WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.959 Hey, grab your Bibles, open them up for me to Colossians chapter two. 00:00:03.279 --> 00:00:06.240 Colossians chapter two is where we're going to hang out today. 00:00:06.320 --> 00:00:08.560 It is so good to be back with you. 00:00:08.800 --> 00:00:17.839 I do want to take this opportunity to welcome all of those that may be joining us online, specifically those that are in correctional facilities all over the city of Texas who are watching these services. 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:19.600 Let's give them a hand and celebrate the facts. 00:00:19.679 --> 00:00:21.760 We got those folks on the other side of the camera. 00:00:22.879 --> 00:00:30.559 Had somebody come up to me after the first service who uh used to be in a correctional facility and now goes to our church, which we think is one of the most beautiful things ever. 00:00:30.640 --> 00:00:33.759 Uh, and she simply just said, please, please, please do that every week. 00:00:33.920 --> 00:00:35.119 You have no idea what it means. 00:00:35.200 --> 00:00:39.520 We just want you to know we love you and you are welcome here at United City Church. 00:00:39.600 --> 00:00:41.679 Uh, Colossians chapter two is where we're gonna be. 00:00:41.759 --> 00:00:43.359 I got two things I want to show you today. 00:00:43.520 --> 00:00:49.759 Uh, the first one is something that you most likely uh probably have maybe in your drunk drawer at your house. 00:00:49.840 --> 00:00:52.159 It's something that you don't think about very much. 00:00:52.240 --> 00:00:54.960 Uh uh maybe it's been a while since you've even used one. 00:00:55.039 --> 00:00:56.159 It is a pencil. 00:00:56.479 --> 00:00:57.679 Got me a pencil up here. 00:00:57.840 --> 00:01:01.439 Uh, whenever I was growing up, I feel like I was severely misled. 00:01:01.520 --> 00:01:04.319 I was told that you need to go grab a lead pencil. 00:01:04.480 --> 00:01:05.359 Anybody ever told that? 00:01:05.439 --> 00:01:06.879 You need to grab a lead pencil. 00:01:07.040 --> 00:01:10.400 Uh, did you know there's no lead in a pencil? 00:01:10.719 --> 00:01:12.000 None whatsoever. 00:01:12.159 --> 00:01:18.079 Uh the little gray matter that you use to write on a pencil is actually made up of graphite. 00:01:18.159 --> 00:01:20.959 And if you break it down even further, it's made up of carbon. 00:01:21.120 --> 00:01:21.439 Okay. 00:01:21.680 --> 00:01:25.200 So essentially there's no lead, it's just a carbon pencil. 00:01:25.359 --> 00:01:29.760 The other thing that I brought to you today is something that's much more significant, much more beautiful. 00:01:29.920 --> 00:01:31.280 It is a diamond. 00:01:31.439 --> 00:01:32.959 In fact, there's quite a few diamonds. 00:01:33.040 --> 00:01:36.959 Uh, this is a diamonds that are all made up into a cross necklace. 00:01:37.120 --> 00:01:38.159 Uh, this is my wife. 00:01:38.239 --> 00:01:39.760 She wears it on special occasions. 00:01:39.920 --> 00:01:41.439 A beautiful, beautiful thing here. 00:01:41.519 --> 00:01:44.640 A diamond, of course, we know is the hardest thing in all of the world. 00:01:44.719 --> 00:01:48.560 Like, literally, it's the most most strongest thing that you could possibly ever imagine. 00:01:48.719 --> 00:01:50.879 Think about all that takes place with a diamond, okay? 00:01:51.040 --> 00:01:54.319 Literally, wars have been fought over diamonds, right? 00:01:54.560 --> 00:01:57.840 Uh, diamond is something that you again might put on a necklace like this. 00:01:58.079 --> 00:02:03.920 Maybe it's something that you might put on a ring of a of a woman that indicates something very significant. 00:02:04.239 --> 00:02:09.120 Uh, it's something that you would ensure, it's something that you would admire in every single way. 00:02:09.439 --> 00:02:16.479 Did you know that a pencil and a diamond are made of the same thing? 00:02:17.199 --> 00:02:18.639 This is carbon. 00:02:19.280 --> 00:02:23.280 One you you you write down to where it's a nub and you throw it away. 00:02:23.599 --> 00:02:29.360 The other one you buy insurance on in case you ever lose it, you want to make sure that you can get the money back for it. 00:02:29.759 --> 00:02:32.000 What's the difference in the two? 00:02:32.879 --> 00:02:51.520 A diamond is made up of carbon a hundred miles below the earth, and there is heat and pressure added to it, something we can never reproduce up here, and as a result of that, it crystallizes and comes together, and it makes something that is beautiful and that shines. 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:56.719 It wasn't like the carbon woke up one day as a pencil and thought, you know what I want to be? 00:02:56.800 --> 00:02:57.919 I want to be a diamond. 00:02:58.159 --> 00:02:59.360 And so, you know what I'm gonna do? 00:02:59.520 --> 00:03:04.400 I'm gonna download an app and I'm gonna let that app tell me what I need to do to go try to become a diamond. 00:03:04.639 --> 00:03:06.479 It doesn't wake up at 5 a.m. 00:03:06.639 --> 00:03:08.719 and read books on how to be a diamond. 00:03:08.960 --> 00:03:14.240 It's instead something that happens to it outside of it, something that it can't control. 00:03:14.560 --> 00:03:24.000 And as a result of over time, all of the pressure that is put on it, it becomes something that is beautiful that we get to look at and admire. 00:03:24.319 --> 00:03:35.759 I want to argue this morning that I'm speaking to a bunch of people here who are pencils all their lives trying to become diamonds, and you're exhausted. 00:03:36.400 --> 00:03:45.199 You tried everything that you possibly can think of in order to try to take who you are and make it into something that everyone would look at and admire. 00:03:45.439 --> 00:03:51.520 Everyone would look at and and and just look and admire how beautiful do you look. 00:03:51.759 --> 00:03:58.719 But you find yourself at a place to where you're exhausted, tired, and it's just simply not working. 00:03:59.199 --> 00:04:07.439 I need to tell you something before we go any further because I'm gonna talk to you today about how to achieve change, and this is coming from somebody who is a very disciplined person. 00:04:07.599 --> 00:04:08.879 I'm insanely disciplined. 00:04:08.960 --> 00:04:20.000 It's something that I take a lot of pride in, but I would tell you that not as a source of pride, I tell you that instead as a source of admitting to you that one of my greatest spiritual struggles in all of my life is my own discipline. 00:04:20.240 --> 00:04:24.399 It's because essentially, whenever I look at a problem, I begin to think, what am I gonna do? 00:04:24.560 --> 00:04:27.759 What plan am I gonna put together in order to tackle that problem? 00:04:27.920 --> 00:04:34.079 And here I am today gonna tell you that you and your discipline cannot achieve change in your life. 00:04:34.240 --> 00:04:36.000 Here, who is saying that to you? 00:04:36.079 --> 00:04:37.680 It's somebody who's tried. 00:04:38.000 --> 00:04:42.959 It's somebody who's worked hard, it's somebody who's tried harder than the problem that's put in front of them. 00:04:43.120 --> 00:04:54.319 And I would tell you there are things in my life today that look just like they did many, many years ago, and it's not because I haven't tried to fix them, it's simply because all of my efforts of trying haven't worked. 00:04:55.040 --> 00:04:57.040 If I had to guess, I'm not alone. 00:04:57.519 --> 00:05:06.560 You maybe are here today and you've got a drawer in your life that represents like a museum of all of the things that you tried and failed at to bring about change. 00:05:06.959 --> 00:05:12.160 Do any of you have the journal that you have eight really good entries in in a row? 00:05:12.639 --> 00:05:15.439 Only to look up on day nine, realizing you don't even like journaling. 00:05:15.519 --> 00:05:16.959 I don't know why I'm doing this. 00:05:17.519 --> 00:05:23.279 And then the journal just sits there as a reminder of what you tried and failed. 00:05:23.759 --> 00:05:28.720 Some of you have that streak of you're gonna read the Bible every single day, and guess what? 00:05:28.800 --> 00:05:30.639 It ended in February. 00:05:31.439 --> 00:05:34.879 But you are 45 days into it, and you were really, really good. 00:05:35.360 --> 00:05:45.519 But now it's just a reminder, you don't even want to open it because it just reminds you how far you're behind, how much the streak ended, and how it's no longer something that's gonna be who you are. 00:05:46.959 --> 00:06:04.079 How many of you find yourself at a place where you've got that text message accountability group, and it's really, really good, and it came out really, really hot, and things were really, really great, and then all of a sudden now people have left it unread and no one even says anything anymore, and it's basically gone away. 00:06:04.720 --> 00:06:09.360 Here's the thing, it wasn't like you started out with the thought that I'm gonna fail at this. 00:06:09.600 --> 00:06:12.720 Like whenever you made the commitment, you were all in. 00:06:13.040 --> 00:06:19.600 Like you actually thought, I'm gonna do these things and I'm gonna bring about this change, and you were all fully committed. 00:06:19.759 --> 00:06:22.800 But now, if you were honest, you stand here. 00:06:24.240 --> 00:06:31.680 Five years ago, you have the same hangups, the same habits, and the same difficulties that you used to have. 00:06:31.920 --> 00:06:36.399 And it's not because you haven't tried, it's just because they haven't worked. 00:06:36.720 --> 00:06:43.360 What I want to talk about in Colossians chapter two is really trying to answer this question what are you using to bring about change in your life? 00:06:43.680 --> 00:06:49.600 What is it that you're leaning into in order to go from where you are to where you want to be? 00:06:50.160 --> 00:06:55.600 We're looking at Colossians, the book of Colossians, which was written by the Apostle Paul to a church he's never met. 00:06:56.079 --> 00:07:07.439 And he's writing to a group of people who have false teachers who've come onto the scene, and here's what they're doing: they're not saying Jesus isn't any good, they're instead saying Jesus isn't enough. 00:07:07.839 --> 00:07:12.319 What you need to do is have Jesus and something else. 00:07:12.639 --> 00:07:18.879 And what they're gonna do is they're gonna muddy the water in every single way by trying to get you to add things to Jesus. 00:07:18.959 --> 00:07:24.959 And what I want you to see today is that when you add things to Jesus, what you actually do is replace Jesus. 00:07:25.439 --> 00:07:31.439 And what we want to lead you to do today is to instead admire and look at the only one who can bring about change in your life. 00:07:31.519 --> 00:07:34.800 Let's read Colossians chapter 2, beginning in verse 16. 00:07:34.879 --> 00:07:39.360 I want to ask if you would please stand in the honor of the reading of God's word together. 00:07:44.480 --> 00:07:53.040 He says, Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 00:07:53.519 --> 00:07:58.480 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 00:07:58.720 --> 00:08:17.439 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by a sensuous mind, and not holding fast to his head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. 00:08:17.920 --> 00:08:27.680 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations, do not handle, do not taste, do not touch? 00:08:27.920 --> 00:08:33.360 Referring to things that are all perish as they are used, according to human precepts and teachings. 00:08:33.600 --> 00:08:44.080 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and aestheticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. 00:08:44.240 --> 00:08:45.360 You may be seated. 00:08:47.120 --> 00:08:52.000 Three different times in these two paragraphs, Paul pushes back on the same thing. 00:08:52.399 --> 00:08:55.600 Verse 16, let no one pass judgment on you. 00:08:55.840 --> 00:08:58.879 Verse 18, let no one disqualify you. 00:08:59.039 --> 00:09:02.960 Verse 20, he turns and he asks them why they submit to regulations. 00:09:03.039 --> 00:09:05.840 Under all of these three are one question. 00:09:06.080 --> 00:09:08.720 Who gets to tell you how to change? 00:09:09.200 --> 00:09:17.279 What Paul's gonna do is he's gonna give us three answers to that question of what is not right, and then he's gonna give us the answer in verse 19. 00:09:17.360 --> 00:09:22.320 Let's look first of all at the first one of what does not work to bring about change in your life. 00:09:22.480 --> 00:09:23.759 Number one, write this down. 00:09:24.080 --> 00:09:26.960 Doing more will not change you. 00:09:28.240 --> 00:09:31.679 Doing more will not change you. 00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:37.440 Verse 16 states, therefore, you need to know that means you've got to go back and see what it's connected to. 00:09:37.519 --> 00:09:52.240 What it's connected to is what Brian McCormick led us in through last week in Colossians chapter 2, the beginning, and specifically in verse 14, when he says that the record of debt that stood against us was set aside, nailed to the cross. 00:09:52.399 --> 00:10:00.399 So everything that we're reading here, all these false teachers and what they are teaching, he's saying, look, Jesus has already done all the work. 00:10:00.720 --> 00:10:03.600 There is nothing that needs to be added to it. 00:10:03.759 --> 00:10:06.320 He's not arguing rules versus freedom. 00:10:06.480 --> 00:10:12.320 He's saying a finished work on the cross means the whole system becomes obsolete. 00:10:12.720 --> 00:10:14.159 Look at what he names. 00:10:14.399 --> 00:10:18.960 Verse 16 food and drink, festival, new moon, sabbath. 00:10:19.039 --> 00:10:20.879 That's not a random pile. 00:10:21.039 --> 00:10:27.039 It may be random to us, but a Jewish listener would hear this and immediately think, oh, that's all the stuff I gotta do. 00:10:27.279 --> 00:10:31.600 That's all the things that God has given to us in order to have a right relationship with Him. 00:10:31.759 --> 00:10:34.320 And so therefore, these are the things that I've got to do. 00:10:34.480 --> 00:10:37.360 And he lists all of these festivals, all of these things. 00:10:37.440 --> 00:10:40.159 It's like the whole calendar was laid out. 00:10:40.240 --> 00:10:44.799 And he's basically saying this from top down, all these things you must do. 00:10:44.960 --> 00:10:50.080 And by the way, if you don't, look at verse 16, it says that you are past judgment. 00:10:50.399 --> 00:10:53.039 That's stronger than being critical of you. 00:10:53.600 --> 00:10:57.360 These men believe that they were handing down a verdict on God's behalf. 00:10:57.440 --> 00:11:02.159 They weren't saying, hey, you should follow Jesus and do these things if you can't. 00:11:02.559 --> 00:11:09.600 They were saying, if you don't follow all of these things, then hear me, you don't follow Jesus. 00:11:09.840 --> 00:11:17.919 Now, before we jump on these people too bad, let's begin to look and understand that nothing on Paul's list here is actually bad. 00:11:18.480 --> 00:11:21.679 In fact, God is the one who gave Israel the food laws. 00:11:22.240 --> 00:11:24.240 God is the one who gave them the feast. 00:11:24.480 --> 00:11:26.480 God is the one who gave them the new moons. 00:11:26.639 --> 00:11:28.399 God is the one who gave them the Sabbath. 00:11:28.559 --> 00:11:33.759 The problem is what the teachers did with these gifts that God had given. 00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:46.799 They took the gifts that God meant to be used as a way to have a relationship with Him and turned them into a test that you had to pass, meaning whether you do these things or not determines whether you're in or not. 00:11:47.120 --> 00:11:49.279 Look at verse 17, it describes it. 00:11:49.519 --> 00:11:54.960 These things were actually a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 00:11:55.120 --> 00:11:56.639 A shadow isn't a lie. 00:11:56.960 --> 00:12:02.639 Like a shadow is real, and don't you can't deny it, but you can't focus on the shadow. 00:12:02.799 --> 00:12:05.759 You have to focus on the thing that is casting the shadow. 00:12:05.919 --> 00:12:12.399 Hebrews chapter 10, it tells us that all the laws and all the festivals are not bad things, they just weren't enough. 00:12:12.559 --> 00:12:17.440 They ultimately pointed to the greater thing, which was the person of Jesus. 00:12:17.600 --> 00:12:18.480 So please hear me. 00:12:18.559 --> 00:12:21.679 When the law was given, we knew that things were still left to come. 00:12:21.840 --> 00:12:25.200 When Paul is writing here after the cross, the tense has changed. 00:12:25.360 --> 00:12:26.879 The thing that was coming is here. 00:12:26.960 --> 00:12:29.440 So the shadow hasn't been discredited. 00:12:29.600 --> 00:12:31.519 It just means that it has been finished. 00:12:31.679 --> 00:12:33.519 It did its job. 00:12:33.759 --> 00:12:35.919 And here's why that's really hard for us. 00:12:36.240 --> 00:12:41.919 Because our version of shadows that we make into the substance are also good things. 00:12:42.159 --> 00:12:46.159 Like we don't have new moons, but here's the kind of thing that we would ask. 00:12:46.399 --> 00:12:48.559 Hey, I know that you're going to church and that's great. 00:12:48.720 --> 00:12:50.000 I heard you're even in a small group. 00:12:50.080 --> 00:12:50.960 That's really great too. 00:12:51.120 --> 00:12:53.039 But how do you also go to this Bible study? 00:12:53.120 --> 00:12:54.320 And do you go to this Bible study? 00:12:54.399 --> 00:12:57.279 I've noticed you used to go to four Bible studies, but now you only go to two Bible studies. 00:12:57.360 --> 00:12:58.399 Are you okay spiritually? 00:12:58.559 --> 00:13:00.080 Is something okay with you? 00:13:01.679 --> 00:13:06.320 We've somehow graded your involvement for your spirituality. 00:13:07.039 --> 00:13:13.279 We've put these ideas that somehow the more activity that I do, then that means that mean God must be pleased with me. 00:13:13.360 --> 00:13:14.080 Or how about this? 00:13:14.240 --> 00:13:15.360 Hey, do you journal? 00:13:15.600 --> 00:13:18.159 I mean, like, yeah, but do you really journal? 00:13:18.240 --> 00:13:20.320 Like in an actual leather-bound journal? 00:13:20.559 --> 00:13:22.080 Like, that's spiritual. 00:13:22.320 --> 00:13:23.919 Digital is cheating, all right? 00:13:24.080 --> 00:13:27.120 What you need to do, do you use a real Bible or do you use a digital Bible? 00:13:27.279 --> 00:13:29.600 Because if you use a real Bible, that means you actually love Jesus. 00:13:29.679 --> 00:13:32.080 If you use a digital Bible, that just means that you're lazy, all right? 00:13:32.159 --> 00:13:33.679 That's what that means, okay. 00:13:36.000 --> 00:13:44.720 Folks, we make up all kinds of crazy stuff to make ourselves feel better about where we are in relation to other people. 00:13:45.120 --> 00:13:49.759 And what he's trying to say is this Jesus is enough. 00:13:50.720 --> 00:13:58.639 You want to know how you can determine whether what you're doing is actually to try to have a relationship with Jesus that is of pure heart and mind. 00:13:58.799 --> 00:14:01.200 It's not basically the what, it's the why. 00:14:01.279 --> 00:14:02.720 Here's how you find out the why. 00:14:02.879 --> 00:14:05.200 What do you do when it stops working? 00:14:05.919 --> 00:14:15.200 So I'm praying, I'm reading, I'm serving, I'm sharing, I'm doing all the things that I'm supposed to do, but I don't feel it. 00:14:15.600 --> 00:14:16.799 Folks, please hear me. 00:14:16.879 --> 00:14:23.919 If that's your motivation, and in that moment you begin to stop doing those things, you were never doing those things for the Lord in the first place. 00:14:24.080 --> 00:14:25.759 You were always doing those things for you. 00:14:27.919 --> 00:14:30.320 So ask, not should I be doing this? 00:14:30.480 --> 00:14:32.399 Ask, why am I doing this? 00:14:32.559 --> 00:14:34.960 I'm not trying to act like someone we just do nothing. 00:14:35.279 --> 00:14:43.519 What I am trying to do is this is that I do stuff knowing that God has never once moved, even if I move towards him and I don't feel it. 00:14:43.840 --> 00:14:47.759 Hillary and I have been married 24 and a half years, celebrate 25 years next year. 00:14:47.840 --> 00:14:49.519 And she said the same thing that I would. 00:14:49.600 --> 00:14:52.879 There have been times in our marriage where we don't feel it. 00:14:53.600 --> 00:14:57.840 There have been times in our marriage where it's hot, there's been times in our marriage when it's cold. 00:14:58.000 --> 00:15:02.159 When at times that it's cold, it doesn't mean that I somehow stop dating her. 00:15:02.639 --> 00:15:04.480 Somehow I don't I don't pursue her anymore. 00:15:04.559 --> 00:15:06.000 I don't ask her questions. 00:15:06.159 --> 00:15:09.519 No, the reason why I do those things is not because things are going well. 00:15:09.679 --> 00:15:13.919 I do those things because the end goal of our relationship is I want her. 00:15:14.559 --> 00:15:16.320 Like I want to be with her. 00:15:16.799 --> 00:15:21.039 So often what you see is so many marriages turn into transactions. 00:15:21.200 --> 00:15:28.720 I'm gonna do these things over here, and you're gonna do these things over here, and we're gonna keep score, and we'll see if we're gonna come together as a result of it. 00:15:29.039 --> 00:15:32.240 Folks, we do the very same thing in our relationships with God. 00:15:32.720 --> 00:15:37.759 We think as long as I do these things over here, then God owes me and He has to do these things over here. 00:15:37.919 --> 00:15:38.480 Please hear me. 00:15:38.639 --> 00:15:40.399 God's been the same the whole time. 00:15:41.360 --> 00:15:43.519 He is not once moved. 00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:54.159 So even though you may be on a treadmill, feeling like you're trying to earn his favor, feeling like you're trying to hear his voice, feeling like you're trying to somehow move him in such a way, please hear me. 00:15:54.399 --> 00:15:56.960 Doing more is never going to change you. 00:15:58.480 --> 00:16:01.120 Let's talk about the second thing that Paul knocks off here. 00:16:01.279 --> 00:16:02.159 Write this down. 00:16:02.399 --> 00:16:04.480 Feeling more will not change you. 00:16:05.039 --> 00:16:07.200 Feeling more will not change you. 00:16:07.600 --> 00:16:09.360 Verse 18 is one long sentence. 00:16:09.519 --> 00:16:11.440 Paul packs four things into it. 00:16:12.000 --> 00:16:20.159 He mentions insisting on asceticism, worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up by a sensuous mind. 00:16:20.320 --> 00:16:24.559 He's describing people who have these amazing religious experiences. 00:16:24.720 --> 00:16:29.759 They probably wrote books about them and then they go on speaking tours about their experiences. 00:16:30.399 --> 00:16:37.840 There are folks who go and travel around and simply tell you, if you want to be spiritual like me, then here's what you're going to be able to experience. 00:16:38.080 --> 00:16:45.360 And they describe a path or steps to get to the place where you think you need to be in order to have an experience like them. 00:16:45.519 --> 00:16:49.919 If you truly love Jesus, then you would feel this way, the way that I feel. 00:16:50.080 --> 00:16:58.320 If you truly love Jesus, then you, I the spiritual gifts that I've experienced, the spiritual gifts that I've been able to do, you would be able to do those things as well. 00:16:58.480 --> 00:17:02.879 And what we're essentially saying is this there's a JV and a varsity. 00:17:03.039 --> 00:17:06.960 I'm on varsity and you're on JV because you haven't gotten there yet. 00:17:07.440 --> 00:17:11.279 Folks, you need to understand the whole point of the book of Colossians is this there's no JV. 00:17:11.839 --> 00:17:12.960 There's no JV. 00:17:13.440 --> 00:17:21.359 Think about what these men are actually claiming, not just that they want to know more about, they knew more about God, but they're claiming that they've seen more of heaven than you have. 00:17:21.440 --> 00:17:28.079 And they're telling you, here's the ladder, here's the steps you've got to take in order to have the feeling that I've had. 00:17:29.200 --> 00:17:32.960 They're saying, look, here's the way you climb up to get to God. 00:17:33.359 --> 00:17:36.720 Let me tell you about another ladder in the Bible, Genesis chapter 28. 00:17:37.440 --> 00:17:42.480 Jacob is running for his life after lying to his father and cheating his brother. 00:17:42.720 --> 00:17:55.759 He sleeps out in the open with a rock for a pillow, and he dreams about a ladder that's set up on the earth, reaching all the way up to heaven, where the angels of God are going up and down, and the Lord is standing above it. 00:17:55.920 --> 00:18:01.519 Now, I want you to notice this dream that's happening while Jacob is asleep. 00:18:01.759 --> 00:18:11.920 He doesn't build the ladder, he doesn't climb it, he's lying in the dirt at the bottom, running from the mess that he made, and the heavens open up over his head anyway. 00:18:12.319 --> 00:18:18.799 When he wakes up from his dream, he says these words surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it. 00:18:19.119 --> 00:18:28.880 Fast forward centuries later, John chapter 1, verse 51, John Jesus tells Nathanael that he'll see the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. 00:18:29.039 --> 00:18:31.519 Jesus is telling him this, I'm the ladder. 00:18:32.960 --> 00:18:39.279 It's not about what you laying on the ground in the dirt asleep have to climb up to get to me. 00:18:39.440 --> 00:18:46.079 Instead, what you need to know, the whole point is this Jesus climbed down the ladder to get to you. 00:18:46.880 --> 00:18:50.880 And that truth by itself is enough. 00:18:51.519 --> 00:18:56.559 I remember back in college, I also remember back in seminary, the big thing was this: like, oh, it's so great, man, that you know the word. 00:18:56.799 --> 00:19:00.079 It's so great that you've experienced Jesus, it's so great that you've got salvation. 00:19:00.160 --> 00:19:03.920 But can I just ask you the question that really is the litmus test over whether you're truly spiritual? 00:19:04.079 --> 00:19:05.359 Have you ever spoken in tongues? 00:19:06.319 --> 00:19:07.920 That was the question. 00:19:08.319 --> 00:19:13.440 Look, I'm not trying to somehow act like the gifts of the spirit are gone and done done done and gone with. 00:19:13.519 --> 00:19:23.119 I'm not saying that at all, but I am saying this to use any measure of the spiritual gifts as a litmus test for your spirituality is absolutely against what the scripture teaches in every way. 00:19:24.720 --> 00:19:28.400 Yet we buy into this whole thing that it's like, well, man, I want that. 00:19:28.960 --> 00:19:30.640 Maybe I'm not spiritual. 00:19:30.880 --> 00:19:32.559 Maybe God hasn't spoken to me. 00:19:32.720 --> 00:19:36.160 I mean, some people, other people talk as though somehow like they talk to God all the time. 00:19:36.240 --> 00:19:38.960 I feel like I'm praying and then it doesn't go above the ceiling. 00:19:39.039 --> 00:19:40.319 And we kind of use this. 00:19:40.480 --> 00:19:41.920 How do I feel about this? 00:19:42.079 --> 00:19:45.519 This is going to be the determining whether God must be happy with me or not. 00:19:45.920 --> 00:19:46.720 You ever done this? 00:19:46.880 --> 00:19:48.240 Go to worship service? 00:19:48.480 --> 00:19:50.880 And you ask the question, man, I just didn't feel it today. 00:19:51.039 --> 00:19:52.400 Did you feel it today? 00:19:52.720 --> 00:19:55.759 Or somebody comes in there and they're just like, man, worship was off the chain today. 00:19:55.839 --> 00:19:56.319 It was so great. 00:19:56.480 --> 00:20:02.079 Man, I just and you could just see they're expressive and you see they're so into it, and you're like, I've never had that. 00:20:02.319 --> 00:20:04.400 Does that mean that somehow I'm not really worshiping? 00:20:04.480 --> 00:20:06.079 No, that's not at all what it's trying to say. 00:20:06.160 --> 00:20:22.319 Look, there are times when look, and we want to make sure our worship is engaged in every way, mentally, emotionally, physically, absolutely, but we can't allow the whole idea of being, did I feel it today to be the evidence of whether God is real or God is present in that place? 00:20:22.480 --> 00:20:27.279 Because then we start asking crazy stuff like, Well, I'm just gonna go to a church where I can feel it. 00:20:28.559 --> 00:20:29.920 Let me just tell you something. 00:20:30.079 --> 00:20:34.960 You'll feel it for a little bit, and then you're gonna realize that feeling is not trustworthy. 00:20:36.880 --> 00:20:42.960 Instead, what we have to understand is that when God does allow us to truly feel it, praise God for that. 00:20:43.119 --> 00:20:50.160 And other weeks when we don't feel it, God is still just as present in that place as he ever was before. 00:20:53.920 --> 00:20:59.759 So I worship him in spirit and in truth, not in feeling. 00:21:02.400 --> 00:21:06.640 I worship him because even when I don't feel it, he's still worth it. 00:21:08.000 --> 00:21:13.359 I worship him because even on my worst week, he's still worthy of praise. 00:21:14.480 --> 00:21:17.599 I worship him like Paul did whenever he was in prison. 00:21:17.680 --> 00:21:18.559 And what does it say? 00:21:18.720 --> 00:21:21.839 While he was in prison, a worship service broke out. 00:21:22.240 --> 00:21:24.240 You think he felt it in prison? 00:21:24.559 --> 00:21:24.880 No. 00:21:26.720 --> 00:21:40.880 But I know that God is worthy of all that I am and all that I am my being, and so therefore I do not make my external feelings the litmus test of whether I've truly experienced change in my life. 00:21:41.759 --> 00:21:43.759 We're gonna skip verse 19, come back to it. 00:21:43.920 --> 00:21:47.039 Third thing, though, is found in verse 20 through 23. 00:21:47.200 --> 00:21:48.000 Let's write this down. 00:21:48.160 --> 00:21:51.759 Number three, the third thing that he attacks about how to bring about change. 00:21:51.920 --> 00:21:55.599 Number three, giving up will not change, giving up more will not change you. 00:21:56.960 --> 00:21:59.119 Giving up more will not change you. 00:22:00.640 --> 00:22:07.759 Verse 20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why as if you were still alive in the world do you submit to regulations? 00:22:08.240 --> 00:22:10.240 Let me mention two things though about that verse. 00:22:10.400 --> 00:22:12.799 First, he's not asking whether they died. 00:22:12.880 --> 00:22:15.599 It's not like asking if this is a did you guys die from this? 00:22:15.759 --> 00:22:23.119 No, it's stating kind of a hypothetical situation here where he's basically saying, look, a dead man is out from under the old jurisdiction. 00:22:23.359 --> 00:22:26.000 You don't answer to a system that you already died out of. 00:22:26.160 --> 00:22:27.519 Like, why are you doing this again? 00:22:27.680 --> 00:22:28.480 It's gone. 00:22:28.640 --> 00:22:30.720 Don't go back to what you used to do. 00:22:31.039 --> 00:22:34.319 Second, Paul stops arguing with the teachers up until now. 00:22:34.400 --> 00:22:36.559 It's been, don't let anybody do this to you. 00:22:36.799 --> 00:22:39.200 Now it's why are you letting them do this to you? 00:22:39.680 --> 00:22:44.000 The problem isn't just what's being done to them anymore, it's what they're reaching for. 00:22:44.160 --> 00:22:51.359 Verse 21, he quotes their own rules back at them: do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. 00:22:52.160 --> 00:22:57.359 Verse 22, he adds this statement, these are all things that perish as they are used. 00:22:57.519 --> 00:23:02.160 They're building a whole spiritual system around stuff that rots. 00:23:03.119 --> 00:23:04.640 And look at verse 23. 00:23:05.039 --> 00:23:14.079 He says, It looks wise, self-made religion, aestheticism, severity to the body, but it has no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. 00:23:15.200 --> 00:23:19.279 I want you to picture you're outside mowing, mowing the yard, okay? 00:23:19.599 --> 00:23:22.079 Only way to mow the yard right is to do it in lines, right? 00:23:22.240 --> 00:23:23.200 That's the whole point of it. 00:23:23.440 --> 00:23:24.880 Because you want to see your work. 00:23:25.039 --> 00:23:33.680 Uh and so let's say you're mowing out there and you're doing the lines, and you look over and you notice that a couple of lines away from you, where you're about to get to, is a very large ant pile, okay? 00:23:33.839 --> 00:23:34.640 Fire ant pile. 00:23:34.720 --> 00:23:36.160 I mean, these things are massive, okay? 00:23:36.400 --> 00:23:41.119 And you see that thing, and you're just thinking the whole time, man, I cannot wait until that's on my line, right? 00:23:42.720 --> 00:23:49.359 You actually look over and you get enough to see that it's a little bit active, so you can tell like it's not like an old ant pile, like it's like a living ant pile, right? 00:23:49.519 --> 00:24:01.359 There are a few things in life, probably a lot more actually, but for this cake of this conversation, there's a few things in life better than being able to take on that line and boom, right over that ant pile. 00:24:01.440 --> 00:24:02.400 You know what I'm talking about? 00:24:02.559 --> 00:24:04.000 Just flatten that sucker. 00:24:04.319 --> 00:24:06.880 I mean, it's just so great, right? 00:24:07.039 --> 00:24:11.279 You go over it and you just see them all mad as ever, and you just walk off, just like, yeah, that's right. 00:24:11.359 --> 00:24:11.920 I own you. 00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:13.519 You know the kind of deal. 00:24:15.359 --> 00:24:22.160 You wake up the next day and you're walking outside, and you just want to go and take a look at your victory from the day before. 00:24:22.400 --> 00:24:23.839 And what do you notice? 00:24:24.559 --> 00:24:30.160 It's bigger and it's moved over to the left a little bit just to mess with you, right? 00:24:31.359 --> 00:24:32.000 Why? 00:24:32.720 --> 00:24:37.359 Because you flattening that ant pile did nothing to change the ant pile. 00:24:38.000 --> 00:24:46.079 All it did, I mean, what the colony was underneath, all you were doing was taking that mower to the evidence. 00:24:46.559 --> 00:24:51.920 But while you were taking over that mound and you were flattening it at that time, guess what was happening? 00:24:52.160 --> 00:25:06.720 Underneath the ground, below the ground, were all of these tunnels, and the queen was doing her work, and she was laying all of these eggs, and so therefore, she wasn't affected at all by the mower that was on top because all of her work was down below. 00:25:06.880 --> 00:25:07.519 Please hear me. 00:25:07.680 --> 00:25:10.319 Verse 27, that's exactly what it's trying to say. 00:25:10.640 --> 00:25:15.119 Rules can keep you in line, but they can't change your heart. 00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:20.160 Rules can flatten the mound, but they can't touch the queen. 00:25:21.440 --> 00:25:26.640 You have got to experience something that rules can never accomplish in your life. 00:25:27.039 --> 00:25:33.839 And so some of you think, well, if I just give up enough, if I sacrifice enough, then God's gonna make change in my life. 00:25:33.920 --> 00:25:34.640 Please hear me. 00:25:34.720 --> 00:25:36.799 That's never how it works. 00:25:37.039 --> 00:25:38.240 Let me tell you how I know this. 00:25:38.319 --> 00:25:40.079 I know this too vividly well. 00:25:40.400 --> 00:25:51.839 Earlier this year, uh, we led the church through 21 days of prayer, and we've been asking you for the last many years, the last week of our 21 days of prayer, to fast as a body of a church. 00:25:51.920 --> 00:25:55.519 And that we would just fast and ask for God to move in heart in our lives and our hearts. 00:25:55.599 --> 00:25:58.960 Um, I never want to call the church to do something that I don't lead out on. 00:25:59.039 --> 00:26:00.559 I just feel convicted by that. 00:26:00.640 --> 00:26:07.279 Uh, and so uh this year I felt like the Lord was prompting me to actually fast all 21 days. 00:26:07.519 --> 00:26:10.079 So, not just the last seven days, but all 21 days. 00:26:10.160 --> 00:26:13.440 And I had literally water and no food for 21 days. 00:26:13.519 --> 00:26:14.640 Now, let me make a couple of comments. 00:26:14.720 --> 00:26:16.319 One, I'm not telling you that in any way to brag. 00:26:16.400 --> 00:26:18.799 I'm not saying that you need to do that, I'm not telling any of those things. 00:26:18.960 --> 00:26:26.240 Uh, in fact, I would tell you if you're ever gonna fast, one, you need to make sure to consult with your doctor, make sure you consult with your spouse, make sure you guys are on the same page. 00:26:26.400 --> 00:26:27.599 I would also, though, tell you this. 00:26:27.759 --> 00:26:34.960 Many of you have tried fasting and and we've talked about it every year, and you're like, man, I kind of want to do that, and you think day three, I'm gonna die. 00:26:36.880 --> 00:26:38.559 You're not gonna die. 00:26:38.880 --> 00:26:41.759 I just want you to know that you're not gonna die, okay? 00:26:41.920 --> 00:26:43.279 Uh, so 21 days. 00:26:43.359 --> 00:26:44.960 That's what I felt like I was supposed to be doing, okay? 00:26:45.119 --> 00:26:47.759 So physically, there was a lot of great benefits. 00:26:47.839 --> 00:26:52.880 Just if you know this, just the background physiologically, like there's a lot of really healthy things that go along with fasting. 00:26:52.960 --> 00:26:54.559 I mean, it kind of helps you. 00:26:54.640 --> 00:26:55.920 It I lost a bunch of weight. 00:26:56.000 --> 00:26:59.359 I didn't need to lose a bunch of weight, but you know, it's never who never who never wants to lose weight, right? 00:26:59.440 --> 00:27:00.640 I mean, it's always something like that. 00:27:00.720 --> 00:27:03.839 I lost 21 pounds uh in the middle of that time. 00:27:03.920 --> 00:27:06.960 And so it was definitely something that I felt great. 00:27:07.119 --> 00:27:12.319 I felt like with so much mental clarity, it was really, really a physically, physically a really good experience. 00:27:12.559 --> 00:27:19.279 Spiritually, though, it was a very frustrating because I did it for the purpose of being able to hear from the Lord. 00:27:19.519 --> 00:27:20.960 I wanted him to give me revelation. 00:27:21.119 --> 00:27:28.480 I want him to tell me about what he needed to do in my family and what he wanted me to do at the church, and what he wanted to do in the future, and all the different things that go along with that. 00:27:28.559 --> 00:27:43.119 And I just felt like I was seeking him and not eating, and instead trying to pursue him, and I was doing all of these things, and it just never, no light bulb moments, no, no lightning flash, no neon red signs, nothing ever happened in the midst of all of this. 00:27:43.359 --> 00:27:52.799 And so I knew that we were heading into the very end of this, it was gonna be a churchwide prayer service, which we did last year that was one of my favorite services in the entire year of the church calendar. 00:27:52.880 --> 00:27:53.599 It was incredible. 00:27:53.759 --> 00:27:58.240 So I was so looking forward to ending our collective fast all together at the church. 00:27:58.400 --> 00:28:07.119 If you remember, early in January, there was that really weird weekend when all of a sudden we thought that everything was gonna freeze and literally everybody shut down. 00:28:07.279 --> 00:28:10.640 We put services online like everybody else did, and what happened? 00:28:10.880 --> 00:28:11.680 Absolutely nothing. 00:28:11.839 --> 00:28:12.880 Do you remember that? 00:28:13.519 --> 00:28:22.640 So I'm at home at the end of my fast, not gathered with the church, throwing a pity party eating my first meal. 00:28:23.920 --> 00:28:26.799 I would tell you, I was in that funk for months. 00:28:27.359 --> 00:28:28.640 I was just frustrated. 00:28:29.119 --> 00:28:30.720 I was just kind of angry. 00:28:31.119 --> 00:28:35.759 I was I didn't feel like I thought I'd sacrifice all this stuff for you. 00:28:36.400 --> 00:28:38.240 And this is how you're repaying me? 00:28:38.400 --> 00:28:41.119 Like you're giving me nothing this summer. 00:28:41.359 --> 00:28:44.799 God didn't speak audibly to me, but I'm telling you, I heard it as clear as day. 00:28:45.200 --> 00:28:46.240 He said this. 00:28:46.880 --> 00:28:48.319 Who did you fast for? 00:28:50.880 --> 00:28:57.680 It sounds like you did this for you instead of doing this for me. 00:29:02.400 --> 00:29:07.519 For 21 days, and God's not impressed at all. 00:29:09.440 --> 00:29:10.079 Why? 00:29:11.200 --> 00:29:15.359 Because I was acting like I was giving him an offering. 00:29:15.839 --> 00:29:18.400 In reality, I was giving him a transaction. 00:29:20.480 --> 00:29:26.240 Hey, I'm gonna pay my debt, and you're gonna give me all the merchandise that I that I'm owed. 00:29:27.359 --> 00:29:30.000 Of course, I want you to see that's verse 23 all over again. 00:29:30.640 --> 00:29:33.759 It looked like wisdom, but it had no value. 00:29:35.039 --> 00:29:37.119 Where are you doing the same thing? 00:29:38.240 --> 00:29:47.759 Every time you try to change by doing more, by feeling more, by giving up more, you're adding something to Jesus, and please hear me. 00:29:47.920 --> 00:29:51.920 When you add something to Jesus, you're not adding, you're replacing. 00:29:52.160 --> 00:29:56.319 Jesus plus nothing equals everything. 00:29:58.799 --> 00:30:00.559 I want you to think about the gospel. 00:30:01.359 --> 00:30:06.720 What we think is that since I've sinned, I should suffer, and if I suffer enough, then I'm finally going to be different. 00:30:07.440 --> 00:30:10.240