut butter." Doesn't work so well this way. So you gotta tell them to take the lid off, and then they can put the knife in the peanut butter. And then you tell them to spread the peanut butter on the bread. And then you say, "Okay, now it's time for the jelly. "Put the jelly on the bread." So they do the same thing, 'cause you didn't give the explicit directions to take the lid off the jelly. "Yeah, will they make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? "Maybe eventually, but it's gonna be messy. "It's gonna be harder than it probably should be." But here's the thing, they followed all the directions. You said, "Put the peanut butter on the bread." They put the peanut butter on the bread. Now, okay, every analogy falls apart at some point. So, you know, God is much better at giving us directions than we are. But the point is that if we are following the directions to a T, but losing the forest for the trees, it doesn't do us any good. It's gonna be messy, it's not gonna be perfect, and there's no freedom, and the end result isn't what we thought it would be. 'Cause when we follow the rules, we live a good life. We live a right life. But at what cost? Are we getting the end result that we hoped we would? Might look a little messier than we thought.

The reality is that we are sinners and that sin separates us from God. God is holy. He is perfect. And so in order to be in relationship with him, we must also be made righteous. And we can't do that on our own. but thankfully we serve a God who loves us enough to send that sacrifice for us. And he sent Jesus to be that sacrifice. He was sinless, so he could pay the price. He served our sentence. The sacrifice has been made so that we could be reconciled back to God. Legalism can actually, contrary to what we may think, Legalism can actually keep us in bondage. But Jesus offers us freedom. Legalism is not freedom. Legalism is an obligation. It puts the work of salvation on us, which is a heavy load to bear. We can't handle it. We may think we can. We may try sometimes, but we cannot handle it. In fact, legalism can create so much bondage because it leads to other sins. It can lead to pride, thinking that we got this, we can handle it. It can lead to idolatry, that we are putting the rules up on this pedestal, or we are putting ourselves, we're making ourselves these little gods, if you will, that we are the one doing the work. Now, this doesn't mean we do whatever we want. This doesn't mean we just have free reign, forget the rules, throw them out the window. That's not what I'm trying to say here. And that's not what Paul's saying. But it means that our relationship with Jesus, out of that love for Him, we naturally start following the rules, because we want to, because we love Him so much that we want to live the way He tells us. We want to live the way that He commands us to. It's not out of obligation, but out of love and out of freedom. The joy, our joy is not found in following the rules or being the best Christian. There's no award for best Christian. Sorry. But our joy is in our relationship with Jesus. That's where we find our joy. And let's be clear, we get to live abundantly.

We get to live in freedom and abundance within the boundaries that we have been given. There's so much freedom there. God gives us a lot of free reign. And it's wonderful, we are promised an abundant life, not an easy life, not a carefree life, not one without hardship, but abundant, full, full of joy, full of peace, full of Him and His presence within those boundaries that He has given us. And when we walk in freedom, when we are walking in this abundant life within those boundaries, we look different naturally. We naturally look different and we point people to Jesus. Paul talks about this. So let's go on to verse 15. He says, "All of us then who are mature "should take such a view of things, "and if on some point you think differently, "that too God will make clear to you. "Only let us live up to what we have already attained. "Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, "and just as you have us as a model, "keep your eyes on those who live as we do. "For as I have often told you before, "and now tell you again, even with tears, "many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their God is in their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things, but our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. And then he ends with chapter four, verse one, saying, "Therefore, my brothers and sisters, "You whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, "stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends." We get to be examples of Jesus to the world. And that may seem a little scary sometimes. I say we get to, some of you are like, "Do I have to? "Is that a requirement?" Yes, it is. We are all called to be ministers of the gospel. We are all called to be examples of Jesus to others. And Paul is saying here, I'm following Jesus and I've had some experience, I've had some real encounters with Him, so follow me as I follow Jesus. Let's figure this out together. Naturally with today, I think of mothers. Mothers are a great example of this. Christian moms disciple their children, they raise them up to follow Jesus. Their children model after them, for good or for bad. Sometimes it doesn't always work out the way we hoped, but we are modeling Jesus to our kids. I'm very blessed to have a mom that loved Jesus and taught us to love Jesus. I learned what it looked like to walk with Jesus from my parents. I was homeschooled, so I was with my mom more, but with both of them, Both of them love Jesus and modeled that for me. But whether you're a mom or not, whether you have biological children or not, you can still model that for others too.

Author and speaker Lisa Bevere calls these people godmothers or godfathers, these spiritual parents. Now, the idea of godparents is not unusual in our culture. many through the Catholic faith tradition or even just in close relationship with people, choose godparents for their kids. They identify them as someone that they want to pour into their children's lives or be there if something happens. But we can be spiritual godmothers and godfathers. We can model our faith to those who are maybe not as far along in their faith. Maybe they're not actually younger than us, but maybe they just are newer to their faith. And if you are newer to your faith journey, may I encourage you to find a godmother or a godfather. Ask them to lunch, buy them a coffee, spend some time with them, ask them questions. Watch them live their life. Watch them parent, watch them interact with their spouse. Watch how they talk to people, do life with them, and model after them. You're not worshiping them, you're not idolizing them, you're not putting them up on a pedestal because you and I both know they're not perfect and they know they're not perfect. But they've had some more life experiences, they've had some more encounters with Jesus. And sometimes as we're navigating life and learning to walk in faith the way Jesus did, it's helpful to have someone who's practically living that out, so we can learn how to do that ourselves. Paul wraps up this section of Philippians by acknowledging that there are enemies of Jesus. We know this. There are enemies of God. Take five minutes on social media and you will see it too. There are those that want to lead Christians astray or push their agenda. There are evildoers, as Paul called them earlier on in the chapter. They're ones that, maybe it's as simple as encouraging legalism, like the Jews were around circumcision, or maybe it's something more extreme, like things we're seeing in the Middle East. but there are enemies of Jesus. So he tells his people to stand firm. Stand firm.

Going back to the very end, chapter four, verse one. "Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, In what way? In the way He just laid out for them in the whole chapter. Choose freedom over legalism. Walk in the power of the resurrection and model a biblical and faith-filled lifestyle. That's how we stand firm. It doesn't have to be complicated. It's not always easy, but it doesn't have to be complicated. We have been given the word of God. We have been given a fellowship of other believers. We have been given everything we need for a godly life. And we just have to choose to stand firm in that. So this is how we stand firm. We won't do it perfectly, but we will do it out of freedom. Amen? Amen.

Pray with me. Heavenly Father, we thank you for who you are. We thank you for the way you have given us everything we need for life and godliness, your word, your people, your spirit. God, we are so grateful for the sacrificial blood of Jesus that has justified us, that has saved us, that has taken the burden off of us so that we can be reconciled to you, not out of anything we do, not of our own strengths, not of our own efforts to earn, but simply by accepting your gift. God help us to walk in that freedom, help us to live in this abundant life that you have given us, and help us to model that for others. Lord, we thank you for moms. We thank you for those who have gone before us and who love us so deeply. May they be honored today. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.