Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Hey New Life Gillette Church, we are thrilled you decided to listen to our teaching on your favorite podcast app. If you made a decision to follow Christ today, would you let us know by visiting? Yes. Newlife gillette.com here is this week's teaching.
[00:00:24] We are starting a new series this morning called the Hope of Glory. We're going to be walking through the book of Colossians for the next for this month as we lead up to Easter. So if you got a Bible with you, open up to the book of Colossians chapter one. It's a little book in the second half of the New Testament that the Apostle Paul wrote. While you're turning there, I want to say good morning to everybody joining us online, all our friends on Church 307, to our extended family down at the prison. We're stoked that you joined us today. Everybody in the room, we are going to start reading in verse one. And this is just so you're prepared. This is a long section of scripture. We are going to be reading for a little bit. You ready?
[00:01:10] Are you ready?
[00:01:12] All right, let's do it.
[00:01:14] Colossians, chapter 1, verse 1. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother to God's holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ, grace and peace to you from God our Father. We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God's people, the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the Gospel that has come to you. In the same way the Gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God's grace. You learned it from Epaphras, our Dello, our fellow servant, Our dear fellow servant. Gosh, that was hard to say. Our dear felt, now I lost my place. Our dear fellow servant, who is faithful minister of Christ on our behalf and who also told us of your love in the Spirit. For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience and giving joyful thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
[00:02:55] The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created. Things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities. All things have been created through him and for Him. For he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him and through him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. Cross.
[00:03:38] Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you wholly in his sight without blemish and free from accusation. Amen.
[00:03:55] If you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven. Heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.
[00:04:13] Let's pray.
[00:04:16] Jesus, this is your word.
[00:04:19] We thank you for it.
[00:04:22] We thank you that even if we don't say anything else about it, being reminded that you are before all things and all things hold together in you. And you have reconciled us to the Father. That's enough, Jesus. Over the next few minutes, let your word be clear.
[00:04:38] Any of my ideas, my opinions, let us notice them and throw them away.
[00:04:43] But plant your word in our hearts, Jesus.
[00:04:46] That's why we're here.
[00:04:47] We love you.
[00:04:49] Amen.
[00:04:51] I want to start off this morning by making kind of a crazy statement.
[00:04:55] And then I'm going to try to defend it. I'm going to see if we can prove that it's true. Here's the statement.
[00:05:00] The world today is not. Isn't not. I need to change. That is not very different from the world 2,000 years ago. That's a double negative. Just cover that up.
[00:05:11] The world today is not very different from the world 2,000 years ago. Now we look different. We've got different technology. Right. We don't you know, ride horses and camels everywhere, right? We don't wear sandals all the time. We live in houses with air conditioning. We have iPhones. We have indoor plumbing. Actually, indoor plumbing is fairly new. My dad grew up in the 1950s and in rural North Carolina, and he lived in a house that had an outhouse. And.
[00:05:41] And one time when he was about 5, he fell in the outhouse. And that has nothing to do with my sermon. I only bring that up because if you're having a crappy day, at least it's not literal.
[00:05:56] World's not that different. Here's why the world isn't that different, because people aren't that different. We dress differently, we talk differently. But humans are humans. In Genesis, chapter one, God gave humanity, dom, dominion over the world, meaning we have the ability to influence the world. We, to some degree, make the world like us. The world reflects us, which means technology changes, appearances change. But unless humans radically change, the world doesn't change. And humans have not radically changed. Here's how I can prove that. Did you know every generation, for as long as there have been humans, has been annoyed at the next generation?
[00:06:38] Every single one. I distinctly remember the first time I saw, like a 19 year old and I was like, they came out of the house dressed like that. And then.
[00:06:46] And then I remembered my dad said that about me. This is exactly how my parents felt. And this is not new. I did some research this week about how different generations have felt about the generations that come after them. And we can go all the way back to 400 BC to the philosopher Socrates. Here's what he said about kids these days in 400 B.C. he said, the children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority. They show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their household.
[00:07:21] They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, tyrannize their teachers. That was Socrates in 400 BC. I saw this on Facebook yesterday.
[00:07:37] They didn't say dainties, but everything else. Right, let's move like 2,000 years forward to this, I believe, the 16th century. Here's the next one I find by sad experience how the towns and streets are filled with lewd, wicked children.
[00:07:55] What a statement.
[00:07:56] And many children, as they have played about the streets, have been heard to curse and swear and call one another nicknames. And it would grieve one's heart to hear what body and filthy communications proceeds from the mouth Gods of such. That was 1695. And he was saying, have you heard the way they talk?
[00:08:16] Right. They weren't even saying riz back here, 100 years later.
[00:08:23] This is my favorite one. This is Reverend Enos Hitchcock. He said, the free access which many young people have to romances, novels and plays has poisoned the mind and corrupted the morals of many a promising youth. If you replace romances and novels with TikTok, every parent says this right now, right? Like they're reading this, they're looking at this stuff. It's ruining the next generation. Right? This next one's great, too. Last one. This is from the 1950s.
[00:08:57] Falkirk Herold said this. Many young people were so pampered nowadays that they had forgotten that there was such a thing as walking.
[00:09:09] For as long as there have been people, we have been annoyed at the next generation. Why? Because people aren't that different.
[00:09:17] People, our appearances change, the technology changes. But humans, the things that annoy us, the temptations, the struggles, are pretty much the same. We'll swap out our vices, we'll exchange slavery for human trafficking in sweatshops, we'll swap out cigarettes for vapes. Which, by the way, every time I see somebody in a lifted truck blowing a cloud of strawberry cotton candy, you're tough, man. We're all impressed.
[00:09:47] And if you do that, we love it. And you're welcome here. We love you.
[00:09:51] You're welcome here. No judgment, just a joke.
[00:09:57] Here's why this is important.
[00:09:59] This book was written 2,000 years ago in the Greco Roman Empire. Rome was ruling the world at this time.
[00:10:08] Culture was completely different. People dressed differently, they worshiped differently, they talked differently. And we know that as we go through this book, we're going to read and we're going to be tempted to think, that world was so different.
[00:10:22] Why do I need to know this today? That world, those people, the temptations and struggles they had were so different. That can't be relevant for me today.
[00:10:32] But people aren't that different.
[00:10:35] The technology changes and the appearance changes, but people, humans aren't that different. And the same things they were struggling with 2000 years ago in Colossae and all over the Roman Empire are the same things we're struggling with today. They just look a little bit different. And if we were to take the struggles for the Christians in Colossae and generally across the Roman world at this time, the Greco Roman world, we would find that those struggles can be divided up into two things. Broadly, these two things right Here.
[00:11:11] The first is they were tempted for their faith to become Jesus. Jesus plus something.
[00:11:19] Jesus plus something equals what I'm looking for. Jesus plus something is the goal of my life.
[00:11:27] The second thing they were tempted by was something minus Jesus.
[00:11:34] Something without the power and authority of Jesus.
[00:11:41] Let's start with Jesus plus something. In the Greco Roman world, worship was extremely common. It was a very, very religious society. There were hundreds of different gods that could be worshiped by different people.
[00:11:56] All kinds of different gods. There were formalized religions. There were people who were participating in what we call mystery cults. These mystery cults had often highly sexual or extremely violent worship practices. And the goal of the mystery cults was to have some sort of ecstatic, emotional or powerful experience.
[00:12:14] It was faith, but it was faith plus experience that they were looking for. They were trying to something out of their faith. In addition to that, there were all these different formalized belief systems all over. Kind of like Hinduism today. There's one overarching belief system with thousands, millions of different gods that you can follow that was much like the ancient world. But it wasn't just gods you picked from. Gods or the idols worshiped were divided up by region. There were regional gods. The best way to think of it is the way we have sports teams today. We have sports teams based on cities or based on regions. So I grew up in North Carolina. So if you are a football fan and you're from the Carolinas, you generally cheer for the Panthers because that's from our city. Right. North and South Carolina. Charlotte's our city. If you are a baseball fan, you generally cheer for the Braves because that was the baseball team from our region. If you grew up in Wyoming, there's a pretty good chance that you cheer for the Broncos. Right. Because that's the team. Broncos fans.
[00:13:16] Really?
[00:13:17] That surprises me. That's the team for the region. There are also a decent chance that you're a Chiefs fan. Bandwagon.
[00:13:23] I. Sorry, I've got a cough. Bandwagon.
[00:13:27] There's a decent chance that you're a Chiefs fan. Regional. Right. That we divide up and we give our loyalty based on kind of what region we live in most of the time. Well, there were different gods that were worshiped in different cities and those gods were associated with the blessing and well being of the city.
[00:13:45] So if you prayed properly to the God of wealth, then your city would be blessed with wealth. If you prayed properly, if enough people prayed to the God of fertility, then they would bear many children. You would pray to the God that would send Rain on the crops. And this was the general worldview that this God protects our city. So we have to pray to the God who protects our city. Also at this time there was what we call an Emperor cult.
[00:14:13] The Emperor cult was a group of people who worshiped the Roman Emperor Caesar. And they would say things and believe things like, Caesar is the son of God. They would say things often like, hail Caesar. Caesar is Lord. Caesar brings salvation. Caesar brings justice. Caesar brings freedom. Caesar brings peace. Now you see why it was so radical for an early Christian to say Jesus is Lord. Jesus brings salvation. Because if Jesus is Lord, Caesar isn't right. It wasn't a bumper sticker phrase. It was an act of sedition against the empire to say Jesus is Lord. At that time, there were people all around the Roman Empire who actively worshiped the Emperor. There was also. We're going to get really nerdy for a second. Some of you guys are thinking, cj, it's already been really nerdy, but we're going to get.
[00:15:00] There was a group of people at this time that we would call proto Gnostics. They were the people who developed the ideas that in the second century would eventually become Gnosticism. And what they believed was that there was secret knowledge that Jesus could give you secret knowledge, and that if you followed that secret knowledge, that it would unlock something. That Jesus plus the worship of angels, Jesus plus the proper understanding of demons. It was a manipulation or a misrepresentation of Christian faith. They use Jesus as a way to access this higher knowledge so that you could have a more fulfilled experience or that. So you could be better or set apart from the people around you. Proto Gnosticism it was, if you can get this extra insight into the spirit world, then you'll have what you're looking for. In the Gnostics, divided up broadly into two camps. Some of them said the only thing that matters is the spirit. All worldly pleasure is evil. So they wouldn't eat food that tastes good. They wouldn't pursue physical pleasure. They lived what we would call later an ascetic life where they denied pleasure for the sake of pursued righteousness because they thought the spiritual world is the only thing that matters. There were other Gnostics that said the spiritual world is the only thing that matters. So do whatever you want, sleep with who you want, eat what you want, doesn't really matter. The only thing that matters is that you have the secret knowledge. Jesus plus something. Now you might be thinking, cj, that doesn't sound anything like our world today.
[00:16:30] You're right. We don't worship in mystery cults.
[00:16:35] But have you ever heard someone say, I tried church? It just didn't really work for me.
[00:16:41] I just never really felt anything when I was there.
[00:16:45] I just went to worship and I never really felt anything.
[00:16:47] You know, I wanted to feel the presence of God and I just never really got it.
[00:16:52] That's the thing. Jesus isn't a feeling. It's not Jesus plus an emotion.
[00:16:58] It's Jesus plus nothing.
[00:17:02] It's not Jesus plus making my life work better.
[00:17:06] It's Jesus plus nothing or will be tempted. I'll be tempted to say, well, Jesus, as long as my marriage works, I'll follow Jesus as long as my finances are good, right? Jesus is going to make my finances better. So it's Jesus plus finances.
[00:17:23] It's Jesus. As long as I'm healthy, as long as I have my physical health, then I'll follow Jesus. That I will trust Jesus. Jesus plus my health equals the life then looking for. We don't worship these things as deities, but we still are tempted to add them to our faith. Because here's the thing. In the Roman world, they didn't care if you worshiped Jesus.
[00:17:43] They only cared if you didn't worship Caesar. Caesar didn't care if you were a Christian. As long as you were still loyal to Caesar.
[00:17:50] They were fine with you worshiping Jesus and Caesar, but not Jesus or Caesar.
[00:17:58] They were fine with you worshiping Jesus as long as you still prayed to the gods of the city. City.
[00:18:03] So that they would still be blessed, so that they would still get rain, so that there would still be fertility.
[00:18:09] Jesus plus other things, that was the temptation, and it's our temptation, too. And I think if we're going to talk about it, we should just talk about it. You know, we shouldn't just talk around it. It's interesting. In pretty much every ancient culture, there was a God for money or wealth.
[00:18:26] There was a God for sex or fertility, and there was a God for power or victory over your enem.
[00:18:34] Pretty much every culture, the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Norse gods, they all had the Norse mythology, they all had gods that promised these different things.
[00:18:44] Now we don't have gods that represent sex, money and power.
[00:18:50] We cut out the middleman.
[00:18:55] We're tempted to just worship sex, money and power without a God in between.
[00:19:00] Now, if I were hearing this sermon, I'd be thinking, cj, I don't do that. That.
[00:19:05] I think you've got the wrong idea. I don't. I don't do that. And I Agree. I don't think we know that we do it. I don't think any of us do it on purpose. I don't think any of us intentionally worship sex, money or power. I just think that we think about it all the time and organize our lives around it. We do everything we can to get more of it. And we wear clothes that show people how much we have of it. And we buy cars that show how much we have of it. And we live in parts of town that show people how much of it we have have. We orient our lives around those things, constantly thinking about them, which isn't the worship of an idol, but if I told you I'm not a Muslim, but I dress like a Muslim and I pray facing Mecca multiple times a day and I constantly talk about Allah and Muhammad, then you would read between the lines, right?
[00:19:52] That's our temptation.
[00:19:55] Jesus plus money, that's what I'm going for. Jesus plus power. Jesus plus sexual fulfillment. Jesus as long as he works for me.
[00:20:09] Jesus plus the outcome I want in my life, that's what I'm looking for. The other is something minus Jesus. At this point in history, there were lots of Jewish groups around the Greco Roman world that once again, some of them didn't want you to worship Jesus. But a lot of them didn't really care whether you worship Jesus or not as long as you followed the law. And they were fine with Jesus teaching as long as it helped you follow the law. Better not. Jesus as savior, Jesus as teacher. This was also the time in history where philosophy was really invading culture. This was a point in history where everyone, we are still today, but everyone at that time was heavily influenced by the great philosophers, Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, the Stoics, the ascetics. There were all of these different groups that were forming at this time. It was important in culture for many people to find the proper way of thinking, to think correctly about the world. And if you could set your mind on the right things, then it could elevate you above other people. If you could set your mind on the right things, that it would set you apart, then there was an imagination that if you could think right, then you could live right.
[00:21:21] So it was about finding the proper set of teachings. It was about finding the proper way of viewing the the world and then that would give you what you are looking for. So once again you can pretty easily imagine how easy it was to view Jesus as a teacher.
[00:21:39] If the teachings of Jesus help you, that's great.
[00:21:43] Jesus gives you a moral high ground. That's wonderful. Follow Jesus. If Jesus helps expand your understanding. If. If Jesus is what works for you, then that's great. Keep following Jesus.
[00:21:57] The teachings of Jesus Mining minus the authority of Jesus, the morals of Jesus, minus the death and resurrection of Jesus.
[00:22:09] Jesus is a teacher, but not Jesus is God.
[00:22:13] Now, once again, it's easy for us to think. I don't really do that. That's not really our world today. That's not really common unless you listen to Joe Rogan. I know we're hitting all the controversial things today. Sorry, it just all landed one sermon.
[00:22:27] I think Joe Rogan's fun. He's super interested in Jesus. You probably noticed that he likes. He goes deep dives into Jesus sometimes. He also says that he thinks every person should do psychedelic mushrooms. Cuz psilocybin will expand the human consciousness.
[00:22:46] The teachings of Jesus if they expand your consciousness minus the power of Jesus who can command what you do and don't do.
[00:22:54] As long as it's going to expand your consciousness. Short Jesus not as savior, God, King, Lord, just as expander of our minds or if you listen to Jordan Peterson, I told you we're getting really controversial today. Not dogging on Jordan Peterson. I think he's got a lot of really interesting things to say. He also famously said that religion is great for stupid people and we're all a little bit stupid stupid.
[00:23:18] He said that we all need. We have a really hard time building a moral for ourselves. We have a really hard time building an ethic for ourselves, building purpose for ourselves. So religion is great as long as it gives you. Because it gives you a code to live by. Religion is great because it gives you morals and it gives you purpose. And we can't have those things unless somebody else gives them to us. He later also famously said that I don't go to church, that he doesn't go to church, but he thinks church is great. If you have a hard time finding community and purpose and meaning in your life, church is great for finding those things. But he doesn't go to church. I don't know what Jordan Peterson believes. He might have changed his mind and fully surrendered his life to Jesus. But what I can tell you for sure is that he was regularly teaching the teachings of Jesus, the morals of Jesus without the death and resurrection of Jesus.
[00:24:02] Now I'm not telling you not to listen to Joe Rogan or Jordan Peterson.
[00:24:06] What I'm telling you is our world's not that different today.
[00:24:11] We are constantly tempted to say Jesus plus something else. That's what I need. Or to Say the morals of Jesus, the teachings of Jesus, the ideas of Jesus, the politics of Jesus, minus the authority, the death and resurrection of Jesus to use Jesus to get what we want out of life without bowing our knee to him.
[00:24:34] So what is Paul's response to this? Interestingly enough, Paul tells us that he wants us to learn to live the way of Jesus. He wants us to apply his teaching. Because the thing, the teachings of Jesus do work.
[00:24:43] They absolutely do work. And he spends much of the book telling us how to follow the teachings of Jesus and apply them correctly. But the order is important because he. He begins the book of Colossians by saying, I pray that, that you get all spiritual wisdom given to you by the Holy Spirit so that you can live in the instructions of Jesus so that you can live in a way that pleases God. But then what does he say? What is the wisdom that we need from, from the Holy Spirit? It's who Jesus is.
[00:25:12] He tells us that Jesus created everything that, that he created. That there's nothing on earth that he hasn't been involved in that. Every power, every authority, everything that exists, it all is from Him. He's in control of it. He's in charge of it. And the whole passage hinges on this one verse that might be my favorite verse in the entire bible. Colossians, chapter one, verse 17 is right here. He says he is before all things and in him all things hold together. Because there's no part of my life that is not connected to my faith. There's no part of my life that isn't spiritual. There's no such thing as having a spiritual life and a non spiritual life. Because Jesus is before all things and all things hold together in Him. What we eat is spiritual, what movies we watch is spiritual. What music we listen to is spiritual. Who we sleep with is spiritual. What we smoke is spiritual. Everything is spiritual. There's no such thing as a spiritual life. And then the rest of my life, there is no just life because Jesus is involved in all of it. And I can't segment my life. I can't say, well, I have Jesus and that's my faith, I'm going to heaven. And then I have my financial plan because Jesus is in all things. Even my finances.
[00:26:18] I can't say I have, I have my plan to get to heaven and then I have my sexuality. Those things are separate. Jesus plus sexuality. Why? Because Jesus is before all things and all things hold together in him. He goes on the next verse. He says he is supreme over everything.
[00:26:33] Supreme meaning the final authority supreme meaning, Lord King, the only one that we bow our knee to, but we do bow our knee to is Jesus. He is supreme over everything. That's who he is. And it is through his death and resurrection, his physical body, that God the Father has chosen to reconcile all things to himself. And if he's reconciling all things to himself, that means he has something to reconcile. In every part of my life, every part of my life is brought back to Christ. There's no segments, there's no Christian part of my life. And then the rest of my life there's no faith part of my life. And then the rest of my life there is only life.
[00:27:11] Now my goal in this sermon is, is not for anyone to feel guilty.
[00:27:17] We talked about our words for the last few weeks. That was kind of heavy. And I knew know we're talking about a lot of controversial things this morning. And it's easy to hear a sermon like this and think, man, that's a lot.
[00:27:32] I want us to think about it like this. How many of you have young kids, like elementary age or down? Anybody?
[00:27:37] Okay, a lot of us.
[00:27:40] How much of the cooking do your kids do?
[00:27:44] Not a lot, right? You don't want like sour gummy worms in your spaghetti. So they don't do a lot of the cooking. Do your kids manage your finances?
[00:27:54] No.
[00:27:55] No. Because you want some finances, right? You would like to have some money. Your dear kids decide what car you buy?
[00:28:01] No, my nine year old son does not decide what car I buy because I'd be driving like a lime green 94 Mustang lowered with underglow on it. And while that might be cool, it would not be practical in Wyoming in the winter, right?
[00:28:16] No, I make those decisions. Why?
[00:28:19] Because I'm better at them.
[00:28:22] I've been cooking for a long time.
[00:28:24] Makes sense for me to do the cooking.
[00:28:26] It's actually good for my son to learn to cook for me because I've been doing it for a while, I can teach him how to do it the right way.
[00:28:34] It's good for my son to learn financial management from me, from adults who've been doing it for a while because we understand how to do it, we can teach him how to do it the right way.
[00:28:45] I make financial decisions with his good in mind. I cook the things that I think he's going to like. We buy cars that are safe for our family.
[00:28:54] They don't make the decisions. Why? Because I've got experience as the parent, I've got experience. It only makes sense for me to have authority over Things that I have experience in, right?
[00:29:06] If I've got the experience, I should have the authority because I'm the one who deserves to do that.
[00:29:13] Jen and I are the ones in our home who deserve, who should be the authority figures because we've been living life longer than our nine year old.
[00:29:20] Why should Jesus have authority over my marriage?
[00:29:25] Not because he's an egomaniacal Lord who wants to micromanage our whole lives, but because he invented marriage.
[00:29:33] He came up with it.
[00:29:35] He looked at the first human and said, it's not good for a human to be alone. I'll make a helper suitable.
[00:29:41] He invented marriage. So of course he should be the authority figure over marriage.
[00:29:47] Because if I let him be king over my marriage, it will be better, right?
[00:29:54] Of course he should be king over my finances. Of course I shouldn't try to give Jesus my heart but keep my wallet. Because he invented a world in which wealth could exist. Scripture says he owns the cattle on a thousand hills, that he commands the treasures of heaven.
[00:30:09] So of course he should be in charge of my finances. And if he is, they're going to be better. Oh, look, that doesn't mean I'm going to get rich, but that means I'm going to live with more freedom and more peace and more hope, more self control. I'm going to live a more meaningful life if he's in charge. And of course he should be in charge. He invented it, right? Of course I should let Jesus be king and lord over my entire life, my entire being, because he is the author of life. He invented life. So he should be the king over all of it. So I bow my knee to King Jesus not because he is some commanding, domineering dictator, but because he is the loving inventor of me and everything I've ever known and he desires me.
[00:30:58] He wants what's good for me.
[00:31:00] And the order is important because the teachings of Jesus do work.
[00:31:05] They do, but they work because He's God.
[00:31:10] I don't worship Jesus because the teachings work. I worship Jesus because He's God.
[00:31:17] And if he's God, what he says goes. If he's God, then I trust him, whether it works out right now or not. If he's God, I trust him whether I can see the plan or not. If He's God, I trust him whether he feels faithful right now or not. Not because he's God. I have a friend who's a philosopher and he used to say he did a lot of work in apologetics and he used to say that people say how could you believe in a God? That's so unfair. He said, that's the wrong question. You should first decide if there is a God. Because if there is a God, he kind of decides what's fair.
[00:31:48] We believe he is fair, he is good, he is loving.
[00:31:54] But we obey him because he's God.
[00:31:58] And because he's God, his teachings work.
[00:32:01] Because he's God, he teaches us to be a better parent. He invented parenting because he's God, he teaches us to have more purpose because he defined the purpose of our lives. Because he's God, he teaches us the right way to live because he invented right and wrong.
[00:32:19] We obey him because he's God. And because he's God, his way works.
[00:32:24] The order is important.
[00:32:26] So I want to leave you with a question.
[00:32:28] As we begin this series, begin walking through the book of Colossians. This is the question I want to ask you. And I don't want this question to give you any guilt. This question is not meant to say, how dare you. This question is meant to be an invitation from our good, loving father to let him who is good at leading, who is good at controlling, have more control. Here's the question. In what part of your life can you give Jesus more control?
[00:32:59] What's the part of your life that you're saying? No, that's. That's not spiritual. I don't. He doesn't need that. Well, part of your life you're saying, no, I don't. I don't want to trust him with that. I don't want to trust him with my sexuality. I don't want to trust him with my money. I don't want to trust him with who I sleep with. I don't want to trust him with how much I drink. I don't want to trust him with my job. I don't want to trust him him with whether I'm single or not.
[00:33:19] What part of your life? Because I promise you, if you trust him with it, he is God and he knows how to manage.
[00:33:29] Might not feel better right away, but if he invented life, then in the long run, his way of living it is going to be better.
[00:33:39] I want you to pray. I want to invite you to pray about this question while we worship Jesus. You are good.
[00:33:46] We love you.
[00:33:50] God, we thank you that you care more about our just, our eternity. While you want us in heaven with you at your desire that none should perish apart from you, you also want us to become who we were created to be now. And you invite us into a life of deepening obedience.
[00:34:08] So God, let us see the beauty of trusting you completely and full. Holy teach us how to be people who don't hold anything back from you.
[00:34:18] Because we see how good you are and because we see who you are, we love you. Amen.
