All of Christ for All of Life: Christ Over Our Spiritual Life

Ishmael LaBiosa: Well, today we begin a new six-part message series through a very little letter in the New Testament, the letter to the Colossians, with a title, All of Christ Over All of Life. Now, I have to tell you that this title was inspired by a very, a very would sound like from a very distant place. Now you may not know this, but Melissa, my wife, is Dutch and thoroughbred Dutch in many ways, not one of these mixed breeds. know, like we're talking about she's Dutch and her family actually ⁓ immigrated not that long ago from Holland. Her last name, which is impossible to pronounce, E-E-N-I-G-E-N-B-U-R-G. That's a good Dutch name, isn't it? ⁓ Inigenberg, even on our wedding, when the minister says, we pronounce Rusty Small and Melissa Ingenberg, he fowled it up. I mean, in college it's like, and now we give the undergrad degree to Melissa Ingenberg. It was awful. Like never did she get her born name pronounced because Dutch is a language, God help us. You just look at the word, you guess and you say with confidence. That's what you do. But since her family had immigrated, I haven't, I'm not on a rabbit trail by the way, from the title. Since her family had immigrated from Holland, that ⁓ when we took some of early travels to Europe, one of our first places, we wanted to go was to see the place where a family had immigrated from. And there's a place about two and a half hours outside of Amsterdam entitled Innegenberg, Holland. We've actually walked around the place and there were some of her distant relatives still there. I can't remember what their names were, but it sounds like Hans, know, somebody like that. They look very Dutch. They spoke Dutch and they put us in the car and it was a very idyllic Dutch setting. The windmills were turning. We rode through the tulip fields, but they weren't blooming. But nevertheless, I could envision what it looked like. And there in Innegenberg, Holland was actually a museum to her family. And it told the story of why their family, about their family being there and why they left. The Netherlands ultimately and came stateside. And the reason was, is because her family had decided in the late 1800s that Holland was godless, that they were kind of sick of it, and they wanted to go to the United States for the simple reason that they wanted to live out their Christian faith more robustly and felt they had a better shot at doing that in America than in Holland. And I actually got a little bit of this story again because last summer her family met strangely enough in Tennessee. don't think anybody lives in Tennessee, but they all met at a family reunion at Tennessee because they're all over the United States now and one of the kind of patriarchs of the family kind of read the history again to the family like remember why we are here. You can almost subtly see him saying you're not living right and you're not living right, but we got we came here from the Netherlands to America to live out our Christian faith. You say, Rusty, what does that have to do with anything? Well, it's a, I'm really glad my wife's family immigrated over. If not, she'd probably still be in the Netherlands and I'd be in America and we wouldn't be married because she'd probably speak Dutch and I'd speak English and we wouldn't get along very nicely because I can't understand English. I certainly can't understand Dutch. So nevertheless, ⁓ but ⁓ It's a little sad to me, now being a pastor and trying to read widely in religious literature, that if her family had hung on just a little bit, they would have actually gotten some relief. Because this series title, All of Christ Over All of Life, is actually inspired, surprise, surprise, by a very famous Dutch theologian, who was not just a theologian, surprisingly, but actually became the prime minister of the Netherlands from 1901 to 1905. And while anything translated from Dutch to English is not very good, basically the gentleman's name, Abraham Kuyper, a very famous Dutch theologian and prime minister of the Netherlands from 1901 to 1905, basically his campaign slogan was, you ready for it? all of Christ over all of life. You think that's going to win any campaigns anywhere in the world, but it did for Kuyper. Kuyper was very famous for this quote. He said, there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry mine. And strangely enough, because of Kuyper's vision in the Netherlands from 1901 to 1905, he served as prime minister, but he really stemmed the tide, surprisingly, of secularism crashing in that area until World War II. And then the whole global order changed. And then whatever was left, the sexual revolution of the 1960s washed out. And unfortunately now, Holland is one of the most secular. or maybe one of the most secular places on the planet, but it hadn't always been that way. Just to give you one more fun fact, this was what Kuyper did. It was a very interesting program. He came up with this program called Pillarization. Now that sounds odd, but this is what he said to the folks in the Netherlands. He said, look, it doesn't make sense to have a sphere in society where we all have to pretend that we're secular. He says, because we're not secular. We all have different beliefs. And there was a diversity of beliefs in the Netherlands. So what he said was, if you're a Protestant, you get to have your own media, your own schools, your own unions, your own clubs. You get to do that. He says, if you're Roman Catholic, you get your own media. You get to do your own schools. You get to do your own unions. You get to do all of that. He said, if you're secular, you get your own media. You get your own schools. You get your own unions. And he says, and they all need to leave each other alone. So let there be a robust Christianity lived out in all of life. Let there be a robust Catholicism lived out in all of life. And he says, let there be a robust secularism lived out and keep out of each other's way. But what happened in that environment is that a Christianity that was not just confined to the church, but was expressed in all areas of life developed in that community. And Kuyper wrote, I mean, all kinds of stuff. He says, what does it mean for a Christian to be in business? What does it mean for a Christian to be in the family? What does it mean for a Christian to be in the state? What does it mean for a... Christian to do anything and wrote tomes upon tomes upon tomes upon tomes, trying to think very carefully about what that looks like. You say, Rusty, what does that matter to me today? Well, here's my, I got two big ideas off the top here that connect to the letter of the Colossians is your life is lived, listen carefully, in spheres. Okay, this would be what Kuyper would say. I agree with him. That you have like Hopefully you're a member of Liberty Baptist. So that's a sphere. You live in the context of a church. That's one sphere. You also live in the context of a family. So you're a husband, you're a wife, you're a child, you're a grandfather. You might be a husband and a grandfather. You see, you may be a spouse and a father or a spouse and a mother, but that's a sphere. Then you hopefully have a job if you need a job, you know, and that's another sphere. And then you're a citizen and that's another sphere. And Kiper was quick to point out that every one of these spheres has divine instruction. Every one of them. That you are to live, but they're not all the same exact instructions. For example, what does it mean to be a church member? Every member should be a minister. You should have the gifts and talents in the body of Christ, but we're primarily about gospel preaching and service and... That's what that, so you have to live according to those rules ⁓ as a person in the family. Well, ⁓ I don't have to love you like I love my wife. There's different rules there. And then I have to train up my children. And the Bible says fathers don't exasperate your children. Well, I have that responsibility. And so I need to be doing that with a Christian in the state. Well, I'm supposed to be submissive to the authorities, you know, as a general rule and honor the authorities. But not to the point of violating Christ. And then in business life, you know, ethically, and you ought to have industry. you see all of these have divine instruction. And so what sometimes happens that Kuyper was so concerned about is sometimes people say, well, my Christianity, and we even hear this all the time, well, you know, that's very private. I don't talk about my spiritual life. And Kuyper says, no. Yeah, it might be private and it might be personal, but it should affect all of your life. And that in every sphere of life, Christ should be all in all. And ⁓ what ends up happening in our lives is that we can be really good in one sphere and not so hot in another. You're like, well, I'm a really good Sunday school teacher, but don't do business with me. Right? Or I'm really, I'm a really great husband, but not too great of a dad. Right? You can have deficiencies. And one of the goals of this series is to say, how can we bring all the spheres of our life under the Lordship of Jesus? And Paul is going to press upon the Colossians to do just that. That's the first big idea. You say, Rusty, what an introduction. Yep. It is. It's a long introduction. I'm sorry. ⁓ I'll still let you out on time. The second big idea, because I want you to hear this, because really Colossians 1 is just a prayer. And really what I'm talking about, Paul's going to pray about. So you need to understand it. The second big idea, so the Colossians didn't have Christ preeminent over the spheres of their life, maybe in one area, but not another. Here's the second problem that we need to combat in these six very quick chapters. is that Colossians said, okay, they're trying to become, like they're trying to figure out what a Christian life even means. The gospel had just gotten to Colossae. Paul actually doesn't take the gospel to Colossae. Paul writes Colossian from a Roman prison. But Paul converts evidently Apaphros who's mentioned in chapter one, and evidently he's the one who plants the church in Colossae. So we've got that going on for us. But one of the things we'll see as the series unfolds is, is Colossi was involved, and I wish I came up with a better word, and maybe it's because it's Sunday after Easter and my brain is tired, but here's the only word I can come up with, and I'll explain it. The Colossians were involved, ready for the word of the day, in syncretism. That's what they were involved in. You say, what does that mean, Rusty? Well, it means you take ideas that are not Christian and you put them with Christian ideas and you stir them up all in a pot. And Paul is going to specifically say, that is not of Jesus. Sorry. You got to get rid of that. And he's trying to correct their ⁓ mentality because they want to say, we'll have Jesus plus a little bit extra. Which also makes me think about the second big idea I want to talk about before we look at this prayer in chapter one is not only should Christ be in all of life, listen carefully, that the instructions in all of our life should actually be of Jesus, not Jesus plus a little bit extra from a lot of other places. Like it should be the undergirding and overriding philosophy. Now the problem with deeper philosophies that we hold, here's the problem with them, we don't see them. It's like the air that we breathe. But the two big philosophies of our day that basically if you're an American, you're being bumped around with these. And honestly, like the Colossians needed to know what they were up against, you as an American kind of need to know what you're up against. And here are the two big ideas that radically affect American spirituality, and they're not of Jesus. All right, I'm going give them to you. Maybe you know them. The first one is a little more benign. The second one is really bad. Okay. And it is very corrosive. And I like to say it's so obvious you can't even see it because it's everywhere. The first one. It was actually mentioned by man by the name of Christian Smith in his 2005 book called Soul Searching. He says most Americans by default embrace, here's the idea, moralistic therapeutic deism. Sometimes shortened as ⁓ T D, moralistic therapeutic deism. Here's the big five points. Some of the points are not that bad. Others points are just absolutely not Christian. Here are the ideas. Number one, a God exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life. It's not terrible. It's just a very vague, undefined God. The second big point of moralistic, therapeutic deism is God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other. Well, that's nice. I mean, we should be nice and fair to each other. That's the golden rule. But nothing about transformation, salvation, repentance. Just be nice. The third one's really bad. The third pillar of this, the central goal of life is to be happy and feel good about oneself. The Westminster Confession, you know, whatever you think about the Westminster Confession, the chief end of man is to glorify God forever. Not for me to be happy and feel good about myself. It's to make sure my life is a reflection of who God is. Number four, this one really shows up a lot. God is not particularly involved in one's life. Excuse me? Okay. Except when needed to solve a problem, then God shows up. He's like, here I am. What do you need? You know, you need some money, you need some health, I'm here to help you out. And then fifth, which is just contrary to the gospel, good people go to heaven when they die. Those five ideas permeate the culture almost at a level that people can't even see them, but they're held. The second one is more in your face. And this one, I would say, has done more to hurt Christianity in the last... 20 years than anything. And the second one, expressive individualism. Those two usually go together. And here is the way expressive individualists think about themselves. See, this is way I think about myself. I don't know what to do. I'm lost and undone. So I throw myself at the cross of Jesus and He teaches, He gives me the life that I have and He teaches me how to live. Do you hear this? So truth is not found somewhere inside of me, truth is found somewhere outside of me. Very important. But here's the deal, in the contemporary culture, expressive individualism says the purpose of life, listen carefully, is to discover, express, and live out one's authentic self, whatever in the world that means. And one lives out their authentic self, listen, free from external authorities. So you can't be told what to do by tradition or family or church or even God, you got to figure it out. Now, if you want to know one of the reasons anxiety is through the roof, take a 16 year old boy and say, you can't trust tradition, you can't trust the church, you can't trust God, you've got to figure it all out for yourself and not by reading books, but by looking inside of yourself. How do you feel right now? Anxious. And then whatever you find in here, whatever, how confused it is, once you figure it out, you got to live it out and nobody can tell you otherwise. And those ideas are the air that you breathe. And if you don't agree, if you don't think that's the case, listen, because these ideas pop up and around. And let me say, this is far cry from. look inside of yourself and become your true self, whatever that means. And if anybody tells you you can't become your true self, then they're wrong and they need to get out of the way so you can be you. You know what Jesus says? If any man wants to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. It couldn't be very, it couldn't be more different. And so I just want to say to you, as you listen to the apostle Paul, as we go through the letter to the Colossians, say, can Christ have preeminence over every sphere of life? And can you make sure that the instruction that you think from Christ is actually from Christ? That's what Paul is going to say time and again in Colossians. I hope when you leave that probably it won't be all of Christ over all of life for any of us. But my goal is to be more of Christ over more of life for most of us because we only got six weeks. And this is usually a lifetime plan. If you have a Bible that's a very long introduction Colossians one. I want you to see how these ideas are put together in a prayer. Colossians chapter 1 verses 1 through 14. The first big idea, two simple points today. To set Christ over all of life, we ought to express Christ-centered thanksgiving for the benefits that flow from the gospel. Verse 1, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God's will and Timothy our brother, to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ in Colossae. grace to you and peace from God our father. We always thank God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you. For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love you have for all the saints because of the hope preserved for you in heaven. You have already heard about this hope in the message of the truth of gospel that has come to you. It is bearing fruit and growing all over the world just as it has. among you since the day you heard it and recognized God's grace and the truth. You learned this from Epaphras, our much-loved fellow slave. is a faithful minister of the Messiah on your behalf, and he has told us about your love in the Spirit. Just a few quick notes about these first eight verses. Number one, Paul's the author. Paul does not plant the church at Colossae. He is in a Roman prison. There are four letters in the New Testament where Paul writes from a Roman prison. This happens to be one of them. Because Paul's in a Roman prison, he's already training up his replacement, Timothy, who is there with him. Notice these Christians are in Colossus. You say, where's Colossus? It's in modern day Turkey. That's where it's at. ⁓ But Paul wants to point out that more than these people are in Colossus, they're in Christ. And he says that they're saints, they're holy ones. He says that their identity now, listen carefully, ought to be formed more by who Christ is than where they are. And that should be the case, same for us, that we should be informed more by who Christ is than where we are and the philosophies that dominate us. And notice what happens here is Paul gives his big three. You always ought to listen for Paul's big three, faith, hope, and… when I point you answer, faith, hope, and… Yeah, good. Okay. And we ought to notice when Paul changed the order. Okay, because he says, I've heard of your faith. I've seen the love you have demonstrated and the hope. And so when he reverses the order, he wants to put emphasis on the last one. That's what he does. And it's right there in the text. He says, I've heard about the faith you've had in Jesus, the love you have for all the saints. And he's saying, look, keep your eyes on the hope that you have. It's resurrection hope. That's what it is. It's the gospel message that Christ has come and died. risen again and that he'll come again, you'll rise and God will make the whole world new. He says, that's really good news and you ought to keep your eyes on it. And he says, it's not just something you look forward to, but it's something that's already bearing fruit in you. And he says, I'm really glad for Apaphras who planted the church. Now with that warm up, he then will launch into, he's already kind of in the, he's already praying here. But then once we get to verse nine, he really focuses his prayer and my My appeal to you today is when the sermons over which won't be too long from now that you can see the spheres of your life and You say God I want spiritual wisdom and understanding in every one of these spheres and I don't want to just know what to do. I Want to be able to do it and I don't want to just do it for a day I'd like to do it consistently and that's what Paul is going to pray I'll just make one other point. You know, it's before I read this, because I want to kind of land the plane here, ⁓ it's interesting that people will say, Rusty, you preach us a sermon. We don't know the Bible that well, but you can help us. Cliff, you lead us in the music because we don't sing that well and you do. But then a lot of Christians say, but we got the praying under control. And what I would like to say is, ⁓ maybe. because the disciples of Jesus, when they heard Jesus praying, you know what they said? Lord, you need to teach us how to pray, because we know how we're praying, and then we go listen to you pray, and your prayers don't sound like our prayers. And this was long ago on a Wednesday night prayer service. ⁓ I just took the prayers of the New Testament, and a lot of them are Paul. And you know what I noticed? That the prayers of Jesus and the prayers of Paul don't sound like the prayers of... the Baptist. Because you know what the prayers of the Baptist sound like? Lord, help this person, heal this person, heal this person, heal this person, heal this person, heal this person, heal heal this person, heal this person, heal this person. That's what we pray. They're sick, Lord, heal them. They're sick, Lord, heal them. They're struggling, them. They're struggling, help them. And then after about an hour long prayer meeting like that, you're like, Lord, heal me because I'm so depressed from hearing about all these needs I can't. That's not how, listen Paul would have no problem, by the way the elders have the responsibility. If you're sick you call the elders, we anoint you with oil and the prayer of faith will raise up the person. You know, either on this day or on the last day. You hear what I'm saying? So I'm not saying we shouldn't pray for sick people, but you know at least a significant portion of our life should be praying for our and other people's spiritual growth. Often lacking. And Paul is going to say, here's the second big idea, to set Christ over all of life, we need to pray for spiritual wisdom and understanding so that we can live a life that honors Jesus. Notice verse 9, for this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we haven't stopped praying for you. And he doesn't just have a list of all the sick in Colossae. Okay? What does he say? We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and 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. May you be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the father who has enabled you to share in the saints inheritance in the light. For he has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves and whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. You say, Rusty, how do I pray this way? I'm going to show you. The first thing Paul prays for in verse nine, he says, we are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding. So see the spheres of your life. Say, God, I need to know what I need to do in every one of these. Here's the thing about biblical application. The Bible gives you some clear principles. But the Holy Spirit of God is going to have to drive them home in practical application. The Holy Spirit of God may say to you, you're not being a very good employee. You read that later down in Colossians that you ought to serve not because the boss is a good man, but because God is a good God and you're serving him, not the boss. Get your act together. See what the Holy Spirit does, you see? Points out this? Or you may say, know, ⁓ what about, let's talk about your marriage. Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church. How about you doing that? Like, ⁓ boy, okay. You say, about these wives? Wives submit unto your husband, unto the Lord. You're like, ⁓ no, is that word? We got to do that? That's what the Bible says. You see? It gives you a principle. But Paul says, I want to pray that you know more than the scripture. You actually are seeing that God, the Holy Spirit is taking these principles and he's making them real practical so that you are filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding. The word we used to call this is discernment. And then it's not just enough to be convicted. This knowledge should be produced. This is Paul is praying for. That this knowledge should produce in you that you would walk worthy of the Lord. That this knowledge is going to produce action in every one of these spheres. That you would walk worthy of the Lord fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work. And then guess what happens? As you actually do and apply what you've been revealed, this knowledge actually, this knowledge applied gives you, you ready for it? More knowledge. It's what it says in the text. Growing in the knowledge of God. It kind of has this loop effect. The more you obey, the more you can obey. But here's, you say, well that's enough Rusty. You know, I know it and now I'm applying it. ⁓ no, that's not enough. I'm not throwing any negativity, Russ. I have no negativity in my heart today, okay? But over 900 people showed up here last week and now 900 people didn't show back up. Okay? And I could care less about the size of the church. Okay? But you know what I do care about? Consistency. Because it's one thing to know what to do and then to do it, but you know what's really hard? Keep on doing it. And that's what Paul prays for. He says, may you be strengthened with all power. You said, man, I acted right to my boss at one time. I got to do it again every day. Jesus, that's every day. It says strengthened with power according to his glorious might. And then, know, honestly, I got to confess here this, This one little word here is upsetting me, okay? Because it's convicting me, okay? Because I, listen, rusty, I'm not, I know my weaknesses, but here's my strength, my hope. You can count on me. If I tell them I'll be there, I'm going, and I'll keep the routine going. But it says, you ready for this? May you be strengthened with power according to his glorious might, amen, for all endurance and patience. I've been in church for 22 years, endurance and patience. He's like my middle name, you know? But you know what it says? For all endurance and patience. Because sometimes like, well, I'm doing it. It's like Monday morning when Ishmael sees me and he's Mr. Smile. He wants to hug me. He's like, how you doing? I said, don't talk to me. Give me a second, Sunday, I'm trying to get over Sunday. It's Monday. But you know what the text says? Patience and endurance with joy. That is, is the joy of your life to serve the Lord. And then, then you can get real proud of yourself. Look how much I'm growing. Nope. It says, giving thanks to the Father who has enabled you. Okay. This ain't you doing this program. Cause he's the one who transferred you from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of his son. And anything good in you is Holy Spirit done. Now that's a prayer. To say I pray for you that you may have spiritual wisdom and understanding that you may walk worthy of the Lord and keep on doing it with great consistency and endurance and patience joyfully and in the process say thank you Jesus, you're the one who's doing it through me, I'm just giving myself over to you. I wonder if... I prayed that prayer and you prayed that prayer for others, God might answer it. and more of Christ would be more in your life. And honestly, the place to start is not by learning and not by getting counsel. The place to start this journey of Christ, would you be all in all in me, is to appeal to the Father in heaven and say, would you open my eyes, would you enable my will Would you motivate my consistency joyfully so that I could participate with you in a transformation process? I encourage you. Why not this week? Some of you are grieving. You say, Rusty, the 40 days of the New Testament's over. What am I going to do? Well, I'm gonna change the plan up for you. I don't want you to read a lot. Why not just every morning, Monday through Saturday, pray Colossians 1, 9 through 12. Just get out of the bed, open the Colossians chapter 1, verse 9 through 12, and read it, and then pray a prayer consistent with it, and see if God the Holy Spirit doesn't do what He can do. If you're here today and you're not a Christian, you say, Rusty, I can't have Christ over all of my life because Christ is not even part of my life. You say, Rusty, how can I be a Christian? Well, the Bible says if you admit that you're a sinner, that you disobey God, and you turn to Christ in faith, you say, God, I can't, but God, you have died for me, you have risen again, I cannot save myself, but you have saved me, God, I trust in you. The Bible says you are transferred at that moment from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of his son. And so I'll be here, Pastor Ishmael will be here. If you don't know about your eternity, why not today? And Christians, Is your spiritual life just somewhere in a corner or does Christ have full authority and are you even granting him authority over every sphere of your life? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray as your Word has taught us to pray that we would be filled with spiritual wisdom and understanding, that we would do your will and that God, you would develop in us joyful. consistency. And God, through this process, God, through this process, we would never think we're doing it, but God, we're giving ourselves over to you so you can do it through us. And so God, may the reality that we are in Christ be more important than where we are geographically. God, may you have all in all in us. And God, may we give ourselves more over to you in Jesus' name, amen.

Colossians 1:1–14 Colossians 1:9–12