Redeemer Church in Union City, CA
Redeemer Church in Union City, CA (formerly Fremont, CA) is a family of rescued sinners finding hope and wholeness in the life, death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Our highest priority is to bring glory to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit through celebrating and proclaiming the gospel of our Triune God. As worshippers of our Holy God, we are seeking to spread His fame in making and maturing disciples of Jesus by establishing healthy churches throughout the Bay Area and around the world.
The episodes posted here are sermons and teaching that is given through the ministries of Redeemer Church.
Redeemer Church in Union City, CA
To Be So Heavenly Minded, You’re Finally Earthly Good
The transformational impact of embracing the resurrected life is that we become so heavenly minded that we are finally earthly good. Because of the resurrection, we can love the way we ought to love, forgive rather than slander, and become the kind of people God intended us to be in this world.
• The phrase "so heavenly minded that you're no earthly good" speaks of someone disconnected from reality
• Real transformation begins when we are raised with Christ and learn to live out the resurrected life
• We can't live heavenly lives with earthly minds and methods
• The mindset of the resurrected life means seeking things that are above, where Christ is seated
• We must "put to death" earthly things: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness
• We must "put on" compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience
• Above all, we should put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony
• The resurrection transforms our relationships at home and work—with spouses, children, parents, employers, and employees
• Our speech should always be gracious, "seasoned with salt"
• Like Rosaria Butterfield's story shows, seemingly simple acts like hospitality can powerfully demonstrate the resurrected life
Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray for us that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ.
You are so heavenly minded that you're no earthly good. Have you ever heard that said before? Have you ever? Maybe you've had it said of you? Have you maybe said it yourself? Of somebody? This phrase speaks of someone whose head is in the clouds. You might say they're always dreaming of big, beyond things and they just don't pay attention or they don't get involved in the normal aspects of life. Their head is in the clouds. They're maybe dreaming or philosophizing, waiting on the Lord, but never engaging with real people and real issues and real responsibilities. They are ignoring the things in their common life. Someone who talks, perhaps, theology or talks politics and what could be and what might be, but never loves their neighbor. Maybe they have like a monk-like life where they just cloister away somewhere to contemplate heavenly truths, but they never bear fruit in their life, in their real life. But what if the real problem isn't being too heavenly minded but being not heavenly minded enough? What if the only way to be truly good on earth is to set your mind on heaven, where Christ is?
Speaker 1:Paul is about to show us in our passage, this next passage in Colossians. He's about to show us that real transformation, real earthly fruitfulness, begins when we are raised with Christ and learn to live out this resurrected life. Learn to live out this resurrected life. In other words, our big idea for today is this the transformational impact on a person who has embraced the resurrected life is that they become so heavenly minded that they are finally earthly good. The transformational impact on a person who has embraced the resurrected life is that they become so heavenly minded that they are finally earthly good. Because of the resurrection, we can finally love the way that we ought to love. We can love and not hate. We can forgive rather than slander. We can sing with our lips rather than lie. We can become the kind of wife or husband or child or employee or boss or witness that God intended for us to be in this world. Why? Because of the resurrection.
Speaker 1:I want us just to trace back what we believe as Christians, lay out the big arc of the gospel here. The earth, this world was made good. It was a place where heaven and earth met. God came down to be with His creation, with those who are made in His image, but because of their sin, it became fractured. And now, because we're broken and we are sinful and we're cursed, now we chase earthly goods through earthly minds and deformed loves. We pursue earthly things with earthly methods. We pursue earthly things with earthly methods. But Christ came to break that curse and he came to restore us, and not to just give us escape, but to renew His creation, to renew us, to restore things back to the way they were. We don't just believe in the resurrection as a point of theology. We are raised with Christ, we are raised with Him. This is something that is a reality for us. It's not philosophical, it's not theological, it is reality.
Speaker 1:So what Paul wants these believers in Colossae to understand, and what we ought to understand, is that we can't live heavenly lives with earthly minds and ways. We can't bring good into a broken world by doubling down on its broken systems. World by doubling down on its broken systems. The church in Colossae had so much pressure on them from people who taught that it was necessary to mix earthly-based practices and traditions and religion rather than just fully trusting the work of Christ. Religion rather than just fully trusting the work of Christ. They had influences that had come in from other places, the traditions of the Jews and the experiences that people had had.
Speaker 1:If we go back to Colossians 2, in verse 8, paul says to them he's building up to this point. He says to them see to that no one takes you captive by philosophy or empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. In verse 16, he says therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food or drink, or with regard to festivals or new moon or Sabbath. These are all things that are part of the human expression of culture and religion that was alive and well in this place. Verse 18 of chapter 2. Let no one disqualify you.
Speaker 1:Insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about vision puffed up without reason by the sensuous mind, he's giving warning after warning, after warning of these things that have influenced and infiltrated the church. And he's saying don't let that get a hold of you, don't get caught up in those things, don't think that there's value in those things. Don't think that there's value in those things. And then, in verse 20, to the end of the chapter, he says if Christ, if with Christ, if you are united with Christ, if with Christ, you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you are still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations. What are the regulations that he throws out as examples? Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. These all referring to things that perish as they are used. According to what Human precepts and teachings? They 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, and this is what these people are being pressured by in the church.
Speaker 1:Now I'm going to tell you a quick, funny story, because every time this comes up I have to say it. So I grew up I don't know how you grew up, but I grew up in church. But we did a lot of proof texting, found a verse that fit something that we wanted to say and emphasize, and so we would do it. And I randomly, as a junior high, high school kid, I randomly found this verse that says do not taste or do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. And we were all about the dating rules or the dating guidelines, right, and so I was like I would go around just saying the stupidest thing and saying I've got my dating rules Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. It's right there in the Scriptures and it was funny because people would laugh.
Speaker 1:I thought it was funny, but then when I actually got around to understanding what Paul's argument was here, he was basically using it as an example for the kind of thinking that is not biblical and godly thinking. He was using it as an example of the kind of things that they were so impacted by by these other routes of religion and spirituality. He's saying this is the kind of stuff that you guys are still giving into and this is not Christ. This is not your life with Christ. So if we try to follow and serve God by employing earthly mindsets and methods and if we disregard absolute power and the sufficiency of Christ's work, then we will never be or do anything good here on the earth. For heaven's sake. If we employ earthly mindset and methods, disregarding the power of the resurrection, we are never going to be or do anything good here on this earth, for heaven's sake.
Speaker 1:I'm going to read our text. It's a long text. I know we've already been here a little while this morning. Please bear with me. This is a long text.
Speaker 1:We, up to this point paul, has been building a theological foundation for these people, for what he wants to do to help them understand what this looks like lived out. And this passage is what he wants us to take home. If you're like man, I love being at Redeemer. They don't preach commands. They don't preach like hard rules and stuff like that, they're just theology. Well, guess what? We're going to step on that edge today because there's going to be some very direct things given to us, based on Paul's theological arguments, for us to take home and for us to understand. So I'm going to read our passage today, starting in Colossians 3 and verse 1. By the way, if you are wondering where we got the title of the series, because you're like I don't know that Paul's mentioned much about resurrection up to this point Well, we're going to talk. I'll help us understand that a little bit better here. But this is where this is the theme. If there was a theme verse, this is the theme verse we're starting out with.
Speaker 1:If you have then been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are above and not on the things on the earth, for if you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will also appear with Him in glory. Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil, desire and covetousness, which is idolatry. On the account of these, the wrath of God is coming In these you once walked when you were living in them, but now you put them away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another.
Speaker 1:Seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices, then you've put on the new self, which is being renewed in the knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all. Put on as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other. As the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive. And above all these, put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony, and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to that which, indeed, you were called in one body and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your heart to God.
Speaker 1:And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of our Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God, the Father, through Him. Wives submit to your husbands as is fitting to the Lord. Husbands love your wives and do not be harsh with them. Children obey your parents in everything, for that pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children lest they become discouraged. Bond servants obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye services, people pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ, for the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done and there is no partiality. Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a master in heaven.
Speaker 1:Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray for us that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ, on the account of which I am in prison, that I may make it clear which is how I ought to speak. Walk in wisdom with outsiders, making the best use of time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. This is the word of the Lord. That was a big passage. Three quick points, hopefully, and then we'll be done.
Speaker 1:We're talking about the resurrected life. So from this text, the first thing that we see is the mindset of the resurrected life. What is the mindset of the resurrected life? The mindset of the resurrected life, the mindset of the resurrected life is seek things that are above. Set your mind there.
Speaker 1:This is not just a casual reflection that when Easter comes around and we think about the resurrection, or when we celebrate Ascension Sunday, that we think of Christ in the heavens, and that's occasionally, it's a nice way, nice casual reflection on it. That's not what we're talking about. We are talking about and the language here is we're talking about obsession. We are obsessed with Christ, who is in heaven and what he has accomplished for us. It permeates us. This is not an escapism where we're just thinking about heaven and let the earth burn. This is a reorientation of our minds. We live from heaven into the world, and we are not the world towards heaven. We don't employ our earthly things, our worldly ways, when we are citizens of heaven. So this is not about just looking up and floating away. This is actually about plugging into heaven's control power. The one who is seated is our source of direction, our power and our identity. So we are plugged into the one who is in heaven, where we ought to be.
Speaker 1:Now you might say, well, is this just all about the resurrection then? What about all these other things? What about Christ's life? What about his death? What about the cross? We make such a big deal about the cross. Well, if we are raised with Christ, if it says that we are raised with Christ, that this implies there had to be a death, right, so we must have also died with Christ. If we were raised with him, right? Well, if there was a death, then that must imply that there was life before that. So when Christ came down here, there was a cosmic union that came together where we were able, where Christ basically somehow found union with us, and in that union he went and died and then he rose again.
Speaker 1:So this idea of the resurrected life is just not about the resurrection. This is the culmination of the story of the gospel that God has done, and specifically through the life of Christ. So this is something that has grown, grown, grown and now the resurrection is that place where sin has lost its power. Death has no sting and we are with Christ in that reality. You have died with Christ. Verse 3 says you have died with Christ and your life is hidden in Christ, with God, the resurrected life is contingent on our union with Christ in His life, his death, his resurrection and His ascension with Him in glory.
Speaker 1:Look at verse 4. When in Christ, who is your life, appears, you will also appear with Him in glory. So we are tied to His salvific work. We receive the work of salvation, the power of the resurrection, by being one with Him. I'm just going to read it because I love chapter 2, verse 12 through 15, where Paul is just laying out the rawness and the realness of Christ's work Verse 12, having been buried with him in baptism, and listen how often he says with him or in him, and then listen to how powerful this work is stated Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead.
Speaker 1:And you were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, but God made alive, together with him, having forgiven all of our trespasses. By canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demand, this he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open. Shame triumphing over them. In him, the work of God, the power of the resurrection, is beyond anything that what is on earth could stop.
Speaker 1:The power of earth and the power of the resurrection is phenomenal, and so this is what ought to captivate us. This is what we ought to be obsessed with. It's what Christ has done for us and with us and in us. This is what ought to capture our attention, and this is not just theoretical. Again, we're not talking about keeping our head in the clouds, and it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1:Down here, it shows up in how we dress Whoa, wait a minute, hold on. Down here. It shows up in how we dress Whoa, wait a minute, hold on. I've been there before. I've had my dress, told what I ought to wear and what I ought not to wear, right? Well, that's what Paul says next, but it's a little bit different.
Speaker 1:So the second point that I want us to look at today is the wardrobe of the resurrected life. The wardrobe of the resurrected life what am I talking about? The reality of our new life in Christ demands a complete transformation. Just like when somebody goes through a big transition in life like a job, a relationship, a social position, a legal position Any major transition can call for a change of wardrobe. Right, I received gifts from girlfriends of the past. I had things that were meaningful in those relationships. I had clothes that were given to me by girlfriends of the past. But when I got married to Carlin and she asked well, where'd you get that? That's nice. Oh well, so-and-so gave it to me. That's going to goodwill. Better yet, let's just burn it right. Here there's a shift in wardrobe. Why? Because my loves have shifted and now they're set in a place of permanence. Right, and this has no bearing Matter of fact, it has negative bearing on my current relationship.
Speaker 1:Or about clothes. From an old job to new job. I used to work as an electrician in South Carolina and I wore the raddiest clothes because I was crawling in crawl spaces and in attics and doing all kinds of crazy stuff. And then I became a youth pastor and worship pastor in Baltimore, maryland, and my mother-in-law specifically decided that I needed suits. My mother-in-law specifically decided that I needed suits. She was happy to buy me suits to replace my electrical work, because I can't show up to church to lead worship in Carhartts and a hoodie. Well, she didn't think I could, so she bought me a suit. Why? Because it was a transition of job from one to the next and so she wanted to make sure I had what was appropriate for that job. You can see how often I wear suits here. I was just watching Mission Impossible not the new one that just came out yesterday, but I was watching the one that precedes that because I was just trying to remind myself I'd seen it before. But I was watching the one that precedes that and because I was just trying to remind myself I'd seen it before. But I wanted to remind myself and watch it before I go and watch the one that just came out and enjoy that.
Speaker 1:And there's this point in there where Grace there's a character named Grace in this movie where she's a thief and she's a well-known thief, like she has passports from like a dozen different countries and she has warrants for her arrest in all of them and she's a thief. She's done everything you can think of and everyone's on the hunt looking for her and she's. She's just in this place. She finds herself in this precarious position where she's in over her head. The thing that she is now involved with that's kind of the whole plot of this movie is something that she's not going to be able to get out of. And she's sitting there being invited into this secretive spy team, the Mission Impossible team. She's being invited to be a part of them and she's saying you know Ethan Hunt, who's the main character Tom Cruise plays. He says to her what needs to happen is you're going to be left on this train and you need to go to my boss and you need to tell him that you accept the new life, the new reality, my new reality. I'm wanting to leave that behind and I'm going to accept this new thing. And she asks is he going to trust me? Can you trust him? And he goes on to say well, he'll recognize your value and he'll want to use you. And then Grace says and after that, then what? Will I get my life back?
Speaker 1:And Luther, one of the guys that's been working with Ethan Hunt for all of the movies. He says what life? I mean it. He says grace. What life I lived, that life we all did. Nobody is making us do this grace. We are here because we want to be here. And the grace is like I'll tell you what. I will give you one off. I'll just go do this is like I'll tell you what. I will give you one off. I'll just go do this for you. I'll get the key. I'll get you know, do this job with you, wipe my slate clean, and then I'll just get some money to go and live my life.
Speaker 1:And Luther says to her you're going to be dead. You'll be dead Without a team. Your life won't be measured in years or months, it'll be measured in hours. What is he saying to her? He's saying listen, the life that you're in right now, it's coming to an abrupt halt. It's coming to an end. There is no way out. If you continue living this life, you need to change everything. If you come and be a part of us, there is a chance, there's a hope. And this is what Christ is telling us. A hope. And this is what Christ is telling us. He wants us to put off the life and the earthly mindset that we have here, because the life that we have here leads us to death and our death might be measured in days or hours or minutes, but guess what? It's death. The earthly life leads to death, and so he gives us this instructions on how to manage our wardrobe.
Speaker 1:The first thing he says put off these things. And what he says to put off in our passage here can be summed up like this he says to put off these deviant loves and its behaviors. If we look here, the first thing that he describes he says put to death. What does he say? Put to death? Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil, desire and covetousness, which is idolatry. All those things are ways in which love within us has been misappropriated. It's deviant and it expresses itself in our behaviors. These are messed up loves. If you've ever been caught up, or if you are currently caught up, in any of these things sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil, desires, covetousness you will know the vice that it has on you and it does not lead you toward God, it does not lead toward goodness, it does not lead toward godliness and righteousness. And this is probably the strongest statement that Paul makes in this passage where he says put it to death. He doesn't just say take it off, he says put it to death.
Speaker 1:What we love tells a lot about who we are. What we love can often be identified in our actions and in our habits. What is it that we spend time on? What is it that we are constantly distracted by? What is it that we are constantly distracted by? He says to them in these things, you once walked and lived. This is the life, the habits and a lifestyle of someone who has given themselves over to an earthly mind. And Paul says put that to death, kill it. And then he goes on to say put that to death, kill it. And then he goes on to say put all these things. And he lists off anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene. Talk from your mouth and do not lie to one another, seeing that you put off the old self and its practices and put on the new self, renewed in the knowledge and the image of our Creator. He's saying all of these things come from an earthly power, an earthly mindset. It's being engaged in earthly ways.
Speaker 1:And then he wants to emphasize that no one, no matter what your status is, no matter what your social standing is. Nobody gets a pass on this. Nobody gets a pass. All who are truly in Christ are viewed equally before God. What does he say In this? In this, there is no Greek or Jew circumcision or uncircumcision, barbarian, scythian, slavefree. He basically is saying there might be some people who are in a debauched life and they're able to enjoy their sexual immorality, and maybe because they're higher up and they have a high status in their position, they can do that without threat of anything happening to them. And somebody who's at the bottom of the totem pole will get executed because of a misconduct.
Speaker 1:But he's saying that before in Christ listen, before Christ we're all guilty and before Christ, in the new reality, in the new mindset, we can all be made free. We don't need someone extra to help get us out of it. The slave can be set free from their sin just as much as the king. That is the new reality, and so we ought to live as though we are all that way. Christ is all and in all, and we can't just put off these things, but we have to put them on. So what do we put on? What we put on can also be summed up in God-shaped loves and behaviors. What we put on is summed up in these God-shaped loves and behaviors.
Speaker 1:What does he say? He says put on you chosen ones. I chose you, I loved you. My holy ones, my beloved ones, put on kindness, put on humility and patience, bearing with one another as if and if anyone has a complaint against another. Oh, my goodness, I got hammered by this this week. The Spirit just crushed me with this Forgive each other. As the Lord has forgiven you, you must also forgive. Our lives must be marked by God-shaped loves. We are so quick to hold things against people. We're so quick to fight for our things and our ways To fight back, to bite back at things that have been done to us. I consider myself kind of an easygoing guy, but I'm going to tell you, life has been messy and I have found myself just not having a spirit of kindness and humility, not having a spirit of kindness and humility, of patience and forgiveness. We need this. The church needs this. This is the resurrection from the dead, it is a new way of life.
Speaker 1:He says, above all, above all, put on love in verse 14. Why? Because it binds everything together in perfect harmony. Our church, redeemer Church, ought to be known for love, jesus said by this, people will know you're my disciples when you have love for one another. What makes our community so different? What makes people want to come and be a part of this? Is it just another social club? People ought to look at us and say, wow, something has changed them. They do not live, they do not act, they do not love the way that anybody else I know does, and that's because the love of Christ has changed us. And then he says let the peace of Christ rule, to which we were also called into one body. We ought to be known for love, and love is above all, but then let us let the peace of Christ rule in us.
Speaker 1:We might say that we're tempted to, and I want to understand that the Spirit of God is going to do this work. He's going to create the growth in us, but Paul is giving us commands. We need to love. We need to love appropriately. He is giving us commands that we are to have the peace of Christ rule in us, and we are to be thankful. These are things that he expects us to do, to have decision making power over, and we ought to just think that this is not just something that the Spirit's going to do in me when it's time. Yes, he is going to do it. And when it's time and that happens, you're going to look back and say what did I even do? There's no way this could have been done by me. This was Jesus, this was the Spirit of God working in me. Right, but we have got to be disciplined and order our lives in such a way that we pursue love, pursue peace. And then he says what? Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom and thanksgiving. How do we do that? How do we let the word of Christ dwell in us richly? We just did it. We sang. We sang to each other.
Speaker 1:Actually, the song that I was going to use was the last song that we skipped and it was just for time I decided that we ought to skip it. But this song is written from the text in Revelation that we read both last week and this week, and it's not a cool song. It's not a song that you go and tune in and you're like, oh, I want to listen to that and I'm getting my praise on. It's not that kind of song. But I'll tell you. What it does is it teaches us the Word of God. It helps us to let it dwell in us richly.
Speaker 1:The songs that we sing are not just about the experience of worship. That's become a very overarching emphasis in the world we live in today. Worship is a feeling, it's an experience and no doubt that happens and no doubt God wants us to enjoy that, no doubt. But music and singing and songs and hymns and spiritual songs, they have other purposes and one of those purposes is that the word of Christ would dwell in us richly.
Speaker 1:I was talking with Enrique, who helped lead worship for our church plant and then he is trying to plant a church in Hollister and we were talking about the dilemma he was having with finding the right kind of music for his service. And I said when we started Redeemer, when we started Redeemer, there was like 12 people there and we'd sing one song from Hill's song, mighty to Save, and half the people knew it, and then we'd sing a hymn and two people would know it. And then we'd sing another song from like Hill Song, like Mighty to Save, and like half the people knew it, and then we'd sing a hymn and like two people would know it and then we'd sing like another song and it was like I couldn't get songs that everybody knew. So what did we do? I've actually, I picked 30 songs that I said this is going to be our diet for the next year, and we sang those 30 songs over and over and over. One of those songs is a song that we sing today. We sing those songs over and over until our church sang them heartily, and you know, what I loved about that is that at the time my son was two years old. Hudson was two years old, and even as a two-year-old, three-year-old, he would be singing those songs at home and he might not understand exactly what those songs meant entirely, but as he got older they took root in his heart and I've seen those songs transform him.
Speaker 1:This is why we do what we do. We don't sing the newest and best songs on the market. Sometimes we do, occasionally, once every five years. What do we do? What is the hope that I have, as one of our pastors who plans our liturgy for us? It's that the word of Christ would dwell in us richly and that we would know Christ and know his love, know his, and that we would be shaped by it. Andrew Fletcher said let me make the songs of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws.
Speaker 1:Songs and music have a significant power. Gordon Wenham said this the words hymn writers and liturgists put on our lips in worship affect us profoundly. They teach us what we ought to think and feel and, more effectively, they are put to music so that we can hum them to ourselves whenever we're inclined. This is a way that we are shaped. This is how our loves are shaped. Singing songs are formational in wisdom and thanksgiving, and they are shaped by what we celebrate and what we are comforted by and what we confess we are. Without you realizing it, we are the products of our music. You can talk to Swifties and people who like Beyonce and people who like all their other. We are affected and shaped by our music that we listen to. We are affected and shaped by our music that we listen to, and I've been in places where this kind of thinking has been used to put down broad music and other artists, and I don't want to do that today.
Speaker 1:But what I want to do is I want to encourage you. Get plugged in to the worship that teaches us the words of Christ, let that dwell in you richly, let that shape you, and this is Paul is using this to prescribe how we, as a church community, minister to one another. We do each other a service by singing, and I you know what I'm just going to. I want to tell you guys I love us singing in here, by God's grace, we have a great space that really just you could have two people in here, it sounds like a hundred. I love this space and you guys sing well and I pray that Redeemer Church is always a singing church. I pray that we are always a church that sings out, no matter how good we might think we are, but the community of the church, it ministers to one another and it teaches and cultivates the right kind of love. Ultimately, we do everything in the name of Jesus Christ, who died and were raised and given life. Lastly, I want us to look at Sorry, I had a big example, I had a big story I'm going to skip. It was a good one too.
Speaker 1:Lastly, what Paul writes here is the relationships of the resurrected life. The relationships of the resurrected life. Now, this, the resurrected life, he shows how it transforms us at home and at work and in the world. Wives, husbands, children, servants, masters all of them, all of us now live under the lordship of Christ. Thank God, whatever we do in word and deed, we should do it in the name of the Lordship of Christ. Thank God. Whatever we do in word and deed, we should do it in the name of the Lord. This resurrection lived out, is seen in kitchens and bedrooms and offices and sidewalks. You know the resurrection is real in your life when your tone changes at the dinner table, when your ethics shift in the office and when your conversations with your neighbors begin to taste like grace.
Speaker 1:Paul wants us to understand that the way that we become the kind of wives and husbands, fathers, parents, employers, employees that we ought to be is when we are obsessed with the One who is in heaven, who is our Master, the One who is heaven, who has given us this hope. He tells us and I've already read this and I know we need to come to a close here, but he's already told us Wives, submit to your husbands as fitting to the Lord Hus. Lord husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh to them. Children, obey your parents and everything for it. Pleases the lord fathers, do not provoke your children unless they become discouraged. Talks about employees and slaves that we should work hard.
Speaker 1:Listen, the resurrected life, the new life in Christ, is not just something that feels good inside of us I felt like I really loved that person instead of not liking them, being angry at them but it is seen in real life ways. It's seen in the ways in which we interact with each other in our homes and in our life ways. It's seen in the ways in which we interact with each other in our homes and in our workplaces. And I'm going to tell you, I still have anger that creeps up in the home or in my workplace. I still have things that I struggle with and I would imagine, if we're honest, we all feel and we all sense those things and we can look. You know what I have provoked my child to anger. I have done that and I have, by God's grace, repented and confessed that I should not have done that. But this is what it looks like working our resurrected life out in our lives. It changes us. If you are struggling with the life in the home, then perhaps you're not obsessing enough about what Christ has done for you and what he has accomplished for you and what he is doing even now through intercession in the heavens, the resurrection is real.
Speaker 1:And then Paul goes on to say we need to use our voices not for lying, not for slander, but for prayer, for prayer, but for prayer, for prayer. He says continue steadfastly in prayer chapter 4, verse 2, and be watchful in it, with thanksgiving, and at the same time, pray for us that God may open to us the door for the Word to declare the mystery of Christ on the count of why I'm in prison. He's basically saying listen, one of your jobs your mouth. You can use your lips for something else, your voice for something else, and that could be working against the kingdom of God, but this is something you can do with your voice, that you should be committed to, and that is prayer. And Paul is saying you pray and we're going to proclaim, and you pray for us as we proclaim.
Speaker 1:We have other partners that we're working with here in the Bay Area Andrew Woods. Down in Watsonville, we have our church plant that hopefully will be started this fall. Here in Castro Valley, we have churches all around us that are struggling and hurting and we ought to be praying that God would do the work in those places for his glory and to build his kingdom. We partner with Jonathan's house in the Central African Republic. We partner with the choys who are in India and we ought to be praying regularly for them that the gospel would go forth. But we also need to understand that our mouths ought to be reoriented to not speak slanderous but to speak grace to those who are around us. He says walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of time. Let your speech be always gracious, seasoned with salt that you may know how you answer. He wants us to be in this community speaking with our neighbors, and they are ministered by the grace of our words. God wants us to be the Word of God, to be dwelling in it so much that the words come out and His own words minister grace to the community. The example, and I will probably write an email to you to kind of give you the example.
Speaker 1:But there's a lady named Rosaria Butterfield. She is someone who was converted from a very progressive, very pagan lifestyle, and she was converted. She was someone who attacked Christians, attacked Christianity, writing articles, and it was out of an article that she wrote that she received a bunch of fan mail and a bunch of hate mail, but she received one letter from a man named Ken, who was a pastor of a small church. And it wasn't fan mail or hate mail, it was hey, you want to come over for dinner? Love to have you come over for dinner. And for two years this small church pastor had this lady over for dinner and just began to try to help explain, not to try to convert her. They never invited her to church, they never invited her to any of those things. They just invited her into their house and they just talked with her and if she had questions they answered. And after two years, guess what the Holy Spirit did? He saved this woman. He changed her life and it was simply by opening up their dining room table and ministering grace-seasoned words into her life. She saw the love of their life towards her, the love of Christ towards her, and God used that to save her and rescue her.
Speaker 1:She wrote the book. Yeah, was it? Gospel Comes with a House Key. It's just a great story. But this is what we ought to be.
Speaker 1:You might not think I can't get up here and preach. I can't get up here and lead singing. I can't even talk to people. I'm struggling to share in small group. I'm struggling to pray out loud. But guess what. We do have dining room tables. We do have a place. We all like to eat I'm assuming everyone eats because we're still alive and we can use that and we can minister grace to people through that way.
Speaker 1:So, as we look here, the impact on a person who has embraced the resurrected life is that they become so heavenly minded that they are finally earthly good. How do you become the wife that God wants you to be, obsess on Christ, who is in the heavens? How do you want to be the loving husband that you need to be Obsess on Christ, who is in the heavens and what he has done for us? How do we parent? How do we work? How do we boss? We do it through our obsession and our focus, our dwelling on what Christ has done for us.
Speaker 1:Rosaria, her life was changed. Her story is radical, but it's not unique, because the same resurrection power that rewrote her story is at work in all who are in Christ and now we are raised with Him. We live from the throne room to the living room, from worship to witness. This is what the resurrected life does. Lord, we thank you so much for your grace. We thank you for the power of the resurrection. We thank you for very clear helps as to how we ought to live. God, I pray that you would change our lives. Help us to be so focused on you that