SPEAKER_00: By the way, quick disclaimer for those of you who enjoy many of the songs we sing in our weekly email that goes out, we do include a playlist of all the songs we'll be singing on Sunday morning.
SPEAKER_00: Or you can go on our website, RedeemerChurchGSO.com, and click the resources tab and see our Spotify playlist so you can play those uh songs in your home to prepare to worship with us.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't mind, let's just pray one more time as we get into the preaching of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Father God, thank you for this opportunity to gather as a faith family to hear from you through your word.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, use me as an instrument in your hands to edify your people.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, anything that may come out of my mouth that's not of you of your word, may it fall flat on the floor.
SPEAKER_00: But whatever is of your word that edifies your saints and brings hope to the lost and the hurting, Father, may you implant it on hearts today for your glory and for your good.
SPEAKER_00: Be exalted in this moment.
SPEAKER_00: In Christ's name I pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Well, friends, in our culture, we all value wisdom and knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: I doubt anyone in this room would raise their hand and say, you know what, I really don't care about growing in wisdom and knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: This is a dominant theme in our culture, which is why self-help books are bestsellers, which is why people see therapists, listen to podcasts, or there's an entire career field of life coaches, because we all recognize we lack wisdom and knowledge, and we need to grow in wisdom and knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe the longer you've been a Christian and you read your Bible and you read books like the book of Proverbs, you sometimes realize I have a lot in common with this uh fool the Bible keeps referring to, which is a sign you lack knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: We need to grow.
SPEAKER_00: So the question has never been, you know, do we as people do we want to be wise?
SPEAKER_00: We all want to be known as wise to other people.
SPEAKER_00: The question is, where does true God-honoring wisdom come from and where does it take us?
SPEAKER_00: What should that wisdom do in our hearts and in our minds and in our lives?
SPEAKER_00: An example of this is in the Old Testament when King David realized it was time to hand the reins over to his son Solomon, who would be the new king of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And in 1 Chronicles chapter 22, David says this of his son Solomon and preparing him to become king.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Chronicles 22, verse 12, David says, Above all, may the Lord give you insight and understanding when he puts you in charge of Israel, so that you may keep the law of the Lord your God.
SPEAKER_00: So for King David, he thought, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: What would serve my son best so that he can be a faithful, righteous king over Israel?
SPEAKER_00: And to David, he knew he needed God to grant Solomon insight and understanding so that he may obey the Lord his God.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom in the Bible, friends, is never an end in of itself.
SPEAKER_00: We don't get wisdom for wisdom's sake.
SPEAKER_00: We don't pursue wisdom so that we can brag about we're smarter than other Christians in our lives, or just so that we feel better about ourselves because we have a lot of knowledge stored in our minds.
SPEAKER_00: It always translates into godly living.
SPEAKER_00: It's always meant to land in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Knowledge sinks to our hearts and shapes how we live.
SPEAKER_00: Which brings me to Colossians this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Paul opens Colossians with essentially the same prayer David prayed for Solomon.
SPEAKER_00: He's praying for these Christians in Colossi: that they will grow in wisdom and understanding so that they can know who they are, know the God who saved them through the person and work of Christ, and live in light of that information.
SPEAKER_00: So the big idea I want us to pay attention to this morning is this.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, what you know about God, his word, and his gospel should shape how you live.
SPEAKER_00: What you know about God, his word, and his gospel should shape how you live.
SPEAKER_00: So let's look at what Paul prays on behalf of the church and Colossi, because what he asked for tells you everything about God, what God wants for your life as his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to be focusing on verses nine through 14, where Paul, maybe some of your Bible headings, say uh his prayer for spiritual growth.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look down briefly at verses nine through 10.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, For this reason also, since the day we heard this, heard of their faith, their faithfulness in following Christ, we haven't stopped praying for you.
SPEAKER_00: We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work, and growing in the knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, your theology was never meant to primarily just stay in your head.
SPEAKER_00: Sound doctrine is not meant to just stay in your head.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just walk through line by line what exactly Paul is praying for on behalf of these Colossian Christians.
SPEAKER_00: He starts out by praying on their behalf that they may be filled with the knowledge of God's will.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't a prayer for mere head facts.
SPEAKER_00: It is a prayer that the gospel, God's redemptive plan for the nations that save these Christians in Colossae, would saturate them and penetrate their hearts and lead to godly living.
SPEAKER_00: Now, here's the problem.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I've already alluded to this a few times, but the problem is someone, or a group of people rather, had been tempting the Christians in Colossi with some form of heresy.
SPEAKER_00: The author, Paul, does not give us the specifics of the false teaching, but there's hints sprinkled throughout this leather.
SPEAKER_00: So what is clear is that whatever they were teaching, it was like some kind of esoteric mysticism of believe in Jesus, but also believe in like worshiping angels and keeping the law and all these other secret avenues by which you could have a more impressive intimacy with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Because if you pay attention when you read Colossians, you actually notice Paul uses this word fullness often, which makes many think maybe that's he's using that word fullness because that's what the false teachers were saying.
SPEAKER_00: You can have fullness in Christ by believing in Jesus and the gospel, but also by pursuing these other avenues to have a deeper relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul is saying, no, no, no, fullness is found in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Fullness is found in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: I believe there is something there.
SPEAKER_00: I believe Paul is strategically using that word, but my point is the problem is that the Colossian Christians were being tempted by these false teachers to add to Jesus in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul is saying, friends, you have all that you need in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So I believe he's trying to help them.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, this heresy that's infiltrating the church is promising some kind of secret, elite, spirit, uh, elite spiritual insight.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul's response isn't to, well, let me compete with that by offering some new knowledge or some new version of Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: He prays that they would properly use what they already have in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul isn't praying on their behalf when he says that they should be filled with the knowledge of his will.
SPEAKER_00: He's not praying that they be filled with some new knowledge that they don't already possess.
SPEAKER_00: He's praying that the gospel they already have believed in and that has saved them would grip their hearts and remind them of the overflow of God's love they already have received past tense.
SPEAKER_00: So let me just modernize this a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: It's almost like when we as Christians, we have everything we need because we're united to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We have the gospel, we have God's Spirit indwelling in us, but we feel like, but there's something missing in my faith.
SPEAKER_00: I need to go to like some Christian conference and get this like this high, or I need to go do this, or I have to have some experience because then I'll feel fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, well, then you're saying what Jesus did on the cross is not enough, because you're trying to add to what God has already supplied.
SPEAKER_00: So he prays that they would be filled with the knowledge of his will.
SPEAKER_00: It reminds me of his prayer on behalf of the Ephesian Christians.
SPEAKER_00: It's very similar.
SPEAKER_00: He it's almost like he's praying, God, would you just open the eyes of their hearts so that they grow in an experiential knowledge of what they already possess?
SPEAKER_00: That is what Paul is seeking the Lord on their behalf for.
SPEAKER_00: But he prays that they would grow in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
SPEAKER_00: These two words appear together in the Old Testament in 1 Chronicles, as I just read, and when David prays for his son Solomon, wisdom typically is knowing how to live.
SPEAKER_00: So in biblical times, especially in a Hebrew context, wisdom and knowledge was not equated with facts in your head.
SPEAKER_00: It was skillful living, living in light of what you knew factually in your head.
SPEAKER_00: So he, Paul is praying that these Colossian Christians will grow in their wisdom, but also in their understanding, which is another way of saying their discernment and how to lead a life in which they apply in their daily life what they already know through God's word.
SPEAKER_00: So he wants them to grow in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul isn't asking God to give these Colossian Christians or us today something they don't already have.
SPEAKER_00: He's asking God to help them properly use what is already theirs in Christ's.
SPEAKER_00: Now I know I'm repeating myself, but isn't this the Christian life, friends, where we're constantly having to remind ourselves of stuff we already know and believe because we're prone to wonder from the God we love?
SPEAKER_00: Because we know we're justified by faith, but sometimes we still feel like I have to earn God's favor through my good deeds.
SPEAKER_00: Because we know that Jesus spilled his blood to purchase us, but we still wonder, does God love us?
SPEAKER_00: We have to constantly, repetitiously remind us of what we already possess in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And when you look at verse 10, Paul makes a connection here.
SPEAKER_00: He says, so that, whenever you see that phrase, that's an indicator to you that this is connecting something.
SPEAKER_00: He wants them to grow in wisdom and understanding and knowledge of his will and all spiritual, uh and all spiritual understanding, so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work.
SPEAKER_00: God honoring knowledge that comes from Scripture has a destination.
SPEAKER_00: The purpose of being filled with wisdom is so that you walk worthy of the Lord and you bear fruit.
SPEAKER_00: The purpose of being filled with wisdom is walking worthy of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Theology, Bible intake is never meant to be purely an academic endeavor, ever for the Christian.
SPEAKER_00: It is an ethical endeavor.
SPEAKER_00: The knowledge shapes the living.
SPEAKER_00: What you know about God has to reach what you do on Monday morning, not just what you study and store in your mind.
SPEAKER_00: This language of walking in a manner worthy, we're familiar with that language if you if you've been a Christian for a while.
SPEAKER_00: Whenever the Bible talks about walking, it's referring to a lifestyle, a pattern of life.
SPEAKER_00: It's your habitual pattern, though everyone in this room is a flaw center struggling forward, but the normative pattern is striving to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Not a one-time decision that you made many moons ago, but an ongoing lifestyle.
SPEAKER_00: Now, let me be careful because I know many of us come from different church backgrounds, religious backgrounds.
SPEAKER_00: When Paul uses this language of walking in a manner worthy, that worthy does not refer to owning or rather earning God's love by showing or proving your worth, as if there's this exchange of look at all the deeds I'm doing, God, look at the boxes I've checked, look at all the sins I've abstained from, the temptation I fight, my church attendance, how often I read my Bible, am I worthy?
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus says, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, good resume.
SPEAKER_00: You are worthy of my love.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: Walking in a manner worthy means you already have God's love set on you.
SPEAKER_00: You already have been judicially declared justified in the courtroom of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: God has chosen to forever think of you as forgiven and as a child.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, live your life in light of who you are.
SPEAKER_00: If you truly are a justified adopted child of God, then live as if you are that.
SPEAKER_00: It reminds me of growing up when, unfortunately, I was a problem in the public school system.
SPEAKER_00: I was the class clown.
SPEAKER_00: I got in trouble as early as I can remember.
SPEAKER_00: We can go all the way back to preschool.
SPEAKER_00: And often I would be disciplined and get in trouble, both in school and at home.
SPEAKER_00: And my mom sometimes would remind me when you step out of this house and you go to school, you represent me.
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of like our sanctification.
SPEAKER_00: Like live what you already are.
SPEAKER_00: Live out who you are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Represent your heavenly Father in a manner worthy of his name.
SPEAKER_00: And all of us who are in Christ should be bearing fruit in every good work, as Paul goes on to pray on their behalf.
SPEAKER_00: This is the output of the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom that does not bear fruit in the life of a Christian is no wisdom at all.
SPEAKER_00: Just receive that.
SPEAKER_00: If you claim to know God's word and you have the knowledge of what God calls you to in daily living, of what it means to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel, and yet that's not exemplified in your life, then you are lacking in wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: There is a disconnect because the wisdom should lead to a worthy walk that also bears fruit, which gives, remember, we went through the book of James, right?
SPEAKER_00: Those who have faith, that faith is evidenced through our deeds, through our lives.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul also prays that they are increasing in the knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_00: Increasing.
SPEAKER_00: That is an ongoing pattern, Paul is praying.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is praying that these Colossian Christians, as they walk in a manner worthy of the gospel, bearing fruit in every good work, will have an ongoing, increasing knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_00: Notice it's like Paul gives us uh the sanctification loop process.
SPEAKER_00: Here's how it goes True God-honoring knowledge leads to godly living, which then leads to a deeper knowledge of God, which leads to obedience that deepens your intimacy with God, and walking with God teaches you more about God.
SPEAKER_00: It's like God created this like built-in cheat code to make sure that you're always growing in holiness and growing in your intimacy and love for the Father by following and obeying the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Knowledge leads to godly living, living, which leads to a deeper knowledge of God, which leads to obedience that deepens intimacy with God, and walking with God teaches you more about God.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that helpful just to know?
SPEAKER_00: It's like the more I walk with God, the more I learn about God and myself as a byproduct.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just give some some thoughts here to apply this.
SPEAKER_00: We, you can have a lot of Bible knowledge and still be spiritually stagnant as a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: You can know a whole lot of Bible, you can memorize passages of scripture, you can wax eloquent topics of theology.
SPEAKER_00: I have known people like this who can defend the faith, who can quote the Puritans and all these things, and yet are spiritually stagnant in their Christian walk.
SPEAKER_00: The goal of every church gathering, the goal of every sermon, the goal of why we do everything as a local church isn't to, for me to stand up here and look at all of you as brains on the stick and I just need to transfer information into your heads.
SPEAKER_00: No, the goal is transformation.
SPEAKER_00: The goal is transformation.
SPEAKER_00: We are trying to reach the head, the heart, and the hands through the transforming power of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: It is God's word that creates God's people.
SPEAKER_00: God's word is always meant to transform those it encounters.
SPEAKER_00: So let me ask you something, if we're going to be honest this morning, is your knowledge of the gospel, is your knowledge of God and his word actually changing you?
SPEAKER_00: Or is it just content you're becoming more and more familiar with?
SPEAKER_00: Because those are, friends, two different things.
SPEAKER_00: There are people who sit in churches for decades and they know a lot of Bible, a lot of Bible, a lot of theology, and none of it is really changing them all that much.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying those people are not Christians.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying something is off.
SPEAKER_00: There is a clear disconnect.
SPEAKER_00: If you've been in church for a while, you can fall prey to knowing the lingo, speaking Christianese.
SPEAKER_00: But is what you know about God showing up in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Is what you give verbal assent to, what you say you agree with when you study the Bible, is it showing up in how you love your spouse?
SPEAKER_00: And when you're faced with temptation and no one is around you and the decisions you make in those moments, and how you confess sin, how you pursue reconciliation, how you steward your finances, how you love other people, how you share the gospel, or whether you share the gospel at all, is God's word actually shaping your life?
SPEAKER_00: If not, then some self-examination respectfully, lovingly, is in order.
SPEAKER_00: That's like if I told you guys I'm I play for the Los Angeles Lakers.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the start.
SPEAKER_00: Why you laugh so quickly?
SPEAKER_00: What my goodness.
SPEAKER_00: I do got a little bit of game.
SPEAKER_00: If I'm running around saying I play for the Los Angeles Lakers, and yet y'all go on the website and look on the roster, and you're like, Cam, you ain't on the roster.
SPEAKER_00: I ain't seen you dress up for a game.
SPEAKER_00: I haven't seen you record a single stat.
SPEAKER_00: That would make sense.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, because there is no evidence of what I am professing.
SPEAKER_00: The same goes for those who profess to be children of God.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a child of God, and yet you look like a son of Satan.
SPEAKER_00: There it had there can't be that disconnect.
SPEAKER_00: Those who know God's word are transformed by his word.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a good diagnostic question for all of us looking at Paul's prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's prayer forces on every one of us this.
SPEAKER_00: Where is your theology landing?
SPEAKER_00: Is it landing primarily in your head or is it landing in your life?
SPEAKER_00: And if you recognize through the conviction of the Holy Spirit, there are areas where I feel like it's just stopping in my head, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Praise be to God.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's a gift of God's kindness to us to reveal to us areas where maybe we are succumbing to sin and temptation or where we're weak and immature and need to grow.
SPEAKER_00: That is a gift of his grace to say, son, daughter, I want you to enjoy more of me in this area of your life.
SPEAKER_00: So then we just agree with the Lord and say, Lord, help me in this area.
SPEAKER_00: Help me to connect the dots from what I believe in my head to sink into my heart and shape how I live.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul doesn't stop at calling you and I to walk worthy of the Lord and his gospel.
SPEAKER_00: He immediately prays on behalf of the Colossians for the power to do the very things he's praying for.
SPEAKER_00: And what he asked for might surprise you if you look down at verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 11, he goes on, being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, joyfully giving thanks to the Father who has enabled you to share in the saints' inheritance in the light.
SPEAKER_00: You see that so that phrase again, don't you, in verse 11?
SPEAKER_00: Being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might.
SPEAKER_00: Praise be to God that one of the realities of your sanctification, Christian, is that God supplies what he requires.
SPEAKER_00: God will never command you to do anything.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't supply the power for you to obey.
SPEAKER_00: God supplies what he requires.
SPEAKER_00: When Paul prays for these saints to be strengthened with all power according to God's glorious might, he is not referring to their willpower.
SPEAKER_00: He is not praying, I hope y'all work as hard as you possibly can to be holy.
SPEAKER_00: He's not encouraging them to go buy a book on Amazon and implement next week some discipline habits.
SPEAKER_00: This is divine resurrection level power at work in ordinary Christians in the ordinary, quote unquote, mundane aspects of their lives.
SPEAKER_00: Now, don't get me wrong, as Christians, we are called to work.
SPEAKER_00: So there is like this tension in a lot of Christian circles where most just seem to like be very confused about how sanctification works.
SPEAKER_00: So you got one camp that might, you know, be more in the legalistic of, well, it's all about you got to do, do, do, do all the right things, check the right boxes.
SPEAKER_00: And they're partially right.
SPEAKER_00: That's why these are always controversial.
SPEAKER_00: You.
SPEAKER_00: Then there's the other camp that's kind of like borderline antinomianism, if you're familiar with that phrase, where it's all grace.
SPEAKER_00: Your sanctification is just keep rehearsing the gospel to yourself and just meditate on what Jesus did for you on the cross, and that will change you into the image of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And that's partially true.
SPEAKER_00: But it's like this middle one that's the correct answer, which is no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: We meditate on what God's done for us in the person and work of Jesus Christ, and we work really hard to be holy, but not with our own power and strength to check boxes, but for various reasons.
SPEAKER_00: One being we're grateful for what God has done for us.
SPEAKER_00: We realize in his word he's empowered us by his spirit to be a new creation who can now say no to sin and temptation and say yes to righteousness and to put off and put on.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, I work towards my holiness, but I do so under the umbrella of God is the one supplying the power.
SPEAKER_00: Or let me illustrate like this in 1 Corinthians 15, 10, this is how every Christian should think of their sanctification.
SPEAKER_00: This is how you should talk.
SPEAKER_00: Where Paul compares himself to the other apostles in their ministry and how fruitful it was, he says, But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain.
SPEAKER_00: On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them.
SPEAKER_00: Yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.
SPEAKER_00: That's how you should talk.
SPEAKER_00: That if that's helpful for you, go memorize that, and that's how you think of your sanctification.
SPEAKER_00: I want to work harder than any other Christian in my church at my personal holiness, but not in a prideful, arrogant, I want to be better than them since, but I'm working because I know God calls me to be holy as he is holy.
SPEAKER_00: But as I work hard, I realize it's not my own strength, but the grace of God that is with me.
SPEAKER_00: That is a proper perspective.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul, he adds that so that phrase again.
SPEAKER_00: He says, so that, and then he adds, for all endurance and patience.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the one that we wrestle with, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: For all endurance.
SPEAKER_00: So being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, joyfully giving thanks to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you would say, I have great endurance and patience by the grace of God?
SPEAKER_00: If you're humble, you won't say it.
SPEAKER_00: It's okay.
SPEAKER_00: But that's Paul's prayer that they would have great endurance and patience.
SPEAKER_00: But notice what the power is for.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say he's praying that they have this great endurance and patience in the spectacular moments of their Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: Meaning, you know, the big moments of, well, maybe I'll have to lay down my life for the faith and I'll have a great moment of endurance and patience then.
SPEAKER_00: No, he's not talking about highlight real moments of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about in your ordinary, week-to-week, month-to-month life, do you have faithful endurance and patience?
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about sustained faithfulness because the power of God makes ordinary endurance possible for the believer.
SPEAKER_00: This is expected of us as Christians to have endurance and patience.
SPEAKER_00: Now let me just add a disclaimer because all of us suffer, all of us are touched by the effects of the fall.
SPEAKER_00: All of us taste death, suffering, sin, you name it.
SPEAKER_00: Faithful endurance and patience does not mean you walk through life with the biggest smile on your face.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean you act like things don't hurt, they do.
SPEAKER_00: But there's a difference in God honoring joy and happiness.
SPEAKER_00: Happiness is subjective.
SPEAKER_00: None of you has the capacity to flip a switch and make yourself happy.
SPEAKER_00: It's an emotion.
SPEAKER_00: Emotions are not bad, but they're not always trustworthy.
SPEAKER_00: Joy in the Bible is very different.
SPEAKER_00: Joy is like this God-horing contentment where you recognize no matter what the Lord brings in my life, He is my sovereign King who controls all things.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, if it's in my life, it's his will and he's forcing it to work out for my good and for his glory.
SPEAKER_00: And so I entrust myself to a faithful creator, and that's where I find my joy, despite suffering a miscarriage, despite being laid off from my job, despite getting a cancer diagnosis, despite my spouse committing adultery, I can have joy because he is on the throne.
SPEAKER_00: Joy and happiness are two different things.
SPEAKER_00: And joy produces endurance and patience, because we also are reminded of the hope stored up for us in heaven, which we will receive in the final day.
SPEAKER_00: But the surprise here is the power for patience that God supplies and that Paul prays for.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're like me, when you read this, I you would expect, I would expect Paul to pray for like the power for the big stuff, for miracles, for boldness, for dramatic moments, but that's not what Paul prays for.
SPEAKER_00: Paul prays for power to endure life with joy, which is countercultural, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: We live in a society where I'm gonna step on some toes, probably, but it's like almost everything's a mental illness.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh, life hurts, so I have a mental illness.
SPEAKER_00: Or, oh, that's or I go to try to find out how can I remove any suffering, any hardship in my life.
SPEAKER_00: I just want it to be gone immediately.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying those are bad instincts, but when you look at the Bible, like suffering is just like commonplace.
SPEAKER_00: It's just all over.
SPEAKER_00: Like, friends, our Christianity spread through suffering.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel went forth through the nations by way of persecution.
SPEAKER_00: If you're reading an English Bible today, it came to you through the blood of martyrs who ran as fugitives from the Catholic Church to translate the Bible into English so average Jews like us can study God's word for ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: The Christian faith has known suffering since its inception.
SPEAKER_00: That's not new.
SPEAKER_00: But we have a countercultural faith that says, no, don't get me wrong, if you can remove suffering and pain from your life, please, by all means, do that.
SPEAKER_00: But we also recognize but whether the pain and the suffering leaves or not, that doesn't quantify whether or not I can have joy in the Lord or whether my God loves me.
SPEAKER_00: And if I serve him, it just shapes the circumstances by which I serve my God and King.
SPEAKER_00: So, friends, as a disciple of Christ, what Paul is trying to emphasize to these saints is that endurance, God honoring endurance and patience, is evidence of a transformed life.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone can look faithful in good seasons.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone can look like a great holy Christian when things are going well.
SPEAKER_00: When you get the promotion, when you got the down payment to buy the new house, when you get the great parking spot at Costco around 12 p.m.
SPEAKER_00: when no one else does.
SPEAKER_00: It's good when your spouse is loving you and your kids are obedient.
SPEAKER_00: It's good to look like a faithful Christian in those seasons.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul says, friends, you need endurance when life is hard, because that is when true faith is evidence.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't this the example Jesus gave when he taught the parable of the farmer who sowed the seed on the soil?
SPEAKER_00: And when it was on some soil, it kind of bore fruit for a little bit, but then the cares of the world, someone gets caught up in material possessions or they go through pain and suffering, and then they they walk away, showing that they never truly had God's seed implanted in their hearts in the first place.
SPEAKER_00: So it's okay, it's easy to look faithful in the good seasons.
SPEAKER_00: It's the long obedience through hard seasons that reveals what you actually believe.
SPEAKER_00: Or let me put it this way: a marathon runner, when the race first begins, they don't need a whole lot of like power and endurance at the start of the race because it's the start.
SPEAKER_00: Adrenaline's kicking in, they're ready to go, they're ready to compete, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's when they hit about mile 20, mile 22, and all of a sudden they need that second win, so to speak.
SPEAKER_00: That's where training, not talent, shows up.
SPEAKER_00: And that is what Paul is praying for the church in Colossa.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what by application we also need to be praying for ourselves and for one another.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, help me to be a marathon Christian, not someone who just starts out well or is is doing well in a good season, but I am faithful even when I spiritually hit mile 22.
SPEAKER_00: And I feel like I'm my knees are weak, I'm gonna collapse to the ground.
SPEAKER_00: I don't even know which way is up, and yet I'm still clinging on to Jesus who's dragging me forward.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Paul arrives at the foundation of everything he has prayed for, and this is where the gospel lands with full weight in verses 12 through 14.
SPEAKER_00: Before Paul tells you how to walk, he reminds the Colossians and by way us as well.
SPEAKER_00: He reminds you where you stand.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 12 of Colossians 1, Paul continues, giving thanks to the Father who has enabled you to share in the saints' inheritance in the light.
SPEAKER_00: He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.
SPEAKER_00: In him we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins.
SPEAKER_00: Here's why what Paul is saying here changes everything.
SPEAKER_00: Everything in verses 9 through 11, the pursuit of wisdom, the godly walk, the joyful endurance, is only sustainable when it's grounded in something greater than your willpower.
SPEAKER_00: If our sanctification, if our joy in the Lord, if our endurance was all based on our willpower, all of our faith would be shipwrecked.
SPEAKER_00: We all are going to fail at some point.
SPEAKER_00: It's only sustainable when it's grounded in something greater than your willpower.
SPEAKER_00: And this is where Paul lands the gospel at the end of this prayer.
SPEAKER_00: And I love how he does this.
SPEAKER_00: Your motivation, friends, for pursuing holiness is not guilt-driven or duty-driven, primarily.
SPEAKER_00: It's plenty of things.
SPEAKER_00: Primarily, it could be gratitude for the fact that God saved my soul.
SPEAKER_00: I was an enemy of God.
SPEAKER_00: Under his just wrath and condemnation, I deserved his wrath for all eternity.
SPEAKER_00: And yet he poured it out on Christ so that I can be born again.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, out of gratitude, I am motivated to joyfully obey the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That is one reason we should be motivated to pursue walking in a manner worthy of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: That is a past benefit that motivates us presently.
SPEAKER_00: But then we also have the promises of scripture that should motivate joyful obedience when we recognize God promised me that he will complete the work he's begun in me, that he is indwelling me and sanctifying me through the power of his spirit.
SPEAKER_00: That then motivates me to cooperate with the Spirit of God for my own sanctification.
SPEAKER_00: I want to work with the Spirit of God, not against the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_00: But then we also have future grace that motivates us to joyfully obey the Lord, knowing that God has promises for me laid up in heaven that are mine when he returns and brings me with him in a glorified state where I will live with him for all eternity.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, John Piper wrote an excellent book called Future Grace.
SPEAKER_00: The whole book is on that theme of all the future promises laid up in heaven for the Christian and how that should motivate us to joyfully obey the Lord today.
SPEAKER_00: Don't buy it now because a revised version is coming out in September.
SPEAKER_00: So don't get it yet.
SPEAKER_00: But it's an excellent book to encourage you in that.
SPEAKER_00: So it's not guilt-driven obedience.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're if your Christian walk is you obeying God out of guilt, then you need to study the gospel some more.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's just gonna lead to spiritual depression, a spiritual roller coaster where you feel like, I gotta just keep making these exchanges.
SPEAKER_00: I'm guilty, so I gotta work on that guilt and I gotta, I gotta add up some deeds to then offer those to God, and then he loves me.
SPEAKER_00: No, friends, we obey because of past grace, present grace, and future grace.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Paul's pattern is in a lot of his letters.
SPEAKER_00: He first starts out by reminding the Christians he's writing to what God has done, past tense, to then encourage them on how they should respond in godly living in the present.
SPEAKER_00: You pursue holiness because you've been rescued, not in order to be rescued.
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand the difference?
SPEAKER_00: We pursue holiness because we have been rescued, not in order to be rescued.
SPEAKER_00: But he also in verse 12, he uses this language of you have been qualified.
SPEAKER_00: You have been qualified.
SPEAKER_00: Before salvation, the implication is you were disqualified.
SPEAKER_00: Pretty simple, right?
SPEAKER_00: You were disqualified from the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: You stood before God not as a son or a daughter, but as a defendant, as a plaintiff.
SPEAKER_00: The Father has qualified you through the Son, not based on your performance, your knowledge, or your spirituality.
SPEAKER_00: God did not save anybody in this room if you're a Christian because he saw future potential in you.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, some people date like that.
SPEAKER_00: It's like this guy, this girl, they're not super holy, but there's potential.
SPEAKER_00: I think there's no, don't do that.
SPEAKER_00: That's not how God saved us.
SPEAKER_00: But God through Paul often uses this pattern.
SPEAKER_00: But he says, You have been qualified.
SPEAKER_00: The father has qualified you based entirely on the finished work of the Son.
SPEAKER_00: The same Father who was once, think about this reality, friends.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in Christ, the same God who was once your judge is now your father.
SPEAKER_00: Those are very two distinct pictures, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: The God who was once your judge by the blood of Jesus Christ is now your father.
SPEAKER_00: Sit on that for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: And because he is now your father instead of your judge, you now share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
SPEAKER_00: I love how Paul just starts weaving gospel into stuff, man.
SPEAKER_00: You now share in the inheritance of the saints in light, eternal life, the new creation, the promises of God, the presence of God, all of it, it is now yours.
SPEAKER_00: Right now, if you're in Christ, as you sit in that pew and stare at me, all of these benefits are yours, not just for the future, but presently.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Cam, I don't really feel like that's true, though.
SPEAKER_00: Like you don't know the spiritual depression I wrestle with.
SPEAKER_00: I don't even know if God loves me.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care.
SPEAKER_00: That's the beauty of the promises of God.
SPEAKER_00: They're not determined on whether you believe them or not.
SPEAKER_00: They're determined on what has God proclaimed to his children in his word.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5.5 said that children of God will inherit the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 8.17 says, if you're in Christ, you are a co-heir with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I still don't fully grasp that one.
SPEAKER_00: We're co-heirs with Jesus, and yet we get caught up in, oh man, like life would be a lot better if I could just live in that neighborhood and buy that house, or if I can get that car, or if only I could get that job.
SPEAKER_00: Not that those are inherently bad things, but we kind of attach ourselves to those things as if like they have more significance than they really are.
SPEAKER_00: But then we read our Bibles and it's like, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_00: So the Bible tells me that in Colossians, Jesus created all things, all things exist for him and are for him, and I'm a co-heir with him, which means all his stuff is my stuff.
SPEAKER_00: So why do I care about all this stupid material stuff?
SPEAKER_00: When literally when I drive home and I look at the mountains, I look at everything in created order, I could say, mine, because I'm a joint heir with Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 1.11 makes the same, uses the same language.
SPEAKER_00: We have obtained an inheritance.
SPEAKER_00: You are an adopted child of God.
SPEAKER_00: When God sees you, he sees the righteousness of his son.
SPEAKER_00: You won't fully understand that on this side of heaven because we have indwelling sin.
SPEAKER_00: It just hinders us from fully appreciating what that means.
SPEAKER_00: But friends, it means what it means.
SPEAKER_00: When God looks at you, he sees the very righteousness of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: As if you lived a perfectly holy life, never sinning once, never having a sinful thought.
SPEAKER_00: That's how God sees you because of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But he says in verse 13, I love this, man.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, this is so good.
SPEAKER_00: You, friends, have been delivered and transferred.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just look at that real quick.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the king into the kingdom of the Son.
SPEAKER_00: He loves in him we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins.
SPEAKER_00: Now notice the language and the word pictures here.
SPEAKER_00: You know what a domain is.
SPEAKER_00: He says, You were once under the domain, the reign of sin, and Satan, captive to sin, captain to death.
SPEAKER_00: And what happened?
SPEAKER_00: He transferred us.
SPEAKER_00: This is this is kingdom conquest language, if you're paying attention.
SPEAKER_00: A conquering king transferring an entire population from one realm to another, which means God didn't negotiate your release, he conquered sin, death, and Satan and rescued you.
SPEAKER_00: Let me illustrate this.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine you are living in your hometown, and an enemy invading country came in that has a tyrannical leader, an oppressive leader, an evil, wicked leader, and his army comes in to your hometown and takes you captive.
SPEAKER_00: You are a prisoner of war.
SPEAKER_00: You are taken taken from your homeland.
SPEAKER_00: You're thrown in a camp with other prisoners who have also been captured, and you are there for years on end, detached from your home, detached from your identity, your people, your family, those you love.
SPEAKER_00: You're in a foreign place, you're a slave under a tyrannical ruler.
SPEAKER_00: But then a good army with a good leader comes, sends their soldiers in, and liberates the camp.
SPEAKER_00: You are set free.
SPEAKER_00: The soldiers come to the camp, open the gate, all the enemy soldiers scatter because they know they've lost.
SPEAKER_00: And the soldiers bring you out of the camp.
SPEAKER_00: You're walking out, you're squinting your eyes because you haven't seen the sun in a while.
SPEAKER_00: And the liberating soldiers give you some rations to feed you, and then they just point to the road and say, You're free, and they just disappear.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's good, but I would say that's liberation, but that's not redemption.
SPEAKER_00: It's very different, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: You're still homeless, you have no people, you have nothing, you're you're set free from captivity, praise be to God, but that's not redemption.
SPEAKER_00: God describes something far greater and far more generous.
SPEAKER_00: God, through Christ, doesn't just unlock the cell and guide you to the road and give you some rations.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus comes, infiltrates the enemy camp, destroys the tyrannical leader in Satan, deals a death blow to death and sin and the power of sin.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't just bring you out and leave you homeless, wandering about and having to start all over.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Not only will I destroy the enemy who has put you as a slave in captivity, I am going to liberate you from sin's power, from death and the enemy, but I'm also going to redeem you.
SPEAKER_00: You're not just liberated, you get to come home with me.
SPEAKER_00: You get to come to my kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And you don't just get to live in my kingdom, you get a crown.
SPEAKER_00: You're a joint heir.
SPEAKER_00: You are now not just a refugee, because that's not liberation either.
SPEAKER_00: Where it's like, well, now I get transferred to a refugee camp where I still am suffering and I have no home.
SPEAKER_00: I have no people.
SPEAKER_00: I'm in a holding pattern, waiting to get to a better situation.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus liberates and says, I have prepared a place for you.
SPEAKER_00: You will come home and be with me.
SPEAKER_00: You're not just a guest I tolerate.
SPEAKER_00: You're now a friend.
SPEAKER_00: You're now a daughter and a son.
SPEAKER_00: And that enemy has been dealt with, and he has no claim on you whatsoever because you have been transferred from his kingdom to my kingdom, and no one can say anything about that.
SPEAKER_00: Praise be to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Paul wants the church in Colossi to understand.
SPEAKER_00: When these false teachers are trying to add to the gospel in Jesus, he's saying in a very nice and respectful way, don't be stupid.
SPEAKER_00: They can't compete with what you already have.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has liberated and redeemed you.
SPEAKER_00: You, redemption in the Bible, friends, means to buy back something at a cost.
SPEAKER_00: That's what redemption means.
SPEAKER_00: To buy back something at a cost.
SPEAKER_00: Your freedom costs the blood of the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't cheap grace.
SPEAKER_00: It is costly grace.
SPEAKER_00: It is the greatest rescue mission in the history of the universe, and it costs the blood of the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: Forgiveness doesn't mean God, through Christ, said, you know what, let bygones be by bygones.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to be bitter towards these people.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just sweep it under the rug.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Through the blood of Christ, the slate has been wiped clean.
SPEAKER_00: Every accusation of the enemy has been dismantled.
SPEAKER_00: Every record of your sin has been canceled and expunged.
SPEAKER_00: It's not filed away somewhere where God might say, you know what, if they get on my nerves, I'm going to pull it up.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we do.
SPEAKER_00: It is expunged.
SPEAKER_00: So for the unbeliever in the room this morning, if you don't know Christ as your Savior, for the kids in the room, this is for you.
SPEAKER_00: That type of rescue mission I'm describing is what our Jesus specializes in.
SPEAKER_00: He desires to save sinners.
SPEAKER_00: The same God who transferred his people from darkness to light is calling every um every unbeliever, every child, anyone who doesn't know the Lord, he says, I am willing to rescue you.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to earn it.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to clean yourself up first to make yourself worthy of such rescue.
SPEAKER_00: No, friends, because we don't even fully understand the death of our depravity and captivity to sin.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus provides the way.
SPEAKER_00: So here's where Paul's prayer lands, and here's where I want to leave you.
SPEAKER_00: This is the posture Paul through this letter is calling all of us to.
SPEAKER_00: You do not pursue knowledge for its own sake.
SPEAKER_00: You pursue it because a deep, real, rooted knowledge of God has done a redemptive work in your life, providing a spiritual engine, so to speak, for a transformed life.
SPEAKER_00: And when the gospel of Jesus Christ truly grips you, it will never leave you where it found you.
SPEAKER_00: I use this often.
SPEAKER_00: This has just stuck with me for years.
SPEAKER_00: But I remember reading a sermon by Jonathan Edwards where he tried to describe the value of experiential knowledge for the Christian.
SPEAKER_00: And he uses this illustration of honey.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I can describe to someone who's never tasted honey before how sweet honey is.
SPEAKER_00: I could describe the texture of it.
SPEAKER_00: But until you for yourself have tasted honey, you will never truly know how sweet it is.
SPEAKER_00: And that is what we as Christians are doing, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: As ambassadors for Christ, we're imploring people, be reconciled to God so you for yourself can taste that the Lord our God truly is sweet in all that he is.
SPEAKER_00: So a few words of application as I let you go.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, the knowledge Paul prays for is not reserved for elite Christians in the church.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: He's not praying for some secret, mystical, esoteric knowledge that only the Navy SEAL church members can attain.
SPEAKER_00: He's referring to the gospel, the same gospel that already holds every born-again believer in this church this morning.
SPEAKER_00: The question is whether that gospel and God's knowledge of his, or the knowledge of God in his word is gripping your soul or is it just informing your head?
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to be arrogant, prideful Christians who just run around fact-checking everybody and just reciting what we read in a book and how much Bible knowledge we have.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has all knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: You didn't earn the rescue that you received, therefore you can't even maintain it, but you can walk in light of it, and you are commanded to.
SPEAKER_00: It is your privileged duty as a disciple of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And that is exactly what Paul is asking God to help these Colossian Christians and us to be able to do: to take what we believe and bring it into our homes, to live it out.
SPEAKER_00: So, friends, the gospel isn't just the door of the faith that you walk through and then that's it, because now that you're saved, no, it's the air you breathe every hour you walk as a disciple of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It's what's keep it what keeps you alive.
SPEAKER_00: It should fill our spiritual lungs, so to speak, and reach our hands and our feet and let it change how we live every single day in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Every Christian, if we were if we want to copy the reformation, brothers and sisters, we should always be reforming.
SPEAKER_00: No Christian ever arrives.
SPEAKER_00: No one ever ascends the mountaintop and says, you know what, I praise be to God, I've been at it for 20 years and I have reached full knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_00: If so, tell us the secret, brother and sister.
SPEAKER_00: None of us will ever arrive.
SPEAKER_00: We will spend an eternity still learning more things about God and how he saves sinners.
SPEAKER_00: We are always reforming.
SPEAKER_00: But like my man Paul said, let us have the same heart posture.
SPEAKER_00: As you strive for holiness, as you work as you should should, as you work hard to put off sin and put on righteousness, strive to work harder than anybody else, but do so not in your own strength and power, but by the grace of God who is working in you.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.