Life Hacks

Dr. Gregg Marutzky:

Turn your Bibles over to Colossians chapter 1.

Colossians 1 · chapter mention

Yeah.

Title of the sermon this morning is Life Hacks.

Mm.

All right?

I don't know how many of you know what a life hack is, but it's

a better way of doing things.

It's a new way of doing things.

It's an innovative way of doing things.

It's, uh, not doing just what you've always done, but, uh, trying to improve

upon the past and changing for the future.

In Colossians, this first chapter tells us what the ultimate life hack

for each and every one of us is.

Amen.

And I'm excited to share that with you.

Yeah.

I want every sermon to be eternally impacting.

Right.

Amen.

That's a pretty high bar, right?

Yes.

But why spend our time coming to church, why go to all the trouble if

it cannot be eternally beneficial?

Yes.

Amen.

And so I hope today, for all of us, but especially for those of it n-

that need it most, I pray that today could be spiritually benefiting.

Amen.

I pray that you could think of a new life hack for yourself that makes

all the difference in the world.

Every appointment I have, I wanna be able to impact the person,

encourage the person, have our time fruitful, and I pray about that.

And so I, I'm excited about this series.

Now, you're thinking, "Well, what happened to Nehemiah?

I was just starting to understand it."

"I was really getting into it."

Wow.

Well, the last couple of chapters are sort of a repeat of other things

that have already been preached and said, and so we're not finishing the

book, but I did prepare that sermon.

I prepared a sermon for every chapter, and so if you'd like the, the, the

PowerPoint, I'll send it to you.

Email me or text me and I'll send it to you.

But I didn't wanna just say the same thing again.

That's right.

Yes.

Because- Agreed ... there's just so much to say from the scripture, so

I wanted to move on this morning.

So the theme of Colossians is here in verse 27, 1:27.

It says, "To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the

glorious riches of his mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."

Yes.

So for all the millennia, all the time leading up to the 1st century, leading

up to the coming of Jesus into the world, there was a mystery that God hinted

about- That he suggested in scripture, that he per, per, he prophesied about,

but wasn't clear, and it was that the Holy Spirit would come within us.

Yes.

That it wouldn't just be with us, and it wouldn't just be on us, and

it wouldn't just be moving among us.

It wouldn't just be a cloud in the sky or fire in the sky, but

it would be indwelling in us.

Yes.

And that, that concept, now as we look back at scripture in the Old

Testament, we see, oh yeah, it was there all along, but they didn't get it.

It was a mystery.

But now, Christ is in you.

Amen.

And you, you did one of the major Christian life hacks just a moment ago.

Did you know it?

Yeah.

When you took of communion.

Yes, we did.

When you opened up the little container and took out the representation, the

symbol of the body of Jesus Christ.

Yeah.

That's an incredible life hack right there.

That's good.

As we take it into our- ourselves, that tells us to embody Jesus, to

be Christian, to be like Jesus, to imitate Jesus, to do what Jesus did.

WWJD, all right?

That's right.

Just do what Jesus did.

Yeah.

Amen.

You know, for some of us, keep it simple.

Yeah.

You know?

When you're faced with a decision, where you're faced with a

temptation, when you're faced with something, just keep it simple.

What would Jesus do?

Yeah.

Amen.

And don't let your s- your mind say, "Well, that's not me."

Well, that's why we need to be like Jesus, right?

Yes.

'Cause you might get angry, you might get impatient, you might be your old man,

but you'll be your best self- Come on.

Amen ... if you do what Jesus did.

Amen.

And then you took of the other side of the capsule, didn't you?

You opened it up.

See, I'm doing it twice.

Maybe I need it- All right ... a double take.

Double take.

But I always say the blood of Jesus- Yes ... shed on the cross

for the forgiveness of my sins.

Yes.

Glory Week after week, month after month, year after year, we keep doing this.

We're gonna change for, s- 1 Corinthians tells us, 2 Corinthians tells us,

chapter 3, that we'll change from one degree of glory to another.

Amen.

Wow.

Amen.

You don't see yourself change just by a degree- Right ... in

a week, in a month, in a year.

But over several years, people will say, "Sam's different."

Amen.

"Maurice is different."

Monica's different

Monica's different.

Greg's different.

Greg's different.

That's what you're really...

You were waiting for me to say your name- ... 'cause you wanna be

the one that's different, right?

Yes, we all do.

Amen.

And we need spiritual life hacks to do it.

We can't do it ourselves.

Nope.

Amen.

Yeah.

I did a funeral yesterday for one of my dear, dear friends.

So if I get a little emotional, it's not I'm unstable or my

medication isn't balanced.

It's because I got a lot going on.

Come on.

Amen.

You got a lot going on.

Amen.

All right?

Yeah.

And I had to wrestle with a passage this week.

I'm gonna keep it real here.

In Psalms 116 verse 15 it says, "Precious in the sight of the

Psalms 116:15

Lord is the death of his saints."

And I had to talk to God this week.

I said, "God, what's precious about Manny's death?"

Yeah.

His daughter's getting married next month.

Wow.

Yeah.

She's wanting him to walk down the aisle.

Yeah.

This is the, the second of their two children.

They're, she's moving out, and now Manny and Erica are gonna be empty nesters,

and they had all these plans, Lord.

And they're almost 20 years younger than me.

That makes sense, Lord.

And why do I have to talk at his funeral?

I'd rather go and just grieve.

Come on.

But it was good for me to realize all the ways that his death was precious.

Amen.

Yesterday we celebrated the death of a saint right here.

Yeah.

Rigo, right?

Yeah.

Diaz.

It's precious because they leave a legacy.

They leave their example.

Yeah.

They leave the way that they lived their best life and their best self.

And so Manny had the ultimate life hack.

And if you ever study the Bible with someone and they're very

vulnerable, you, you learn more about them than you wanna know.

Yeah.

His confession was shocking to me.

I've heard hundreds, thousands of confessions.

Right.

It was shocking to me.

I'd heard some things I'd, I'd never heard before.

But then to see now in the last 10 years how he's changed,

I was like, oh, my goodness.

And there was, there was an auditorium this size up in Antelope Valley that was

filled to capacity, over 1,000 people.

He worked for the city of LA for 25 years, and so there was just so many people.

The parking lot was almost full when I got there 30 minutes ahead,

and it went to over capacity.

Wow.

Why we need Christ in us.

Amen?

Amen.

And then his wife and his son and his daughter got up and

testified how much he had changed.

See, some funerals are a little bit exaggerated.

We just talk about the good stuff.

Yeah.

Please talk about the good stuff when I go, all right?

But we know there's more.

There's more to the story, but it was so nice that the, the good so

outweighed the bad that it was just good.

Yeah.

And that's what I want for myself.

That's what I want for you, and that is, according to this

scripture, Christ in you, the hope.

The hope of glory.

Are we there right now?

No.

No, but we're gonna get there.

Yes.

Let's keep r- let's read another encouraging passage.

Matthew 11:28-30 says, "Come to me," this is Jesus.

Matthew 11:28–30

Come to Jesus, "all of you who are weary and burdened."

Anybody weary and burdened in here?

Yes.

I didn't say that very well.

Weary and burdened.

Yeah.

I'll enunciate.

Yes.

"And I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am gentle and humble in

heart, and you will find rest for your soul," which most people don't have.

Anybody not Christian, I haven't seen that rest.

Yeah.

"For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

That's another one of those verses I wrestle with sometimes.

Lord, your yoke is easy?

Life seems pretty hard to me.

Amen.

Yeah, it's 'cause you're trying to do it on your own, Greg.

Yeah.

You do it with the Lord, and things work out.

That's right.

I've been under a high-stress situation this last couple of weeks.

James and Vicky know what I'm talking about.

Yeah.

They just bought a house and moved in.

I just bought a house and moved in.

Wow.

I really can't say moved in.

I'm moving in, okay?

Yes.

I'm taking my time.

I'm pacing myself.

When you're downsizing from way too big a house to a more normal

Orange County affordable house-

then you downsize.

Yes.

And we're having to get rid of a lot of stuff.

Help, and you'll get free stuff.

All right?

Some brothers from Inland Empire helped me move it out of Rocky's warehouse, and

they just left with truckloads of stuff.

I, I'm serious, you know.

It, that's what you have to do.

When you've been living, you know, in a place for 10 years, you accumulate stuff.

Yeah.

And my son-in-law, he's so smart, he said, "Greg, don't move all that stuff.

Get rid of all that stuff before you move."

I'm like- I'm not getting rid of all my stuff.

It's good stuff.

Had it for a long time.

Yeah, too long.

My wife told me to get rid of stuff.

We got rid of a lot.

I thought we really pruned, but now I'm finding that isn't

Orange County pruning, all right?

But just to be real, my yoke's been pretty heavy lately.

Yeah.

Uh-huh.

That's right.

I love this man that died.

Oh.

I looked at my new ceiling fans in my house.

I don't have to re- put any in.

Manny put most of them in in my last house.

Praise God I don't have to, 'cause he's gone.

But lots of good memories.

Climbing the ladder, me handing him the tools.

So helpful, I'm so helpful.

I held that ladder.

He wasn't gonna fall off on my watch.

All right?

This is what God wants for me and wants for you, even in

those high-stress situations.

Amen?

Amen.

A life hack is gaining a better understanding through brainstorming

or collaboration with others.

A hack figures out a better, more productive way to do something,

possibly a backdoor to a program.

A hack is a clever solution to a tricky problem.

To hack is to modify or to change something in an extraordinary way.

If you wanna change something in a spiritual, eternal way, then you

need a Christian Holy Spirit hack.

Yes.

Amen.

Yep.

You know, I may not be a smart man, but I'm not a dumb man.

Mm.

Amen.

All right?

Because I learned at 19 I can't keep living the way I'm living.

Yeah.

Amen.

I need some help.

Amen.

I went from a place, a little bitty town called Fruita, where

I thought I was one of the best.

Maybe one of the top gun.

Maybe one of the best of the best.

Then you go to a big, huge university, and you realize you're not that high up.

There's a lot of people a lot smarter than you.

A lot more athletic than you, a lot more handsome than you.

Yeah.

You know?

You get sort of a reality check.

Yeah.

And then you

get more reality check.

I'm not gonna get too specific.

Nobody wants to join my pity party, right?

And you know you need a hack.

You need Jesus.

Amen.

We're gonna talk about five hacks this morning, all right?

Five hacks.

Create new habits.

Sounds simple, doesn't it?

Every therapist is gonna tell you this.

You know, develop some new people, places, and things.

Make some new friends.

Go to different places with different people and do different things, 'cause

what you're doing isn't working.

You need to do something different.

Every therapist is gonna tell you to do that, but can you do it?

Can you give up those things that are familiar, those things that help give

you some security, even if they're bad for you, even if they're terrible for

you, even if they're destroying you?

Come on.

It's hard to give them up.

Yeah.

It's hard to give them up.

Change your view and your vision and your values.

Get on Instagram this morning.

Get on the internet.

Get on social media.

It's gonna just feed you with these thoughts of newness and different and

how great you can be and how awesome.

But can you do it?

Do you have the power?

Do you have the talents?

Do you have the gifts to do that?

Overcome self-limiting beliefs.

This is why we can't do it, right here.

'Cause what you learned as a child may hold you back, may tether you-

Yeah ... may hold you in place, may paralyze you from doing what you'd

wanna do, your good intentions.

The Apostle Paul said it, "I do what I do not wanna do, though I keep doing it.

And that which I don't wanna do, I do.

And there's this rule, this law that I'm living by that's just so frustrating.

I do what I don't wanna do, and I intend to do what I need

to do, but I don't do it."

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that's almost everybody.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He was one of the most brilliant people of his day.

Studied at the top school, the school of Gamaliel.

Self-limiting beliefs.

When you're from a little town of Fruita, you get a lot of self-limiting beliefs.

People in the big city are bigger, better, s- smarter than you.

They're not really.

No.

But you don't know that when you're from a little town.

And then when you're from a big town, you're thinking, "You

know, those people have roots.

Those little town people, they've got good morals and all."

They...

We compare ourselves, don't we?

Yeah.

Yeah.

And it's a self-limiting belief.

Anybody from a perfect family?

I'm gonna give you the mic if you are.

Nobody.

Now, if I'd have said, "Are, are you from a dysfunctional family?"

You'd have thought, "Well, yeah, but I don't wanna admit it.

I love my mommy and daddy, but boy, they were screwed up."

"And my brothers, they screwed me up."

All of us have things, don't we?

Yes.

All of us- Yep ... have stuff, and we need to reframe and rewrite our story.

Your story's not done.

I don't know how many times in my life I needed resurrection.

Amen.

I blew it.

I failed.

I said something I shouldn't have said.

I didn't actually get fired, I got moved.

It's what happens sometimes when you mess up.

But my story isn't over.

I've been encouraging a brother that for many years he encouraged me,

"Greg, your best days are ahead of me."

I said, "No, they're not.

They're in the rear view mirror.

I'm just out here in the Midwest, taking it easy, you know?"

But God had bigger plans for me.

Come on.

Yeah.

Right.

And then I'm up in Antelope Valley and I'm loving life.

I think, "Man, I'm...

Life's good."

But God had something better, a new challenge.

Not that I'm calling you a challenge, all right?

Not that I'm calling you a challenge, all right?

We are.

But something to help me grow- Come on ... and keep growing.

My story's not over.

Your story's not over, not by a long shot.

I got another 20 years, all right?

Believe in a better day.

Greg, this sounds like a lot of positive mental attitude stuff.

Yeah, I've read all that.

It's good stuff.

You need to fill your mind with good self-talk and not the negative stuff.

Amen.

All right?

But you can only do it with God's life hack- Yeah ... with Christ in

you- Amen ... tapping into His power.

I challenge any of you to try to do it on your own.

I don't care how talented you are, how gifted you are, how smart you are,

how good-looking, how hardworking.

All, you can have it all, but without Christ in you- Amen ... you hit walls.

Yeah.

Right You, you get to the end of your rope.

Yeah.

Come on.

You get overwhelmed.

Amen?

Amen.

Yeah, I know I'm talking to you.

Let's say amen, choir.

All right.

Amen.

It says, "The theme of this book is Christ Jesus Christ is supreme."

I believe that with all my heart.

I hope you do, too.

Can I get an amen?

Amen.

He says, "The gospel is a revelation of salvation through Jesus because

He is supreme and always above every philosophy, knowledge, pagan

religion- science or practice.

I believe that.

Right.

If you don't believe that, you're gonna be s- tossed to and fro by all

the worldviews, all the philosophies, all the different ways of thinking,

all the different perspectives.

You're gonna just be tossed around until you learn where those

philosophies, worldviews came from.

Yeah.

Amen.

Yeah.

You know, one of the premier theologians of the 20th century, amen, we're in the

21st century, but in the 20th century was a man by the name of Rudolf Bultmann.

Lived in New York City.

He was a German.

He wrote, and his theology was taken up by every major denominational church

in America.

He was the premier, and he was one of the worst people in New York City.

Wow.

Womanizing, drunkard, alcoholic.

And his theology led almost every major denomination to its death.

Wow.

Almost every major denom- Christian denomination in America started dying

when they accepted his liberal theology.

Look at the stats.

I'm trying to just be factual, not judgmental.

Wow.

But when I was reading this stuff, I'm like, "Something

doesn't sound right about that.

Something doesn't sound..."

I, so I started doing biographies of these guys I was reading, and

I'm like, "This guy is a jerk."

This guy, the, uh, uh, it sure isn't helping him.

He didn't have Christ in him, I don't think.

No.

I don't know.

I'm gonna leave it to God, and his grace may be sufficient,

so I'll leave it to that.

Amen.

But I believe with all my heart Jesus Christ is supreme.

Amen.

Supreme.

Colossians 1:1-2.

Colossians 1:1–2

"Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy

our brother, to God's holy people."

That's what I believe about you guys.

I'm not gonna be yelling at you and down on you.

I'm not gonna, gonna give you your lashing, tongue-lashing

when you come to church because I believe you're holy people.

Amen.

Because I believe, yes, you're fallen, and you're a sinner, and you needed to

repent, but now you have the Holy Spirit, and so the potential in you is unlimited.

Yeah.

Nothing can stop you.

Nothing can stop this church because we're God's saints.

We're God's holy people.

That's it.

Yes.

Holy people.

Yes.

Amen.

In Colossae, in Orange County, the faithful brothers and sisters

in Christ, grace and peace to you from God our Father.

Not from Greg, from God our Father.

Grace to you and peace to you.

That's what God's saying to you this morning.

Come on.

Take my yoke.

Rest.

Let your soul have peace, have rest.

How'd you sleep last night?

Good.

Worried?

Upset?

Oh, don't we need peace?

Yes, we do.

Amen.

That's why he starts off that way.

Verses one and two, he says, "Change your view, vision, and values.

Embrace grace.

Give grace to yourself.

Give grace to other people."

Yeah.

Are you still be- not sure about that grace stuff?

Yes.

Amen.

You know?

You're more into conviction- Conviction

condemnation- Yeah ... guilt.

Yeah.

That's how I've changed in the past.

Well.

That's probably how I need to change in the future, 'cause I'm

just so stubborn and hard-headed.

Just beat me up, Greg.

Not gonna do it, 'cause love is the greatest motivation.

Right.

I've changed for Cathy out of love, not because I signed a marriage license.

You know?

I don't even know where our marriage license is.

We've moved so many times, you know?

It's probably gone, disintegrated.

It's so old, it's...

I'm sure it's faded.

No, you change for love.

Yes.

Amen.

Right?

You change for love.

We think in pictures, so we must do vision boards in our heads and our minds.

Get a different picture.

Reframe.

Being focused on Christ changes our viewpoint.

Most of Paul's letters begin with the same greeting, and

God wants us to focus on Jesus.

Amen.

That's why every service you come here, you're gonna get communion.

Well, I've heard all that before.

And you need to hear it again.

Yes.

That's right.

I mean, why do we do it every week?

Because we wanna focus on Jesus.

Yeah.

Amen.

Why do we need to say Jesus Christ is the Son of God?

That's good.

Why do we need to say Jesus is Lord?

Because we need to always be focused on Jesus.

Yes.

Amen.

If you start drifting from that, folks, you're not gonna be your best self.

Correct.

You're gonna be your old self.

Yes.

Amen?

Amen.

He says in Colossians 1:3 through 8, "We always thank God, the Father of

Colossians 1:3–8

our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your

faith in J- Christ Jesus and the love you have for all of God's people."

Sounds like he really likes these folks.

"The faith and love that spring from," what?

"The hope stored up in you in Heaven about which you have already heard

in the true message of the gospel."

See, the m- message of the gospel is always good news.

Yep.

Amen.

I want you to always leave here feeling better.

Yes.

I want you to come to this church because- This church, you know, I

tell you, it makes me feel good.

Sometimes I know I need to feel bad, but it, I don't feel bad for very

long 'cause then I start feeling good- Yeah ... 'cause I have hope.

Yeah.

'Cause I have a future.

Yeah.

Because God is good.

Yeah.

Because God is faithful.

Because God loves me.

Because God cares about me.

Because he goes on to say, "The gospel that has come to you, in the same

way the gospel has bearing fruit."

What kind of fruit?

The fruit of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,

gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.

That's what's growing up in you- Yeah ... just from the life act.

Yeah.

Amen.

From Christ in you.

Yeah.

Amen.

He goes on, "And it's growing throughout the whole world, just as it has been

doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God's wrath."

Wow.

That's not what it says.

No.

God's grace.

Yes.

Amen.

But somewhere along the line in my early Christian life, I

think I read it God's wrath.

I was afraid of God 'cause I was afraid of my dad.

Yeah.

It wasn't until I had my own kids and I started feeling that fatherly love.

And my dad became a Christian.

I don't wanna put him down.

He became a Christian at 77 years old, and he died at 80.

So it's not over till it's over.

Yeah.

All right?

But when I was a kid, those guys that lived through the Depression and World War

II and Korean War, they're tough dudes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And they didn't believe in encouragement.

They believed in suck it up.

Yeah.

And they didn't believe in boys crying.

I'll give you something to cry about.

And he did.

Now, I don't imitate my father's parenting, but I

do imitate his work ethic.

There's good things about every generation, and there's

weaknesses about every generation.

Yeah.

"You learned it from Epaphras, our dear brother, fellow servant, a faithful

minister of Christ on our behalf, and also told us of your love in the Spirit."

Here's the outline.

Take a picture of this if you want to, 'cause I'm not gonna hit all this 'cause

of time, and you can read your Bible, and you're smart, and you can figure

this out, but here's your outline.

Christ in you produces fruit in the world.

Christ in you produces fruit in yourself and in this church.

Christ in you is shown by God in Christ.

Amen.

Jesus is who we become like.

Christ in you reconciles us, always makes us at peace with God.

Amen.

And Christ in us changes us.

It's not as hard as we make it, guys.

It's not as hard as we make it.

In fact, the more spiritual you become, it becomes intuition to change.

You know, I know now that if you're riding a motorcycle and you're going into a

curve, you need to brake before you get to the c- the curve, 'cause it's gonna

be too late if you brake in the curve.

You're gonna slide out.

Slide into the other lane or off the cliff.

And then as you come out of the curve, you need to accelerate it 'cause vector

analysis is always true, and force is gonna take you in the other direction

so you're gonna get around that curve.

Yeah.

And that centrifugal force.

Right.

And I've studied all of it.

I've studied physics in college, and now it all makes sense, but you know what?

When I was just a 12-year-old riding my motorcycle, intuitively I knew that.

Yeah.

See, God's truth is true whether you know it or not.

Yeah.

And it's good to learn and to grow and to get more knowledge, but all

it does is confirm God's truth.

Amen.

Yeah.

All right?

Beautifully.

And stop boring us with vector analysis, Greg.

Nice and warm out.

I think about it every time I turn.

I was driving a big truck, you know, and coming down the hill I

was thinking about vector analysis.

Tapping on my brakes and how...

Anyway, all right.

Going on.

Verses three.

Wow.

Three through eight.

Good stuff.

Create new habits.

Brothers and sisters, let the Holy Spirit guide you into new ways of doing things.

You can change.

You can change.

Don't let anybody tell you you can't.

But you do need to set some boundaries and, and make sure who

you hang out with- Amen ... is good.

Takes 28 days to change.

Let's read a little more scripture, 'cause I believe in the power of the word.

Amen.

And if I just read enough scripture up here, you're gonna leave here changed-

Yeah ... if you have an open heart.

Amen.

Verse nine says, "For this reason, since the day we heard about you,

we have not stopped praying for you.

We continually ask God," what?

"To fill you with the knowledge of His will through all wisdom and

understanding that the Spirit gives."

That's why we tell you, "Read your Bible, read your Bible, read your Bible."

I've heard it before.

Quit telling me to do the same thing.

It's not working.

Well, open up your heart when you read your Bible.

Yeah.

Open up your mind.

Stop challenging it.

Stop disagreeing with it.

Start just accepting God and His Spirit.

"So that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every

way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,"

just from reading your Bible, guys.

"Being strengthened with all power according to the glorious might that

you have That you may have endurance and patience and w- and giving joyful

thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance as His

holy people in the kingdom of light.

It sounds like he's telling us l- to do a lot.

No, he's just let the Word change you.

Amen.

And focus on the glorious light.

Yes.

Focus on the good.

I don't know about you, but I tend towards the bad- Amen ... in

myself and in other people.

Don't you see it?

Yeah.

And we see it too much in our kids.

We see, see it too much in our coworkers.

We see it sometimes too much in our brothers and sisters, instead, instead

of seeing the potential and the good.

Yeah.

Right.

But when you really believe in the power of Christ in you, you

start seeing everybody like Jesus.

Amen.

I see how they're like Jesus.

Amen.

And they're g- they're growing, and they, they're gonna become more like Jesus.

So the stuff that bugs me about them right now, I don't need to worry

about it, 'cause they're gonna change.

Amen.

I think that's what happened in my marriage.

Glory.

I was a terrible husband at first.

How about some of you?

Anybody else?

No, you don't have to say it.

Your wife may wish you did, but- That's terrible.

'Cause I'd only lived with boys.

I didn't know girls were sensitive.

You know?

I'm, I'm serious.

I didn't.

I didn't know I needed to change my tone.

Yes.

So God gave me two more, so I'd change more.

And my kids would probably say, "He didn't change enough."

He, he started really changing about the time I was leaving.

I wish he'd have changed more.

Amen.

But we're still changing, all of us, right?

Amen.

From one degree of glory because of God's holiness.

Yes.

I'm gonna wrap up here, 'cause this is just so good.

Verse 9, a- and I want you to be wanting more.

Overcome self-limiting beliefs.

Christ in us produces fruit in us.

Why?

That endurance, that patience, that joy, that thankfulness, he gets ready

to say at the end of the chapter it's because of Christ in you.

You know, I read that chapter for so many years thinking,

"Oh, okay, I gotta persevere.

I gotta be strong.

I gotta, gotta do all these things it's telling me to do.

I gotta endure.

Gotta suck it up."

'Cause see, that's dad's tape playing in my head.

Yeah.

The Armstrong method.

Yeah.

Right?

And I didn't read the whole chapter.

I didn't read to the end where the mystery is revealed.

When you're in the middle of the book or the chapter, you

don't get the whole story.

You're just confused.

You're going in the wrong direction.

It could even be a dead end.

So let's get to the end, Greg.

Amen.

He prays for all these things, all right?

You can get the notes, but let's just wrap it, all right?

Christ in us, the hope of glory.

Oh, yeah, I prepared too much.

Are you seeing a pattern here?

Yes.

Yeah, sorry.

But you got your own Bible.

You can follow up on this.

All right?

Amen.

Christ in us.

Wow.

Believe in a better day.

We're reconciled to God.

We're changed.

Yeah.

And we get to rewrite our story.

Amen.

We get to rewrite our story.

You know, the world tells us...

Here's some quotes.

The world tells us, "Remember, your destiny has been foretold long ago.

You just have to stand up and seize it."

Yeah, but what if I'm trying and it doesn't do it?

"A great quote can illuminate the infrastructure of life."

But then you try and you fail, it doesn't continue to illuminate.

"Knowledge is knowing many things.

Wisdom is applying that knowledge to life as logical solutions and new perspectives,

but you still need the inner power."

Yes.

Amen.

The inner power.

Christ in you.

I'm trying to just wrap up and focus all of us, me included.

Christ is in me already.

I already have the power.

I already have the strength.

I can do this.

I can do this.

The beginning of this last week, I thought, "I can't do this.

I can't move.

I can't do a funeral.

I can't prepare a sermon.

I can't do all the things."

And I did fail some, but I don't feel bad about it.

I stood up the Korean young marriage yesterday morning.

I put on my calendar it was at 5:00.

They called me at 10:00 in the morning, "Greg, where are you?

Are you on your way?"

"Uh, I'm in North LA doing a funeral.

I thought it was at 5:00."

It wasn't.

It was at 10:00.

I went back and looked at my text notes.

I thought I was right.

I thought he was wrong.

He was right.

What grace.

We all fail.

We all fail.

Amen.

And then y- I start beating myself up.

"I don't even know these people.

They're gonna think the worst of me.

First impressions are so powerful.

I'll never overcome it."

Yeah, they'll give me grace- That's right ... 'cause they have to.

No, I apologized.

I apo- I'm not...

That's up to them to give it to me.

It's up to them.

But I do believe in a better day.

God bless you.

Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Amen.