Jeff Miller

December 25, 2011

Holiday

A Son is Given

Jeff Miller

December 25, 2011

Holiday

Isaiah 9:6 - For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

The Son of David - Jesus the Sovereign.

Matthew 12:23 - And all the people were amazed, and said, "Can this be the Son of David?"

The Son of Mary - Jesus the Supernatural.

Mark 6:3 - Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him.

The Son of Man - Jesus the Servant.

Matthew 16:13 - Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?"

The Son of God - Jesus the Savior.

Mark 1:1 - The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:00-00:01
Alright, you ready to turn to the word?
00:02-00:02
Yes.
00:03-00:09
Alright, let's turn in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 9.
00:09-00:17
I just want to share part of, we're going to look at the whole verse, but I really want to focus just on one particular part of it.
00:18-00:20
Isaiah chapter 9.
00:23-00:31
While you're turning there, I want you to think about What is the best gift that you've ever received?
00:32-00:34
Not just for Christmas, but let's get beyond that.
00:34-00:42
Whether it's birthday, anniversary, Valentine's Day, maybe it was a Christmas gift.
00:42-00:47
Think about what was the best gift you've ever received, and think about what was the worst gift you've ever received.
00:48-00:49
What do you think about that for a second?
00:54-00:55
Just think about that. Do you have it in your head?
00:57-00:59
While you're thinking, I'll share mine.
00:59-01:14
I'll start first of all, I don't know if I should say worst or weirdest, but for Aaron's and my anniversary one year, this lady got us this basket of stuff.
01:16-02:10
The stuff that was in this basket, it was, I don't really know if there's a word to quite express but there were things in there like there was a an apron like you'd wear if you're working at Dairy Queen and there was a yellow beanie baby and there was the entire set of like it was like trading cards of the 1992 Pittsburgh Steelers and there was some kind of a doily thing at least I think stuff and more stuff there was any rhyme or reason it was almost like somebody just went around their house and said "Oh I forgot Jeff's anniversary, let's just grab something and throw it in the basket." It was just weird.
02:12-02:16
That was, that was I don't know if I should say the worst gift, but that was the weirdest gift.
02:16-02:18
Anybody else get like a really weird or bad gift?
02:19-02:23
If the person that gave you the gift is sitting here maybe don't share that one.
02:25-02:26
Don't want to ruin Christmas or anything.
02:28-02:28
The weirdest, the best.
02:30-02:30
A fire hydrant.
02:31-02:32
A fire hydrant!
02:33-02:34
Blake got me a fire hydrant.
02:34-02:38
I was blowing smoke saying, "Wouldn't it be cool if I had a fire hydrant?" She totally got me one.
02:39-02:40
(audience laughing)
02:40-02:48
Said, "My gift for you is in the back of my trunk, "but you're gonna have to get it out." I'm like, "No." - A real fire hydrant!
02:49-02:50
I saw that!
02:51-02:52
Where did you score that?
02:52-02:53
That's why you don't have golf.
02:55-03:00
One of my friends, her dad, I forget what he does, he works for the city,
03:08-03:08
(laughing)
03:08-03:09
Wow!
03:09-03:10
Is that why you don't have dogs?
03:11-03:11
Impressive!
03:12-03:12
(laughing)
03:12-03:14
Anybody else get a bat or a weird gift?
03:15-03:16
Anybody else?
03:19-03:20
You got socks?
03:20-03:21
Well, you need socks sometimes.
03:23-03:24
Jane Auer, yes.
03:24-03:26
I didn't get this, I gave it.
03:27-03:27
(laughter)
03:29-03:31
I have a lovely sister.
03:31-03:33
She's sweet, she's very quiet.
03:33-03:35
A lot like Laura.
03:36-03:37
(laughter)
03:38-03:39
Quiet.
03:41-03:42
(laughter)
03:43-03:48
I gave her, okay, speaking of -- very practical at this time in my life.
03:48-03:52
I gave her, because she needed it, a case of oil.
03:56-04:23
here it's
04:25-04:26
(audience laughing)
04:30-04:32
All right, we have a new winner.
04:32-04:33
(audience laughing)
04:36-04:39
Can anybody talk painted tree fungus?
04:40-04:49
(audience laughing) What are your students doing?
04:51-04:57
(audience laughing) I think Andy Nauer was the most bizarre.
04:57-04:58
How about a really good present?
04:59-05:01
Let's get all warm and fuzzy here.
05:01-05:03
Who got a really, really good present one day?
05:03-05:03
Will?
05:03-05:09
Today I got a whistle with a thermometer on it, a compass, and a light.
05:10-05:10
Wow.
05:11-05:11
All in one go.
05:11-05:12
Wow. Who got you that?
05:14-05:15
I don't know. My mom or my dad.
05:15-05:16
Your mom or your dad?
05:17-05:17
[laughter]
05:18-05:18
Okay.
05:21-05:22
[laughter]
05:22-05:27
I mean, that's cool, but we've got to open it up for everybody else here.
05:28-05:29
Anybody else?
05:30-05:31
Eric, what do you want to do?
05:33-05:34
-AKSUSNC Combat Knife.
05:36-05:36
-That's hot-wired.
05:39-05:40
[laughter]
05:41-05:43
-Will's like, "I'm going to whistle and you're going to bite."
05:43-05:44
[laughter]
05:46-05:49
I think your dad is very wise, Will.
05:50-05:50
(laughter)
05:52-05:55
I just don't know if you're ready for a combat night.
05:55-05:57
I don't think I'm ready for a regular night.
05:58-05:59
Just stick with the whistle.
05:59-06:03
If you get in trouble, you blow your whistle and Aaron will come with his combat night.
06:04-06:04
(laughter)
06:04-06:06
It's my silent Aaron whistle.
06:06-06:07
Right, right.
06:08-06:09
Any other cool gifts?
06:11-06:13
Jay, you got-- This is what I did to Steve.
06:14-06:17
When I turned 16, my dad bought me a motorcycle.
06:17-06:17
Oh.
06:17-06:18
A lot of 100.
06:19-06:20
We destroyed it.
06:20-06:21
[LAUGHTER]
06:21-06:22
We destroyed it.
06:26-06:31
That would be-- he knew we would go to the hospital at some point.
06:35-06:36
Any other cool ones?
06:40-06:50
One of the coolest I ever got-- if you know my wife, it's just hilarious, because if she buys you a present, you're getting it that day.
06:50-06:52
She can't. She just can't.
06:53-06:56
Every time. My birthday could be a month away.
06:56-07:02
If she goes shopping a month prior and gets a present, you're getting it that day.
07:02-07:04
She just can't keep surprises.
07:05-07:09
One time we took our son down to speech, and it was a few weeks before my birthday.
07:11-07:15
I think I was with my son at the speech thing, and she went out to get my birthday present.
07:15-07:18
So we get in the car, she's like, "Do you want it, do you want it, do you want it?"
07:18-07:19
(audience laughs and murmurs)
07:19-07:20
Where is she?
07:20-07:44
I totally messed with her, I'm like, "No, no, If she had a tail, she'd be wagging.
07:45-07:45
(audience laughing)
07:46-07:52
So I pull it out and I'm like, "I love ya, thank you."
07:53-07:53
(audience laughing)
07:54-08:01
I mean, she's so excited, I'm like, "Thanks." And then you know what I said next, right?
08:02-08:02
Exactly!
08:03-08:04
I mean, you were there, weren't you?
08:04-08:09
I'm like, "What is this?" She's like, "It's an iPod!" What was my next question?
08:10-08:11
What's an iPod?
08:11-08:11
Exactly!
08:12-08:13
Well, it's an iPod.
08:13-08:16
And she said, it does everything.
08:18-08:22
And I said, it's like the size of a credit card.
08:22-08:23
How can it do anything?
08:24-08:32
Well, if you have one of these, you've learned that once you get one, you can't live without them, because it does do everything.
08:33-08:35
So that was one of the coolest presents I ever got.
08:38-09:13
But as we turn to the word, I think sometimes christmas is like this to a lot of people god's like i provided the most amazing gift and i think a lot of people look at god's gift and they're like what do they say what is it it's god's son and then what is people's next question what's he doing What can he do for me?
09:15-09:18
And I want to talk about that for just a few moments this morning.
09:18-09:21
Isaiah chapter 9, look at verse 6.
09:21-09:28
It says, "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given.
09:29-09:43
And the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
09:44-09:48
I want you to notice here in this passage, I really want us to focus on that first phrase.
09:49-10:34
It says, "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given." And the first thing you have to notice here in this prophecy about the Christ, 700 and some odd years before Jesus was even on the earth This prophecy about the Messiah already is telling us that he is going to be fully human and fully God Notice the Messiah comes as a born child And as God's Son he was not born he was what he was given to see the difference there You catch that?
10:34-10:43
Understand that when we think of the Nativity scene, that wasn't the debut of God's Son.
10:44-10:54
As if He never existed prior to, and all of a sudden Jesus Christ suddenly came into existence because He was born.
10:55-10:59
In fact, if you've been with us through the Colossians series, we see that Jesus Christ is God.
11:00-11:16
has been and he always will be. So when it says a child is born, child is talking about the age of the incarnation. When the incarnation happened, God came into the world as a baby.
11:18-11:26
But when he says a son is given, son refers to the relationship to the Heavenly Father.
11:27-11:33
In fact, Jesus Christ is often identified throughout Scripture as being a son.
11:34-11:34
Did you know that?
11:35-11:44
If you have one of these little handouts we gave you, if you look at the back and want to follow along, we're going to see what kind of son has God given.
11:46-11:47
And I want to go through four of them quickly.
11:47-11:53
These are four ways that Jesus Christ is identified in Scripture, and these are also very important.
11:55-11:58
But they all kind of teach us something a little bit different about him.
11:59-12:01
First of all, number one, the son of David.
12:03-12:05
Or you could say Jesus the Sovereign.
12:06-12:07
Jesus the Sovereign.
12:09-12:11
Many times in scripture Jesus is called the son of David.
12:11-12:15
I just put some examples of each of these on your outline.
12:15-12:32
Matthew 12, 23, "And the people were amazed and said, 'Can this be the son of David?'" And you're like, "Well, wait, I thought that people thought Joseph was his dad." Understand that "son of David" meant more than that.
12:33-12:44
In 2 Samuel 7 and verse 16, if you read that passage, God promises David that one of his descendants will always be on the throne, eternally.
12:44-12:49
2 Samuel 7, God says, "David, your throne is an eternal throne.
12:49-13:02
One of your descendants will reign forever." So when Jesus Christ is referred to as the son of David, they're looking at the royal lineage of Jesus.
13:02-13:08
In fact, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel all prophesied about the king who would rule forever.
13:09-13:16
Interestingly, when you look at the genealogies, and I know you guys studied the genealogies in the Bible, right?
13:18-13:20
You guys studied it, okay.
13:20-13:21
Generations.
13:21-13:22
You guys read those, right?
13:23-13:24
They're very important.
13:24-13:33
In fact, if you read the genealogy in Matthew chapter 1, he traces Jesus' human lineage through Joseph.
13:34-13:37
Do you know that David is in Joseph's line?
13:37-13:38
Did you know that?
13:39-13:43
So there's the fulfillment of the promise through Joseph.
13:45-13:51
But when you read Luke chapter 3, Luke traces Jesus' lineage through his mother Mary.
13:51-13:55
And do you know it goes through David on her side too?
13:56-13:56
Isn't that incredible?
13:59-14:01
Both of them, through David.
14:05-14:15
Now, when we talk about Jesus the Sovereign, some people here might be asking, well, why isn't Jesus reigning over all the earth today?
14:15-14:16
You ever wondered that?
14:17-14:24
Or maybe you've worded the question this way, and I've shared with you before, this was the thing that always plagued my dad till the day that he died.
14:24-14:26
He asked me this question so many times.
14:26-15:04
He says, "Jeff, if God is so good and God is so loving "and God's in charge of all this, "why is there so much evil in the world?" And people could easily, you know, be tempted to look at the Bible and say, "Well, maybe Jesus isn't reigning. Maybe He's not the King." Real quick Old Testament lesson. In the Old Testament when the prophets looked at the, you know, the coming Messiah, they saw that the Messiah would come, the Messiah would suffer, and the Messiah would reign. But there's something that the Old Testament prophets didn't see.
15:05-15:46
And there is a period of time between the suffering and the reigning of the Messiah. And that gap is what we would call the church age. And I have so much to tell you about that, in fact we're going to be doing a whole sermon series on that later in 2012, because Jesus very clearly described what that gap was going to look like between explains it in His Word, we can just look around us and say, "Yeah, that's exactly the days that we're living in." So, why isn't He reigning now?
15:46-15:52
Well, the answer to that is Jesus is reigning now.
15:53-15:59
And He's reigning in the lives of His people who are about to need Him.
16:03-16:08
You know, someday the Bible says, someday he is going to come and establish his kingdom and reign over all the earth.
16:08-16:16
But until that happens, the subject of his kingdom are those of us who are willing to acknowledge his lordship now.
16:17-16:19
So the son of David, Jesus the sovereign.
16:20-16:23
Secondly, in scripture, Jesus is called the son of Mary.
16:24-16:26
Or on your outline, you could put Jesus the supernatural.
16:29-16:30
Jesus the supernatural.
16:31-16:41
Actually back in Isaiah 7, 14, God promised that a virgin will conceive and give birth and the child will be called Emmanuel, which is God with us.
16:42-16:44
And you can trace this throughout scripture.
16:44-16:50
It seems like when God wants to do something really big, God's like, "I have big plans coming up." Do you know how He starts?
16:53-16:56
A lot of times in scripture, God starts with a woman who can't have children.
16:56-16:57
Do you notice that?
16:59-17:27
common thing Genesis 1130 Sarah Abraham's wife was much too old to be having children she had Isaac just as God promised judges 13 - Manoah's wife had Samson she was barren at the time that God promised her son she had Samson first Samuel 1 - Hannah had Samuel just as God God promised.
17:28-17:32
Luke 1, 7, Elizabeth had John the Baptist just as God promised.
17:33-17:35
So now we come to Mary.
17:36-17:41
So once again God says I'm going to do something big and I'm going to start with someone who can't have children.
17:42-17:52
But you know the difference between Mary and all of these other ladies is that Mary had not yet known a man when the Holy Spirit conceived in her.
17:55-17:57
So Jesus Christ is the supernatural child.
18:00-18:01
He's the supernatural child.
18:02-18:13
You know, I think sometimes at Christmas, when we think of the nativity story, I think sometimes we get this feeling like it's a story about overcoming adversity.
18:13-18:14
Do you ever feel that?
18:14-18:15
Like, like Rocky.
18:16-18:21
Like, oh, this poor pregnant woman was traveling and nobody would put them up.
18:21-18:30
So they like had their baby in a barn like the shepherds showed up and the Christmas story is so much more than that.
18:32-18:39
It's God fulfilling a promise that he was going to come and be with his people in the most personal way possible.
18:42-18:43
Jesus is supernatural.
18:45-18:46
Jesus is the son of Mary.
18:47-18:49
Thirdly, Jesus is the son of man.
18:51-18:53
You know, this was Jesus' favorite term for himself.
18:54-18:57
Or you could say, Jesus the servant.
18:57-19:05
When Jesus referred to himself more often than anything, he referred to himself as the Son of Man over 80 times in the Gospels.
19:06-19:08
Jesus called himself the Son of Man.
19:10-19:20
And it's a term to describe his humiliation, his humbling himself, becoming our sympathetic high priest.
19:24-19:28
And then finally, Jesus is the Son of God.
19:30-19:32
Or you can say in your outline, Jesus the Savior.
19:34-19:35
Jesus the Savior.
19:40-19:44
Luke 135, I have in your outline, common verse for the Christmas time.
19:44-19:47
The angel said to Mary, the Holy Spirit will come upon you.
19:48-20:03
"And the power of the Most High will overshadow you, and for that reason the Holy Offspring shall be called the Son of God." It's interesting when you read through your Bibles in the New Testament who calls Jesus the Son of God.
20:05-20:07
His disciples called Him the Son of God when He calmed the storm.
20:09-20:14
The centurion at the cross, remember, said, "Surely this man was," what?
20:15-20:19
"The Son of God." John the Baptist called Jesus the Son of God.
20:20-20:35
Martha, Paul, you see the angels and the demons and even Jesus himself used the phrase "of himself." And there were two times that God the Father referred to Jesus as being his Son.
20:35-20:36
Do you know what two times they were?
20:37-20:41
When Jesus was baptized and into transfiguration.
20:42-20:44
Jesus is my Son.
20:44-21:00
He said, "This is my beloved Son, God the Father." to him. So Jesus being the Son of God, just as he was 100% human, he's also 100% God.
21:02-21:16
So a child is born and a son is what? A son is given. You know this time of year we think a lot about gifts and this is God's gift.
21:19-21:22
And the question is what have you done with God's gift?
21:24-21:25
What have you done with it?
21:26-21:28
We shared at the beginning some good gifts and some bad gifts.
21:31-21:34
But what have you done with God's gift of Jesus Christ?
21:37-21:40
There's really one of four ways you can respond to a gift.
21:42-21:46
Let's pretend it's my birthday.
21:47-21:48
It's not.
21:48-21:49
It's September 23.
21:51-21:53
I don't see anybody writing that down.
21:54-21:57
It's September 23, and you'll never insult me with cash.
22:00-22:09
But let's pretend it's my birthday, and you show up at my door, and you knock on my door, you say, "Happy birthday, Pastor Jeff.
22:09-22:14
I bought you a present." I understand that there's four ways I can respond to that.
22:16-22:22
I can say, "First of all, I don't want your stupid present," and slam the door in your face.
22:23-22:25
Can I do that? I won't, but I could.
22:26-22:28
I don't know how you put mine on the porch.
22:30-22:30
[LAUGHTER]
22:38-22:39
He's a little behind that.
22:40-22:42
It's his favorite item in the whole world.
22:43-22:44
Hecklers.
22:44-22:46
Hecklers at church on Christmas.
22:46-22:47
[LAUGHTER]
22:49-22:50
That's one way I could respond, right?
22:51-22:52
I don't want your stupid present.
22:53-23:04
Another way I could respond is, you're like, "Happy birthday, Pastor Jeff, "I got you a present." And I take it and I look at it, and I say, "You know what, I really appreciate this.
23:04-23:09
"How much joy are you for it?" How would you feel about that?
23:10-23:11
Little, insulted baby.
23:13-23:14
I pull out my wallet.
23:15-23:16
How much joy are you?
23:17-23:24
Another way I could respond is you come and say, Happy birthday, Pastor Jeff.
23:25-23:30
And I take your present, and I say, this is great.
23:31-23:34
I can tell that this is something that I really enjoy.
23:35-23:37
And I set it down by the door.
23:39-23:45
And you come back and visit me next year, and it's still sitting there with an inch of dust on it.
23:47-23:49
What would you think then?
23:50-23:59
he seemed like he was excited about it but he really didn't seem to do anything with it.
24:00-24:13
or option number four is happy birthday pastor Jeff and I take the gift and I say thank you and I receive it.
24:14-24:22
you realize the grace of God in scripture is called a gift. Did you know that?
24:23-24:48
Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is debt, but the gift of God is eternal life. And that eternal life is found in Jesus Christ. So understand, and I'm going to close with this, those are the four ways you can respond to Jesus. I'm asking how have you responded to God's gift? That God says, "Here is my son," and some people say, "I don't need him." I don't need them.
24:51-25:06
So many people so arrogantly think that you can achieve a right relationship with God, whether it's on your own merits, on the amount of good works that you do, I just try to be a nice person, I never try to hurt people, I don't need Jesus.
25:09-25:15
And truth be told, those are the people separated from God forever in hell.
25:16-25:25
That's the common denominator among everybody in hell, is that they didn't think they needed God's grace.
25:26-25:27
I don't need it.
25:27-25:27
I don't need it.
25:28-25:29
Some people just slam the door.
25:29-25:30
They just slam the door.
25:30-25:31
I don't need it.
25:32-25:34
You ever share the gospel with someone and they just slam the door?
25:35-25:37
Maybe that's somebody here this morning saying, "You know what?
25:39-25:42
I haven't seen before what the big deal is.
25:48-25:50
Well, option two, some people do that.
25:51-25:56
Some people do that with Jesus where, like I said, I take out my wallet and offer to pay you.
25:56-25:59
They do the same thing.
25:59-26:17
They think, "Okay, well, if I'm going to be a follower of Jesus, that means, okay, that means I'm going to have to start doing this and I'm going to have to start doing that and here's the rules and from now on I have to have this haircut and these clothes and I can't do this and I have to do this and thinking that spirituality is attained by keeping the rules.
26:20-26:24
As if to say, well God I see what you've done so I'm going to earn that salvation.
26:27-26:29
It is a gift.
26:30-26:34
And just as you would be insulted if somebody tried to pay you for a gift and you got them.
26:34-26:44
It's an insult to God to say I see this grace that you bestowed now let me try to buy it from you. It's an insult.
26:48-26:52
Honestly I think option three, I think that's what happens the most in churches.
26:53-27:04
I think a lot of people hear the gospel message that God says here's my gift. I think most people sitting in churches go yes, yes, that's exactly what I need.
27:05-27:09
Grace, Jesus, yes, yes, yes, yes, that's exactly what I need.
27:09-27:18
I need Jesus and they put him down and see you on Sunday.
27:20-27:24
As if I want to receive the gift, but I'm not really doing anything with the gift.
27:27-27:30
I would suggest to you that that's not truly receiving the gift.
27:32-27:36
Thinking a gift is nice is not the same as receiving a gift.
27:36-27:39
Admiring a gift is not the same as receiving it.
27:40-27:42
That's what people do with Jesus.
27:45-27:50
So it's our prayer for you this morning that what you've done with God's gift is option 4.
27:51-28:13
To say, "You know what? This is what I need." "I need the grace that only God can give through Jesus Christ." John chapter 1 verse 12 says, "To all who received Him, Jesus Christ, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.
28:15-28:16
What have you done with God's gift?
28:18-28:27
We're going to get a lot of stuff for Christmas, and some of the stuff we're going to keep, and some of the stuff we're going to take back, and some of the stuff we're going to throw in the closet.
28:29-28:31
What are you going to do with God's gift?
28:33-28:34
You bow your heads and pray with me please.
28:38-28:47
Father in heaven, as we come to the close of this service together, I thank you again for everyone that you've brought here.
28:47-28:56
It's just so exciting to see that once again you've performed a miracle in planting this church.
28:56-29:30
But God, we come not to celebrate that a church was planted, we come to celebrate that the salvation that you purchased. I said that you might present the church spotless, spotless without blemish, without wrinkle, that you might present this holy spotless bride. So Father we thank you and I pray that this is a time of self-examination for all of us.
29:35-29:45
That as we've been spending so much time these last just few months, when we meet together we've been talking about what your Word says about who Jesus is.
29:45-29:52
Help us to really take that self-examination and are we in Christ?
29:54-29:55
Is Christ in us?
29:56-30:00
What have we done with the gift that you so freely give?
30:06-30:19
Father, we do look forward to the day when Jesus Christ reigns over all the earth, and until then, might he reign in the hearts and lives of everyone here.
30:22-30:25
We pray these things in the mighty name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
30:26-30:26
Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Isaiah 9:6

Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

December 18, 2011

Jesus First In My Church

Don't Get Suckered!

Jeff Miller

December 18, 2011

Jesus First In My Church

  
    I am on the lookout for false teaching (Col 2:8):

It takes Prisoners.

It is Eempty.

It is a Llie.

It is from Man.

It is Childish.

It is NOT THE WAY OF JESUS CHRIST.

I am looking unto Jesus Christ (Col 2:9-10):

Because He is all God.

Because we are all Complete in Him.

Because He Rules over all.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:00-00:01
Let's pray.
00:02-00:10
Father in heaven, as we've taken an offering, Father, we realize we're just giving you back what you gave to us in the first place.
00:12-00:12
It's all yours.
00:13-00:16
Your word tells us that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness therein.
00:16-00:22
Father, it's all yours, and we are blessed to be able to give back to you.
00:25-00:27
Father, I pray for our children as they're offering children to ministry.
00:28-00:37
This is a time as the adults and the young adults are in the Word here, we know that the children are in your Word just across the hall.
00:37-00:43
So I pray for our workers, from nursery on up, Father, to glorify your name and our children to this day.
00:45-00:53
And I pray, Father, that there will be ears to hear as we get into your Word this morning.
00:54-00:59
It's not about what I think, it's about what you think.
01:01-01:08
And I pray that we would just let the light of your truth penetrate our hearts.
01:14-01:15
Father, glorify your name.
01:18-01:19
We pray in Christ.
01:27-01:34
Have you ever just gotten suckered into something?
01:36-01:38
Have you? I see some of you are smiling.
01:38-01:40
Have you ever gotten suckered into something?
01:41-01:43
Or scammed, I guess.
01:44-01:46
Maybe that's a more politically correct word.
01:48-02:20
I'm going to tell you of us have been there at one point or another.
02:21-02:33
I started this list last night, and I just had to stop at all the times that I've either been suckered or somebody attempted to sucker me.
02:36-02:42
One of them was I got an email that said I won this watch on eBay, a $300 watch.
02:43-02:45
And I'm like, I didn't bid on a watch.
02:46-02:54
Well, it says, you know, this transaction's going to go through, so hurry up and send your information to this email address so we can stop the transaction.
02:54-02:58
So I'm mad, I'm like, I didn't hit on this function, I'm typing all this stuff in, and then I'm like,
02:59-03:00
(imitates buzzer)
03:00-03:06
I'm typing all this stuff in to send to somebody who's going to have all my information.
03:07-03:09
I almost got suckered that time.
03:10-03:11
Almost, but not quite.
03:12-03:14
Here's a time that I really did get suckered.
03:14-03:16
Aaron and I laugh about this quite a bit.
03:18-03:22
Back in my old church, there was this lady that lived up the street that said she needed help moving.
03:24-03:29
And we were North Street Christian Church slash moving company, I suppose it was.
03:29-03:32
But I thought, you know, I do all things for the sake of the gospel.
03:32-03:40
I'm going to go help move her and I'm going to get an opportunity to share the gospel with her, or at least invite her to church or something, right?
03:41-03:44
So I was having my usual back problems that day.
03:45-03:50
She was moving out of an apartment that was down three flights of steps.
03:50-03:54
And the new place she was moving was up three or four flights of steps.
03:54-03:59
And I just had this little Jeep at the time and I was putting a bunch of boxes in and taking it over.
03:59-04:03
And the whole thing was just something I was sitting on.
04:03-04:07
First of all, every box in black Sharpie on the outside said underwear.
04:09-04:10
Every box.
04:10-04:12
And I didn't ask.
04:12-04:18
I didn't ask, I didn't ask, but I'm thinking like you are, what's somebody doing with this much underwear, right?
04:19-04:20
Every box.
04:20-04:25
Well, as I'm moving, her husband's just sitting there kind of watching, and I wasn't too thrilled about that.
04:25-04:28
I'm like, grab some underwear, sheep, we're moving.
04:29-04:34
And so finally, I'm like, okay, I get it.
04:34-04:36
I do all things for the sake of the gospel.
04:36-05:07
And we're going up the steps of like, you know, whatever trip. And I said, "So do you go to church anywhere?" She goes, "Oh, yeah, I go to a church in Worthington." I'm like, "Oh, why is it your church you're going?" And she said, and I quote, "I could never ask my pastor. He's way too busy.
05:08-05:11
And besides, he has a bad back.
05:12-05:13
(audience laughs)
05:16-05:19
So I'm like, sayonara underwear, extra point.
05:19-05:20
No, I didn't do that.
05:21-05:24
I finished helping her out, I said have a nice day.
05:25-05:31
But like those old cartoons, you ever seen the old cartoons when their head turns into a lollipop and it says sucker?
05:31-05:32
You ever see that?
05:32-05:32
Oh, you saw that?
05:33-05:33
That happened to me.
05:34-05:42
As soon as she said that, I was like, I'm like, "Wow." I could go on and on and on.
05:42-05:51
Do you ever get the email from the African widow whose husband died and she just needs a bank account in the States to send the $2 million?
05:52-05:53
Do you ever get that email?
05:53-05:55
I get those all the time, all right?
05:57-06:01
Let me tell you how lucky I am, speaking of scams.
06:02-06:06
I've been the 10,000th visitor on like 30 different websites.
06:07-06:08
You know, did you ever get that?
06:08-06:09
"Dude, you're the 10,000th visitor!
06:10-06:12
You want an iPad!" Do you know how many iPads I've won?
06:13-06:17
I got like a closet in my house that's just full of the iPads.
06:17-06:18
Obviously not, it's a scam.
06:19-06:24
But I'm constantly getting these alerts that I've won all these iPads.
06:25-06:26
Ridiculous.
06:26-06:27
Scamming going on.
06:27-06:29
One of my favorites didn't even happen to me.
06:29-06:33
I was, for some reason, this was a couple years ago, We had Judge Judy on.
06:33-06:34
You like Judge Judy?
06:35-06:50
Judge Judy was on, and this person took this other person to court because they bid on this, what was it, $200 or $300 cell phone or something on eBay, and what they were mailed was a picture of a cell phone.
06:51-06:55
And the defendant's defense, that's what the auction was for.
06:56-06:59
Like, the auction was for a picture of a cell phone.
07:01-07:01
Right.
07:02-07:02
Scam.
07:03-07:05
Anybody want to guess how that case was ruled?
07:05-07:05
Anyone?
07:07-07:07
Anyone?
07:08-07:09
Jessica is the plaintiff.
07:10-07:11
And she got her money back.
07:11-07:12
Scam.
07:12-07:13
I hate scams.
07:13-07:14
I hate yelling sucker.
07:15-07:18
And as we get into God's Word today, here's a huge warning.
07:18-07:19
Turn to Colossians chapter 2.
07:20-07:22
That's actually what the warning is about today.
07:24-07:25
Colossians chapter 2.
07:25-07:30
You know, scamming, getting suckered, getting taken advantage of.
07:30-07:32
Nothing new under the sun.
07:33-07:38
God's Word, in this passage we're looking at today, warns us against this very thing.
07:41-07:52
Colossians 2.8, "See to it that no one takes you captive." Okay, so this is two things.
07:52-07:56
This is a command, and this is a warning.
07:57-08:02
This is "Watch out." I'm warning you, and it's a command.
08:03-08:06
You need to be on the lookout for some things, okay?
08:09-08:18
What we're going to see is you can get suckered by adopting a wrong philosophy or a wrong worldview.
08:19-08:23
The truth is everyone in this room is a philosopher.
08:24-08:27
Everyone in here is a philosopher.
08:27-08:29
Jayna, are you a philosopher?
08:29-08:34
Of course you are. Of course you are, Sammy. Of course you are.
08:36-08:55
We're philosophers. In the heart of every man and woman, I meant that in a few different times, you get that right? In the heart of every person, there's more than this.
08:56-08:59
There's more to life than what we can see.
08:59-09:02
There's gotta be something else out there.
09:02-09:03
That's philosophy.
09:03-09:06
Everybody has a belief or a view about that.
09:08-09:15
You see, you have a way of taking life and death and the purpose of life and the meaning of life.
09:16-09:23
You have a way of putting all of that together in your mind in a way that makes sense to you, right?
09:25-09:28
Now, they might be different from person to person here.
09:28-09:30
We're looking to change that.
09:31-09:37
But the truth is, everybody has taken the entirety of life experience and constructed what's called a worldview.
09:39-09:42
Like, this is how this all sort of fits together in my mind.
09:42-09:43
This is how it makes sense in the world.
09:45-09:46
And here's the problem.
09:48-09:50
None of us live in a vacuum.
09:53-10:01
Every single person is influenced by someone or something into how to think.
10:04-10:06
Something is shaping the way that we think.
10:08-10:09
Something is.
10:10-10:15
If you're sitting here going, "Well, nobody tells me what to think." Well, guess who's shaping the way you think?
10:15-10:17
In one sense, you are.
10:18-10:22
But in another sense, somewhere you picked up that philosophy No one should tell you how to think.
10:24-10:25
So you got that from somewhere.
10:27-10:28
None of us live in a vacuum.
10:29-10:36
Every single day, every single day, think about this, we are bombarded.
10:38-10:40
We are bombarded.
10:40-10:41
Think this way.
10:42-10:43
Here's what life is like.
10:43-10:44
Here's how you should think about events.
10:45-10:46
Here's what's going on in the news.
10:46-10:48
Here's how we make sense of this.
10:48-10:49
Think this way, think about this.
10:49-10:50
Think about it that way.
10:50-10:52
Think about it from my point of view.
10:54-10:56
And how do we sort through all this stuff?
10:58-10:59
What's true?
11:00-11:00
What's a lie?
11:02-11:03
What's a set of figures?
11:06-11:09
Well, we get hit with a barrage of sources, don't we?
11:10-11:12
A barrage of sources.
11:14-11:15
Write these down.
11:16-11:16
Just kidding.
11:16-11:26
MSNBC, Fox News, Talk Radio, Sports Radio, the view, the talk, talk, suit, Pollywood, the preacher, church, the preacher on TV, commercials, magazines, billboards, the Da Vinci Code, remember that?
11:28-11:30
Zeitgeist, did you ever see that?
11:31-11:42
Astrology, psychology, Bill Maher, David Letterman, Joel Osteen, Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, the doctors, newspapers, email snopes, The Onion, Facebook, Twitter, MTV, country music, lyrics.
11:42-11:47
Do you see all these sources are saying, here's what to think, here's what to think, here's how you should think?
11:48-11:51
They're all promoting a worldview.
11:54-11:57
So from a barrage of sources, we get a barrage of philosophies.
11:58-11:59
And if it feels good, do it.
11:59-12:01
Do unto others as you'd have them do unto you.
12:01-12:03
Life is precious, life is a cosmic accident.
12:04-12:06
There is no God, there's only one God, there's several Gods.
12:06-12:09
We gotta try to make the Gods happy.
12:09-12:11
Or we have to make the God happy.
12:12-12:13
God cannot be made happy.
12:14-12:15
Our religions are the same.
12:15-12:16
Our religion is the only one.
12:16-12:17
There is one truth.
12:17-12:21
There is no such thing as absolute truth. God helps those who help themselves.
12:22-12:24
It doesn't matter what you believe as long as you're sincere.
12:24-12:27
Marriage is sacred. Marriage is just a piece of paper.
12:28-12:29
God doesn't love us or he would stop evil.
12:30-12:31
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
12:32-12:34
You are our God and we are all Gods. We will become Gods.
12:34-12:37
We die and cease to exist. We die and go to heaven.
12:37-12:40
We die and go to a heaven or a hell. We don't know what happens when we die.
12:42-12:42
Right?
12:43-12:48
Do you realize we're bombarded by these things every day?
12:49-12:49
[Aww]
12:52-12:55
That was like a payment for the school I paid.
13:00-13:01
Every day.
13:01-13:06
These philosophers and philosophies are trying to help you make sense of the world.
13:08-13:15
But here's the problem, when we buy into wrong philosophies, we become captive to them.
13:17-13:19
What do you mean by becoming captive to them?
13:19-13:27
Well, we get suckered into a skewed view of the world.
13:29-13:35
How many people are listening to Howard Stern on the radio and letting his opinions and his philosophy shape the way we think?
13:39-14:09
How many people are buying into conservative talk radio or, you know, when we were in Chicago, there was liberal talk radio. And my thinking is shaped by this, suckered into a skewed view of the world. The philosophies are out looking for people to buy in. Once you see What do you mean by that?
14:10-14:12
Here's a couple more examples.
14:14-14:24
Did you ever notice that when archaeologists find a bone anywhere, we dug up this bone, what's their immediate conclusion?
14:26-14:31
Their immediate conclusion, as soon as they find any piece of any bone anywhere, what's their immediate conclusion?
14:32-14:40
found the what? The missing link. We found it! How many of those have just turned out to be complete noses?
14:42-14:48
Do a little research on that. Another one, how about every Easter? It happens at Christmas too, it happened last night.
14:49-15:00
But write this down. Every Easter, Newsweek, Time Magazine, the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, They're all going to come out with something like the real Jesus, right?
15:02-15:05
He wasn't at all really what we read and hear.
15:06-15:08
Here's the real Jesus.
15:11-15:13
And their basis for that is what?
15:15-15:16
Yeah, I don't know either.
15:17-15:20
Secular university professors talking about the nonsense of the Bible.
15:21-15:24
TV shows normalizing illicit sexual relations.
15:24-15:26
That's just the way it is.
15:27-15:29
A day of political correctness.
15:30-15:35
Philosophies that get people to question, doubt, or deny the Word of God.
15:38-15:44
Their goal is that any thought about seeking the Lord or seeking the truth is now hostage.
15:45-15:46
I'm not sure what to believe.
15:48-15:52
I bought into a reason to disbelieve the Bible.
15:54-15:55
Well, enough of that.
15:55-15:56
Let's get to God's Word.
15:57-15:59
Do you know what the number one warning is in the New Testament?
15:59-16:00
Do you know?
16:00-16:02
The number one warning in the New Testament?
16:03-16:03
False teaching.
16:05-16:06
Number one warning.
16:06-16:07
Look out for false teaching.
16:08-16:12
That's what prompted, from a human perspective, that's what prompted the writing of much of the New Testament.
16:14-16:15
We talked about this.
16:15-16:16
That's why Colossians was written.
16:17-16:21
False teaching was coming and Paul's like, "I'm going to get ahead of it." Why did he write Galatians?
16:22-16:22
False teaching was coming.
16:22-16:26
He was a Christian teaching has happened, you've got to deal with it.
16:27-16:29
False teaching constantly.
16:31-16:32
We are being warned against it.
16:32-16:39
In this section here, we're going to be looking at just three verses, but I kind of liken it to a police sketch artist.
16:39-16:43
You know, when crime happens, they're like, can you describe what the guy looked like?
16:44-16:45
And they draw that, and they draw the picture.
16:45-16:47
That's kind of what's happening here.
16:48-16:51
Paul says, look out for false philosophies.
16:52-16:53
Here's what they look like.
16:55-16:56
All right, so we're gonna be doing just that.
16:57-17:03
We're on the lookout, I'm gonna get the picture down, so when we see it, we're gonna know.
17:04-17:08
The Colossian heresy that was coming basically boiled down to this.
17:10-17:21
If you want salvation, you have to receive Jesus and ceremonialism, ritualism, worship of angels, asceticism, and they had all these other things you have to add to Jesus.
17:22-17:24
Paul's point is there's nothing you can't add to Jesus.
17:25-17:27
Covered that very thoroughly in chapter one.
17:28-17:31
So on your outline, I am on the lookout for Paul's teaching.
17:31-17:32
Look at verse eight.
17:34-17:43
See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit.
17:45-17:53
According to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ.
17:54-17:55
I'm gonna go through these rather quickly.
17:55-17:56
There's a lot here, all right?
17:57-18:03
1A, what does false teaching look like?
18:05-18:09
Well, the first thing you need to be on the lookout is this, it takes prisoners.
18:10-18:11
It takes prisoners.
18:15-18:24
This word in the Greek, he says, "takes you captive." That's actually a unique word in the Greek.
18:24-18:27
Literally, it means to carry off booty, like a pirate.
18:28-18:34
You know, literally it means I swoop in, I grab the treasure, and I run.
18:34-18:36
Or another way you can think of it is kidnapping.
18:37-18:50
Okay, and he says, "See to it, be on the lookout, "be warned that you're not kidnapped." Bondage comes when we bite the hook.
18:51-18:54
We buy the lie and become devoted to it.
18:55-18:56
See, that's the warning here.
18:56-19:09
When we adopt a false philosophy, a false teaching, when we buy in the things that are contrary to God's word, we become in bondage to them.
19:10-19:12
I have to be a part of this group.
19:12-19:14
I have to adhere to these rules.
19:14-19:19
My spirituality has to be fulfilled by me doing all these things.
19:21-19:24
When I keep the rules, I'm in good standing with God.
19:24-19:26
When I don't keep the rules, God is out to get me.
19:28-19:29
Folks, that's bondage.
19:31-19:36
Constantly looking over your shoulder, am I doing everything exactly right?
19:36-19:37
Will this appease God?
19:41-19:44
This is why people are so hesitant to leave a cult.
19:44-19:44
Did you know that?
19:45-19:49
Do you wonder why more people don't see the truth of God's word and just come flying in?
19:49-19:52
How many times have you witnessed, or a Jehovah's Witness, or a Mormon?
19:52-19:53
I mean, I have.
19:53-20:02
And you think, "Well, they've got to see this. They've got to see this." I was going to say they're brainwashed, but they're not brainwashed.
20:02-20:03
They need brainwashed.
20:04-20:07
Their brain dirty.
20:09-20:09
Okay?
20:09-20:19
They bought into the fact that unless I'm part of these teachings at this particular religious organization, I'm out of God's will.
20:22-20:37
That's why the university professor, 93 year old university professor that I knew, When we talked about the Word of God, when we talked about creation science, he would even say, "You know what?
20:39-20:54
You've got some things that I can't refute." But he wasn't about to jump into the Bible and embrace God's Word, because he has built his life on believing a lie.
20:57-21:00
Listen, you don't have to go to a cult to be captive.
21:02-21:11
There are people sitting here today, I'm sure, that feel captive, or are prone to captivity.
21:14-21:16
Are you tired of wondering if God has accepted you?
21:21-21:25
Are you tired of wondering if maybe you and God have a rocky relationship?
21:27-21:28
Captivity can come that way.
21:30-21:35
Are you tired of wondering if you're keeping the rules, or keeping the right rules, or keeping enough rules?
21:36-21:39
I encourage you, get God's Word yourself and see what it says.
21:39-21:40
And that's what we're here to help you do.
21:42-21:48
But don't be held bondage to a false philosophy.
21:48-21:53
Listen, even a false philosophy might be somewhat based on the Word of God.
21:53-21:54
We'll talk about that in a second.
21:56-21:57
So look out.
21:59-22:00
Here's the problem.
22:00-22:02
It takes prisoners, and here's what it looks like.
22:02-22:04
Secondly, it's empty.
22:06-22:07
It's empty.
22:09-22:12
Nobody thinks you're captive by philosophy.
22:13-22:17
And empty, the seed, it's empty.
22:18-22:19
You know what that reminds me of?
22:21-22:22
Remember when you were a kid?
22:23-22:23
Easter basket.
22:24-22:25
Here's not my house.
22:25-22:29
There was always a big chunk of money, like one of the big ones right in the middle of the basket.
22:29-22:35
There's all the colorful stuff, these stickers and all the little bit lesser important stuff.
22:35-22:40
At least when I was a kid, I remember they had to give me the basket that had the big chunk of money right in the middle.
22:41-22:43
And you know what I went for, right?
22:43-22:45
Give me that money.
22:45-22:48
and I take that bunny out of the box, and this happens sometimes.
22:49-22:51
I take a bite and it's hollow.
22:52-22:53
Rip off!
22:53-22:54
Never happened to you?
22:54-22:56
Like my parents don't love me.
22:57-22:58
(audience laughing)
22:59-23:00
The bunny is hollow.
23:00-23:03
And you see, that's what a lot of false teaching is like.
23:03-23:04
It looks good.
23:05-23:06
It looks real good.
23:06-23:08
But then you take a big bite of it.
23:09-23:10
I don't eat chocolate bunnies anymore, don't worry.
23:11-23:16
But you take a big bite of it, and there's no substance.
23:18-23:20
You see, our faith has substance.
23:21-23:22
Our faith has substance.
23:23-23:25
Our faith is based on the word of God.
23:26-23:26
We have history.
23:27-23:28
We have archeology.
23:29-23:30
We have science.
23:30-23:31
We have predictive prophecy.
23:33-23:34
Study these things.
23:36-23:38
This is not a fairy tale that we are hiding behind.
23:39-23:43
This is the truth of God's word that has a firm foundation that we can build on.
23:43-23:44
There's reason to believe.
23:46-23:48
When I first came to Christ, that was my first crisis.
23:49-23:51
I'm like, really, this is true?
23:52-24:00
And I dedicated my life to discovering, is what this book says, is this reliable?
24:01-24:03
This is based on truth.
24:05-24:10
And the word of God is about a thousand after 16 years of study.
24:14-24:16
But you need to examine when something is back going.
24:17-24:22
A lot of philosophy is empty, John Lennon's "Job Bunnies." Actually, it is a lie. It is a lie.
24:25-24:27
See that empty deceit?
24:29-24:33
Now this is deceptive because Satan's way is to take an element of truth and put a lie in it.
24:33-24:34
That's how Satan works.
24:36-24:41
around the corner and try to get you to swallow a big fat whopper.
24:41-24:42
That's not how he works.
24:42-24:49
What he does is he'll take an element of truth and weave a lie into it so that it's disguised.
24:50-24:51
It's like rat poison.
24:52-24:55
You know that rat poison is like 90% cornmeal.
24:55-24:56
Did you know that?
24:58-24:58
Cornmeal.
25:00-25:00
Harmless.
25:02-25:03
So what's the problem?
25:03-25:05
The problem is that little percent.
25:06-25:06
It's not working.
25:07-25:08
That's how Satan works.
25:09-25:09
All right?
25:11-25:15
How many cults use the Bible as their quote, source of authority, but they twist the message?
25:16-25:25
Jehovah's Witnesses denying the divinity of Jesus Christ, denying the doctrine of hell, teaching that everyone's redeemed, everyone's going to heaven.
25:27-25:33
The Mormon Church also denying the divinity of Jesus Christ, denying the final authority of the Bible.
25:35-25:37
They were just saying they're based on the Bible.
25:38-25:40
Do a little study, they're radically different.
25:40-25:42
Don't be held captive, don't be taken captive.
25:45-25:52
The next problem with false teaching, notice next here it says, "According to human tradition," on your outline, I just have, it's for man.
25:53-25:54
It is for man.
25:56-25:57
And he's not talking about family traditions.
25:59-26:01
Like, you know, grandma comes out on Christmas.
26:01-26:04
Like, here's our traditional Christmas ham.
26:04-26:05
And you're like, "Grandma!
26:06-26:10
"Pastor Jeff just warned us about tradition!" That's not what he's talking about.
26:11-26:12
That is not what he's talking about.
26:13-26:20
He's talking about God is angered when people hold on to man-made tradition that contradicts God's word.
26:21-26:21
Don't believe me?
26:21-26:23
Read Matthew chapter 23.
26:23-26:24
Just go ahead and read that.
26:24-26:26
See what Jesus thinks about that.
26:27-26:29
God is fired up about that.
26:29-26:32
Or people say, well, I know what the Bible says.
26:32-26:34
Our church has this tradition.
26:34-26:38
And yeah, it's not exactly biblical, but it's the tradition of our church that we're holding onto.
26:44-26:56
One of the questions I get asked about a lot, people ask me, well, if the Catholic church uses the same Bible that we do, why are their beliefs so radically different?
26:57-27:00
The priest will tell you this, because they have two sources of authority.
27:00-27:06
I would say, we have one, the Word of God, and the priest will tell you that they have two sources of authority.
27:06-27:12
It's the Bible and it's church tradition or tradition of man.
27:13-27:23
See, that's where my caution is, is that when the tradition of man supersedes strict, forward teaching from God's Word.
27:25-27:27
And the last thing, it is childish.
27:28-27:29
It is childish.
27:29-27:36
He says, "According to the elemental spirits of the world," I'm sorry, this is next to the last issue.
27:37-27:38
This is childish.
27:38-27:40
The elemental spirits of the world.
27:40-27:42
What in the world is he talking about there?
27:43-27:51
Well, that Greek word for elementary principles literally is talking about letters of the alphabet, meaning things in a row.
27:54-28:02
In cross-reference Galatians chapter 4, verse 3, the same thing as Jews, what it's talking about is simplistic, silly, childish stuff.
28:03-28:04
It's childish.
28:06-28:07
It's childish.
28:10-28:27
Somebody very close to me who actually grew up in church has embraced paganism, but one of the things that he believes is that this earth was once a giant that was slain by the gods, and now we dwell on the corpse of a giant.
28:29-28:31
That's like childish stuff.
28:31-28:33
That's like something you'd watch on D-Day or something.
28:34-28:34
Okay?
28:35-28:36
Childish.
28:37-28:53
What he's talking about is when you come to maturity of God's word, and see, this is mature spiritual thinking, and then you retreat back to one of these Mickey Mouse It's like getting accepted to Grove City and showing up at preschool.
28:54-28:55
That's a huge step backwards.
28:58-28:59
It's childish.
29:01-29:08
Last, certainly not least, I would say, the icing on the cake, it is not the way of Jesus Christ.
29:10-29:11
And not according to Christ.
29:12-29:14
Here's the biggest problem. It's not the way of Jesus.
29:15-29:16
It's not the way of Jesus.
29:17-29:19
It's just not the way of Jesus Christ.
29:19-29:21
It all boils down to this.
29:21-29:24
This stuff is not the way Jesus works.
29:24-29:47
So, God's answer to psychology, philosophy, legalism, religion, spirituality, tradition, And all the questions that we will ever face about life, what's the answer?
29:51-29:54
Do you realize that this was God's answer?
29:56-30:08
Living in a world enveloped by the power of sin and lies and deceit and cunning, crafty voices.
30:10-30:12
This was God's answer.
30:17-30:18
Where did you come up with that?
30:19-30:20
Well, this will be verse 9.
30:23-30:40
Under our line, "I am looking unto Jesus Christ." I'm looking up, or Paul's teaching, "I'm looking unto Jesus Christ." "In Him, the whole fullness of deity wells." That's what Christmas is all about.
30:40-30:42
We're going to be celebrating Christmas next week.
30:42-30:43
I really hope you can make it out.
30:43-30:46
We're going to do a little cafe setting down at the cafeteria.
30:47-30:49
Sammy and Laura are going to lead us in some Christmas carols.
30:49-30:51
I'm going to share a little message from Cosmo.
30:51-30:53
We're going to have a dinner with some coffee and fellowship.
30:53-30:55
Just a fun time together.
30:56-30:58
I really hope that you can make it out.
30:59-31:00
Because this is what we're celebrating.
31:03-31:19
The fact that God, transcendent God, said I'm going to give the ultimate answer on all things for all time by showing up.
31:21-31:23
Psalm 115 verse 3 says our God is in the heavens.
31:23-31:25
He does whatever he pleases.
31:25-31:27
You realize God could have done whatever He wanted.
31:27-31:30
Could God have come to the earth just like straight out of heaven?
31:31-31:31
Could He?
31:32-31:36
Could He have just been like, "Here I am." Could He have done that?
31:36-31:37
Of course He could.
31:38-31:39
God does whatever He pleases.
31:39-31:44
Could God have come to the earth as an adult man?
31:45-31:50
Like one day, like Peter and Andrew out fishing, and just like, "Whoop!" this man shows up out of nowhere.
31:53-31:54
He could have.
31:55-32:00
In fact, there were times in the Old Testament that Jesus did show up.
32:01-32:03
He was the fourth man in the fire.
32:04-32:04
Right?
32:06-32:15
But when it came to coming to a hope for salvation, what did God do?
32:18-32:20
The Holy Spirit conceived of a woman.
32:21-32:37
She gave birth to a child who is 100% God, seen by the Holy Spirit, but also 100% human being.
32:39-32:40
That's the mystery of the Incarnation.
32:43-32:49
Jesus is both fully God and fully man.
32:49-32:51
That's what Paul reminds us of here.
32:52-32:56
So with all these influences on us, where do we keep our eyes?
32:56-32:57
We keep our eyes on Jesus.
32:58-32:58
Why?
33:00-33:04
For in Him, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.
33:05-33:09
And you have been filled in Him who is the head of all rule and authority.
33:10-33:12
I'm looking unto Jesus Christ.
33:12-33:12
Where are you looking?
33:16-33:18
Well, why are you looking unto Jesus Christ?
33:18-33:19
Well, drop the "e" and look at the "e".
33:19-33:21
he's done, first of all, because he is all God.
33:22-33:23
He is all God.
33:24-33:33
Jesus wasn't just this really religious person or the greatest philosopher of all time or some religious leader.
33:36-33:42
Everything that God is is abiding in Jesus Christ.
33:44-33:44
Isn't that amazing?
33:46-33:56
That's why John says, "We beheld his glory the only begotten of the Father. We saw Jesus. We saw who? We saw God the Father.
33:57-34:14
Jesus even said that. He said, "If you've seen me, you have what? You've seen the Father." "Well, just show us the Father. Show us the Father. That'll be good." You know, Jesus, "Just show us the Father." Jesus said, "You're looking at Him." If you've seen me, you've seen the Father.
34:17-34:18
He is all God.
34:19-34:21
That's good news.
34:21-34:24
Everything we need to know about the Father we find in Jesus Christ.
34:27-34:29
Truthful, compassionate, merciful, patient.
34:30-34:35
You can wonder if God the Father is any of those things, but we see all of those things fully in Jesus Christ.
34:35-34:36
Perfectly represented.
34:37-34:40
Secondly, because we are all complete in Him.
34:42-34:44
We are all complete in Him.
34:44-34:49
Because of sin, by nature, we are incomplete.
34:50-34:52
We're incomplete spiritually.
34:52-34:53
We're out of fellowship with God.
34:53-34:54
We're incomplete morally.
34:54-34:55
We're outside of God's will.
34:58-34:59
We're incomplete mentally.
35:00-35:01
We don't know divine truth.
35:03-35:04
God's answer?
35:10-35:22
"You have been filled in him." That word "filled" is the same word back in verse 9 where it says, "The whole fullness of deity." It's the same word.
35:26-35:48
The deity completely filled Jesus Christ and in the same way he turned around and said, "Jesus Christ completely fills you." What that means is you can't walk around saying, "You know, I have a little bit of a Holy Spirit in me." No, man, you either do or you don't.
35:51-35:54
You know, I go to church sometimes, I think I just have a little bit of a holy spirit hung up on me.
35:55-35:59
If you're in Christ, He completely indwells you.
36:00-36:03
Just as God, the Father, completely indwelled Him.
36:03-36:04
Same word.
36:06-36:07
Jesus is completely gone.
36:07-36:09
You're completely in Him.
36:09-36:10
Last thing.
36:12-36:13
Because He rules over all.
36:15-36:18
Who is the head of all rule and authority.
36:34-36:53
I'm going to tell you I'm going to ask our worship team to come forward.
36:55-37:00
In just a moment, we're going to be taking the Lord's Supper together.
37:09-37:11
It's sort of hard when you look at the picture of the baby.
37:13-37:30
Start playing that out in your mind and think, the purpose for that baby to come was ultimately to accomplish what we are about to remember, to learn suffering.
37:33-37:46
Jesus came, God became a man, and Jesus said, "Here's something that I want you to do to remember me.
37:49-37:55
Remember that my physical body was broken.
38:01-38:09
Remember, my blood was shed for your sin.
38:12-38:21
So I know as our hearts go towards activity scenes, major scenes, and the incarnation.
38:21-38:24
Absolutely true, absolutely they should during this time of year.
38:27-38:32
But always remember the purpose of Christmas is ultimately Easter.
38:35-38:38
Death, burial, and resurrection.
38:40-38:41
Jesus Christ.
38:42-38:43
Be magnified.
38:47-38:48
Father in Heaven.
38:57-38:59
I pray for this church.
39:05-39:21
Whether there are people just visiting today, people that have been faithfully coming, people who call this church their home or the people that like to be passing through.
39:23-39:24
But I pray for people in this room.
39:26-39:33
God, you know, we live in a world that we are just constantly getting lines read to us every single day.
39:35-39:38
About what to think about us, about what to think about you.
39:41-39:44
Sadly, too many people being taken captive.
39:47-39:51
They're in bondage to a world view that isn't from you.
39:59-40:00
Dear God, today I pray for liberty.
40:03-40:14
That as we take the Lord's Supper together, we are reminded that Christ died to set us free.
40:20-40:30
And that we find that being slaves to righteousness versus being slaves to sin, we find freedom in you.
40:34-40:58
We find freedom in knowing that we don't have to try to amaze you, we don't have to try to make you happy, we don't have to try to do enough things that you will finally accept this to know that you do accept this because of the power of the atonement that was made by your son. That's for you.
41:01-41:04
Father, I pray that you would keep the warning in front of us always.
41:05-41:14
As soon as we leave here, people are going to be Fading lines, contradicting your world.
41:17-41:18
Guard our hearts and minds.
41:21-41:22
And they will take us back.
41:27-41:30
We pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
41:32-41:32
Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Colossians 2:8-10

Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

December 11, 2011

Jesus First In My Church

A Recipe for Success

Jeff Miller

December 11, 2011

Jesus First In My Church

The People in a successful Church are:

Encouraged in heart (Col 2:2)

United in Lover (Col 2:2)

Confident in Christ (Col 2:2-4)

Established in Faith (Col 2:5-7)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:00-00:00
You have your Bibles?
00:02-00:02
You have your Bibles?
00:04-00:04
I have brought them.
00:06-00:07
Bibles, these are a bit of a name.
00:08-00:11
Turn those Bibles to Colossians chapter 2.
00:14-00:16
Colossians chapter 2.
00:17-00:38
While you're turning there, I heard a story about a guy who was shipwreck on a little island, as often happens in these little stories, by himself on this tiny plot of land.
00:40-00:49
And he was there for three weeks before another boat came to rescue him.
00:50-00:52
Well, people got off the boat and they saw the man there.
00:54-01:03
"Man, how did you survive?" I said, "Well, I've been here for three weeks, and it's been a rough three weeks, but I get by." I saw that the man had three huts built.
01:04-01:52
He goes, "Well, what are these huts?" And the man says, "Well, that first one, that's my home. That's where I would go, you know, sleep, and that's where I'd have my meals, and that was sort of my home." And they said, "Well, what's the second one?" He says, "Well, that second mountain is my church." He said, "That's where I would go, I would just pray and I'd cry out to God that he would rescue me." "That was sort of my church. I'd go and sing songs to God there. That's my church." And they said, "Well, what's that third mountain?" He said, "I don't know if I want to talk about the third mountain." They said, "Why not?" "Because it's sort of a sensitive subject." And I'd rather we just not talk about it.
01:53-02:03
But they said, "Well, what's that third one we gotta do now? What's that third one?" The guy says, "Okay. That's what I used to do at the church." And, uh...
02:04-02:07
Yeah, even if you're the only one there, there's still gonna be problems, right?
02:08-02:12
So, let's talk about a recipe for success at the church.
02:12-02:16
If you have your outline right down at the top, I'm gonna ask you a question.
02:16-02:17
I want you to write an answer down.
02:17-02:19
I've done this a couple of times here, I won't do that.
02:19-02:24
But write down, what makes a church successful?
02:25-02:26
Write that down.
02:28-02:30
What makes a church successful?
02:38-02:39
Do you have your answer?
02:40-02:43
Here's some things that some people say makes a church successful.
02:43-02:45
Is it good to have a celebrity pastor?
02:47-02:49
You've got to have great attractions for children.
02:51-02:53
You've got to have a big bank account.
02:54-02:55
Absence of conflict.
02:57-02:58
What's the biggest one?
02:59-03:04
What's the biggest one that people say, "Is that church successful?" What's the biggest indicator that people usually get?
03:05-03:07
How many people go there, right?
03:07-03:07
What's the attendance?
03:08-03:19
And, listen, a large church doesn't necessarily mean it's successful any more than a small church means it's unsuccessful. Right?
03:21-03:28
So, jot this down. Question number two. What determines if a church is good?
03:31-03:33
You know, the first question is kind of objective.
03:34-03:37
You know, what are some factors that might determine if a church is successful?
03:38-03:40
But this is a subjective question.
03:42-03:45
Okay, this isn't what I think people would answer.
03:45-04:13
This is, if I came to you, you know, we sat down and we talked, and I said, "What do you think makes a church good?" But here's the thing that people would say, this is what the church is good at.
04:14-04:15
People say, well, the worship.
04:16-04:16
That's a big one.
04:17-04:20
You want to divide our group quickly when it comes to talking about churchy things?
04:21-04:23
Start talking about music in the church.
04:23-04:27
And you will polarize people immediately, won't you?
04:28-04:35
You know, they turn that church into a rock concert, or, you know, all they do is sing those old hymns of people you've never heard of.
04:35-04:42
Let's sing something new, and you're going to completely polarize people, when you talk about worship, music, and the church.
04:43-04:44
What makes the church a good one?
04:44-04:45
What about time and location?
04:47-04:48
Is it convenient?
04:49-04:50
Is the church friendly?
04:53-04:57
Did I agree with the message? That's one.
04:57-04:58
Did I like the preaching?
04:59-05:00
You would say in our vernacular.
05:01-05:03
Some people would say it was demographic.
05:04-05:08
There were people at that church that were just like me, and I think that's a good thing.
05:09-05:09
I think not.
05:11-05:15
Often these objective things are purely de-centered.
05:16-05:21
The danger we face in our church today is the consumer mentality.
05:21-05:22
Let's just be honest.
05:24-05:25
I think it happens a lot in this culture.
05:25-05:35
I'm talking to some other pastors in this area that we live in a very consumer-oriented little environment.
05:36-05:37
And it's easy.
05:39-05:41
Because there are a lot of good churches in the area.
05:43-05:50
And maybe that's not good for me, so I'm going to grace, or I'm going to harvest, or I'm going to victory, or whatever.
05:51-05:53
But it's a consumer mentality.
05:54-05:54
Right and wrong are different.
05:55-05:59
And if you feel about that, it's the truth.
06:02-06:04
The church isn't a place that you go to.
06:04-06:05
The church is what you are.
06:06-06:13
And what I want to show you today from Colossians is what God says makes for a successful church.
06:14-06:16
Okay, so let's look at Colossians chapter 2.
06:18-06:41
Starting at verse 1, the Apostle Paul writes, "For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those who play at the sea, and for all who have not seen me face to face." That's an interesting statement. You think Paul will be wrestling over maybe the churches that he's had firsthand hands-on experience, but he doesn't even say that.
06:41-07:08
He says, "I'm really burdened with these churches, frankly, I've never had. I've never been to. I don't know the people there, but I have this real burden." And he's going to give us some things. He says, "I'm not there, but I want some things for you so badly." Notice he says, "I'm struggling." We can piggyback that off the previous passage. Remember last time we looked at verse 29?
07:08-07:17
He says, "He's toiling, he's struggling with all of Christ's energy that's working within him." We talked all about that last week.
07:20-07:35
So what are you struggling with, with all of Christ's energy? Well, he tells us here, "My struggle is, I want your church to be successful." He's like, "I'm really struggling, and as I sit here in prison, all I can think of...
07:37-07:46
...are their bullets coming." I hope they didn't use that comic sans form, because that's what men would think.
07:47-07:49
Oh, I sure hope that they didn't do anything cheesy like that.
07:51-07:58
Paul's like, "As I sit here, I just wrestle with my spirit. Are your greeters wearing name tags?" Because it's so important.
08:00-08:04
Do you have a ball pit and an arcade for your children at your church?
08:04-08:06
Because this is really stirring me.
08:08-08:10
Actually, that's not it at all.
08:13-08:17
So, let's see what Paul's willing to say makes a successful church.
08:17-08:26
If you're following along on your outline, the people in a successful church are, and the reason I've worded it that way, Because we want to make this personal.
08:28-08:36
Again, you've heard me say this before, but sometimes when you listen to a sermon, whether it's from me or from anybody, I can be good at this too.
08:36-08:38
Sometimes we depersonalize things.
08:39-08:54
We can step back and say, "That's true. Interesting. True. Yeah, I didn't necessarily see anything incorrect about anything you might have said there." and we somehow detach ourselves from...
08:54-09:03
You know what? If the church is going to be successful, it's about the people, right? It's about the people.
09:04-09:05
And that's what Paul's talking about.
09:07-09:16
He says, "Here's some characteristics of a church where Christ is powerful, they work." Just when he said the last message, Christ is at work.
09:16-09:17
And what does that look like in the Church?
09:19-09:24
I'm going to read through here, and then we can go back and get the four things that we shared with you on this passage.
09:26-09:49
Verse 2, he says, "That their hearts may be encouraged, being in together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
09:51-09:56
I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments.
09:58-10:06
For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.
10:07-10:28
Therefore, as you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him, and establish the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving." So what are the people like in a successful church?
10:29-10:44
Well, let's look at the passage. First of all, verse 2, "The people of a successful church are encouraged in hearts." Encouraged in hearts. That word for encouraged in the Greek literally means to call to all sides.
10:46-10:56
You know what that's like when you're going through a hard time. Maybe a death in the family or a job loss or, you know, child issues.
10:56-11:00
and you're wrestling, that person just comes alongside you.
11:01-11:03
That's what this word encouragement really means.
11:04-11:06
You're called alongside.
11:07-11:19
But notice he says, "encourage the heart." Now when we think of heart, we think of, often, we think of Valentine's Day, and, you know, our emotions, and, you know, the gushy stuff.
11:20-11:24
But when the Bible speaks of the heart, it speaks of the innermost part of the person.
11:28-11:35
So Paul says first of all, the people in a successful church are encouraged in heart.
11:38-11:42
Now you know, when the Lord's at work, He has some tools that He likes to use.
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Did you know that?
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There are some things that the Holy Spirit does through us, actually I've listed in relations five the fruit of the spirit you know if they are love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self-control you can say those are some of God's tools that's what he's using in us but do you know you know Satan has some tools and I read this years ago and I had to find what I was given and I had to do some digging because it almost stuck my tooth.
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Listen to this. There's an old fable that the devil had a sale.
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And he was selling off his tools.
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And he had them spread out on the table.
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And all of the devil's tools had labels on them.
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Hatred, malice, envy, despair, sensuality.
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All the weapons that everyone knows so well.
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Off the one side lay a harmless looking wood-sheathed instrument marked "Discouragement." It was old and worn looking, but it was priced far above the rest.
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When the devil was asked why that one was so expensive, he answered, "Because I can use this one so much more easily than the others.
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No one knows that it belongs to me.
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So with it, I can open doors that are tightly bolted against the others.
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Once I get inside, I can use any tool that I think is best.
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A discouraged person is open for all kinds of temptation.
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And there might be some people here, I'm going to ask you to raise your hand.
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The Holy Spirit is at work.
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He'll let you know if this is you, but some of you sitting here today are discouraged about something.
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Maybe it's something personally in your own life, whether it's a health issue, a job issue.
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Maybe it's something, somebody you love, somebody close to you.
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I want to take this time to encourage you, as a successful church, is encouraged in hearts.
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Well, first of all, the more you. Again, you're open for all kinds of love and temptation.
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When you're discouraged, let's be honest, we just feel like, "What the heck?" It seems like I try and I try and I try and I'm not getting anywhere and nothing's changing.
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And I don't even know if God's hearing my prayers.
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And that's driving that wedge of discouragement in you.
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You're discouraged from praying.
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You're discouraged from being in the Word.
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You're discouraged from being around the church people.
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You don't want anybody to ask you, "What's wrong? What's going on? Talk to me." That's the way Satan likes it.
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Just drive that bench.
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Just a little discouragement here, a little discouragement here, a little discouragement here.
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But listen, God says a successful church is encouraged in heart.
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So I want to encourage you about, first of all, what is sovereign?
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Do you know what sovereign means?
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It means he solely reigns.
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Sometimes we give the devil too much props.
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We give the devil bad props.
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Like, he has some ultimate authority.
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He just thought, he's holding his head up.
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Is that right?
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How am I supposed to know?
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I'm not even going to be a thorium.
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Well, you're kind of a thorium.
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I'll let you know when you're stuck on my lap.
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We'll talk later about that.
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But, where was I?
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God solely reigns.
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He solely reigns.
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Read your scriptures, even the book of Job, the devil had to get God's permission before he could even do anything in Job.
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God is still in control, okay? So it's not as if the devil is sneaking around doing things behind God's back.
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He is sovereign. God is sovereign, that is.
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And I was like, "You're munching, God has made some glorious promises." You know in Jeremiah, in chapter 1, God says, "I am watching over my word to perform it." Do you know what that means?
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God says, "I wrote some things down in my word, and I am standing, looking over my word, making sure that it happens exactly as I said it's going to happen." God says, "I'm watching you. I'm watching over my word. It's going to happen. It's going to happen." The encouraging thing for me...
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We've all already written the end of the story.
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Are you discouraged?
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Do you know this story ended well? Did you know that?
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Did you know that? This ends well.
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Read the book of Revelation.
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Things look like they're going really, really bad.
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But that too is under God's sovereignty.
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But this ends really, really well.
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with Jesus Christ reigning and his people reigning with him, and sin and death, and everything that's corrupted this world is cast into the lake of fire forever.
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That's good news.
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So be encouraged.
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Do you feel like you're being weighed down by sin?
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God's grace is greater than your sin.
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Do you feel like there are people out to get you?
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We've already covered this, but you have somebody residing within you that's craving it all.
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Somebody out to get you?
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Introduce them to your Father.
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Do you have some loved ones making bad decisions?
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Be encouraged.
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Praying for them is the best thing you can do for them.
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As a good friend of mine says, "It's not over until God says it's over." Somebody else, I'm going to quote him on.
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"It's not over until God says it's over." So be encouraged, and I would encourage you to be an encourager.
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Okay? Get alongside others.
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I know there are people in this room that need some encouragement.
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alongside them.
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So the people of the successful church are encouraged in hearts.
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Second, we see in verse 2, just right there in the text, "united in love." My translation says, "knit together in love." The other line I just put down, "united in love." It says we're knit together.
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Sometimes when we have everything set up on a Sunday morning, I see a few ladies sitting in the back, all knitting.
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Where's that crochet?
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It's knitting, okay, it's knitting.
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I don't know who did this.
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I'm going to send everything there.
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And I totally wasn't going to do it or not do it.
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But, um, they sit in the back and they knit.
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And you see as a church we are to be knit together in love. Something should be driving us together What is it? It's love.
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Now understand in the Greek there were different words for love.
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In our language we're kind of limited. We say love a lot.
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I love my wife.
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I love Karen.
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Do you know what else I love?
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It's perfect.
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Do you know what else I love?
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Pepperoni rolls.
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Do you know what else I love?
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I love my dog.
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Now, do I mean love the same way we all love those things?
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Of course not.
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Of course not.
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Aaron, you're at the top of that list, baby.
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Pepperoni rolls, the second, you're at the top.
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We use the word love, but you don't understand it in Greek.
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There are specific words.
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was friendship love. Like when I tell Baal I love him, that's why I kind of dress him up.
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I love him. That's friendship love.
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There's also the word Eros, which is where we get the word erotic, which is kind of the hubba hubba love. That's love that I have for my wife.
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But the word that's used here is agapic, which is your needs ahead of me love. That's kind of love that he's talking about here.
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We're in it together, this is a community where your needs are more important than my needs.
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I'm thinking about you ahead of myself.
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I'm kind of doing a little math on this.
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I think, you know, everybody here just looked after themselves.
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I can break up a little equation here, but like, you know, these barriers are a component of the stuff on the calculus.
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But everybody here is just looking after themselves That means the total number of people that are looking after you equals one, right?
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But when we instead focus our attention on looking after others, everybody in the church is going to have an entire group of people, however many that is, that is more than one, looking after them.
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Do you see the way God designed this?
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It's not just me watching out for myself.
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It's everybody watching out for me.
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That's what it means to be knit together in love.
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We're all putting each other's needs ahead of our own.
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Sometimes love is in saying and doing the hard things.
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Love isn't always the handshake, the smile.
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Sometimes the loving thing is to do the hard thing.
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is to go to a brother and say, "I think you're wrong." "I think you need to repent." "You're doing something sinful. You need to turn from that." Sometimes, I believe you, that's not easy being in the Passionful Ministry as long as I've had.
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I've had to do that a lot.
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Whether it's going after that flirtatious husband, or that wavering teenager, and say, "You know what, you're heading down the wrong path. It's time to turn around." I like having those conversations with people.
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I do not.
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But I understand that's the loving thing to do.
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The unloving thing would be to just let people go.
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Scripture speaks much of that.
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We'll come back to that later.
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But understand this, you don't miss this.
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In united in love, that's one thing you cannot do in isolation.
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It's one thing you cannot do in isolation.
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We're commanded to encourage each other, to love one another, to use our giftedness for the building up of the church.
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That's something that we can't do in isolation.
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That's why when we're doing the small group thing that's starting in January, you signed up.
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There's forms on the table if you came in. If you're not signed up for a small group, we really, really, really, really want you to part of a small group.
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Because it's in that community where you're going to be in a position where you can be united and love.
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See, that's kind of a hard thing to do on a Sunday morning.
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Right now, whether there's 50 people to come or 70 people to come or whatever, it's hard just getting started to build that sense of community.
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Like, after church, I get to sit down with everybody for like 10 minutes, and let's just talk, "How are you doing? What can I bring for you?" We just can't do that.
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But that does happen in small groups.
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And we want to see everybody get excited for that.
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So fill that up.
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I'll do it today all by myself.
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I'll get you pumped in.
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So a successful church, courage and heart united in love, thirdly, a successful church is confident in Christ.
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Confident in Christ.
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Look back again at verse 2.
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He says, "To reach all the riches of full assurance.
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Assurance.
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So I understand church, we are reaching for something.
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As a church, we are reaching for something.
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What are we reaching for?
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What we're reaching for is knowing who we are in Christ.
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That's what we're reaching for.
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You understand what the Gospel really means.
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You understand who Jesus Christ is and what He's done.
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You understand what that means in 2011, the ministry of Jesus Christ.
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That's what we're reaching for, knowing who we are in Christ.
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You see, the reason Paul wrote this, the false teachers that were threatening the church, They taught that salvation was Jesus plus angel worship, and Jesus plus secret knowledge, and Jesus plus mysticism, and ritualism, and ceremonialism, and Jesus plus all these things.
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And it wasn't enough to just be found in Jesus Christ.
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Notice how Paul responds to that.
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He says, "For reaching for the full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden how much of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." How much of that does Christ have?
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This treasury of wisdom and knowledge, how much does Jesus have?
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All.
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Circle that word in your Bible. Circle that word all.
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I kind of write that in my Bible. Circle it to the person next to you.
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"And who were hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Well that's interesting. Paul had to deal with that back in his day.
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We've got to be able to deal with stuff like that in our day.
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We... we are like eyeballs deep in our head.
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Honestly, so many churches teaching that being a Christian means, well you believe in Jesus, sure, but you've got to go through these rituals.
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We have these rituals that we do in our church, and these rituals make you holy.
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That's the same thing Paul killed.
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We've got the middle of the Son of the Spirit.
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Same stuff.
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You've got to go through these rituals to make you holy.
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Christ makes you holy.
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How much of this wisdom, all of it, is the answer?
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For a lot of people it's the altar of good works.
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There's nothing wrong with good works.
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As our Judge says, we should never do good works.
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Here's the problem. Good works is kind of like this.
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Part of it is from the worst type of things.
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Some people think if I do enough good works, Jesus will look down on you from heaven to prove it to you.
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But that's not it at all.
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You see, that's what the whole book of James is about.
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When you have true faith, good works comes out of your life in Christ. That's true.
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But some people think that doing good works is how you obtain salvation.
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Incorrect.
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Because the question is how many good works would you have to do to hit God's quota?
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How many would you have to do?
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What would that make of it?
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You cross over a threshold into eternity of God's life and that's sorry.
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I needed X number of hours and you only did Y number of hours.
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Sorry.
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That's not it. Some people think that's how it ends.
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Good work, dude. I helped you.
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Another one is morality.
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Some people think both.
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It's believing in Jesus, but also it's just trying to be a good person. That's how you get saved.
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You know, talk to people. "Are you going to heaven?" "I think so." "Why do you think you're going to heaven?" "Well, I've never tried to hurt anybody. I've always tried to do the right thing. I've never killed anybody." They're getting this back to this, "Well, it's Jesus plus, it's Jesus plus, it's Jesus plus." Or in saying these prayers, I've said enough of certain kind of prayers that that and possibly other belief in Jesus thing.
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If you were with us when we went through Philosophers chapter 1, you may ask me, what else could possibly be added in Jesus Christ?
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He is everything. He is everything.
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What an insult to think that when Jesus Christ said our atonement, our forgiveness, when he said it was at the back, when he said it's done, it is finished.
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How blasphemous it was to think that we're adding something to that.
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Like Jesus, thank me for doing your part. Now I'll do my part.
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What an insult to the atonement work of Christ.
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So there are great mentions of knowing Christ. Paul gives us a few.
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Going back in the text, walking backwards, notice he says "knowledge".
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If you take a nice sharp list on knowledge, you can know the truth.
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You can know the truth, we live in a day of subjective truth.
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The truth is you're truth, you're truth, you're created.
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Yeah, that makes sense.
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There is absolute truth, and Christ is the truth.
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So you can know the truth.
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Secondly, you know, Jesus says, "Understanding." It's not enough to know the truth, you have to make sense of the truth.
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That's one of the other bridges in Christ.
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We can make sense of the truth.
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Out of the truth, we can make sense of the truth.
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I don't know how anybody else outside of people who know Jesus Christ can make sense of this world.
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I just, I don't understand.
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Because God's Word makes a perfect explanation of the reason the world is the way that it is.
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We see, what do we see? We see this glorious creation that is decaying.
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We see inherent evil in people.
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And the Bible explains that.
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And when you understand who Christ is and what he's done in all these...
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Well, okay, our issue was we were dead in a tripwreck and we were made alive in Christ.
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And he's coming again to reverse the thousand year kingdom.
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He's going to make the earth be what it was meant to be.
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And then there's going to come a day that there's going to be a new heaven and a newer.
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I don't know how many can make sense of everything they see around them.
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The way history is going and all those things.
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Apart from Christ. I just don't know how many can make sense of it.
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In Christ we have an understanding.
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Takes us back to the first statement.
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It's assurance.
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So you can know the truth, that's knowledge.
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You can make sense of the truth, that's understanding.
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Assurance is you can rest in the truth.
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You can rest in the truth.
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Thank you.
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Are you sure you're going to heaven?
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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How can you be so sure?
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Because the God of the universe made me promise.
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Okay?
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It's not based on my integrity.
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It's based on His.
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Yeah, I'm sure.
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I'm sure.
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That's not cockiness. That's not pride. That's uptaking God in his Word.
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Let's be honest. Are there times when you lack confidence?
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Are there times when you fall off your ass and you're like, "My faith is not pliable." Let's be honest. Are there times when you lack confidence?
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There's times when I've been sad.
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I don't even think I want to have it. I just mean...
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Just get it through life. Right?
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There are times when you just...
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What if? What if?
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You know, maybe there are some people here this morning that say...
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You might have that heavy thing they'll know, but I've got you. What if? What if?
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You see, being confident in Christ is a mark of a successful church.
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It's no more striving, no more doubt, no more questions as to who He is, as to what He's done.
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A successful church is "All I am is who I am through Jesus Christ." I will be is what Jesus Christ has promised me.
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All that I have has been given to me by God.
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Where I'm going, that is your self-determination.
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It's confidence in Christ.
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I know the truth.
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I see the truth.
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I'm living in the truth because Jesus Christ is the truth.
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And it doesn't matter.
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Why?
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Why, thanks behind your back.
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You're gonna find out what you might need some help on.
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And you're like, "Good thing I have confidence in Christ. Good thing I know the blood that's in charge of all this." That's a good idea for a commercial.
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Notice the next thing he says. Verse 4.
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I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments.
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What are plausible arguments?
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Persuasive words.
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Every so often this garbage comes down the pipe.
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"Oh, we just proved the Bible. You know what usually happens? What does it usually happen?" "It terrifies the Bible." A lot of time, I hear everybody talk about this, but that was Easter.
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That was Easter time.
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Time Magazine or one of the news people come out with "The Real Jesus." "The Historical Jesus." "We found Jesus' bones in a box in a canyon or something." You see all that stuff? That usually comes out around Easter.
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Why is that?
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People using persuasive words...
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Oh, it's hit time. I think it has to be true.
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People using persuasive words...
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Satan's trying to get us to knock off balance.
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A lot of people don't know how to handle it. Why?
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Because it sounds logical.
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This is a whole other thing we'll be getting into some of this next week.
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And understand that when people bring these plausible arguments, these persuasive arguments, these things that you're an idiot for believing in Jesus because they've disproven the Bible, they've disproven the life of Christ, and here's X, Y, Z.
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When stuff like that comes along, I kind of do it in three categories.
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One category is just flat arguments. Some people come and say that stuff, they're like, "Well, you know, you know, the Bible actually says," and they're about to spew something that, "Why, where'd you go with that?" Trying to disprove the Bible of the Bible.
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Is that a good idea?
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Usually that's just ignorance.
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Here's a way you can think about it.
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When a guy comes to you and says, "Well, you know the Bible says, "ask it where it says the Bible." I guarantee you, 929 times out of a thousand, he has no idea.
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Right?
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It's ignorance. It's ignorance.
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The second way I characterize these things is that people bring these flaws aboard, because sometimes it's ignorance. They don't know what they're talking about.
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Sometimes it's just a moment's slumber.
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That's kind of the anchor's thing, but that's also more of a...
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It's more than "I don't know what's going on." It's more of a...
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"I sound like a pretty sure-of-thing." It's just smoke.
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It's just smoke.
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They come up with all these things that might look like they have substance, but when you really dig down deep, and that kind of takes me to my third level, I call it pop candy.
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You like pop candy?
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Our kids love pop candy.
38:13-38:21
It comes in these giant bags, big and fluffy, and then they pull it out of the bag and grab it, and it treats it like this little raisin-sized thing, you know?
38:22-38:24
And it looks like it has substance, but it really doesn't.
38:25-38:26
Those are just three kind of levels.
38:26-38:28
People come with their persuasive words.
38:29-38:33
Sometimes we're just like, oh my gosh, somebody's just written a Bible.
38:35-38:40
Do a little digging and you'll find it's ignorance and smooth screeners drop candy.
38:41-38:46
When we get into the foundation study in our small groups, that's gonna equip you to handle many of these arguments.
38:46-38:52
A lot of them center around evolution and cavemen and aging here and things of that nature.
38:55-38:56
The foundation steps can help them quickly.
38:58-38:59
Those things.
38:59-39:05
We're gonna get into more of this in the next passage because Paul continues dealing with these issues.
39:06-39:10
The last part of a successful church is established in faith.
39:11-39:13
Established in faith.
39:16-39:21
Notice he says, on verse seven, established in faith just as you were taught.
39:23-39:24
What does it mean to establish something?
39:24-39:29
It means to bring it to being on a firm or stable basis.
39:31-39:35
You know where I'm getting more established than what I always think of?
39:35-39:37
Those t-shirts, Jim Crow's t-shirts.
39:38-39:42
Say like, Eric Costello established what, what?
39:44-39:45
'87, see I knew somebody who would do that.
39:46-39:47
Established in '87.
39:48-39:51
All right, how about Everlast?
39:52-39:52
Established when?
39:56-39:58
Everlast, what do you believe in, the boxes?
40:00-40:01
Established 1910.
40:02-40:05
And what do those shirts mean?
40:05-40:07
Established, what does that mean?
40:07-40:13
What it means is since this date, our flag has been in the ground and we're still going strong.
40:14-40:20
That's why you don't see many shirts out like, you know, Joe Schmoe-Graham shirts, established 2011.
40:21-40:25
It's like, big deal, once you've been in business like three weeks, you can get a shirt.
40:28-40:37
What that means is, look, there was a time that we stuck our thigh in the ground, and here it is, many years later, we're still going, we're still going, we're still going.
40:40-40:41
You see, that's what it is, we're Christian.
40:43-41:20
Established in the faith, if you look back and say, since this date, I was born again, I flagged it with the grass battle formation. That's what he's talking about here.
41:23-41:31
Prepared, ready, strong, being confident in grace is what establishes your faith.
41:32-41:47
What does it look like? Let's go through the text here. What's it look like verse 6, verse 9, he says, "Therefore, as you receive the grace of Jesus the Lord." First of all, being established at the faith means, at some point you have to receive Jesus Christ.
41:49-42:02
So let me ask you, if we're sitting down and I'm talking about your Christian walk, and I say, "We're going to make you a t-shirt about your walk with Christ," and it's going to say "established," what would you put there?
42:04-42:06
When were you established at the faith?
42:08-42:13
In order for that to start, there has to be a point in your life where you receive Christ.
42:14-42:16
And I love the way he works that. You receive Christ.
42:17-42:24
It's not as if Jesus is someone that we're trying to climb this mountain in order to work and obtain the salvation.
42:25-42:26
He's the one running the house.
42:28-42:30
Like the Father, the product, the Son.
42:32-42:36
He's calling us to simply receive.
42:37-42:46
John 1 12 "Yet to those who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." It's about receiving Him.
42:48-42:50
Not about striving to find Him.
42:51-43:06
It's about opening yourself up to say, "I'm at the end of myself. I'm done. I've been wrong." "I want to receive everything that you have." And it's His grace that He wants to pour Himself into you.
43:08-43:09
So what did you do?
43:09-43:10
What did you flag and ground?
43:10-43:12
If you haven't done it, today's the day.
43:13-43:14
Okay, today's the day.
43:17-43:20
If you're not sure if you've done it, come and talk.
43:21-43:21
Come and talk to me.
43:21-43:51
Get one of our leaders, grab a day of talks, and grab one of us and say, "I'm not really sure." He says, "As you receive Christ, so walk in Him." What does it mean to walk in Christ?
43:51-43:52
He explains it.
43:52-43:59
He says, "Rooted and built up." It's planted in Christ.
43:59-43:59
in Christ.
44:01-44:03
Build up, that's heroic!
44:04-44:06
Those are characteristics of Christians.
44:07-44:09
That they're in Christ, and are rooted in Christ.
44:10-44:20
What about this religious identity over here, "No, I'm rooted in Christ." "This is where I'm at." "This is where I'm staying." "Why?" Because this is where I'm rooted.
44:22-44:24
How do you know that thing's working for you?
44:25-44:26
I'm being built up.
44:27-44:28
Christ is working in me.
44:28-44:29
I'm being built up.
44:29-45:03
build up he's building me up growing in him and lastly characteristic of Christians see the last word in verse 7, Thanksgiving this is a bounty of Thanksgiving that should be true of every Christian that should be true of every Christian even if every day from here on out is the worst day of your entire life in your life That the God of the universe chose to not put our mercy against you.
45:04-45:12
That the God of the universe put his punishment on his Son so that you could be pronounced not guilty and gracious in God's eyes.
45:14-45:15
Abound with thanksgiving.
45:19-45:21
So that's what a successful church is.
45:22-45:26
A successful church is...
45:26-46:07
He's charismed in Do you find your confidence based on the person and work of Jesus Christ?
46:14-46:32
Last July and August, those were two months of destruction in my life.
46:35-46:41
Two months of borderline despair.
46:43-46:45
At the plenary I'm launching this church, right?
46:45-46:48
And we don't have the funds that we think we need.
46:53-46:55
We don't have some of the people that we think we need.
46:57-47:11
I never have so many times a day to sit and go, "I don't know how this is going to happen." "God, I believe that you called us to play at this church." And I'm just going to be honest with you, there's nothing like God.
47:14-47:15
I'm not doubting you.
47:18-47:21
I'm doubting something. Maybe ultimately I was.
47:22-47:31
It was rough. I thought, "How in the world is it going to happen?" How in the world is this church going to happen?
47:33-47:39
Many of you know, there was a day that sort of changed everything for the church.
47:40-47:42
We had a corporate meeting at our house.
47:45-47:49
And I was happy, especially down the day, because of some circumstances.
47:55-48:04
And as we're talking, as some of the leaders were talking about moving forward, I don't want to get that.
48:13-48:20
You know, we don't need microphones and signs and all this stuff to have a church.
48:22-49:00
Then he looked around the room and he said, "This is my church." Then somebody else said, "Yeah, I don't care if you're a pastor or a judge, live your life. This is my church." And the elder woke up and he said, "Man, I told you you can plant this church. I'll go wherever you are, man." He's like, "I'm going to go wherever you are, because I'm with you, man." And one by one, everybody in our group was like, "You know, this is my church. This is my church." And I gotta tell you, that day changed everything for me.
49:01-49:04
Because I was so just discouraged.
49:05-49:09
I'd like to tell you I was this awesome warrior clawing forward.
49:10-49:12
But honestly, I'll be honest, there were days I was like Moses.
49:15-49:19
I was like, "God, this isn't working, just kill me." Honestly, I don't say that tritely.
49:20-49:32
There were days that I said, "God, this isn't working, I just wish you'd kill me." Because I don't see how you're possibly using me or anyone else.
49:33-49:53
But to see everyone one by one say, "We're moving forward." "God has promised us this, and God is going to provide." Well later that night, Samuel and Laura led worship in our living room.
49:53-50:00
And I don't know, I don't have words to really describe what happened.
50:01-50:11
Other than to say, the Holy Spirit manifested His presence on our group somehow in a way that I've never experienced before.
50:13-50:18
I just grabbed anybody that was there that night and asked them about it.
50:18-50:21
It was just like the Holy Spirit just grabbed us.
50:22-50:26
I remember after they were done leading worship and I was supposed to get up and speak, I was completely, do you remember this?
50:27-50:28
I was completely paralyzed.
50:29-50:33
Like I know I should get up and say something, but I can't.
50:33-50:37
I just wanted to sit there, like I just sit here forever.
50:38-50:42
and just feel this presence of the Spirit.
50:46-51:11
And I talk to a lot of my group members, I'm like, "Was that just me?" Or was... they're like, "No." "No, the Holy Spirit was really... really speaking to us that way." What the Holy Spirit was speaking to us was, It doesn't matter the stuff that you have, or how many people you have.
51:11-51:32
When the Holy Spirit was confirming to us, He would say, "Listen, I'm here. You have the Holy Spirit." So the issue, the question that we kept facing, that I kept facing, is this church going to succeed?
51:35-51:52
I sat in a room full of people that were encouraged in heart, that were in it at heart, that the confidence in Christ was established in faith.
51:54-51:58
So the question was, is this church going to succeed in the Holy Spirit?
51:59-52:07
In His way, a still small voice showed up and said, "No, it can't succeed." You've got to answer for your faith.
52:13-52:16
Father, all glory and honor and praise.
52:20-52:20
Be unto you.
52:29-52:37
Father, we can regard this church as right now a handful of people leading a squad to war.
52:41-52:44
and take worldly standards and evaluate are we successful.
52:48-52:50
But your work tells us what makes you a successful church.
52:54-53:08
The Father is my prayer that as we go forward, we we never lose that sense of wonder that you are the one that's doing the work.
53:08-53:33
Jesus said, "I will build my church." And I pray, Father, as we go forward, that we would allow the encouragement and love and confidence, and that just be rooted in our faith and say, "We are following Christ." Just as we made that decision individually, we're making that decision corporately.
53:33-53:35
We want to follow Jesus Christ.
53:41-53:44
Praise Him who used Bible.
53:46-53:47
Live by the Bible.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Colossians 2:1-7

Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

December 4, 2011

Jesus First In My Church

So you want to be in ministry?

Jeff Miller

December 4, 2011

Jesus First In My Church

4 Myths about Ministry:

YOU ONLY WORK SUNDAY.

You get nothing but support from everybody you minister to.

You earn the total of all the offering money.

You have it all figured out.

Here is what you can (and can't) expect in Ministry...

I can't expect it to be EASY. (Col 1:24)

I can't do it if I am not CALLED. (Col 1:25)

I can't neglect the MAIN THING. (Col 1:25-28)

I can't do it in my own STRENGTH. (Col 1:29)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:00-00:04
I'm going to provide one with you please to 1 Corinthians chapter 1.
00:09-00:10
I'm sorry, Colossians chapter 1.
00:12-00:14
Colossians chapter 1.
00:17-00:19
It's going to be in verse 24 starting out today.
00:20-00:29
If you're visiting with us, like what have you guys been talking about, I'm going to give you a summary statement of every single thing that we've talked about in Colossians so far.
00:29-00:31
This is like all of chapter 1.
00:33-00:35
All race to the church.
00:35-00:40
We are so thankful that the gospel is at work.
00:41-00:56
We pray God's will will be done in the church, which revolves around the ministry of Jesus Christ, who is God, and has delivered us and changed us by His atonement.
00:57-01:00
That's pretty much everything in chapter 1 so far.
01:01-01:04
But notice when we were going through chapter 1, we get to verse 15.
01:05-01:06
It's all about Jesus.
01:06-01:08
Jesus. Here's who Jesus is.
01:09-01:12
Here's the firstborn from the dead. The firstborn of all creation.
01:12-01:15
And the fullness of God dwelt in Him.
01:17-01:20
And last week He turned to you.
01:20-01:24
He said in verse 21, "And you." We were talking about Jesus. Now we talk about you.
01:26-01:33
This passage we're looking at today, we see a lot of "I's" and "me's" and Paul's going to be talking about himself.
01:34-01:38
Specifically, he's going to be talking about ministry.
01:40-01:52
But did you ever notice that some things in life sound easier, and frankly sound a lot better, than they actually are?
01:54-02:01
Meaning sometimes we have an idea of certain things that end up being a lot different in execution than they were an idea.
02:03-02:09
For example, vacation. When I say vacation to Myrtle Beach, what's the first thing you think of?
02:10-02:15
You have yourself sitting on a chair in the sand at the beach, right? Is that what you thought of? Who thought of that?
02:16-02:17
Vacation rental beach, right?
02:18-02:21
Sitting in the chair, sand beach, the sunny course.
02:23-02:29
But when you're actually planning on going on the trip, there's a lot more to it than that, isn't there?
02:30-02:31
Like what?
02:32-02:45
Like the packing, like you've got to care for the dog, like you have to get things ready in the house, we have to finish up any work that we're doing here, and then what about the actual drive, right?
02:45-02:56
and then I'm packing and all the checking in, and then when you get back, you're going to be gone for the cattle, and now you have a week's worth of work that you missed, and now you're going to work for twice as hard the next week.
02:57-03:00
You don't think about that stuff, do you, when you're planning your vacation?
03:01-03:01
But it's a lot of work.
03:02-03:06
How many of us at times really can eat a couple of days rest when you get back from vacation?
03:06-03:08
Anybody else? That's totally me.
03:08-03:16
When you get back from vacation, Aaron will tell you, I'm just like, "Man, I need a bath." Like that vacation took it out of me.
03:17-03:25
And I thought it was supposed to have the opposite effect, but some things actually sound better and easier than they actually are.
03:26-03:39
And you know that when you bought a house or you had a child, that there's a lot more work behind things than we realize up front.
03:41-03:43
And guess what? That's true of ministry.
03:44-03:45
That's true of ministry.
03:46-03:50
Now if I asked you, "Is everybody called to ministry?" What would your answer be?
03:52-03:56
Your answer should be something like, well, explain that statement a little bit more.
03:57-04:01
"Is everybody called to pastoral ministry?" No, not everybody is called to pastoral ministry.
04:01-04:07
But do you believe that all believers are called to some type of ministry?
04:07-04:08
Do you believe that?
04:10-04:28
Because according to the Bible, if you are a born again believer in Jesus Christ, 1 Corinthians, which I was thinking about earlier, which is not so long ago, 1 Corinthians 12, 11 says the Holy Spirit has given you a gift to be used for the sake of the church.
04:30-04:40
So if you're a follower of Christ, you have a ministry that He's called you to, that he's equipped you for and he's going to empower you to carry out.
04:40-04:50
So the question is not, "Am I called to ministry?" But the question is, "What are you doing with the ministry that you've been called to?" We've all been called to something.
04:53-04:59
Maybe you haven't been called to get up and preach, or get up and lead worship.
05:01-05:01
But you've been called to something.
05:03-05:06
So the question is, what are you doing with that ministry?
05:08-05:10
What are you doing with the gift the Holy Spirit gave you?
05:11-05:12
Are you using it?
05:13-05:16
Or more accurately, are you allowing Him to use it?
05:17-05:17
And you?
05:18-05:19
I'm already sure there's availability, isn't there?
05:20-05:29
Well, here's something I wish people would have told me back in 1995, when I first came to Christ.
05:29-05:31
Very shortly thereafter, I was called into ministry.
05:32-05:34
And here was my idea of ministry.
05:36-05:42
I roll into church on Sunday, about 10 minutes to 10, on the service doors.
05:43-05:50
I just roll in, and I just open my Bible, I say a few words for 20 minutes, and...
05:50-05:51
You're like 20 minutes.
05:52-05:52
Yeah, right.
05:53-05:54
Um...
05:54-05:55
Don't laugh while I write that.
05:57-05:59
Save so much for later.
06:06-06:09
I wish I would have known some things up front.
06:09-06:11
I just had this idea.
06:12-06:14
Well, here's some myths that were quickly dispelled.
06:14-06:16
John Key's done a couple of myths about ministry.
06:17-06:19
A couple of myths about ministry.
06:20-06:25
The fourth, number four, myth about ministry is you have it all figured out.
06:27-06:36
I've been talking with the Lord now for well since '95, so it's been about 15 and a half years or something like that.
06:39-06:45
I really thought at this point I'd have everything figured out. Actually, I thought by the time I hit Bible college I'd have everything figured out.
06:45-06:56
That's a myth. Sometimes people idealize people in ministry like, "Man, you must have it all figured out." and the Lord continues to teach me.
06:59-07:00
But that's a myth.
07:02-07:07
Myth number three, this is one that I was gonna kick out of.
07:07-07:10
You earn the total out of all the offering money.
07:12-07:14
You know some people have that myth still, you know that?
07:16-07:19
I had a guy tell me one time, he goes, you know what my problem is with the church?
07:20-07:22
Like, no, but I have a feeling we're about to find out.
07:23-07:31
He says, so you mean to tell me that everybody in the church is supposed to give 10%?
07:32-07:34
I'm like, wow.
07:34-07:40
That's not even an easy question to answer, because the way the question was worded, but I'm like, go on.
07:40-07:50
So that means if 11 people give 10%, And already, that pastor's making more than everybody else in the church.
07:51-07:52
And I'm like...
07:56-07:56
What?!
07:57-07:59
Like, somebody give me a calculator!
07:59-08:01
Does that even write mathematically? Is that true?
08:02-08:03
And you're gonna tell me how it is.
08:03-08:05
That's the accountant, you're like...
08:06-08:09
That's like, that's some kind of form of math I don't understand.
08:10-08:10
But, um...
08:11-08:13
That was this guy's intention. He thought...
08:14-08:29
When the offering goes around, I get to the back of the church, and I just kind of open my pockets, and I'm like, "Come on, Michelle, just dump it in!" And she just dumps it in. I'm like, "It's an extra bag, Michelle. Just dump it in." And that's a myth. Is that a myth, Michelle?
08:29-08:30
[MICHELLE] I have tears.
08:32-08:33
[BILL] Break a nerve, okay?
08:37-08:42
It's a myth. It's a myth. Everybody say it's a myth. Tell Michelle it's a myth.
08:43-08:44
Thank you. See Michelle?
08:45-08:46
Okay, number two.
08:47-08:49
Here's a big myth that I have.
08:49-08:51
You get nothing but support from everybody you minister to.
08:52-08:55
I thought that when I was a preacher, I was going to be Mr. Rogers.
08:55-08:57
Everybody was going to love me.
08:58-08:59
Everybody loves Pastor Jeff.
08:59-09:03
Everybody agrees with everything that Pastor Jeff has ever said anywhere.
09:05-09:06
You're like, yeah, that's a myth.
09:07-09:08
Is that a myth?
09:09-09:10
That is a myth.
09:10-09:12
That is a huge myth.
09:15-09:17
We're going to talk more about that in a second.
09:18-09:23
But you know number one. Go ahead, what's everybody's favorite joke you say to preachers? Go ahead, what is it?
09:25-09:30
Well, I hear Chicago say, "Oh, Merry Christmas." "Oh, Merry Christmas." Did you guys hear that?
09:31-09:31
Malarkey?
09:33-09:34
That, that...
09:34-09:35
Arrrr!
09:37-09:37
No!
09:39-09:40
Come on!
09:40-09:41
It's wrong!
09:42-09:43
Don't lie in church.
09:45-09:46
It's wrong!
09:46-09:47
Do you have any time to hurt that joke?
09:47-09:49
You only work on Sunday, can't hurt it.
09:49-09:50
You get paid nothing every week.
09:51-09:51
Both hours don't differ.
09:51-09:52
It's better.
09:52-09:54
You only work like a half hour a week.
09:55-09:56
Wrong!
09:58-10:00
People still hang on to that.
10:00-10:01
Like, that is incorrect.
10:02-10:03
That is incorrect.
10:04-10:07
It's at least, at least an hour and a half every week.
10:08-10:08
That's right.
10:09-10:10
At least.
10:10-10:10
At least.
10:10-10:10
At least.
10:10-10:11
Those are myths.
10:12-10:16
Listen, ministry is not something that I'm going to try because it looks fun.
10:18-10:19
Let's get into the text.
10:20-10:23
Here's what you can and can't expect in ministry.
10:24-10:27
Now, who's called to ministry? Let's review. Who's called to ministry?
10:27-10:30
If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, who's called to ministry?
10:32-10:32
Everybody.
10:33-10:36
A couple of you are convinced of that, the rest of you aren't.
10:36-10:37
Who's called to ministry?
10:38-10:38
Everybody.
10:39-10:46
Everybody, if the Holy Spirit is residing within you, he's giving you a gift to be used in some type of ministry.
10:47-10:51
Okay, so here's what you can and can't expect in ministry.
10:52-10:54
I'm gonna read through, and we're gonna go back to some of the principles.
10:56-11:06
All right, so now, "I rejoice in my sufferings "for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up "with his lacking and Christ's afflictions.
11:07-11:20
for the sake of His body, that is, the Church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you to make the Word of God fully known.
11:22-11:39
The mystery, hidden for ages and generations, but now revealed to His saints, to them, God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery.
11:41-11:42
What's the mystery?
11:43-11:44
Here it is.
11:45-11:49
Which is Christ in you.
11:51-11:53
The hope of glory.
11:54-11:56
Can't we proclaim it?
11:57-12:06
Warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ.
12:08-12:16
For this I dwill, struggling with all his energy, that he powerfully works within me.
12:18-12:22
So there's some things about ministry in this passage that we're going to look at.
12:22-12:24
Let's back up here and get to verse 24.
12:24-12:26
We're taking those throughout this dialogue.
12:27-12:29
I can't expect it to be easy.
12:30-12:32
I can't expect it to be easy.
12:35-12:42
Look again at verse 24. He says, "Now I rejoice in my sufferings." Funny how that's the first thing that came out of this.
12:44-12:45
Oh, how's ministry going?
12:46-12:48
It's a lot of suffering.
12:49-12:56
However, I'm not complaining about that. I am rejoicing in my sufferings.
12:58-13:01
Now, why would you rejoice in suffering?
13:01-13:03
That seems a little masochistic, doesn't it?
13:04-13:05
Why would you rejoice in suffering?
13:06-13:08
That's a whole other circle.
13:08-13:12
We're going to look at just one reason in this text.
13:12-13:15
There's a whole lot of reasons to rejoice in suffering.
13:15-13:16
We'll cover that down the road.
13:18-13:19
Hang in there for one second.
13:19-13:22
We're going to see the reason for rejoicing in suffering.
13:22-13:24
Look at the second part of this verse.
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This is a...
13:28-13:31
is a weird verse the first time you read it through until you stop and think about it.
13:31-13:54
Because he says, "In my flesh I'm filling up what is lacking in grace and afflictions." Now if you came in this morning and I said, "Is there anything lacking in grace and afflictions?" Your answer would probably be, "No." Like, "Didn't Jesus pay at all?" What do you mean there's something... I mean, I was here a couple weeks ago, man.
13:54-14:04
You read Colossians 1, 15, 20, the whole Jesus is first, Jesus is everything, Jesus is God, and now you turn around and say there's something lacking in Jesus?
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No, he doesn't say that something is lacking in Jesus.
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Notice that.
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Does he say it's lacking in Jesus?
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He says there's something lacking in Christ's afflictions.
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I'm gonna explain that to you for a minute.
14:20-14:23
First of all, he's not talking about purgatory.
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A lot of people have used this verse to support the doctrine of purgatory.
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Now if you come from a Catholic background, please understand that I'm never trying to intentionally offend anyone or say anything hurtful in any way.
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It's really my job to proclaim the truth of God's Word.
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And the truth is that the doctrine of Purgatory is completely blasphemous.
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It's a teaching that when you leave the earth, you go to this place where the fires continue to refine you and burn off the remainder of sin on you.
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And you can be there for years and years and years and through making the sign of the cross and through praying the rosary or different Catholic teachings, you shave years off, paying your mass, you shave years off of purgatory.
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That is a completely blasphemous concept.
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Jesus Christ when He was on the cross said, "It is" what? "Finished!" So the idea that I pay for my sins after Jesus said He's done paying for my sins is an insult to Jesus for making Him out to be a liar.
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He said it is finished. I believe Him. Right? He's God. He has the authority, He has the power to make such a statement.
15:59-16:03
So this verse is not talking about purgatory at all.
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There's nothing in the scriptures actually anywhere about purgatory.
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The Bible says to be absent from the body is to be where?
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Present with the Lord.
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There is no purgatory.
16:16-16:19
Okay, it certainly doesn't come from this verse, no someone tried to make it.
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Paul just told us that Christ is sufficient.
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So he's certainly not speaking out of his mouth.
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Now notice he says, "these sufferings are in my flesh for the sake of the church." He's saying what he is doing for the church, this is Paul, Paul's saying what he is doing for the church is resulting in pain from persecutors.
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We see that again because it's the keen understanding of what he means here.
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What all is doing for the church is resulting in pain from the persecutors.
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You're like, "Okay, but what's this lacking thing?" Again, nothing in Christ is lacking, but there's something lacking in the afflictions.
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And here's what he means.
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We live in a world that's completely gripped and ruled by sin.
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Actually, Satan is called the God of this world, the Prince of the Power of the Air.
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Open your eyes, turn on the news, pick up a newspaper.
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Is this world completely gripped in the power of sin right now? It is.
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But where's Jesus? Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father.
17:40-17:45
So you see, the world would love to continue to pour afflictions on Christ.
17:45-17:53
The first time he was here, you know the story, he was crucified, he was beaten and humiliated before nailing him to the cross.
17:54-18:00
That's what the world, the sinfulness of the world did to Jesus Christ and God allowed for our salvation.
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But if the world had its way, Jesus would still be suffering.
18:09-18:11
You see, here's the problem for the world.
18:12-18:13
They can't get at Jesus.
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So, who does the world target for the afflictions, for the suffering?
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Who does the world go after?
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We can't touch Jesus, so who does the world say we want after?
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After the people that have Christ in them.
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Did you get that?
18:36-18:43
The Bible says that Christ is living in us, so since the world can't get at Christ, who's it going after?
18:43-18:50
It's going after the people who carry the Spirit of Christ in them.
18:53-19:03
See, Christ is exalted and glorified, but now the persecutions of Christ fall on the people that He is working through.
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Does that make sense?
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So understand, he's not saying anything is lacking in Christ.
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He's saying the world is still altogether.
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And they're coming after his people.
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Okay?
19:14-19:15
So where does the suffering come from?
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Well, we talked about the world.
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Certainly the scripture talks about the devil.
19:24-19:27
The glory blind and seeking whom he may devour.
19:28-19:35
But sadly, A lot of times the worst kind of suffering in ministry comes from within the church.
19:37-19:39
Right? And there's nothing new under the sun.
19:41-19:44
Eric can tell you some of the sufferings that we've been through in ministry.
19:45-19:52
You know, when we've been, whether it's ridiculed or lied about or whatever, in the world, how much does that bother us, Eric?
19:53-19:53
Zero.
19:54-19:59
Like, worldly people act like worldly people. Sinful people act like sinful people.
20:01-20:03
Why don't they make the wolf right to make the wolf?
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That doesn't bother me.
20:05-20:11
But I can tell you how many times that we are agonized when the suffering comes from people within the church.
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You know?
20:14-20:15
The church rewards against that.
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Over and over and over.
20:20-20:28
Sometimes the worst case of suffering comes from either brothers and sisters in the Lord, or wolves among the sheep.
20:30-20:37
And this would be like, "Oh, so you're trying to talk me out of ministry." No, remember, this is a glorious thing.
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Suffering and ministry.
20:40-20:45
This is a glorious thing, and it's worth rejoicing in.
20:48-20:58
So the world's getting at Christ by attacking us. Why is that worth rejoicing over? Write this down.
20:59-21:04
It's about identifying and understanding Christ's suffering.
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There is something glorious for us as a church.
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You know the early church considered it a privilege to suffer for Christ?
21:12-21:14
There's something glorious about that.
21:15-21:25
Listen to this verse. Philippians 3.10 Paul says that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection.
21:25-21:28
All in favor of knowing the power of Christ's resurrection?
21:28-21:29
Oh, I so can't wait.
21:30-21:35
You know, for the ultimate day, for that ultimate glorified, marvelous resurrection.
21:35-21:37
He says, I want to know the power of the resurrection.
21:38-21:39
You know what the next phrase is.
21:41-21:46
And they share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death.
21:47-21:54
There is something glorious Church about identifying with Christ in this way.
21:55-21:57
That is why Paul says he is rejoicing.
21:59-22:02
He is rejoicing. Suffering is part of the deal.
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It is just part of the deal.
22:05-22:09
So you want to be a ministry? Well, don't expect it to be easy.
22:10-22:14
I found this online this past week.
22:14-22:17
I'd love to share, but there's a whole long list here.
22:17-22:19
I just wanted to share a couple of things with you.
22:19-22:28
It says, "Why Pastors Leave the Ministry." Here's a couple of things that stuck out to me.
22:28-22:31
80% of these pastors were polled.
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This is by the Fuller Institute, George Barnum, and Paschal Care Incorporated.
22:37-22:46
80% of these pastors that were called believe that pastoral ministry has negatively affected their families.
22:48-22:56
90% of these pastors that were called, 90% feel that they are inadequately trained to cope with the ministry demands.
22:59-23:00
I want to be honest with you.
23:01-23:11
There have been times in my ministries, even very recently, where I've been praying, "God, I don't know why you thought I could do this." And you know what God's answer to that is?
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God's like, "You can't do this." Thanks for acknowledging that.
23:17-23:18
Right?
23:20-23:23
But sometimes in my flesh I feel that I can't do this.
23:23-23:23
I can't do this.
23:30-23:37
70% of pastors do not have someone they consider a close friend.
23:38-23:44
40 % have poured serious conflict with a parishioner at least once a month.
23:46-23:51
50 % have considered leaving the ministry in the last month.
23:51-23:55
50% of the ministers starting out in the last five years.
23:57-23:58
Listen to this.
23:58-24:03
One out of every 10 ministers will actually retire as a minister in some form.
24:03-24:04
One out of 10.
24:05-24:08
So as you drive around and you see 10 churches, it's going to get that in your mind.
24:09-24:15
One of the pastors in these churches statistically will finish as a pastor.
24:17-24:25
94% of clergy families feel the pressures of the pastors ministry and family stuff.
24:27-24:30
I haven't been to that whole other sermon, but this one really struck me.
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Over 1,700 pastors left the ministry every month of last year.
24:38-24:39
Just, I'm done.
24:40-24:41
I am done.
24:44-24:48
This thing says, "Number one reason pastors leave the ministry." Anyone wanna take a guess what that is?
24:49-24:51
The number one reason pastors leave the ministry?
24:52-24:57
Because the pastor has a vision to go one way with the church and the church isn't going for that.
24:57-24:59
That's the number one reason.
25:00-25:01
Pastors leave the ministry.
25:03-25:08
Now, this is for people who their vocation is ministry.
25:09-25:12
So how much easier is it for a volunteer to quit?
25:14-25:14
See what I mean?
25:14-25:15
I can read that list.
25:15-25:16
I go, that's a pastor.
25:16-25:16
That's a pastor.
25:16-25:17
That's a pastor.
25:17-25:17
That's not a pastor.
25:18-25:20
It's a lot easier to quit something when you're a volunteer.
25:23-25:24
And it's amazing.
25:25-25:29
You know, when ministry gets hard, it's amazing how easily some people quit.
25:30-25:32
It's just, it's amazing.
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Some of the reasons that people give for either quitting their ministry or leaving their church.
25:41-25:49
One big bucket, I don't know, about 7 or 8% complains that the reasons people quit their ministry or leave their church all the way to the most dumb subject like this.
25:50-25:52
Everything in the church isn't exactly how I prefer it.
25:55-25:59
Everything in the church isn't exactly how I prefer it.
26:00-26:03
The marriage I want to have is welcome, it's human life.
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What about this one?
26:08-26:10
If it's so and so since you really mean things to me.
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Oh, you mean like they did to Jesus.
26:14-26:15
He dealt with some of that.
26:17-26:22
But you don't understand. I feel like I was betrayed by a positive friend of that church.
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You mean like Jesus?
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So you mean there is in some small grain of sand on the seashore a proportion, you've experienced something that Jesus might not have?
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Let's rejoice in that instead of bailing.
26:44-26:47
So what hardships are you facing in your ministry right now?
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You're like, "Well, you know, Pastor Jeff, I really just kind of started this church only a couple months old." Starting is not easy.
26:56-26:58
Talk to anybody that was in our core group.
26:59-27:00
Starting is not easy.
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And there is some silly, stupid part of me that thought once the church gets launched, things would be a little bit easier.
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[laughs]
27:14-27:15
Did it get easier to work through?
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We're not saying nothing.
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Alright.
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As long as sin exists, the afflictions are going to continue and it's going to follow us.
27:28-27:28
Alright?
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So it's not going to be easy.
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I can't expect it to be easy.
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Number two.
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John 5. I can't do it if I'm not called.
27:38-27:39
Look at verse 25.
27:40-27:45
He says, "of which I became a minister," that's a servant.
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"according to," listen to this, "according to the stewardship from God," that was, what's your Bible say?
28:00-28:09
given to me, for you, to make the Word of God fully known.
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Now this word "stewardship" comes from a compound word.
28:14-28:17
The two Greek words that go together make stewardship.
28:18-28:20
Literally, it's "house manager".
28:21-28:22
That's literally what it means.
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It's talking about someone who's in charge of managing somebody else's possessions.
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That's what Paul said ministry was.
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That's why I certainly try not to say if I were you, you have permission to smack me in the mouth.
28:38-28:43
But my ministry, our most biblical chaplain, is my ministry.
28:43-28:46
I try so hard not to say it, sometimes it slips out of my mouth, and I just want to correct myself.
28:46-28:49
This isn't my church. This isn't my ministry.
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Who's is it? Point to who's it is. Whose church is it?
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Yes, thank you. It's God's church.
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Because the church of Jesus Christ bought with His blood.
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It's not my church. It's not my ministry.
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It was given to me in the sense of a stewardship.
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God says, "This is mine, but Jeff and Aaron and Sammy and Amanda and the Arnolds of..." You people are going to be house managers.
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Right?
29:27-29:33
So, John F. Stauber, ministry on some level, ministry should feel like a compulsion.
29:35-29:36
Okay?
29:36-29:38
Ministry should feel like a compulsion.
29:38-29:40
Now, I don't mean it like a bondage way.
29:40-29:43
Like, "I don't know to church and serve.
29:43-29:47
God's probably going to be mad at me today." That's not what I mean at all.
29:48-29:49
Here's what I mean.
29:50-30:05
When the Holy Spirit is residing within and has given you a gift, there should be something within you that says, "I just gotta do that ministry." "I just gotta do that ministry." You know, maybe you're doing this kids ministry.
30:06-30:17
There should be something in you, if you're not involved in our kids ministry now, there should be something in you that's just like, "Man, I wanna get involved in teaching kids." "I just love kids and I love teaching kids." There should be something in you.
30:18-30:30
Or maybe you're a musician. There should be something in you that says, "You know what? I'd like to come up and be part of the theater of worship." I can't wait to talk to Sammy about that. There should be some kind of compulsion in you.
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So, what ministry gets you fired up?
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You know, what ministry, we're all called to something.
30:43-30:44
What ministry gets you fired up?
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That's why I have a bulletin again, we put different areas of ministry you can get involved in right now.
30:50-30:53
And I encourage you, we put emails on here.
30:54-31:01
I promise you, the people that are listed here that you're supposed to contact, they would love to talk to you, and they would love to get you talked to.
31:02-31:18
Because this isn't my church, and it's not the church of, you know, The 25 or 30 of us that we're working on helping plant this church, this is Christ's church and we are all members of this body, all doing what he's equipped us to do.
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So, what's your ministry?
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How would you answer that question?
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If I was standing at the back door and you were on your way out, I was going to grab your arm and say, "Hey, what's your ministry?" What would you answer?
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I don't really have a ministry. I don't really get to do anything.
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Well, you need to come to my door.
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because when you know the Lord, He's giving you ministry.
31:44-31:44
Right?
31:45-31:46
So please, I encourage you.
31:47-31:51
Don't be shy, send an email saying, hey, I'm so and so, I'm visiting harvest.
31:51-31:55
I'd like to know more information about how I can get involved in this ministry.
31:55-31:56
Maybe you'd like to audition to be on the worship team.
31:57-31:59
Maybe you'd like to apply to be in our children's ministry.
31:59-32:02
Whatever it is, get plugged in.
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And that's not only me serving Christ, We're also making relationships, we're making disciples.
32:09-32:10
That's what the church is about.
32:14-32:21
So in times of time when you feel like failing, like we talked about before, here's something that I always have to remind myself.
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God has put me in this job.
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This is a stewardship.
32:30-32:32
God says, "Here, you're managing this.
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I'm going to be with you every step of the way.
32:35-32:39
I'm going to give you the strength, and I'm going to give you the perseverance.
32:43-32:53
And I want to encourage you to, let's get back to those days when we were kids, that responsibility was actually the truth.
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Do you remember those days, anybody?
32:56-33:00
I think if I got up here as kids, that's longer ago for some of us than it is for others.
33:01-33:02
Right?
33:03-33:04
Do you remember when you were kids?
33:06-33:08
I remember this so clearly.
33:08-33:09
Eric and I were just talking about this.
33:10-33:14
When you were in elementary school and they give you a job to do, how did you feel?
33:16-33:17
I was adults.
33:18-33:20
If somebody said, "Hey, I need you to do this."
33:20-33:21
(mimics grunting)
33:22-33:24
It wasn't like that when we were kids.
33:25-33:32
I remember one of my friends in sixth grade, I had to go down to the freezer in the cafeteria bring up the freeze pops.
33:33-33:37
And I'm sure for the teacher, it was like, I need somebody to come down there.
33:38-33:44
When I was asked to do that, I was just like, sir, yes, sir!
33:45-33:47
And I was just like, hey, check out me.
33:49-33:50
I was pissed.
33:52-33:53
You get the freeze pops.
33:56-33:56
Try it with a cup.
33:59-33:59
That was my job.
34:03-34:07
The point is, it was a privilege in my mind to do it.
34:08-34:32
And you see, working for Christ in the Church, I've got to tell you, it's a privilege to stand up here every week and say, "Check out what God said!" "God wrote a book and He told us everything He wants us to know about Himself and about God has sought and how you can have a relationship with Him because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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That is a privilege.
34:35-34:37
I cannot wait to get here on Saturday.
34:37-34:40
Aaron will tell you, "How do I sleep on Saturday night?" I don't.
34:41-34:53
I'm like, "Yeah, well, sure. Talk to Sam and Hector. You guys like doing this?" They're not like, "Oh, I guess we're going to be doing worship again." They are so stoked about doing this.
34:53-34:55
What are you stoked for?
34:57-34:58
Get the game, Matthew.
35:01-35:02
Do what Paul's called you to do.
35:06-35:07
Number three.
35:11-35:12
Number three is this.
35:12-35:13
I can't neglect the meaning of that.
35:14-35:16
Here's something else that's interesting.
35:16-35:17
I can't neglect the meaning of that.
35:19-35:25
I can go in a dissertation about how a lot of churches are getting away from the gospel and exposing the word of Christianity.
35:25-35:31
I'm not here to tear down anybody else's ministry or try to make myself look good or Harvey's look good.
35:31-35:32
That's not my goal.
35:32-35:37
But if we can be honest and step back, we realize that there are a lot of churches that are neglecting the main thing.
35:37-35:38
Is that true?
35:39-35:40
Is that true?
35:42-35:44
A lot of churches neglecting the main thing.
35:45-35:50
Like, "Well, what's the main thing?" Well, look in your Bible. In verse 28, here's the main thing.
35:51-36:10
"Him we proclaim." We're talking about Jesus next week.
36:13-36:15
Maybe I'll come back and visit in the spring.
36:17-36:19
Guess who we're moving on to next?
36:20-36:20
Anybody?
36:22-36:22
Jesus!
36:24-36:24
Why?
36:26-36:28
Because Jesus is first.
36:30-36:32
And in everything He might have the pre-evidence.
36:33-36:35
So what's His main thing?
36:35-36:36
Just draw these notes down.
36:38-36:40
The scope.
36:43-36:46
We're talking about proclaiming Jesus and we proclaim Him.
36:46-36:51
The scope, first of all, it's at the end of verse 25.
36:51-36:53
Making the word of God fully known.
36:54-36:55
That's the scope.
36:55-36:57
Or do you want us to make the word of God fully known?
36:57-36:59
That's why we're going through a book.
37:00-37:05
That's why I felt just like, "What are you really preaching on this week?" We're going through a book of the Bible.
37:06-37:09
Let's see what God is communicating to us.
37:10-37:10
That's the scope.
37:11-37:13
Making the word of God fully known.
37:16-37:17
What else is the main thing?
37:17-37:18
He says the mystery.
37:19-37:25
Now we think of mystery, we think about when we think about some kind of detective show who is a mystery, who doesn't.
37:26-37:28
That's not what the Bible means by mystery.
37:28-37:29
Here's what the Bible means by mystery.
37:30-37:35
In the Old Testament times, there were certain things that God had not revealed.
37:37-37:42
God's like, I'm gonna reveal some stuff, But it's common way that God has this timetable, right?
37:42-37:43
God has this like calendar.
37:43-37:50
God's like, "I have some other things I wanna "teach these people I created and reveal." And not yet.
37:53-38:01
And then we get to the New Testament times where we realize after the incarnation, the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, God is, he's like, "Okay, now here's the whole story.
38:03-38:09
"Let me pull the curtain back and show you Something that I never showed you before.
38:10-38:12
That's what the Bible means by mystery.
38:12-38:15
Previously unrevealed, now revealed.
38:15-38:16
What is the mystery?
38:16-38:17
Well, He says one of those.
38:18-38:18
You see it?
38:19-38:22
The mystery which is Christ in you.
38:23-38:24
That's the mystery.
38:24-38:25
God's love.
38:25-38:26
So it's going to come to that.
38:28-38:32
That I am going to dwell in my people.
38:32-38:34
In the Old Testament, where was God?
38:34-38:37
Where is this unique presence I should say?
38:37-38:40
His unique presence was in the temple, in the tabernacle.
38:41-38:46
But then when you get to the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, where was the unique presence of God?
38:47-38:50
It was in the person of Jesus Christ.
38:51-38:51
Right?
38:52-38:56
And if I said to you now, where is the unique presence of God?
38:56-38:58
We know God's everywhere, we talked about that.
38:58-39:00
But where does God choose to dwell?
39:00-39:35
So, the Bible It usually involved giving a particular manifestation of a gift.
39:37-39:38
But it was a temporary thing.
39:40-39:44
If God says there's going to come a day, I'm going to believe Him.
39:45-39:47
And that's not a temporary thing.
39:49-39:50
Permanent Residence.
39:52-39:55
The reason, that's the mystery.
39:55-39:56
What's the reason we complain to Christ?
39:56-40:01
I think we covered that one in verses 15-20, chapter 1, right?
40:02-40:05
Why do we proclaim grace? Jesus is first.
40:06-40:17
The means, look back at your text, the means, if we proclaim, verse 28, "warning everyone and teaching everyone," that's the means.
40:18-40:22
There's going to be times that I get up and just teach, like we did, about the person of Jesus.
40:22-40:24
Here's what it says, here's what it means.
40:24-40:40
"There's times it's our job in ministry to warn people." Listen, if you step into eternity apart from Jesus Christ, you're going to live out the rest of eternity separated from God in a place called hell.
40:40-40:42
That's a warning that the Bible gives us.
40:43-40:44
He says we are to warn.
40:45-40:49
We warn everyone and we teach everyone, but always then that's unrequited.
40:50-40:51
What's the goal?
40:52-40:55
Our goal is to present everyone mature in Christ.
40:56-40:58
To present everyone mature in Christ.
40:58-40:59
You see that in verse 28?
41:02-41:04
That's our goal. Why is that our goal? Because that's God's goal.
41:05-41:10
Romans 8, 29. God's goal for you as a believer is to be conformed into the image of his Son.
41:10-41:12
So that's our goal as a church.
41:12-41:13
That gets back to our mission statement.
41:14-41:16
Our goal is to make disciples.
41:19-41:20
And you see, that's a goal of the Pope.
41:21-41:29
Our goal is to make disciples and the goal of discipleship is conformity in the image of Jesus Christ.
41:30-41:31
So that's the goal.
41:34-41:35
Number four.
41:38-41:40
I can't give an advantage to him.
41:41-41:43
I can't give an advantage to him.
41:43-41:44
Look at verse 29.
41:44-41:58
He says, "For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me." The word struggling is from a Greek word from which we literally get the word agonized.
41:59-42:02
He says it's a struggle, we're going to talk more about that next week.
42:03-42:05
But you understand there's a double sided aspect of ministry.
42:06-42:09
If I say who does the work of ministry, is it me?
42:12-42:14
Or is it the Holy Spirit? What's the answer?
42:16-42:17
The answer is yes.
42:19-42:21
Wait a minute. Back up.
42:21-42:22
The answer is yes.
42:25-42:27
I'm going to explain that here in a second.
42:27-42:29
1 Corinthians 15.10 says the same thing.
42:29-42:41
Paul says, "I worked harder than any of them, meaning the other apostles, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me." Paul's like, "I've been working so hard in ministry." That is really God working through you.
42:42-42:43
You see that over and over and over again.
42:44-42:48
"I've worked so hard." That's not what it means. It's God in me.
42:50-42:53
The Holy Spirit gives the gift. It gives the strength.
42:53-43:03
You know, I was thinking about this. How can we understand this whole "Who's doing the work?" Is it you or is it God in you?
43:06-43:10
I brought something today. Don't let me leave without these.
43:11-43:11
These are precious.
43:13-43:16
These are my wife's garden gloves.
43:19-43:31
Now, aside from beauty, grace, and sense of humor, something you may not know about my wife is she runs a little farm on our three-acre-hook cross-field.
43:33-43:36
You gotta see, I've never seen anybody maximize space the way she does.
43:37-43:42
We could feed this entire room for like eight months on the stuff that she does.
43:42-43:44
If you like that, do it.
43:44-43:45
Okay, but anyways.
43:45-43:46
(audience laughing)
43:47-43:49
No, she does a fantastic job, she really does.
43:49-43:53
But these are the gloves that she'll use when she's out working.
43:54-43:58
Now let's suppose these gloves were on Larry King.
43:59-44:00
Is Larry King still with me?
44:01-44:03
I think everybody else has him, okay.
44:04-44:06
Let's say that we sat down and interviewed these gloves.
44:08-44:09
And we're like, "Tell us, gloves.
44:10-44:12
"Tell us what your life has been like.
44:13-44:19
"You look well worn." And they would say, "Oh yes, I am well worn, actually.
44:19-44:23
"I've spent a lot of countless hours out working.
44:23-44:25
"I've spent a lot of countless hours out leading.
44:26-44:27
"You can see the dirt on me.
44:27-44:35
"You can see, you can probably smell some sweat on here, and I've really worked so hard.
44:37-44:39
Look at the crop that we've produced.
44:41-44:42
Me and my team.
44:44-44:48
Look at the crop that we've produced because we've worked so hard.
44:53-44:54
But what's the reality?
44:55-44:56
Did these blobs actually do the work?
44:58-44:58
Did they?
45:00-45:01
Who did the work?
45:03-45:09
The work was done because my wife's hand was in the glove.
45:11-45:22
So if you came to my house and you said, "Aaron, these tomatoes are fabulous, you must have amazing gloves." She would slap you.
45:25-45:26
The gloves didn't do the work.
45:29-45:31
But they were part of the world.
45:33-45:34
But they didn't leave the world.
45:35-45:36
Do you know what you are in ministry?
45:37-45:38
Do you know what I am in ministry?
45:41-45:41
That.
45:44-45:45
We're just a part of the world.
45:49-45:51
And the only way anything gets done.
46:00-46:01
So you want to be in ministry?
46:05-46:06
You have to check your expectations.
46:09-46:10
And it's worthless.
46:11-46:12
You die with a great cause.
46:15-46:19
God, I thank you for what you've promised me.
46:27-46:31
And God, I thank you for the reminders you've given me that I can't do this.
46:32-46:40
Father, I confess to you how many times have I said I can't do it. I feel inadequate.
46:43-46:48
How many times have you reminded me that it's not about me.
46:52-46:53
Jesus said I will build my church.
46:55-47:02
So Father, it's just my prayer as we move forward in ministry.
47:04-47:07
It's my prayer this morning that we would move forward with great expectations.
47:13-47:24
I pray, Father, for those here who maybe have felt it's time to step up and use the giftedness, maybe even use some of the talents that you've given, but they haven't done it yet.
47:24-47:26
I pray for those people today.
47:28-47:48
And I pray the Holy Spirit will continue to be at work and bring them to that place where they say, "The gift the Holy Spirit has given me is to be used to glorify Jesus Christ in His Church." You are awesome.
47:50-47:54
Let us serve you in gladness.
47:56-48:01
We ask that you would be the one to work with us.
48:03-48:04
In Jesus name.
48:05-48:05
Amen.

Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Colossians 1:24-29

Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.

Jeff Miller

November 27, 2011

Jesus First In My Church

I am who God says I am

Jeff Miller

November 27, 2011

Jesus First In My Church

So... who does God say I am?

I WAS SEPARATED from God (Col 1:21)

Separated
Hateful
Rebellious

I AM NOW PERFECT in Jesus Christ (Col 1:22)

Holy
Blameless
Above reproach

I WILL see PROOF of my faith (Col 1:23)

Five things that are NOT evidences of salvation:

I HAVE MORALS

I KNOW HOW TO GET SAVED

I GO TO CHURCH

I WORK IN THE CHURCH !

I FEEL BAD WHEN I SIN

Two evidences of true salvation:

FRUIT

PERSEVERANCE

Decision time:

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

00:00-00:01
You have your Bible with you?
00:04-00:08
Alright, well let's open those up to Colossians chapter 1.
00:11-00:14
As we continue our series through the book of Colossians.
00:15-00:19
We're going to pick up in verse 21, but as you're turning there, let me ask you when...
00:21-00:27
Excuse me, when people say, "Who are you?" How do you typically respond to that?
00:28-00:30
Usually with your name, right?
00:31-00:35
"Hi, I'm Jeff." "Nice to meet you, Jeffrey." Except nobody calls me Jeffrey.
00:36-00:39
But beyond that, what about beyond that?
00:41-00:45
People say, "Well, no, who are you?" It's interesting how people respond to that.
00:46-00:51
Some people will identify themselves by a category of their choosing.
00:52-00:56
Right? Like, "Who are you?" A lot of people, it's just by what they do.
00:57-02:12
I'm the manager of so-and-so or you know, I work at this place or I'm you know Doctor this some people identify themselves by what they do for some people. It's their family It's like well, I'm a part of this family right, well Some people may even be where they're from I'm from Shakora. I mean if you know where Shakora is, quick geography test. Okay grow up. Like Shakur, they're like, "Where's that?" It's a little, those stuff like town of the butler. But some people identify themselves by that. Or here's what I typically do. A lot of times I find myself identifying myself based on circumstance. You know what I mean by that? Like for example, when I go to visit somebody at the hospital, I hardly ever even use my name because of the whole HIPAA laws and stuff like that. I'm like, "Oh, I'm here to see, you know, so-and-so." "Who are you? I'm Obama's pastor." "Oh, okay, they roll out the red carpet when I say that." Or down in West Virginia, when we took the trip down with the family, where Aaron's dad has a hunting camp, I don't think I used my name there either.
02:13-02:23
They're like, "Who are you?" I would say, "Well, I'm Joe's son-in-law." When I go up to... there's a couple times I've had to go up to Michael's restaurant where my wife works.
02:23-02:41
They're like, "Who are you?" and I say, "I'm Aaron's husband." Growing up, it was always, "I'm Darren's brother." Or they would just ask if my brother's here, in case she couldn't tell that I'm my brother, or an identical stranger.
02:41-02:49
But sometimes I didn't even have to introduce myself. They're like, "Oh, you must be Darren's brother." So who are you?
02:51-02:56
I was also thinking about this. What do you think other people say when asked about you?
02:58-03:00
You ever wonder that? I try not to wonder that.
03:00-03:11
That if your name comes up in a conversation, like, "Hey, do you know Jay Nauert?" "No, who's Jay Nauert?" "Oh, he's..." Do you wonder what they say next, Jay? Do you ever wonder that?
03:11-03:11
Sure.
03:12-03:13
Well, I'm not going to tell you.
03:13-03:14
But, uh...
03:19-03:25
Well, in the previous section we looked at Colossians 1, verses 15-20.
03:26-03:29
Last week we saw all about who Jesus is, right?
03:29-03:30
Remember that last week?
03:30-03:36
It's all about "Here's who Jesus is." Well, look at verse 21 here.
03:37-03:49
Now Paul says, "And you." He's like, "Okay, we understand about the divinity of Christ and who He is, the head, the firstborn, the preeminent one over all things, the creator, the sustainer.
03:50-03:51
That's who Jesus is.
03:53-03:55
He says, and you.
03:57-04:01
So this morning we're going to answer, who am I?
04:02-04:05
A lot of times when I preach, I give you a little statement that I want you to leave.
04:07-04:11
And if you're new or visiting with us today, I'm gonna let you know how this game works.
04:12-04:16
Typically, I get everybody to say at the beginning of the sermon, and it's said with no conviction.
04:17-04:18
Like, I want you to say this.
04:20-04:23
Remember when we were talking about God's will for the church.
04:23-04:26
What's your will for the church?
04:26-04:28
And I want what God wants.
04:29-04:31
By the end of the sermon, everybody's like, I want what God wants!
04:32-04:33
So we're gonna try that again today, okay?
04:34-04:36
So if I asked you, who are you?
04:37-04:42
Your answer is, I am who God says I am.
04:42-04:43
Okay, so we're going to try that.
04:44-04:47
I want you to muster up as much conviction as you can at this point in the sermon.
04:49-04:52
Because some of you, as usual, don't believe me yet.
04:53-04:54
It usually takes you a half hour.
04:54-04:58
I'm like, "Oh, okay, he didn't just make that up. That was in the Bible." Okay, so who are you?
04:59-05:01
I am a messiah.
05:02-05:04
Not bad. Not bad.
05:05-05:06
Let's see if we're still saying that in a few.
05:07-05:08
Much more conviction.
05:08-05:09
But let me ask you this.
05:09-05:10
Is that a fair statement?
05:12-05:13
It doesn't really matter what I say you are.
05:14-05:16
It really doesn't even matter who you think you are.
05:17-05:23
Can we put that on the table to say what really matters is who your Creator says you are.
05:23-05:23
Can we say that?
05:24-05:25
You think that's fair?
05:26-05:28
What do you think, Abby, is that fair?
05:29-05:30
Okay, Abby says it's fair. I'm going with Abby.
05:31-05:31
I think it's fair.
05:33-05:35
Are you ready to accept what God says about you? That's the issue.
05:36-05:44
You know, we can say, "Well, I don't even know what God says about you." Some of you are going to have a hard time accepting that.
05:46-05:47
For the negative and for the positive.
05:48-05:53
But, again, it's what God says, right?
05:53-05:58
So the question is, if you have your outline in front of you, so who does God say I am?
06:00-06:03
Well, first of all, let's look at the verses, then we'll go back through.
06:04-06:06
We're going to see kind of a past, present, and future thing going here.
06:09-06:29
He says, "And you who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.
06:31-06:48
If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven and of which I Paul became a minister.
06:50-06:51
So who are you?
06:54-06:56
Wow, you guys are so much better the first time around.
06:56-06:56
What do you think?
06:57-06:58
You can say another go of it.
06:58-06:59
All right, who are you?
06:59-07:01
I am who God says I am.
07:01-07:04
Okay, well let's see who God says you are.
07:04-07:05
Are you ready? Number one.
07:05-07:13
I was, I was, this is past tense, I was separated from God.
07:14-07:18
Take note there in verse 21, he says who once were.
07:20-07:22
Okay, so he's obviously talking to Christians.
07:24-07:26
We're going to pick this concept up here in a second.
07:26-07:44
But understand that if you have not given your life to Jesus, Christ as your Lord and Savior. If you're not born again, He's not talking about you when He says the "once were" parts. But when He makes the description of what a Christian once was, if you haven't given your life to Christ yet, He's describing you. Right?
07:45-08:01
Everybody follow that? Okay, if you're not a follower of Christ, this is who God says you are. And if you are following Christ, He says this is who you were. So who are we apart from Jesus Christ, well, three things here.
08:01-08:04
I kind of put synonyms in here, but you can see it right in the text.
08:05-08:09
First of all, separated.
08:12-08:21
You know, my Bible says, "who once were alienated." What's he talking about? He's talking about separated from God by sin.
08:24-08:31
Perhaps you've heard me say this before on one of my pet peeves, but people talk about God in a way too familiar way.
08:33-08:35
I call another God as my frat buddy, I think.
08:36-08:37
"He's the big man upstairs.
08:38-08:44
"There, big man upstairs looking out for me." Do you know who you're talking about when you say that?
08:45-08:48
You're talking about holy, sovereign God.
08:48-08:50
He's not your frat buddy, okay?
08:51-08:57
And especially in part for Christ, actually the Bible doesn't say that He's your friend at all.
08:58-09:12
Isaiah 59 verse 2 says, "Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God." The Bible tells us that Adam, because of his transgression, brought sin into the world.
09:12-09:16
Romans chapter 5 says that sin nature is passed down from generation to generation.
09:17-09:23
We're born with a nature separated from God because of sin.
09:25-09:29
The Bible also tells us that the wages of sin is death.
09:32-09:34
So we're alienated from God. We're separated from God.
09:34-09:39
Ephesians chapter 4 actually says we're alienated from the life of God.
09:39-09:40
That's our real problem.
09:41-09:46
It's not like we're separated in the sense that there's a geographical boundary.
09:46-09:51
It's that God is the giver and author of life, and we are dead in our sins.
09:51-09:52
That's the real issue.
09:55-09:57
Separated, alienated from the life of God.
09:58-10:00
I had a friend who used to go to prison with me.
10:02-10:04
For prison ministry, he talked to the guys, and he'd tell a story.
10:05-10:06
I heard it so many times.
10:06-10:15
He talked about how there was a day that he was wanted by the police, and he talked about his life, always on the run, always hiding from the police.
10:16-10:18
Why was he always running and hiding?
10:20-10:21
Well, because he committed a crime.
10:22-10:26
He knew he was guilty. He knew restitution needed to be made.
10:26-10:29
If he knew that he needed to be judged for what he did.
10:31-10:33
That's why he didn't run up and hug every cop that he saw.
10:34-10:35
He could run the other way.
10:36-10:41
Now on a cosmic holy scale, this is how it is between you and God.
10:42-10:43
If you've done good to Jesus Christ.
10:44-10:47
You are guilty. And you do try to avoid it.
10:49-10:51
Because you know you should rightly be judged.
10:53-11:06
And if you remain separated from God, you leave the earth to a place where you're separated from God for eternity.
11:07-11:08
And that's a place called Hell.
11:12-11:15
If there was anything in the Bible that I could wish away, it would be that.
11:16-11:18
But it's just as true as heaven.
11:19-11:22
In fact, Jesus talked about hell twice as much as he talks about heaven.
11:27-11:36
See, some people have been trying to, we're seeing a lot of evangelicals, quote unquote, trying to dismiss the whole doctrine of hell.
11:37-11:40
Like, "Oh, that's just, that's old school thing.
11:40-11:47
God's not really like that." But we're seeing a big resurgence of that in recent years.
11:49-11:51
People struggle with the concept of hell.
11:54-11:56
But I want you to think about it this way.
11:56-12:07
Do you realize in a sense when it comes to our eternal destination, do you realize there's a sense in which It's an act of God's grace by giving you exactly what you want.
12:08-12:09
Let me think about that.
12:10-12:21
If you're a person who wants God's truth, you love God, you love God's people, you love worshipping God, you know God has an eternal place in that. It's called Heaven. You know what's going on in Heaven?
12:22-12:27
Eternally in the presence of God, worshipping God, God's truth, God's people.
12:28-12:40
Now let me ask you, if you're somebody that doesn't want anything to do with God, you know what, I'm not really into the whole truth, the Bible as truth thing, and I really don't like God's people, this worship thing, I totally don't get it.
12:41-12:45
If you're not into any of that stuff, Heaven is going to stick for you.
12:45-12:47
Don't you think? Because that's what it is.
12:49-12:58
But you see, if you're a person that says, "You know what, I don't want anything to do with God's truth, If there's people who worship any of that, God has a place for them.
12:59-13:01
That's a place of eternal separation.
13:02-13:05
And in a sense, you can say God's given you exactly what you want.
13:06-13:11
If I don't want you God, God says I have a place for that.
13:14-13:17
So we're alienated from the life of God.
13:20-13:21
21.
13:50-13:54
like sets you off immediately, like angers you instantly.
13:55-14:00
Or for Christ, we have a hostility in mind to God.
14:02-14:03
Like really, is it that bad?
14:05-14:08
Go find somebody that you're sure is an unbeliever.
14:09-14:11
Sit down with them and say, I'd like to tell you the good news.
14:12-14:17
Jesus Christ died for your sins and rose you from the dead, and he's the only way to heaven.
14:17-14:20
Go tell them that, and see how they respond.
14:22-14:30
Because you see some people, if you've ever done that, you see some people instantly, they're here in the back of the next room standing up, and they don't want to hear it.
14:30-14:31
They get angry right away.
14:32-14:33
Why?
14:34-14:35
Because they're hostile in mind.
14:36-14:39
The true things of God are repulsive.
14:42-14:43
The true things of God are repulsive.
14:46-14:52
I've even seen that, perhaps even more so among non-Christian churchgoers.
14:53-14:58
You know, I've known people that have sat in churches for years, and when you sit down to share the gospel, it's awful.
14:59-15:02
I think the real deal is what we're having to talk about is Jesus talking to them.
15:03-15:13
And it's, some people, maybe even sitting here today, are hostile in mind towards God.
15:14-15:23
Even hearing what I'm saying now, talking about the truth of hell, talking about the exclusivity of Jesus Christ, some of you might not be tuning out.
15:23-15:26
I know that you're dealing with this ultra conservative Bible stuff again.
15:27-15:28
You're hostile to God?
15:31-15:40
And then he says, "Doing evil deeds, I have in your outlines rebellions." You see, that's evidence of having a hostile mind.
15:42-15:47
We live in a day where more and more the garbage is getting poured into our minds, on TV, on the internet.
15:49-15:59
More and more we're exposed to just constant garbage, sinful images, sinful suggestions, and costly, but what's so bad about that?
16:00-16:05
The problem with that is thoughts lead to actions every time.
16:07-16:08
Thoughts lead to actions.
16:09-16:18
Nobody accidentally does something without thinking it through first.
16:20-16:30
It's not like anybody rolled out of bed one morning and said, "I cheated on my wife today. I have no idea how that happened. I was just like on my way to the store and BAM! I got all treated." Nobody does that.
16:32-16:35
You see, it's rebelliousness.
16:36-16:37
Thoughts lead to action.
16:38-16:38
Don't believe me?
16:40-16:41
Here's some categories.
16:41-16:42
What about finances?
16:42-16:44
What you think about money determines how you spend money, right?
16:45-16:46
Is that true?
16:47-16:50
What you think about money determines how you spend money.
16:52-16:55
Your thoughts about it lead to your actions with it.
16:56-16:57
What about diet?
16:59-17:04
What you think about diet affects how you eat, or what you eat, or how much you eat.
17:07-17:08
Thoughts lead to actions.
17:09-17:10
What about sexuality?
17:12-17:21
What you think about God's design for sex leads to how you conduct yourself as a person.
17:24-17:28
He says, "Where we're going is the path of Christ." Doing evil deeds.
17:29-17:41
Interestingly, this Greek word for "evil deeds" literally means "hurtful." Do you realize how twisted this is?
17:42-17:45
This world we live in. Do you realize how twisted it is?
17:46-17:48
Satan is called the God of this world.
17:50-17:54
We live in a world decayed because of the effects of sin.
17:56-17:57
And yet we have a craving.
17:58-18:00
Our sin nature has a craving for sin.
18:03-18:04
And here's the punchline.
18:06-18:07
Sin is always destruction.
18:11-18:11
Right?
18:12-18:17
Can anybody come up and give testimony this morning to a time when you've sinned and it really improved things in your life?
18:18-18:20
Anybody want to come up and give a testimony?
18:20-18:22
Like this one time, I really sinned.
18:23-18:25
And my life has just been so great since then.
18:25-18:27
And it really was to my advantage.
18:29-18:31
I knew that I shouldn't have done it, but I did it anyways.
18:31-18:33
And I was so glad I did it.
18:33-18:34
Anybody?
18:34-18:35
Line corpse to the right.
18:38-18:39
Sin is always destructive.
18:40-18:53
Napoleon, whether it's stealing, or adultery, or lying, he accomplishes this, and always, always, always is destroyed.
18:54-19:10
That's exactly what Paul's talking about here. He says, "This is how you were." Now the danger, Church, the danger is sometimes churches have a tendency to attack this last moment.
19:11-19:19
Like, "We need to confront culture head on, so what are we going to do? We're going to go after their evil deeds." There's a problem with that.
19:22-19:29
The problem is, this is just the fruit of the hostile mind.
19:31-20:05
So some Christians thinking they're gonna get ahead of the evil deeds say, "We're going to attack the hostile mind." You know, "We're gonna, you know, start a war on the battlefield of the mind." I think that was a book, "The Battlefield of the Mind." "That's where we're gonna attack things from." "The battle stopped the evil deeds." "There's a problem." "The hostile mind itself is a fruit." "What's at the root of the whole problem? Tell me, what's the root of all this?" The root is we are separated from God. That's the root.
20:06-20:09
So many times we go after the root thinking that's going to fix somebody.
20:09-20:11
Just start doing the right thing and you're okay.
20:13-20:15
That's not the issue. It's putting a bandaid on cancer.
20:18-20:23
See, we aren't sinners because we sin.
20:24-20:29
We sin because we're sinners. Do you understand the difference there?
20:30-20:37
That's not, "Well, I committed a sin yesterday, therefore that made me a sinner." That's not how it works.
20:37-20:45
The reason you commit sins is because you're a sinner, alienating from the life of God.
20:49-20:59
So the real issue, the only thing that's going to deal with this hostile mind, the only thing that's going to deal with these evil deeds is reconciliation.
21:01-21:04
You understand that that has to be the starting point.
21:05-21:15
Once upon a time the church believed that as people drew in their walk with the Lord, the heat they abhorred in their lives straightened some of this other stuff out.
21:16-21:20
Sometimes it's just easier to go after the fruit, than not go after the root.
21:22-21:22
Right?
21:25-21:27
I'm going to talk to Brooke and AJ here for a second.
21:28-21:29
Just use them as an example.
21:29-21:32
You guys remember Brooke and AJ wrote a book here.
21:32-21:33
Or a daughter, a boyfriend.
21:34-21:34
Everybody say hi.
21:35-21:36
I don't want to embarrass them.
21:36-21:42
But now, the reason I'm picking on them, I've been in the family a long time.
21:43-21:45
AJ has four daughters.
21:45-21:46
Brooke is one of them.
21:46-21:50
And actually, Brooke is the perfect one of the daughters, right?
21:51-21:53
AJ, she's never given you any problems, right?
21:54-21:56
She's never mouthed back, just say right.
21:56-22:01
You know, she's always done everything exactly when you told her to do, how to say right.
22:02-22:04
He's not going to lie in church, so you can get out of the test.
22:06-22:07
Alright, let's pretend for a second.
22:08-22:12
Let's pretend that Brooke is being really, really, really rebellious.
22:12-22:17
And she's starting to do things that are very rebellious against her father.
22:17-22:34
And the question people are asking is, "Why is she doing these rebellious things towards her father?" Well, if you dig a little deeper, you find that the issue is, she's angry about something.
22:34-22:45
She doesn't like a rule, or, "I don't like the way Dad does this. I don't agree with Dad about this." See, that's the hostility of mine.
22:45-22:49
The reason I'm acting like this is because I don't like what you're doing here, Dad.
22:51-22:55
But see, that's not the real issue. The real issue is there's something going on with that relationship.
22:56-23:00
Does that make sense? There's something going on in that relationship.
23:01-23:05
The way you fix that is, the Father ought to be the head of the family.
23:06-23:08
And work on that relationship.
23:11-23:12
That's how it is with the Lord.
23:16-23:17
You're reconciled.
23:19-23:20
That's the good news.
23:20-23:21
Look at verse 22.
23:23-23:24
We go back to verse 21.
23:24-23:29
He says, "You once were this, so let's move on." Because God doesn't want you to remain in that state.
23:32-23:34
That's who you were. Look at verse 22.
23:34-23:40
He says, "He has now..." Everybody say the next part. It's such a beautiful word.
23:40-23:41
I'm going to give you a run at it here.
23:42-24:09
He has now records out of His body and flesh by His death in order to present you holy, He is the Lord, and He is the Savior.
24:33-24:37
You see, from our perspective, we would say it looks like God had a dilemma.
24:38-24:43
Because God is holy, and He does not tolerate sin, but at the same time, God is loving.
24:44-24:46
It wasn't a dilemma for God.
24:47-24:51
The way God solved that issue, He already had planned out for eternity past.
24:53-25:11
And Paul tells us here in verse 22, "Reconciled with his body and flesh by his death." Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, through his death on the cross, paid the price for your salvation.
25:15-25:33
Now this word for "reconciled" in the Greek is actually even more beautiful than "reconciled" Because there's amplifiers of the Greek word, which means, this word "reconciled" literally means in the Greek, "fully or totally reconciled." Fully or totally reconciled.
25:36-25:41
See, the beautiful thing is He doesn't just save us, He changes us.
25:43-25:52
Don't ask Him, "How's your faith working out for you?" Because if your faith hasn't changed you, your faith hasn't saved you.
25:53-26:01
The Bible makes a claim that when you give your life to Christ as Savior and Lord, God's Holy Spirit comes and dwells in you.
26:02-26:09
And don't tell me for a second that Almighty God of the universe who spoke the soul into existence comes and takes residence within you and you're no different.
26:10-26:14
I've had people tell me that. Like yeah, I tried to receive Jesus but nothing happened.
26:14-26:17
I was a Christian for a while, nothing really changed.
26:17-26:18
Really!
26:19-26:21
God showed up in your heart and you were like, "No different.
26:22-26:23
I don't believe that.
26:24-26:37
I don't believe that." Because I've talked to a lot more people that have said, "I gave my life to Christ, and everything changed." Anybody have a testament like that this morning?
26:38-26:39
Everything changed.
26:40-26:41
Everything changed!
26:42-26:43
Amen.
26:48-26:50
So, that's who we were.
26:52-26:54
I am now perfect in Jesus Christ.
26:54-26:56
I am perfect in Jesus Christ.
26:58-27:00
How perfect? Well, look at how He describes.
27:02-27:04
In order to present you...
27:06-27:07
Isn't that great?
27:07-27:09
Jesus is like...
27:10-27:13
This is Sam. I'm putting him on display.
27:16-27:17
There he is.
27:20-27:22
Now it's just Sam.
27:23-27:25
Ha ha, Jesus is like, no no no no no no.
27:26-27:28
Who is he? Well look, what it says, first of all, holy.
27:30-27:32
Holy, that means separated.
27:32-27:33
You're like, did you just say separated?
27:34-27:35
Well there's a difference now.
27:36-27:37
We were separated from God.
27:38-27:41
Therefore, now we are separated to God.
27:45-27:48
The Bible tells us that God sees us as holy as His Son.
27:50-27:51
Understand that.
27:53-27:58
When you put your faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, God sees you as perfect as His Son.
27:59-28:06
Jesus takes all of your sin on Himself and He gives you the righteousness of God.
28:08-28:10
And I think there's a lot of people, Christians, that just don't get it.
28:11-28:14
I've shared this with many Christians I've talked to.
28:15-28:25
They're just like, "Well, someday, God's going to let me have it for all the simple things I've done." Do you believe in Christ? Yeah, I just feel like I messed up a lot of things.
28:25-28:28
Also, God is going to punish his son and you.
28:29-28:30
That's how bad your sin was.
28:31-28:32
God's like, "Well, we got a walker here.
28:33-28:35
Everybody else is going to get to the front of the line.
28:36-28:39
Because this guy, I need to punish him and my son." Really?
28:41-28:42
That's not biblical.
28:43-28:45
How does Jesus present you?
28:46-28:47
What does your Bible say?
28:48-28:49
First of all, He presents you holy.
28:52-28:55
I'm so not convinced, look what else it says.
28:55-29:00
"I present you holy and blameless." That just means faultless.
29:01-29:02
Holiness is the positive.
29:03-29:03
That's pure.
29:04-29:06
This is the negative, which means no faults.
29:07-29:12
Jesus says, "I'm going to present someone to you." This is sick.
29:14-29:16
I have pronounced him holy.
29:17-29:19
What's wrong with Jesus?
29:20-29:22
His answer is nothing.
29:24-29:24
Nothing.
29:26-29:27
He's faultless.
29:29-29:32
Jesus said because he took the whole paper.
29:33-29:33
He said.
29:36-29:38
Well, exactly what the Bible says.
29:38-29:39
Keep reading.
29:41-29:43
Above the Christian culture, I'm making a point here.
29:43-29:48
He could have said, "Jesus made us holy, period, next." But he's really making a point.
29:49-29:51
Holy and blameless and above reproach.
29:52-29:53
This is beyond blameless.
29:57-29:57
This means...
29:57-29:58
I'm going to throw a word at you here.
29:59-30:01
I'm going to write this down because I'm not sure if it's a word.
30:02-30:04
Unaccusable. Is that a word?
30:05-30:06
Aaron says you have all the area.
30:07-30:07
Unaccusable.
30:11-30:12
That's literally what it means.
30:12-30:14
Nobody can accuse you.
30:15-30:17
You know, Satan is called the accuser of the robber.
30:18-30:25
Satan would love you to walk around with your head down, you're so, you're nothing, you're a piece of dirt, nothing but a horrible sinner.
30:26-30:28
Lies to Christians.
30:31-30:48
Where Jesus says, "You can't accuse this person of anything, because I pronounce the holy." You really want to get into that argument where Jesus said, I say "same polling" when someone else comes along and says, "Why do I keep saying that?" Are you going to contradict Jesus Christ? It's not going to happen.
30:50-31:09
I love reproach. Too many people say, "Jeff, you don't know the stuff that I've done. I've done some horrible things in my life. I've really blew it 30 times." I've been a pastor of ministry a long time. I've talked to people who have cheated on my wife or I killed someone. I've talked to people who have killed people.
31:11-31:13
Literally and just through hatred of your heart.
31:15-31:17
You know, I've stolen this much.
31:18-31:26
People say, "Well, you don't know the stuff that I've done." And my response is always, "Well, which do you think is greater?
31:27-32:09
Your sin, or the sacrifice of Jesus Christ?" He said, I don't know what you're saying, but I haven't been in that community with Jesus Christ.
32:11-32:13
The Bible says that the first thing you need to do is repent.
32:15-32:18
Repent literally means you change your mind. That's what it means.
32:18-32:21
A lot of times we associate repent with changing your actions.
32:23-32:24
But it literally means you change your mind.
32:27-32:30
You change the way you think about your sin.
32:31-32:34
Who God is. Who you are.
32:36-32:42
The Bible uses the word "confess." If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, what does it mean to confess?
32:42-32:45
It literally just means you're agreeing with God.
32:46-32:51
It's, "Oh, this is what God says about me? Okay, I'm going to agree with that." That's what it means to confess.
32:57-32:59
What do you do? You cry out to Jesus Christ.
33:01-33:05
You don't, you don't make Jesus Lord, He already is Lord.
33:10-33:13
You cry out that mistake and realize who I am.
33:14-33:21
I realize I have been separated from you because of my sin, but now I understand what you've done for the cross and the resurrection.
33:27-33:31
So if you haven't done that yet, we're going to give you an opportunity here in just a couple of minutes.
33:33-33:36
I'll tell you the worst thing you can do as the April Pride.
33:36-33:41
Say, well, not today.
33:43-33:44
Maybe next year.
33:45-33:47
Or maybe after Christmas.
33:48-33:50
Or maybe I don't get my New Year's resolution.
33:50-33:52
That's the worst decision you can make.
33:54-33:55
The day of salvation is when?
33:56-33:57
The Bible says today.
33:57-33:58
The Bible says today.
33:59-34:06
Today if you hear His voice, He says, "All who need Him, lose." Today if you hear His voice, if you do not, you are a sinner.
34:07-34:08
Today's the day.
34:09-34:10
Today.
34:11-34:12
Don't look right now.
34:14-34:20
All the other people here with me I'm not going to look down on you or judge you or think less of you.
34:21-34:22
I'm going to pray a ministry for you.
34:25-34:31
And finally, before we get to that, I will seek proof of my faith.
34:32-34:34
I will seek proof of my faith.
34:34-34:35
What's the proof?
34:35-34:44
He says, "If indeed you continue in the faith, stay firm and steadfast, not shifty from the good gospel you have heard, Which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven.
34:44-34:56
Which I call the "Hell of Hell's Spirit." And you're like, "But you keep saying, you know, some of us are Christians, some of us are not. How do we know? How do we know? How do we know?" Well, real quick.
34:57-35:00
These are five things that are not evidence of salvation.
35:01-35:07
There are proofs, but I want to give you five things that are not proofs, because too many people think these things are, and I'm just going to go over them.
35:07-35:08
So here they are.
35:08-35:11
Number one, I have morals.
35:12-35:16
Some people say, "Well, I guess I'm a good person." How do you know you're a Christian?
35:16-35:17
I'm a good person.
35:19-35:21
That's not evidence of salvation.
35:21-35:26
One of the nicest human beings I've ever met was a Scotsman atheist.
35:28-35:31
He was like ultra-atheist, high-octane atheist.
35:34-35:36
One of the nicest guys I've ever met.
35:36-35:42
So having morals doesn't mean that you can do it again.
35:43-35:45
Secondly, I know how to get saved.
35:45-35:46
You see, there's a difference there.
35:46-35:52
Some people are like, "Are you serious?" "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know how to get saved." That doesn't mean you are saved.
35:54-35:57
Right? I know how to get to Cleveland, but I'm not in Cleveland there.
35:58-36:01
I know how to get there, but I'm not there.
36:03-36:05
Third thing, not an evidence of salvation.
36:05-36:06
I go to church.
36:06-36:07
I go to church.
36:09-36:12
If you're a Christian, sometimes I see people in the wrong lives.
36:12-36:14
If you're a Christian, I go to church.
36:16-36:17
That wasn't the question.
36:18-36:19
I almost got the answer.
36:20-36:21
Oh, here's another one, number four.
36:21-36:22
I work at the church.
36:23-36:24
I work at the church.
36:24-36:26
If you're a Christian, well, yeah, I like the...
36:26-36:28
I work at the children's thing.
36:28-36:29
Yeah.
36:30-36:31
That's not an evidence of salvation.
36:32-36:35
Number five, I feel bad when I sin.
36:37-36:39
I feel bad when I sin. That's not an evidence of salvation.
36:43-36:44
Not an evidence.
36:44-36:51
Now, see, all these things can be true, Christians, but none of those things mean that you are a Christian. Does that make sense?
36:52-36:55
So there are two evidences of true salvation.
36:57-36:59
One is barry and kirk, that's a whole other story.
36:59-37:03
But the one that Paul talks about here in this text is persevering.
37:05-37:06
Persevering.
37:07-37:12
Now there are many subjective truths, or subjective proofs rather, and private proofs.
37:12-37:16
You know, I can talk to you about your prayer life and, you know, giving and things.
37:16-37:20
We can talk about those things. Those are spiritual barometers, you could say.
37:21-37:24
They're barometers, but those are private things.
37:28-37:34
So, for me, for anybody around here, what's the objective external evidence?
37:35-37:37
Well, he says it's perseverance.
37:40-37:45
He says, "Stable, steadfast, and not shifting." I think that's pretty clear. It's holding the line.
37:46-37:47
It's people that are resting in Christ.
37:48-38:05
It's people that, you know, a year down the road, two years down the road, five years down the road, I will still trust the Lord.
38:06-38:11
Life has been hard, but God has been good. I will not regret it.
38:12-38:15
That's the text. That's the text.
38:18-38:20
It seems like a full race.
38:22-38:25
The Bible compares who walked with the Lord to a race.
38:26-38:29
One of the analogies I can turn the book into.
38:31-38:33
Races are easy to start.
38:35-38:37
And it takes perseverance.
38:40-38:45
If you truly belong to the Lord, He gives you that perseverance.
38:45-38:46
Do you understand that?
38:46-38:53
This isn't a pull yourself up on bootstraps, eye of the tiger, "I really ought to be a Christian." That's really not what it's about.
38:54-38:57
It's if you really belong to Christ, He gives you the perseverance.
38:59-39:00
He gives you the strength.
39:04-39:06
I will seek forgiveness in my faith.
39:06-39:07
It's decision time.
39:09-39:11
As our worship team becomes more complete as it is solemn.
39:13-39:16
I'm going to be hanging out down here after the service.
39:17-39:19
For anybody that would like to come up and pray.
39:21-39:22
Maybe it's for yourself.
39:22-39:25
Maybe you say, you know what, I have not given my life to Jesus Christ.
39:25-39:26
I know I've needed to.
39:27-39:30
It's something I've been talking about, thinking about.
39:31-39:32
Today's the day.
39:34-39:37
Now, you don't have to come up front to do that. You can do that sitting right where you are.
39:41-39:42
It doesn't matter where.
39:44-39:46
What does matter is that you do it.
39:48-39:48
Today's the day.
39:53-39:54
Forsake your ways.
39:55-39:59
I'm going to praise everything that Jesus Christ is.
40:01-40:03
We only get one shot at life.
40:05-40:06
So what are you doing with yours?
40:10-40:25
If you want to come up, and maybe not even to yourself, maybe you have a family or a number of loved ones, a coworker, maybe there's somebody in your life that needs the Lord, maybe you want to come up and say, "Thank you God, I just want to pray for that person." You might just come up and say that as well.
40:46-40:48
We are who you say we are.
40:53-40:55
You are with everything that your word tells us.
40:57-41:04
Everything that we've seen in Colossians so far about your character, your nature.
41:05-41:07
We know these things to be true, Paul.
41:10-41:23
As we've been talking today, Father, we're going to find our identity.
41:26-41:29
And just now I pray for those here who don't know you.
41:31-41:33
I pray, Father, that this would be the day.
41:37-41:39
They would say, "I'm tired of living life my way.
41:40-41:42
I'm tired of being separated from God.
41:42-41:44
I'm tired of having no hope for the future.
41:45-41:50
I'm tired of knowing what I need to do and not doing.
41:50-42:00
And I'm tired of living life my way." I pray, Father, that is so true, that people are sick of themselves.
42:02-42:04
And come to the living water.
42:07-42:11
Father, maybe there's some here that need to rededicate their lives to that.
42:13-42:17
I have been committed to follow Christ. I have been born again.
42:19-42:21
But I'm going through a hard time right now.
42:22-42:23
I'm making some bad choices.
42:27-42:30
Father, maybe there's some people here that want to make a family member a loved one.
42:31-42:32
A co-worker, whatever.
42:33-42:57
We pray that you will continue to go forth.
43:03-43:04
In Jesus name

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Pray for one another.

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