WEBVTT 00:00:03.500 --> 00:00:08.240 You know, in your Christian life you never really stay the same in your relationship to Christ. 00:00:10.040 --> 00:00:11.800 Your spiritual life is always changing. 00:00:13.140 --> 00:00:14.950 It's impossible to stay where you're at. 00:00:16.020 --> 00:00:19.020 You're either growing in your Christian faith or you're becoming weak. 00:00:19.200 --> 00:00:23.980 Because, as you've found in your relationship with the Lord, it's like a relationship. 00:00:25.580 --> 00:00:28.030 It's exactly like a relationship with him. 00:00:28.340 --> 00:00:29.980 And that's what Jesus invites you to. 00:00:30.440 --> 00:00:37.520 And as any relationship that you experience in this world, as you spend time with the person that you care about in that relationship, that relationship can grow and blossom as 00:00:37.520 --> 00:00:41.240 you're distant from that person, that relationship, that relationship can grow weak. 00:00:42.860 --> 00:00:43.800 That's our spiritual life. 00:00:46.100 --> 00:00:50.440 Much like your physical body requires food, so does your spiritual body. 00:00:52.120 --> 00:00:52.740 It needs nourishment. 00:00:54.500 --> 00:01:00.500 And it depends more on just a Sunday morning service, where you come and gather together to praise the Lord to receive that nourishment. 00:01:00.500 --> 00:01:04.980 I mean, we as people eat at least 2 to 3 times a day, correct? 00:01:04.980 --> 00:01:12.400 And you think about your soul and your spiritual life, the nourishment that it requires to grow and become strong in the faith and understanding of who you are in 00:01:12.400 --> 00:01:13.160 the eyes of Christ. 00:01:13.360 --> 00:01:15.110 Because what you believe matters. 00:01:17.380 --> 00:01:22.460 And throughout my time in ministry, I've had several discussions with people of all sorts of faiths. 00:01:22.640 --> 00:01:29.740 And one of the things I found out with people who have any other belief, contrary to just truth, it seems a 00:01:29.740 --> 00:01:36.760 lot of times that they choose to follow a belief because they're, they're put together with a group of people who share a common bond. 00:01:37.340 --> 00:01:42.640 But as you begin to discuss with them, you'll find out that a lot of their beliefs, they don't really, as that group holds to. 00:01:42.720 --> 00:01:44.280 They don't necessarily hold to those beliefs. 00:01:44.380 --> 00:01:49.870 And as you dialogue in a conversation with them, you begin to ask them, why are you a part of a group that you don't necessarily believe in? 00:01:50.500 --> 00:01:56.160 Do you know it's possible to follow after the Lord and complete truth and understanding of who God is? 00:01:56.200 --> 00:01:56.670 And they're shocked. 00:01:56.900 --> 00:02:04.080 You mean there's a belief in this world that stands completely on truth and follows the truth for the sake of necessarily 00:02:04.080 --> 00:02:05.980 not always following what the group has to say. 00:02:06.080 --> 00:02:06.960 My answer to that simply is yes. 00:02:08.080 --> 00:02:14.780 Come to our church, because what we're about here at Alpine Bible Church is Jesus. 00:02:16.200 --> 00:02:19.900 And the invitation here at our church isn't about joining some religion or some group. 00:02:19.920 --> 00:02:25.360 It's about following after Christ with your life, getting close to him, and growing in that relationship with him. 00:02:25.440 --> 00:02:32.500 And as you grow in that relationship with him, you understand the purpose and the desire for why God created you in this world and what he wants to you 00:02:32.540 --> 00:02:37.270 to understand in that relationship towards him and how that relationship lives out in your day to day life. 00:02:39.720 --> 00:02:43.340 Your relationship to God matters and what you believe matters. 00:02:45.720 --> 00:02:49.740 A wrong belief as an individual makes us dangerous. 00:02:51.620 --> 00:02:55.660 And we've talked about the extreme of those examples when referring to Nazi Germany. 00:02:55.720 --> 00:02:57.710 They didn't wake up one day and decide to kill Jews. 00:02:58.020 --> 00:02:59.080 They had a belief. 00:02:59.200 --> 00:03:00.680 And that belief continued to be fueled. 00:03:00.740 --> 00:03:04.680 And as it was fueled, they created this hatred and they massacred millions of people. 00:03:05.880 --> 00:03:13.020 I think of religions around the world, different belief systems that have caste systems that literally lower and put people in lower positions of one another and 00:03:13.020 --> 00:03:16.020 rank them according to their society because of a belief. 00:03:16.140 --> 00:03:19.620 And people are treated more as items than human beings. 00:03:22.040 --> 00:03:29.260 Beliefs, if they're wrong, can be dangerous, but a right belief can make 00:03:29.300 --> 00:03:31.780 you both victorious and powerful. 00:03:33.860 --> 00:03:40.960 And so, as a church, we're not ashamed this morning to stand for what we believe, because we stand for Jesus as he clearly communicates himself 00:03:40.960 --> 00:03:43.740 in Scripture. 00:03:43.980 --> 00:03:50.070 And as Paul wrote the book of Colossians, we found that epaphras from that city came down to Rome, where Paul was in prison. 00:03:50.440 --> 00:03:56.200 Paul was so concerned, even in jail, writes a letter to these Christians, Colossae, who were losing their faith in Christ. 00:03:56.240 --> 00:04:03.700 They were beginning to delude the facts and understanding of who Jesus was, and infiltrating into their church was where these false beliefs and doctrines 00:04:03.700 --> 00:04:04.180 and teachings. 00:04:06.320 --> 00:04:13.480 And Paul wanted just simply to set the record straight for the believers there, saying to the Christians, listen, this is what 00:04:13.480 --> 00:04:16.950 you should stand for, because in this you will find freedom. 00:04:18.519 --> 00:04:21.290 The Bible tells us that Christ will set us free. 00:04:22.900 --> 00:04:25.220 In chapter one of Colossians we've looked at together. 00:04:25.360 --> 00:04:28.520 It lays out for us a belief in who Jesus is. 00:04:28.520 --> 00:04:36.000 And if you ever want to read a good section of Scripture on the identity of Christ and the deity of Jesus, the second half of the book of Colossians in chapter one outlines 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:40.650 it beautifully for us and understanding who Jesus really is. 00:04:41.660 --> 00:04:48.840 As Paul goes through this book, he begins to build for us a foundation of belief, because what he's going to do to us as people, as we begin to understand this belief 00:04:48.840 --> 00:04:54.000 and everything that Jesus is, he's then going to propel us into how we live our lives according to that belief. 00:04:54.600 --> 00:04:56.640 It's important what you believe. 00:05:00.640 --> 00:05:07.660 Paul begins by sharing with us in chapter two, and if you have your Bibles with you this morning, I invite you to Colossians chapter 00:05:07.660 --> 00:05:08.160 two. 00:05:10.120 --> 00:05:12.660 We're going to begin in verse one of that section. 00:05:12.720 --> 00:05:19.920 But as we start to pick up this morning, before we begin to read that section, I'm just going to read these couple of verses to us to give us an understanding and backdrop to 00:05:20.780 --> 00:05:22.690 the theme that Paul is going to create in our minds. 00:05:24.880 --> 00:05:29.260 One of the most powerful verses I love in all of Scripture comes in Romans chapter 12 and verse one and two. 00:05:29.560 --> 00:05:32.040 The first, first ten chapters, really, of Romans. 00:05:32.180 --> 00:05:34.540 Paul outlines for us what it means to be saved. 00:05:34.580 --> 00:05:37.680 You ever hear that word saved and wonder, what does the word saved? 00:05:37.680 --> 00:05:38.720 Why do Christians use that? 00:05:38.980 --> 00:05:45.460 Maybe we could substitute it for a word like rescued means we as people are in a position where we need someone to step in. 00:05:45.460 --> 00:05:47.680 More powerful than us to help us out in our need. 00:05:48.260 --> 00:05:53.560 God steps in for us and he literally saves us or rescues us from our position of despair. 00:05:54.360 --> 00:05:56.780 And he lifts us up and he gives us a new position in him. 00:05:57.780 --> 00:06:04.880 And Paul, when he gets to Romans chapter 12, begins to write to the believers what the response should be to a God who loves you so much that 00:06:04.880 --> 00:06:10.400 he would rescue you from any position of danger, despair, or sin, Satan and death that you might face in this world. 00:06:10.440 --> 00:06:17.560 And he says to the believers, therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present 00:06:17.560 --> 00:06:22.340 your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 00:06:24.900 --> 00:06:30.320 You know, one of the beautiful things I love about following Jesus in my life is that it's a choice. 00:06:32.160 --> 00:06:34.440 Notice Paul's not saying in this passage, I'm telling you. 00:06:35.640 --> 00:06:37.230 He says, just simply, I'm begging you. 00:06:39.200 --> 00:06:42.920 Whether or not you choose to love God is an option that the Lord gives to you. 00:06:44.460 --> 00:06:50.960 And understanding what God does for us in this world, and how much he loves for us and cares for us and meets our needs as we follow him in this world. 00:06:51.540 --> 00:06:55.180 Paul is begging the believers because Jesus has demonstrated this love to you. 00:06:55.180 --> 00:06:58.620 I'm urging you to make the choice to love him. 00:07:00.720 --> 00:07:05.200 He goes on to say in Philemon, Paul actually wrote this book while he was in prison in Rome. 00:07:05.220 --> 00:07:09.190 At the same time he writes the Colossians, Ephesians, and Philippians, and he says this. 00:07:09.360 --> 00:07:11.620 Yet for love's sake I prefer to appeal to you. 00:07:12.260 --> 00:07:17.440 He's writing to Philemon about a slave named Onissimus who has ran away. 00:07:17.440 --> 00:07:19.180 And he's actually in Rome at this time. 00:07:19.220 --> 00:07:25.740 And Paul has found him, and he begins to talk to him, and he finds out that he's a runaway slave and that he's left his master. 00:07:25.740 --> 00:07:30.900 And Paul writes back to Philemon, and he says to him, listen, I'm sending this guy back to you because he left on bad terms. 00:07:31.200 --> 00:07:32.960 He ran away when he wasn't supposed to. 00:07:33.260 --> 00:07:36.600 And for love's sake, I prefer to appeal to you. 00:07:36.720 --> 00:07:37.220 Paul's not saying. 00:07:37.280 --> 00:07:37.760 He's not saying. 00:07:37.820 --> 00:07:39.420 I'm telling you have to do this. 00:07:39.420 --> 00:07:42.940 But because I know you're a believer, God's love is working in your life. 00:07:43.160 --> 00:07:45.180 It's going to work on behalf of other people as well. 00:07:45.180 --> 00:07:49.060 And you're going to love other people because Jesus is loving you and you're allowing him to love you. 00:07:49.700 --> 00:07:50.870 And so that I'm appealing to. 00:07:53.080 --> 00:08:00.240 So when you read the book of Mark in chapter 12 and verse 29 to 31, what we find is the two greatest commandments in Scripture to love God 00:08:00.240 --> 00:08:03.440 with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love others. 00:08:03.440 --> 00:08:07.800 And in those two commands, all of the law of Scripture is fulfilled in those love languages. 00:08:10.260 --> 00:08:12.500 God's desire for you is to love him. 00:08:14.460 --> 00:08:21.720 And as you experience that relationship with him, what's going to happen is the same that happened in the life of Philemon is that he began to love others as 00:08:21.720 --> 00:08:22.220 well. 00:08:23.400 --> 00:08:30.320 So what we find in this relationship that we have with Jesus is that it becomes a relationship with all of us on behalf of Jesus. 00:08:30.520 --> 00:08:33.620 That's what makes us his church, the body. 00:08:36.140 --> 00:08:36.900 This is a team sport. 00:08:39.159 --> 00:08:46.180 It's not about what I do and what you do separate from ourselves, but we're working together to accomplish God's plan on his behalf in this world, 00:08:46.340 --> 00:08:50.180 for his glory to our benefit that we may worship him together. 00:08:52.260 --> 00:08:55.160 And we have the choice to unite with his team or not. 00:08:57.260 --> 00:09:04.260 In Colossians chapter one, Paul begins that journey with the believers, and really he's spelling out for us in our lives, having known everything that 00:09:04.340 --> 00:09:11.460 Jesus has accomplished and everything that Jesus is and what he means to us as people, he begins to share with us how that relates to our lives and 00:09:11.460 --> 00:09:16.460 the living, the way that we should pursue after Christ and our relationship with one another and our relationship to him. 00:09:18.120 --> 00:09:25.600 He says in Colossians chapter two and verse one, for I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf, 00:09:25.780 --> 00:09:31.280 and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face. 00:09:32.540 --> 00:09:39.620 Paul, talking about his responsibility to the church, he said to us in chapter one and verse 28, his whole plan was to make 00:09:39.620 --> 00:09:40.660 us complete in Christ. 00:09:40.780 --> 00:09:42.620 To find us pure in our relationship with Jesus. 00:09:42.980 --> 00:09:50.060 And he told us we saw in the book of Corinthians that Paul has an anxiety for all the churches, his passion, his thoughts, his pursuit is 00:09:50.060 --> 00:09:53.220 that we may be the beauty that Christ desires for us to possess. 00:09:53.460 --> 00:09:56.420 And Paul here says, for that cause I struggle. 00:09:58.280 --> 00:10:05.360 The word struggle literally comes from the Olympic Games that took place in the time of Paul's life, as you would see the athletes competing out on the 00:10:05.420 --> 00:10:08.060 field in the Greco style of Rome, Roman wrestling. 00:10:08.120 --> 00:10:11.580 They would fight one another and struggling to beat their opponent. 00:10:11.640 --> 00:10:13.240 That wrestling that went on in that relationship. 00:10:13.660 --> 00:10:15.380 That's Paul's pursuit for the church. 00:10:15.720 --> 00:10:22.720 He is struggling for the benefit of Jesus literally saying, and he 00:10:22.720 --> 00:10:26.180 just wants to wash the feet of Jesus's church. 00:10:28.480 --> 00:10:34.860 You think about how precious the people are in this room this morning to God. 00:10:35.680 --> 00:10:39.390 So much so that he would come to this world to die for it. 00:10:40.860 --> 00:10:43.260 How valuable does that make you in the eyes of God? 00:10:43.280 --> 00:10:51.460 And how much better it is to communicate to God your love for him by loving that which is important to him, his church. 00:10:52.340 --> 00:10:59.520 I like how Paul says it, because in these moments Paul is in prison and when he could be feeling 00:10:59.520 --> 00:11:05.290 sorry for himself, his passion is just still to love Jesus by serving his church. 00:11:07.000 --> 00:11:10.600 And some of us have the tendency when someone says something we don't like. 00:11:10.940 --> 00:11:18.540 I've even seen people, when their name is printed wrong in the bulletin, raise a fuss and leave forever severing 00:11:19.260 --> 00:11:19.600 that body. 00:11:20.100 --> 00:11:22.780 I'm not saying this church, this church would never do that because we're perfect here, right? 00:11:23.080 --> 00:11:24.220 No, that's not true. 00:11:25.060 --> 00:11:26.210 Internet people who are listening. 00:11:26.380 --> 00:11:26.970 That's not true. 00:11:28.720 --> 00:11:31.200 A computer has it. 00:11:31.280 --> 00:11:31.670 I don't know. 00:11:35.080 --> 00:11:38.100 Paul's desire for us is to struggle even when it's hard. 00:11:38.140 --> 00:11:39.040 Actually, exactly. 00:11:39.420 --> 00:11:45.180 At those moments when it's hard, that's where the struggle is to struggle, to show the beauty of his church. 00:11:45.280 --> 00:11:48.040 Not that the body would be divided, but that we would live together. 00:11:49.380 --> 00:11:52.170 He goes on in verse two and says that their hearts may be encouraged. 00:11:52.360 --> 00:11:59.740 See, Paul's living for that purpose, that struggle that you and I, our hearts together would be encouraged, having been knit together in love in that relationship, 00:11:59.930 --> 00:12:04.740 attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance and understanding resulting in a true knowledge. 00:12:04.780 --> 00:12:05.480 A true knowledge. 00:12:05.480 --> 00:12:11.560 Because what you believe is important and we unite in the truth. 00:12:11.560 --> 00:12:18.580 And as we unite in the truth, we unite in the love, he says, resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery that is Christ Himself, in whom are hidden all 00:12:18.580 --> 00:12:21.330 the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 00:12:23.120 --> 00:12:26.160 It does good to us as a church to focus on Jesus, doesn't it? 00:12:26.180 --> 00:12:33.400 I mean, we're saying to ourselves, in this world, if you are, if you are seeking power, fame, and wealth, all power is possessed by God. 00:12:33.460 --> 00:12:39.940 All wealth is possessed by God, and every fame that you might want in experiencing that relationship, that longing that you have inside to feel important. 00:12:40.260 --> 00:12:42.620 It's possessed by God to be manifest in your life. 00:12:42.620 --> 00:12:46.160 And so as we focus on Jesus, we really find why we're here on this world. 00:12:47.740 --> 00:12:55.080 It's your life starts, as Paul says in verse two one and two, that we in truth in Christ live together in love because 00:12:55.100 --> 00:12:57.910 Jesus most importantly unites us. 00:12:59.420 --> 00:13:04.130 Paul goes on to say in verse four, the reason that he's encouraging down this path for us as believers. 00:13:05.620 --> 00:13:09.010 He says, I say this so that no one will delude you with a persuasive argument. 00:13:11.480 --> 00:13:15.620 Paul's literally saying to the Colossians that problems are coming. 00:13:17.220 --> 00:13:18.360 Actually, they're already in your church. 00:13:20.520 --> 00:13:27.200 And the danger that you guys face is you give up on truth in Christ is that your belief in Jesus begins to be diluted. 00:13:29.180 --> 00:13:32.720 Now, a half truth isn't a full truth. 00:13:32.920 --> 00:13:35.000 A half truth and fact is no truth at all. 00:13:36.640 --> 00:13:38.720 Bible tells us that Satan is a liar. 00:13:38.720 --> 00:13:40.900 He's the father of lies in John 844. 00:13:40.940 --> 00:13:48.340 You know when Satan went into the Garden of Eden and he communicated with Adam and Eve to get them to commit that first sin against God, he didn't just 00:13:48.340 --> 00:13:55.560 pitch them a total lie, he gave him a half truth for us to lose the power 00:13:55.560 --> 00:14:02.740 that God desires for us to have in all wisdom and knowledge and understanding in Jesus, as it talks about in verse three, those riches that Christ wants us to experience, 00:14:03.100 --> 00:14:10.900 all we have to do is to give up partially on the truth that is in Christ and 00:14:10.900 --> 00:14:11.680 the life of the Colossians. 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:13.500 That's exactly what was happening. 00:14:14.760 --> 00:14:19.500 See, people were stepping into the church and they weren't saying to the Colossians, listen, forsake this Jesus. 00:14:19.520 --> 00:14:25.220 What they were doing was experiencing a gradual slip in their lives, and they were communicating to believers. 00:14:25.220 --> 00:14:27.450 Listen, we've got these other beliefs and these beliefs are important. 00:14:27.480 --> 00:14:27.580 So. 00:14:27.820 --> 00:14:31.900 So why don't you just accept Jesus and this other stuff. 00:14:34.300 --> 00:14:41.610 And what was happening in their lives as they were beginning to delude the power and understanding of Jesus and His truth and his truth alone. 00:14:44.840 --> 00:14:50.160 In this world, there is a tension that we face as Christians to forsake truth in order to love. 00:14:52.040 --> 00:14:58.770 And the further this nation gets away from Christ, the more powerful that influence becomes in the life of the church. 00:15:00.640 --> 00:15:02.790 Meaning I have this belief and you have this belief. 00:15:03.040 --> 00:15:06.370 But let's just forget that and hold hands and love one another. 00:15:07.940 --> 00:15:13.420 But can I tell you this morning that love without truth isn't true love? 00:15:15.380 --> 00:15:20.740 If you truly love someone, you'll love them enough to share truth with them. 00:15:23.400 --> 00:15:29.830 But on the flip side of that, truth without love is a dying belief. 00:15:31.920 --> 00:15:35.360 It's important that we walk hand in hand with both truth and love. 00:15:36.680 --> 00:15:43.300 We're going to find that Paul shares that passion with us, and he tells us how to go into this world and minister for him to other people on behalf of who Jesus is. 00:15:44.880 --> 00:15:46.460 Seasoned with salt with our words. 00:15:46.520 --> 00:15:47.520 Let it be filled with grace. 00:15:47.600 --> 00:15:54.260 He tells us in Colossians chapter three that we walk in truth because truth is important for people to know, because truth sets us free. 00:15:54.260 --> 00:15:56.520 And if you have a wrong belief, it can become dangerous. 00:15:56.560 --> 00:15:59.060 But if you have truth, you can know Jesus and live for him. 00:16:01.240 --> 00:16:02.420 And in that we love you. 00:16:03.400 --> 00:16:04.030 We love you to Christ. 00:16:05.940 --> 00:16:13.140 And Paul is saying, if you if you refuse to stand for what he presented in chapter one, if you refuse to understand who Jesus is, the danger that you stand for 00:16:13.140 --> 00:16:17.120 as a church is to begin to dilute everything that God would have us understand. 00:16:17.400 --> 00:16:20.520 And who are we as people when God communicates himself to this world? 00:16:20.840 --> 00:16:22.460 To not stand for that. 00:16:23.380 --> 00:16:29.640 I mean, if it is true that Jesus came in the flesh, that Jesus lived in this world, that Jesus is God, that Jesus saved us. 00:16:29.640 --> 00:16:36.280 We have to look at everything in this world in light of who Christ is, and to step back from that is unloving to this world. 00:16:38.580 --> 00:16:39.020 Now it's true. 00:16:39.020 --> 00:16:40.200 Not everyone will agree with you. 00:16:40.220 --> 00:16:41.800 Not everyone will like what you say. 00:16:41.880 --> 00:16:45.950 But if you love God and love others, you will share that simple truth with them. 00:16:47.940 --> 00:16:52.180 And so Paul goes on to tell us as Christians and living victorious, this is how we prepare in Christ. 00:16:52.440 --> 00:16:58.390 He starts in chapter two and verse five, and Paul just uses imagery. 00:16:58.500 --> 00:16:59.420 He creates word picture. 00:16:59.420 --> 00:17:02.040 I like that for our generation because we're TV kind of people, right? 00:17:02.300 --> 00:17:03.780 We're used to seeing things on our screen. 00:17:04.240 --> 00:17:10.119 And Paul Paul gives those word pictures in our minds to describe for us what it means to follow after the Lord in our lives. 00:17:10.160 --> 00:17:17.240 And he says, for even though I'm absent in body, nevertheless I'm with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline 00:17:17.240 --> 00:17:21.109 and the stability of your faith in Christ. 00:17:22.220 --> 00:17:30.100 These first two words that Paul uses here are actually military terms, good disciplines literally the military 00:17:30.100 --> 00:17:32.240 as they come before to make their fight. 00:17:32.540 --> 00:17:33.920 They're lined up in their perfect rows. 00:17:34.180 --> 00:17:38.540 Each believer has a position in the army of God to stand where they need to stand on behalf of Jesus. 00:17:38.620 --> 00:17:42.980 God has gifted us all in different ways to live and love and stand for him in this world. 00:17:42.980 --> 00:17:46.720 And so all of us fill those positions as an army for the Lord and love. 00:17:46.720 --> 00:17:53.840 And we just share that as his army, having the stability, meaning we don't 00:17:53.840 --> 00:18:01.020 back down, we're persistent in presenting ourselves in that formation, understanding our role in this world on behalf of Christ. 00:18:02.480 --> 00:18:04.910 He goes on to describe it a little bit further in verse six. 00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:12.340 He says, therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him an understanding that relationship 00:18:12.360 --> 00:18:14.230 with God and living it as a relationship. 00:18:14.480 --> 00:18:15.840 He refers to it as a walk. 00:18:15.920 --> 00:18:18.120 It's a term that would often be used for a pilgrimage. 00:18:19.100 --> 00:18:19.530 It's a journey. 00:18:21.140 --> 00:18:24.350 Your walk with God isn't something that's dictated to you religiously. 00:18:24.580 --> 00:18:30.120 It's a journey experience that you have in your personal life with God as an individual and corporately with his church. 00:18:30.180 --> 00:18:31.600 You enjoy that relationship. 00:18:33.740 --> 00:18:39.310 It's not something you're made to do, but it's something you enjoy to do because of what Christ has done for us. 00:18:40.560 --> 00:18:41.840 Listen to this for just a moment. 00:18:43.100 --> 00:18:48.150 This comes from the surah, which is the Muslim's holy writings in the seventh century. 00:18:48.340 --> 00:18:50.620 This is how Arabs felt when Muhammad was in their presence. 00:18:51.400 --> 00:18:59.240 It literally quotes in several versions of the surah that Muhammad cast terror into their hearts. 00:19:01.500 --> 00:19:08.700 I mean, there's all kinds of gods that you can create in this world, all kinds of gods that you can follow in this world, most of which what I find in understanding 00:19:08.780 --> 00:19:16.200 religion is that they're all in creating gods or images of gods or idols to worship, that they 00:19:16.200 --> 00:19:19.350 are gods who are never satisfied with how good you are as people. 00:19:20.700 --> 00:19:26.720 And you can never rest comforted in thinking that you've lived good enough for that God not really knowing if that God's going to accept you or not. 00:19:28.200 --> 00:19:35.310 The wonderful thing about Christ is that there's nothing that you can do in your relationship with him that's going to better or enhance 00:19:35.400 --> 00:19:37.620 his acceptance of you for who you are already. 00:19:39.320 --> 00:19:46.500 It tells us in Galatians chapter two and verse 21, if righteousness could be achieved through the law, then Christ died 00:19:46.500 --> 00:19:46.780 needlessly. 00:19:48.800 --> 00:19:55.880 Meaning this if there's something that you can do to enhance your relationship with Jesus that Jesus hasn't already accomplished on your work, there was no point in Jesus coming to this earth, 00:19:56.060 --> 00:19:57.260 and there was no point in Jesus dying. 00:19:59.040 --> 00:20:06.080 He accomplished it all, as the Bible tells us to tell us that it's been 00:20:06.320 --> 00:20:08.250 paid in full. 00:20:09.500 --> 00:20:15.060 Your relationship to him can be experienced freely as you accept what Christ has done on your behalf, and his work on the cross. 00:20:16.880 --> 00:20:23.940 God opens a hand towards you, asking you to take his and experience that relationship with him. 00:20:25.220 --> 00:20:28.900 Paul calls it in Galatians or excuse me in Colossians chapter two and verse six. 00:20:29.520 --> 00:20:29.780 A walk. 00:20:31.600 --> 00:20:35.200 He goes on to say, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in him. 00:20:38.180 --> 00:20:46.240 You think for a minute some of the great things that have been built in our society, some of the wonders of the world, I don't know, the Eiffel Tower, for example, 00:20:46.240 --> 00:20:48.510 a powerful building full of steel. 00:20:48.520 --> 00:20:48.620 Right? 00:20:49.000 --> 00:20:50.440 That thing is never coming down. 00:20:51.980 --> 00:20:54.450 That's what Paul's talking about in this passage of Scripture. 00:20:55.740 --> 00:20:59.280 You think about some other things that have been built in this world, like, I don't know, the Titanic. 00:21:01.160 --> 00:21:02.460 How many want to go on a ride in that ship? 00:21:03.600 --> 00:21:04.320 Not today. 00:21:04.320 --> 00:21:04.420 Right. 00:21:05.760 --> 00:21:07.680 It's because when it comes, I love when we hear our kids do that. 00:21:07.860 --> 00:21:14.260 And then I say, when we when we are rooted in Jesus, when we're established in him, you become immovable. 00:21:15.280 --> 00:21:21.680 When I was a young kid, I lived right on the Gulf Coast, and my dad is, I think, a fanatic for extreme things. 00:21:22.200 --> 00:21:23.460 He likes to jump out of parachutes. 00:21:23.700 --> 00:21:25.780 I like to watch him jump with or out of parachutes. 00:21:26.020 --> 00:21:26.340 How do you do that? 00:21:26.720 --> 00:21:30.720 He jumps out of a plane with a parachute, and I'm the one that watches him and cheers for him. 00:21:31.800 --> 00:21:34.560 when I was a kid, though, I can remember when hurricanes would come up the Gulf Coast. 00:21:34.960 --> 00:21:38.060 We would jump in his car and we would ride around and watch it. 00:21:38.060 --> 00:21:39.120 It's not the best thing in the world. 00:21:39.200 --> 00:21:40.320 Don't tell mom that happened. 00:21:40.340 --> 00:21:41.020 Right. 00:21:42.520 --> 00:21:48.380 But one of the things that was so wonderful to watch as a child is the stability of a palm tree. 00:21:49.640 --> 00:21:56.700 I mean, think about the phenomenon of a palm tree living in a desert, dug in the sand so deeply, and its roots are so powerful that it can just 00:21:56.700 --> 00:21:59.040 suck up all the moisture, be able to survive in that moment. 00:21:59.300 --> 00:22:03.600 And even if a hurricane comes, there's nothing that's going to rock that palm tree off of that beach. 00:22:03.940 --> 00:22:10.670 I mean, it's got its vacation spot and it's staying versus out west in the desert. 00:22:12.000 --> 00:22:17.540 Those tumbleweeds, when you come from back east and you move to the to the west and you drive for the first time. 00:22:17.580 --> 00:22:20.420 The only thing that ever crosses the street where I was from were people and deer. 00:22:20.860 --> 00:22:21.980 And you didn't want to hit either, right? 00:22:29.800 --> 00:22:30.160 And then you move out here and all of a sudden these tumbleweeds are just going everywhere. 00:22:30.160 --> 00:22:30.160 They're not rooted. 00:22:30.160 --> 00:22:31.720 And what Paul is saying to the believers here, listen. 00:22:31.940 --> 00:22:32.720 Things are going to come. 00:22:32.720 --> 00:22:34.700 They're going to try to shake you and your relationship with Christ. 00:22:35.180 --> 00:22:40.660 But what's so important is that you understand how significant Jesus is in your life, and you live like that palm tree. 00:22:41.700 --> 00:22:43.160 No matter what storm comes. 00:22:43.160 --> 00:22:48.760 Just trust in him because all wealth and treasures are possessed in Christ and Christ alone in this world. 00:22:50.660 --> 00:22:58.000 He goes on to say, we're being built up just as those buildings and I love. 00:22:58.000 --> 00:23:00.900 We talked about a building just a second ago, like the Eiffel Tower. 00:23:00.900 --> 00:23:05.960 But the word here, the term built up, is a progressive word meaning this building isn't complete yet. 00:23:07.840 --> 00:23:15.700 Throughout history, people have followed after Christ and what God is doing until he returns to this world to receive those 00:23:15.700 --> 00:23:16.860 who have followed after Christ. 00:23:17.220 --> 00:23:24.480 What God is doing is building up a beautiful building in him, and we together are playing a part in God's picture, being built up together 00:23:24.480 --> 00:23:27.800 in him, in unison, in love and in truth. 00:23:29.200 --> 00:23:34.200 And as we do that together, Paul tells us that it's important that as believers that we are established in our faith. 00:23:35.740 --> 00:23:42.860 It's literally a term that's used from a school teacher that we as believers are learning and growing 00:23:42.860 --> 00:23:45.360 from as a student, from a teacher. 00:23:45.460 --> 00:23:49.840 When we call ourselves disciples of Christ or Christians, that means followers of Jesus. 00:23:50.320 --> 00:23:54.750 It means that if I call myself a Christian, being a follower of Jesus, I should learn about Jesus. 00:23:56.220 --> 00:23:57.580 It's a novel idea, right? 00:23:58.660 --> 00:24:02.760 I open up Scripture and I discover what God wants me to know about him. 00:24:03.920 --> 00:24:05.140 I'm establishing that. 00:24:05.140 --> 00:24:11.970 And it says, just as you were instructed, staying communicated with God in that relationship with him. 00:24:12.720 --> 00:24:19.630 The last picture that Paul gives us overflowing with gratitude. 00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:22.560 Overflowing carries the idea of a river. 00:24:23.920 --> 00:24:31.080 And as that river gets fed with water, it begins to overflow and abound beyond its banks and spread out across the land. 00:24:32.120 --> 00:24:34.820 And Jesus tells us in Scripture is the living water. 00:24:34.820 --> 00:24:37.160 He begins to overflow out of the river. 00:24:37.180 --> 00:24:44.460 He begins to impact our lives, change us, and he becomes a powerful movement in our hearts and our minds and within our church as we follow after 00:24:44.460 --> 00:24:44.780 him. 00:24:44.920 --> 00:24:46.920 Because in him is truth. 00:24:48.420 --> 00:24:51.450 I love the last part of this verse and overflowing with him. 00:24:52.520 --> 00:25:01.240 You know, I find a lot of times in our relationship with the Lord, especially here in America, is that there are too many Christians, and 00:25:01.240 --> 00:25:08.300 by that I don't mean many, like we have too many, I mean many mini when it comes to living for Christ. 00:25:08.500 --> 00:25:09.760 We just don't dream big enough. 00:25:11.160 --> 00:25:12.180 We don't pray large enough. 00:25:13.120 --> 00:25:14.760 We don't live powerfully enough in him. 00:25:15.900 --> 00:25:23.200 And what Paul is telling the believers that listen, if all wealth is possessed in Jesus, if Jesus has every power in this world to give to you everything that you need, ask or think. 00:25:23.860 --> 00:25:29.280 We need to live as if that God was real, that God was powerful to see change taking place. 00:25:30.020 --> 00:25:31.500 Think about Lehigh for a minute. 00:25:32.940 --> 00:25:35.310 What can God do here in his church? 00:25:36.440 --> 00:25:43.640 As we understand in that relationship, God is going to allow us to abound in him and talking about 00:25:43.640 --> 00:25:45.160 our relationship with him. 00:25:45.160 --> 00:25:47.900 Paul goes on, just one more verse and he gives us a warning. 00:25:49.820 --> 00:25:56.880 He says, see to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to 00:25:56.880 --> 00:25:59.540 the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. 00:26:00.920 --> 00:26:03.300 He's saying in that first verse, see that no one takes you captive. 00:26:03.440 --> 00:26:08.910 What he's saying to the church here is, listen, this is a term used for an army when they come in and conquer and they take prisoners. 00:26:09.700 --> 00:26:15.630 If you forsake Christ, if you forsake following after Jesus and His relationship to you in this world, it's going to take you prisoner. 00:26:17.320 --> 00:26:22.470 And before you know it, the delusion of truth is going to captivate your heart and your mind, and you're not going to be following after the Lord anymore. 00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:29.140 Philosophy in this passage refers to teachings that are contrary to God. 00:26:29.260 --> 00:26:29.520 False teachings. 00:26:31.180 --> 00:26:34.460 Traditions of men are traditions that didn't necessarily come from God. 00:26:34.560 --> 00:26:36.040 Actually, they didn't come from God at all. 00:26:37.280 --> 00:26:44.480 I often refer to this as folk theology, meaning it was passed on to from generation to generation, but no one really knows why we believe 00:26:44.480 --> 00:26:44.620 it. 00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:46.620 Folk like folk lore, right? 00:26:47.580 --> 00:26:49.000 There was a conversation that D.L. 00:26:49.000 --> 00:26:50.880 Moody once had in Chicago with a gentleman. 00:26:50.880 --> 00:26:55.850 He goes up before this guy and he's sharing the Lord with him, and he just simply asked, well, what do you believe? 00:26:56.900 --> 00:26:58.540 And the guy said, well, I believe what my church believes. 00:27:00.080 --> 00:27:02.800 And Moody said, okay, what does your church believe? 00:27:03.460 --> 00:27:04.820 Well, my church believes what I believe. 00:27:06.380 --> 00:27:06.960 All right. 00:27:08.010 --> 00:27:09.760 What do you and your church believe? 00:27:09.780 --> 00:27:10.700 Probably what you believe. 00:27:12.300 --> 00:27:13.380 And the conversation ends. 00:27:15.560 --> 00:27:19.160 But I think that's a lot of how people review and look at their relationship with God. 00:27:19.520 --> 00:27:21.700 If it was good enough for mom and dad, it's good enough for me. 00:27:21.980 --> 00:27:22.940 And it was personal to them. 00:27:22.940 --> 00:27:24.760 So I kind of make it good for me. 00:27:24.800 --> 00:27:26.490 But it's not personal to me. 00:27:28.040 --> 00:27:34.000 And Paul's talking about the traditions of men here being passed on, but you having no idea and understanding of why you're even doing what you're doing. 00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:39.580 I love my relationship with God. 00:27:39.700 --> 00:27:45.550 Having the opportunity to question and challenge and ask him things I don't understand. 00:27:48.140 --> 00:27:50.260 I don't like it in religious beliefs. 00:27:50.320 --> 00:27:52.680 When you have questions about God and no one can give you an answer. 00:27:54.460 --> 00:27:58.620 I don't like it when people shun us from being able to ask God about our relationship with him. 00:28:00.660 --> 00:28:08.000 If what's true about God, as Paul explained in Colossians, is true about God, He's powerful enough to handle anything that's 00:28:08.040 --> 00:28:08.770 thrown at him. 00:28:10.440 --> 00:28:14.600 For 2000 years, people have been following after Christ and he hasn't been disproven yet. 00:28:16.540 --> 00:28:18.540 And I think there are skeptical people in this world. 00:28:19.180 --> 00:28:22.720 There are people who even makes false assumptions or wrong accusations against the Lord. 00:28:22.880 --> 00:28:29.880 But if you really question, if you really seek answers and you really follow after them, you're going to understand 00:28:29.880 --> 00:28:32.980 that what Jesus is communicating to us in Scripture is true. 00:28:34.260 --> 00:28:41.300 And there's enough historical evidence alone out there for us to be able to understand the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus as being true Christ, being a 00:28:41.400 --> 00:28:44.570 literal figure, and being everything that he claimed to be throughout this world. 00:28:45.700 --> 00:28:49.860 And rather than follow the traditions of man, it's important to be able to understand, to find your own life. 00:28:50.220 --> 00:28:51.960 What is it that you believe? 00:28:55.160 --> 00:29:02.340 When we talk about God building up this building within us, not just in this generation, but in generations to come, God formulating and building this building, it's important 00:29:02.340 --> 00:29:08.680 for all of us to define what, and who we think God is in our lives because we have to communicate that beyond ourselves. 00:29:10.180 --> 00:29:16.520 It's worth loving others and truth to God and what you believe matters. 00:29:19.420 --> 00:29:26.500 He goes on to say, in the elementary principles of this world, it's literally spiritism, zodiac signs, mysticism, horoscopes, whatever we 00:29:26.500 --> 00:29:31.610 have today, just these spiritual teachings that are out there apart from who God is. 00:29:34.080 --> 00:29:35.180 Do you know who God is? 00:29:37.340 --> 00:29:39.880 See, the warning to us is don't delude the truth of Christ. 00:29:40.060 --> 00:29:43.510 Don't be taken captive by these empty philosophies in this world. 00:29:45.060 --> 00:29:49.010 You know what happens in a world that you don't really believe that your God is big enough to handle it. 00:29:50.120 --> 00:29:52.440 Sometimes we will respond in hopelessness or despair. 00:29:54.160 --> 00:29:57.960 Sometimes we get bitter at God, not understanding why he responds the way he does. 00:29:58.160 --> 00:29:59.380 Sometimes we get angry at God. 00:29:59.960 --> 00:30:03.820 Sometimes we even act in vengeance if someone wrongs us, rather than let God take care of it. 00:30:04.100 --> 00:30:06.640 We respond ourselves because our God really isn't big enough. 00:30:08.680 --> 00:30:13.230 We act without faith rather than put things into God's hands. 00:30:14.560 --> 00:30:15.320 We put them into ours. 00:30:17.320 --> 00:30:22.390 Romans 831 tells us, If God is for us, then who can be against us? 00:30:24.600 --> 00:30:31.600 It's saying to you, if your God is really as big as Scripture says he is, and if you really believe that there is nothing in this world that 00:30:31.600 --> 00:30:33.870 you're going to face, that he can't give you enough to supply. 00:30:36.160 --> 00:30:39.160 One of my favorite passages of Scripture comes in Matthew eight. 00:30:39.160 --> 00:30:40.640 And this is why. 00:30:40.860 --> 00:30:45.440 Maybe it's because I'm young, I don't know, but I'm I'm kind of a spaz sometimes. 00:30:46.160 --> 00:30:50.740 I'm the guy that when we get together as a group, I've got to be doing something or I freak out. 00:30:51.040 --> 00:30:53.070 I'm just sitting there is not an option for me. 00:30:53.700 --> 00:30:54.380 I've always got to be moving. 00:30:54.440 --> 00:30:56.000 Having something to do, accomplishing some task. 00:30:57.180 --> 00:30:57.180 And. 00:30:57.300 --> 00:31:03.420 And I'm reminded in Matthew chapter eight of the Life of the disciples, and they really didn't believe in this passage yet that their God was big enough. 00:31:03.420 --> 00:31:08.380 But in this passage, Jesus has just shared with a group of people, he's going over the Sea of Galilee to go share with another group of people. 00:31:08.680 --> 00:31:12.580 He and his disciples all gathered in this boat together, and this huge storm arises. 00:31:12.900 --> 00:31:16.970 And all these disciples who are fishermen, used to being on the sea, are on top spazzing. 00:31:17.520 --> 00:31:18.550 We got nothing to do. 00:31:18.760 --> 00:31:19.880 How do we stop this storm? 00:31:20.020 --> 00:31:20.550 We're going to die. 00:31:20.660 --> 00:31:21.110 What are we going to do? 00:31:21.280 --> 00:31:21.800 Get Jesus right. 00:31:22.560 --> 00:31:23.750 I don't know what's going to happen to us. 00:31:23.840 --> 00:31:30.480 And then all of a sudden it tells us in verse 24, and behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by waves. 00:31:30.880 --> 00:31:33.860 But talking about Jesus, he was asleep. 00:31:36.560 --> 00:31:41.500 I look at that verse and what I say to myself is he's asleep for me. 00:31:44.020 --> 00:31:51.020 Because God knows in this world everything that's coming our way in the midst of any storm that we face, no matter 00:31:51.200 --> 00:31:58.260 how much you're going crazy on the inside, Jesus is so in control that even in those Moments he can 00:31:58.260 --> 00:32:06.420 sleep, and the opportunity this passage presents to us is just to give us an opportunity to recognize that 00:32:06.420 --> 00:32:13.760 God is in control and that you as people, all we have to find ourselves doing is simply resting 00:32:13.760 --> 00:32:15.410 in him. 00:32:17.360 --> 00:32:22.780 Paul goes on just a few more verses and he explains to us, continues to explain to us that victory. 00:32:24.620 --> 00:32:31.670 Colossians one he outlined how Jesus is God and how that God looks, or him as Jesus being God looks. 00:32:32.860 --> 00:32:37.000 He tells us that Jesus created everything that Jesus is in charge of everything that Jesus. 00:32:37.120 --> 00:32:38.080 He goes on to say, is God. 00:32:38.620 --> 00:32:45.140 And he reminds us in chapter two and verse nine again, if we ask ourselves the question, how can Christ mean so much to us in our lives? 00:32:45.180 --> 00:32:46.680 How can God accomplish this in our world? 00:32:46.680 --> 00:32:53.700 He says, for in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form, literally 00:32:53.700 --> 00:32:55.020 God, deity. 00:32:55.020 --> 00:32:57.960 God became flesh and dwelt among us. 00:32:58.160 --> 00:32:59.380 God is powerful and capable. 00:32:59.700 --> 00:33:01.280 God accomplished this for you. 00:33:01.280 --> 00:33:06.700 And he says in verse ten, and in him you have been made complete, and he is the head over all rule and authority. 00:33:08.520 --> 00:33:09.120 Be complete. 00:33:09.280 --> 00:33:14.200 We've learned means made mature in Christ alone. 00:33:14.200 --> 00:33:15.120 As God has come to this world. 00:33:15.300 --> 00:33:16.280 He's died for your sins. 00:33:16.300 --> 00:33:18.290 He rules and reigns in the heavens today. 00:33:18.660 --> 00:33:21.290 In him and in him alone you are made complete. 00:33:21.400 --> 00:33:22.460 You are made mature. 00:33:22.460 --> 00:33:27.400 You find every purpose for your existence, every intention that God has for you in this world through Christ. 00:33:29.600 --> 00:33:32.660 He goes on to explain in verse 11 to 13 how this was made possible. 00:33:35.480 --> 00:33:40.100 Circumcision was a big deal to the Jews is how they identify themselves as followers after God. 00:33:40.160 --> 00:33:47.080 And the belief of Judaism and the tendency was in the early church, they would say to them as they became Christians and they trusted in Christ. 00:33:47.100 --> 00:33:52.100 The Jews would then go into the churches and say, listen, you need to be circumcised too, or you're not really going to go to heaven. 00:33:52.100 --> 00:33:55.740 You're not really following after God, and there was a debate that arose in the early church. 00:33:56.040 --> 00:33:58.000 It was a debate because the Jews were challenging it. 00:33:58.340 --> 00:33:59.900 Everyone knew the answer. 00:33:59.900 --> 00:34:05.000 It's actually laid out for you in acts chapter 15, when Paul goes back to the church in Jerusalem and they debate over the circumcision. 00:34:06.260 --> 00:34:08.719 Do we have to really be circumcised to follow after Jesus? 00:34:08.840 --> 00:34:10.520 Does that really matter of whether or not we go to heaven? 00:34:10.520 --> 00:34:14.260 Is there a system of law that we have to follow on top of just believing in Jesus? 00:34:14.360 --> 00:34:16.500 And the answer to that simply was, no, it's not. 00:34:17.400 --> 00:34:19.210 It's faith in Christ alone. 00:34:20.639 --> 00:34:23.520 And he says in this verse, you being circumcised. 00:34:23.560 --> 00:34:28.750 He begins to talk to us about being circumcised, not not in the flesh, but in the heart and in him. 00:34:28.800 --> 00:34:36.100 You were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision 00:34:36.100 --> 00:34:38.350 of Christ. 00:34:39.280 --> 00:34:40.060 Made without hands. 00:34:40.120 --> 00:34:41.840 Listen, this isn't something physically that you do. 00:34:41.860 --> 00:34:45.239 This is a miracle that God starts from your inside out, not from the outside in. 00:34:46.540 --> 00:34:49.840 God changes you from the inside out into a new creation, a new creature. 00:34:50.020 --> 00:34:51.860 It's like starting your life over again in Christ. 00:34:53.820 --> 00:35:00.840 And he says in verse 12, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you also were raised up with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. 00:35:01.780 --> 00:35:07.960 When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, meaning you needed rescued man, you were in a bad place. 00:35:08.740 --> 00:35:13.320 He says he made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our transgressions. 00:35:15.500 --> 00:35:20.200 He refers to baptism as a symbolism to the spiritual awakening that happens in our life. 00:35:20.580 --> 00:35:24.440 You were baptized with Christ just as Jesus was buried and resurrected. 00:35:24.440 --> 00:35:28.020 So your old flesh was buried and you became a new creation in Jesus. 00:35:28.020 --> 00:35:29.500 You are identified with Christ. 00:35:29.500 --> 00:35:31.140 Wherever he goes, you go. 00:35:31.400 --> 00:35:33.440 That's how attached you are to him, because Christ. 00:35:33.480 --> 00:35:37.600 It tells us in verse 13, when all the way to the cross for your sins. 00:35:39.680 --> 00:35:46.660 Paul goes on to say in verse 14, he adds that to the passage, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us. 00:35:49.100 --> 00:35:51.310 You ever think about the weight of your sin before God? 00:35:53.880 --> 00:36:00.370 How will you ever stand before a perfect and holy God and a perfect and holy heaven with any sin in your life? 00:36:01.860 --> 00:36:05.940 We can look at the person beside us and say, well, I'm better than them, but before God. 00:36:08.600 --> 00:36:09.590 Are you going to make it? 00:36:11.600 --> 00:36:12.780 Isaiah chapter six. 00:36:12.880 --> 00:36:19.520 Isaiah, when he stood before the presence of God, said his words literally were in the King James I am undone, which in the Hebrew means I am a dead man. 00:36:20.840 --> 00:36:28.120 Isaiah was a prophet of God, and yet before God's presence he refers to himself as a dead man and God, saying, listen, 00:36:28.180 --> 00:36:29.940 you were hostile towards God. 00:36:29.940 --> 00:36:30.560 That's not good. 00:36:30.780 --> 00:36:36.320 You were against God, and he's cancelled out the certificate of debt, and he's taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 00:36:36.880 --> 00:36:37.400 It's finished. 00:36:38.860 --> 00:36:44.680 When he had disarmed the rulers and authorities, he made a public display of them having triumphed over them through him. 00:36:48.780 --> 00:36:50.920 God is identifying for you, your enemies. 00:36:53.020 --> 00:36:54.560 We talked about them last week. 00:36:55.320 --> 00:36:57.080 In this world, we war against sin. 00:36:58.500 --> 00:37:00.960 It's anything contrary to the nature of God. 00:37:01.420 --> 00:37:02.630 We war against death. 00:37:03.280 --> 00:37:04.360 Death is an unnatural thing. 00:37:05.360 --> 00:37:07.460 God never intended for mankind to die. 00:37:07.460 --> 00:37:09.080 But when sin entered the world, so did death. 00:37:09.260 --> 00:37:10.060 Reign. 00:37:11.040 --> 00:37:11.840 And we war against Satan. 00:37:13.880 --> 00:37:18.700 In this passage of Scripture, it's telling us in verse 14 that God has destroyed sin. 00:37:20.660 --> 00:37:24.600 The Bible tells us because of sin, the wages of sin is death, and because of sin comes death. 00:37:24.720 --> 00:37:26.660 And as God destroys sin, so death goes with it. 00:37:27.820 --> 00:37:34.960 But in verse 15, he recognizes that we have things battling against us in this world, spiritual natures that fight against us as we desire 00:37:34.960 --> 00:37:36.060 to follow after Jesus. 00:37:36.380 --> 00:37:43.500 It says in this passage he disarmed them, literally meaning as they have these weapons to fight against us, 00:37:43.540 --> 00:37:45.320 Jesus has ripped them all out of their hands. 00:37:46.180 --> 00:37:47.620 He made them a public display. 00:37:47.680 --> 00:37:48.440 He exposed them. 00:37:48.440 --> 00:37:49.700 He said, listen, these are your enemies. 00:37:49.960 --> 00:37:50.520 Here's truth. 00:37:50.600 --> 00:37:51.240 Here's your enemies. 00:37:51.660 --> 00:37:52.340 Stand against them. 00:37:52.340 --> 00:37:53.400 I've exposed them to you. 00:37:53.400 --> 00:38:00.420 And he says in the last verse, having triumphed over them in the time that Christ was walking the earth, there was 00:38:00.420 --> 00:38:05.060 a tendency that took place from kings who went into lands and conquered, or emperors or rulers. 00:38:05.580 --> 00:38:12.640 As they were victorious in conquering a people group, they would take them all as slaves and march them into the capital city of where they were from, triumphing over them 00:38:12.640 --> 00:38:14.660 and displaying to the people that they are victorious. 00:38:16.540 --> 00:38:23.560 And what Jesus is saying to you is you think of everything in this world that stands against you, every sin that might encumber you, every thing that you fear in this world, every power 00:38:23.560 --> 00:38:25.060 that might stand against you. 00:38:25.060 --> 00:38:26.400 Jesus has been victorious. 00:38:26.400 --> 00:38:33.420 And he's marched that through the middle of his church, and he's exposed to you how powerful he is to stand against them if you simply would just 00:38:33.420 --> 00:38:34.750 trust in him. 00:38:38.900 --> 00:38:43.120 I like how Paul writes in Corinthians two to the believers there. 00:38:46.040 --> 00:38:50.780 He simply dictates to them how powerful it is to follow after Christ in their lives. 00:38:53.180 --> 00:39:01.080 In chapter two, or excuse me in Second Corinthians chapter nine and verse eight, he says, And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so 00:39:01.080 --> 00:39:06.770 that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. 00:39:07.880 --> 00:39:13.140 In 1290 he goes and says, But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. 00:39:13.140 --> 00:39:18.850 Therefore I boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 00:39:21.250 --> 00:39:27.140 You think for a moment where you are on that pilgrimage with God. 00:39:27.140 --> 00:39:30.880 Some of us are in a place of despair. 00:39:30.900 --> 00:39:36.080 Some of us may be living on the mountaintops, but to all of us God says, what is your need? 00:39:37.960 --> 00:39:40.110 Because my grace is sufficient for you. 00:39:41.820 --> 00:39:44.320 Whatever mending your heart needs, whatever love you need. 00:39:44.560 --> 00:39:49.890 Express whatever you need to experience in your heart, whatever longing you have towards God and just to know him truthfully. 00:39:50.060 --> 00:39:51.340 The Bible tells us in Christ. 00:39:51.820 --> 00:39:54.020 His grace is sufficient for you. 00:39:55.640 --> 00:40:02.100 And I love chapter 12 and verse nine, how Paul expresses that because he talks about his weakness. 00:40:05.240 --> 00:40:08.790 In religious circles, you'll never find an opportunity to talk about your weakness. 00:40:08.820 --> 00:40:10.500 You're supposed to be perfect all the time. 00:40:11.920 --> 00:40:18.960 But Paul, the greatest Christian leader in all of history, as a man who on his own was literally 00:40:18.960 --> 00:40:26.060 transforming all the known world we saw in Ephesus, in Colossae, the entire nation, or excuse me, all of Asia heard the 00:40:26.060 --> 00:40:27.940 gospel proclaimed through those churches. 00:40:29.620 --> 00:40:35.040 And he's saying, this man who's God is working powerfully and accomplishing so many things is saying I'm weak. 00:40:36.240 --> 00:40:39.040 But he also goes on to say, but when I'm weak, man, it's so great. 00:40:40.420 --> 00:40:43.700 Because in that weakness, I realize and recognize how much I need Jesus. 00:40:46.360 --> 00:40:53.380 You know, in our lives, it takes us many times to get to that breaking point before we really recognize we just need to trust 00:40:53.380 --> 00:40:54.760 in God. 00:40:56.000 --> 00:41:00.300 We have to go through those valleys and in the storms before we just stop and say, hey, wait a minute. 00:41:01.520 --> 00:41:03.570 I need the grace of God working in my life. 00:41:05.930 --> 00:41:13.940 Can I tell you, as a body of believers this morning we talk about being many Christians, that 00:41:13.960 --> 00:41:18.900 the way that we overcome that the way that we live victorious in this world, the way that we walk hand in hand with Christ. 00:41:19.020 --> 00:41:20.060 It starts with truth. 00:41:20.220 --> 00:41:23.720 But as we understand that truth, we continue to just fuel it back to Christ. 00:41:23.740 --> 00:41:26.540 And we look to him and we look to him and our strengths. 00:41:26.680 --> 00:41:27.660 We look to him and our weaknesses. 00:41:27.960 --> 00:41:34.960 We look to him because what we find in Christ alone is that his grace, love towards you is enough for what you need 00:41:34.960 --> 00:41:37.960 in this world if you just trust in him.