Balancing Faith and Knowledge: A Journey Through Colossians and the Concept of Salvation

So how you doing Good to see you.

My name's Randy.

Thank you out there for watching.

We know there's several hundred of you every week that tune in and we don't take that for granted.

We want to connect with you, if we can, and find out from you how we can pray for you, how we can encourage you for your next step or send you some resources and all so how you doing up there in the general admission seats Pretty good.

Great Thanks for showing up in force today.

Good crowd up there.

Long time ago, sherry and I were expecting our first and that day finally came.

And so we went to the hospital and you know you think you know pretty much what's going to happen and we found ourselvesthirty I think I'm right.

I checked it with Sherry thirty-six hours later of labor that's a tough lady on the front row there.

Thirty-six hours of labor later, the doctors come in and they say there's a little complication going on here.

We're going to have to take the child rather than regular birth, and what that means is you they pointed at me you cannot be in there with her Now.

This was a long time ago and we weren't quite as advanced where I lived in as you are probably, were down here.

That was a relatively new thing, even to allow the husband in the delivery room.

And so, man, I'd been through this thing for thirty-six hours and at that point I was in no mood to be told no, to do anything.

And so I said oh no, if you take her, I'm going to be with her.

And he said no, you're not.

It was like two middle schoolers there for a minute yeah, I am.

No, you're not.

Yeah, I am.

So we kind of backed off and both of us cooled off a minute and I knew I knew enough to know that I needed to present my case.

I can't just argue with a doctor like that.

And I said I won't be any problem because and here was my thing we did LeMau's classes.

Now I don't know if that's even a thing anymore, dr Jimmy, but if you're forty years or younger you probably have no idea what even that is.

But that was the thing in the day and I chased it with this.

I said I completed all my LeMau's classes.

I even went when everybody else in the country was watching the national championship football game and LeMau's class being taught how to breathe.

And so I'm going, I won't be a problem.

And so finally they you know he actually pointed his finger at me and said okay, but the first time we have to deal with you, you're out.

And so I tell you all that.

To tell you that, as scared as I was and as nervous and all that as I was, it was like bang, all of a sudden, there he was and I really think my world, I think the world stopped for just a few seconds and I looked into the face of my son and I knew him First time.

I'd laid eyes on him, but I knew him and I knew who gave him to me and I just knew, I just knew that God had plans for him.

And now, all these years later, pamela, can you put that picture up?

That's been Now.

I've been told.

I can't tell.

I've been told there's a resemblance between me and him and that you know.

It's pretty easy to tell that that is my son.

He does resemble my family and he does resemble me and he is a harling, but I'm me and he is him.

Jesus came along, the Son of God, the very image of God.

But the difference he was God.

I'm my own person and he's his own person.

When you gazed into the eyes of Jesus in the first century.

Oh, you're looking at God, and that is the difference there.

I know that's my son and I'm still, I think, in the top five in the world knowing about him.

I know I'm related.

I also know Jesus and I know I'm in his family.

I know he's my son, without doubt because I was there when he arrived.

I know Jesus and I know he's in my life because I was there when he arrived in my life.

And if I had to summarize the core of the book of Colossians, that's basically it.

It is a Christ-centered focus, using the Scriptures from cover to cover and say that's great, that's great, that's great.

All of that in the Old Testament we need, but we need to overlay Jesus Christ, son of God, fully God on top of that.

Why?

Because in those days there were a lot of false teachers who were presenting things that had an element of truth, but then they departed from it and it was very subtle, it was very polite, it was very respectful, but nevertheless it was a false teaching and Paul can do nothing about it personally going there because he's in prison.

So he does the next best thing he writes a letter and he pours his heart into it and he is as persuasive as he possibly can be on pen and paper and trying to dictate some new Christ followers to stay out of that trap.

You know today is no different.

In many areas of life we've placed knowledge above faith and a lot of people would tell you that you know and maybe you're related to.

Oh, that's good that you need that, that's good that you observe a faith.

You're a lady man of faith, but I'm more science and knowledge driven.

I need it to be more concrete.

The issue with that and I'm all about science, man, I love medical science.

If I get sick, I won't.

I won't be able to get well and I love the advances.

I'm not negating that at all.

But what I am saying is, if you strictly base your whole life and your future on knowledge and knowledge alone, you got to understand that the truth about a lot of areas of knowledge changes.

There are things that are discovered, but there's also reconstructions of knowledge and truth, and now there's a lot of people spinning around saying, well, I used to believe this and now I'm told that's not the case and so where do I go from here?

I'd rather base my life and base my future on something.

I believe that is true, but it will never change it as timeless, and I think that's the other message of Colossians today.

Y'all, we need to believe in who we know over what we know.

I'm not knocking learning.

Education is a marvelous thing.

We ought to be lifelong learners, no matter what our age is.

But our first call in life is all about who we know over just what we know.

And so with that, I want to launch in Acts 4 or 12, I think on your screen where another, another time, another writer he's quoting.

He's quoting two Christ followers who are in trouble and he says hey, there's no other name under heaven given to man by which we must be saved.

That's a pretty simple process.

There is no other name.

In other words, it needs to be a relationship.

The city of Colossae by the time this letter was written, we believe about 55 AD, is already in decline.

There's a lot of theories on that.

We don't have much writing that directly attributes that decline, but if you want to compare it to other societies of that day and since, and even in the modern era we live in, a moral decay from within is generally attributed to be the cause.

They knew a lot, they had education.

They did not have the right relationship, and so there was only one way for them to go and, sadly, over the years, the town disappeared altogether.

They're not even a hundred percent sure Archaeologists are not even a hundred percent sure today where it is.

They have a pretty good idea of a general location.

So, randy, why are we talking about a section of Scripture that is all about warning against false doctrine?

This is 2023.

Well, there is.

There are some false things being taught today, too, and so that's the other timeless part of that.

With the advent of the social media and the internet and things like that, I think there's you can make a case that that danger is even stronger than it ever was.

So let's pray and then we'll launch into this.

Father, give us wisdom, not just knowledge, but give us wisdom to know what's from you and what is knowledge apart from you, and to know what is a, as Paul said, idle philosophies, from what is your truth, god.

We know that all solid truth starts with you.

There is no weather, and so, father, help us, whether we are in the beginning stage, whether we still are skeptical about you and that possibility, or whether we have walked with you for quite a while.

God, transform us today more into the image of your Son, so that we can matter to this community and be a light into the darkness where you send us.

So please do that.

Please, please come.

Holy Spirit, amen, alright.

So, being about all false doctrine and everything there, I thought the way I would talk about it today with you is to talk through the Scripture here, like we normally do, but say don't fall for these things.

So we're going to talk about three things that you don't need to fall for and I don't need to fall for, and we'll start with verse 6 through 8.

The first thing to want to fall for is the natural over the supernatural, right, natural over the supernatural.

So let me explain through the Scripture.

So then Paul says verse 6, just as you received Christ Jesus says Lord, continue in Him.

So he's writing to a bunch of Christ followers.

We know that and he says hey, keep on doing what you're doing, don't get off course.

Well, the next logic, linear thinking question to that is well, how Give me some ways to do that?

And he's like okay, let's read it in verse 7.

He gives three ways to continue on course with Christ's relationship.

Rooted and built up in Him.

Rooted if something is well-rooted, it's not easy to pull up right, it's not easy to blow over.

It's solid, it's more solid and built up.

That's a construction term of that day and that meant like, hey, you lay a foundation, you're gonna stand up against the elements better there.

Okay, strengthened in the faith, as you were taught, here's our third one.

Overflowing with what Thankfulness.

Here's the thing that Paul is trying to get them to understand.

We you probably most of you know this, but we need reminders.

The grace of God leads us to gratefulness.

You can work up some gratefulness for about a day and you can truly be thankful, but it's gonna wear off if it's just you working it up, right.

But once we understand grace oh my goodness, that's a life game changer.

Once you fully understand what happened on the cross and what the resurrection means and what Jesus claims to be the life in the way and the truth, you embrace the grace and you turn it around and you live it.

You can't help but being thankful.

You find things to be thankful for on the bad days and some of you have been through some bad stuff.

Now it doesn't mean you have to like the situation.

It doesn't mean you have to put on the, as we call it, fake Christianity.

Oh praise the Lord, you know.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

You grit your teeth and you face what you're dealing with, but you face it not alone, but with a Relationship.

Because why?

It's who you know more than what you know, because you're all gonna face many of you have faced stuff already that you cannot complete and you cannot understand.

You cannot explain, and Many people smarter even than you cannot either.

And so what are you gonna fall back on?

Where's your hope gonna come from?

It comes from who you know, because he knows fully.

And, hey, he knows you.

I can't solve all my son's problems, of course, I can't solve my own problems, but he knows if he needs me, I'm there.

He knows that I've got him.

I've got his back every single day in prayer and I'm fully happy and grateful to do that.

Why?

Cuz I know him and I feel like most times I know how to pray for him Because he's, he's my son.

So look at verse 8.

This is like the key, if you like to underline.

I think maybe verse 8 is the key Verse of today's passage 6 through 15.

He says see to it, nobody takes you captive Through hollow and deceptive philosophy, as the NIV says y'all this begin.

Verse 8 begins what has been called, and I believe that they're right.

A bunch of commentators who say this is kind of the core of the book through, like verse Chapter 3, verse 4, 2, 8, through 3, 4, and we'll deal with the rest of this next week, lord willing.

This is the core, this is the doctrinal core of the of the letter to the Colossians.

So this is important stuff.

He's telling them what to believe and he's telling them why to believe it.

And so he goes on and says don't follow human tradition.

Deceptive philosophy are the principles of this world.

Deceptive philosophy?

Hey, it's a Greek influenced Place.

The Greek gods were big in those days, the Greek philosophers were huge in those days.

That was promoted was like I believe this, but you come in and tell me what your worldview is and you know I'll, I'll respect that, whether I believe it or not.

They're open to pretty much anyone.

Human tradition guess who he's picking on with the human tradition stuff?

The Jews.

He is one of them, but he's gonna nail them here and he does in the book Colossians by saying man, why are you, why are you relying on the law when Jesus came to Redefine the law or abolish the law as the way of salvation?

Your traditions will only get you to the door, and that's about it.

And then he says basic principles, or what were some principles of the world?

The zodiac, a lot of people worshiped the gods of the stars or they put their meaning.

That witchcraft, we know, was big even back then.

Because in the book of Ephesus I mean in the city of Ephesus in the book of Acts, we know that some of the people were so convicted by Paul's presentation of the gospel, they became Christ followers and they were witches.

And they go out to the middle of town and they start burning all their material, which was huge in those days, goes if you had a book, oh, that's a treasured possession, you know.

They are burning their books as a sign of hey, we're done, we're done with the knowledge of this, we're done with a who.

And so he kind of covers all of the worldly, natural, natural ways of explaining things and he replaces it with the supernatural.

In Galatians 4 he says same thing.

He says since you know God, or rather have been known by him, how can you turn back again to the worthless elements?

Worthless elements.

Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again?

He said you came out of here Because you were set free by the gospel.

Now you're adding to it other Elements that are gonna put you back in slavery to a set of rules.

Why in the world Would you want to do that again?

So here's a question for you is false teaching immoral?

Can you be like mistaken and how you interpret or lay out the scripture?

But it also is sinful, immoral.

I think there are things sometimes we have to take into account.

I'll try to explain.

When I was in seminary, one of my good friends in the seminary was in the doctoral program.

He was working on his PhD.

I was a lowly Masters of Divinity student but he was nice to me in the seminary Divinity student but he was nice to me anyway and I learned a lot from him because I felt like man, I'm smarter just from hanging out and just eating a hamburger with him makes me a little smarter.

And One night I was over at his apartment and he was just kind of flipping channels, you know, and the religious Channels were coming on and he stopped on one just to check him out.

And the gentleman was saying, okay, it's like in the book of Philippians, and he starts turning to it.

And my friend he wasn't really mocking him but he was kind of grinning he said, oh, we can't find Philippians.

You know the pressure's on and he was struggling.

Well, then he reads some sections and he basically just paraphrases them using his opinion, and he wasn't the most well-schooled guy in the world.

And at that point my friend said you know he's wrong, but he's not hurting anybody.

In other words, he's a little bit ignorant.

He's trying hard, he feels called by God and that's probably genuine and he's doing his best, but he's a little limited.

But then he flipped over a couple of channels and there was another guy Preaching really hard and it didn't take about 15 or 20 seconds.

We both realized this guy is a crook because of his Twisting of the gospel for personal gain.

And my friend Bobby at that time said the other guy was kind of harmless, this guy is dangerous you.

So I think there is a distinction.

We still have a little of both today.

We still have people who are trying hard to understand.

They love the Lord.

They might not get it perfectly right every day, but God's grace covers and they're not hurting other people.

There's other people who know well what they're doing.

They're very smart and they are dangerous and they need to be taken from our Lord Off the platform.

In my opinion, intent is everything.

So lest we think of false teachings and idolatrous stuff, as you know, two thousand years ago stuff, let's be careful.

In the Old Testament, you know, they proved really quickly that they were dependent on visual I mean visual objects.

They could touch, feel, smell and hold.

They created idols gold and calf.

It didn't take them long.

There's another time.

God steps in and judges them, poisons.

The snakes come into the camp, bite, kill a lot of people.

Moses pleads for them.

God says, okay, make a snake and an image of a snake, put it on a stick, hold that up.

Everybody who looks on that, who's been bitten, will not die from that.

They do that, but guess what?

Months, maybe years later, they're still dragging around that snake on a stick and worshiping it.

There's something in all of us that needs to clean to something.

Whether you're using a cross necklace to like, well, hey, I got this, I'm good, I'm protected, and we slide away from our prayer, life and affection to God, whether it's a program at the church that we're putting it, you know, in programs we trust that's not in the Bible, it's in God.

We trust he uses programs, but that's not our salvation Traditions.

Well, we've always said that's right and there's nothing evil about this tradition until it starts to be substituted for Jesus.

Right?

So let's be careful.

So how do I know?

Here's one way you can know Is there room for the Holy Spirit in you right now?

How well in touch do you feel like you are with the Holy Spirit of God?

We're talking about how you understand the Scripture.

We're talking about how you know maybe I call it sometimes intuitively how did I just feel like that was the way to go and it ended up being the right way to go?

That's the Holy Spirit.

How did I know to shut my mouth when I wanted so bad to argue with this point?

Holy Spirit, how did I know to get a little bit bolder and push the envelope?

Because that's not my nature, you know, is to confront people whatsoever.

But why did I bore in on that guy and all like that?

Holy Spirit, please, please, please, for the sake of knowledge and going to Bible studies and being able to take the Scripture apart and put it back together.

Please, please, please, do not neglect your submission, your humble reverence, your obedience to the Holy Spirit of God, because the Holy Spirit of God is the only person in this universe who knows the heart and the mind of God Himself.

How do you know that?

Second Corinthians, chapter 2, go check it out.

2 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

So do we have room for the Holy Spirit in this body of Christ?

Do they down the road at Pinewood?

That's a question we need to, especially you and me as leaders.

We need to continually ask, because I don't want to be guilty of leading a church by strictly the natural over the supernatural.

If the Holy Spirit didn't show up next week, would anybody notice?

That's what we're saying here.

Could we do what we're doing now and what we plan to do in the future if you take out the Holy Spirit?

I sure hope not.

All right, let's move on.

Verse 9 through 12, don't fall for partial salvation.

Partial salvation, verse 9,.

For in Christ, all the fullness of the deity lives in body form.

He uses fullness a lot in the book of Colossians.

I love that word.

It's a Greek word that means fill up to the brim, maybe even sloshing over a little bit, and I think he deliberately uses this word because there's a group running around in those days called Gnostics.

They were false teachers.

They were saying Jesus is a good guy.

I got no problem with Jesus.

Paul is a good man.

He's a little bit limited.

Maybe right here we know some things, because God revealed it to us, that Paul does not know.

Hey, we're not here to knock him, we're just here to tell you the rest of the story.

And they suddenly would take people back to tradition, back to the natural, back to the worldly solutions, back to keeping the rules gettinghe'll hit it later doing some of the Jewish customs.

Because if you do that, oh yeah, and what Paul told you about Jesus too, you'll have salvation.

So what they're saying is he had a partial salvation, verse 10, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head and every power and authority, head over every power and authority.

So I got another question for you, where it says every power and authority.

Is he talking about earthly power, like the government and other strong leaders, or is he talking about, like in the heavenly realm, the spiritual power and authority?

Which do you think?

Well, the answer is yes.

He's covering everything because he's Paul and that's how Paul thinks.

Right, he's aware of both.

Verse 11, in him, you were also circumcised.

Natural over the supernatural.

Partial salvation says hey, you as a Gentile now claim to be following Christ.

That's good, but you're not yet there.

Why?

Well, you haven't been circumcised.

That's what the message was In the putting off or the throwing away of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by hands from men, but with the circumcision done by Christ.

He's symbolically talking about something we still celebrate today, which is, of course, what Baptism We'll have one, lord willing, today at five o'clock.

Verse 12, having been buried with Him in baptism and raised with Him through your faith.

First dimension you die to yourself.

You're buried symbolically with Him.

The second dimension you're raised with Him.

You come by faith to trust in Jesus, through repentance, through your faith in the power of God who raised Him, jesus from the dead.

God's behind it, he's the architect, he's the mastermind, his idea, he sends His Son.

His Son executes the plan with perfection.

So if we want to be a follower of God and know Him, the road is through Jesus.

We do what Jesus did, symbolically, what he did actually.

Hey, I like to give you some Scripture for maybe more reading this week, if you want to Write down Romans 6, 1 through 6.

Romans 6, 1 through 6.

That is one of the best explanations, simply, of the gospel in terms of baptism, describing the importance of baptism as illustration of salvation in the whole Bible.

He's basically saying it.

So if you're going to live with Christ, you got to die with Christ.

If you're going to identify with Him in heaven, you're going to have to identify with Him here on the earth.

How you do that?

Well, I just told you you got to die to yourself and you got to surrender to Him, be forgiven, and then you're raised back to a new life.

He goes over in 2 Corinthians 5, 17 and says you're a new creature.

When you do that, you're a new creature.

That is all you need.

That's the whole thing.

So can you put that picture up?

Ms Pamela?

This is about a month old now, but a lot of you know the story.

A plane went down in the country of Columbia about a month, first part of June, and crashed, and the adults, the three adults on board, died.

They perished.

There were four little children on board 13 was the oldest, one year old was the youngest.

They survived the crash somehow.

Their mom died three days later.

Her last words to her children was leave the area.

We don't know why she said that.

Leave the area.

They did.

The 13-year-old boy took charge.

They're in the densest, darkest rainforest jungle of Columbia and Brazil.

It is so thick that it's like dusk dark in the middle of the day there.

So you can imagine what a search party is up against.

The canopy is so thick they couldn't tell where the plane went down.

They could not see any evidence.

There's no roads.

You're not going to drive back there.

Search team came in, government sponsored and trained.

They were indigenous to the area.

The indigenous tribe got to work and they sent parties out too.

They knew the land, they knew the jungle, they knew how to survive Y'all.

I watched a discovery thing the other night from that area.

I mean there's caterpillars on leaves that are poisonous.

There are critters or plants or large animals that are just everywhere there that will kill you 40 days later.

They're still alive 40 days.

For children are in the deepest, darkest jungle.

They're finally found and rescued and helicoptered out of there by baskets, only way they could get to them.

And the government said, hey, man, we did it.

We did it.

We collaborated with those indigenous people.

The indigenous people said, oh, hey, hey, we found them and they did.

My point is this Wouldn't it have been a shame if whoever did find them said hey, we're going to give you water, we're going to feed you, we're going to nurse you back?

To help, just sign this form.

We need your social, we need to know all about your family, we need to know what your blood type is to a one-year-old.

Oh sorry, we're going to have to refuse you treatment if you can't go by the rules here.

Oh, no, of course not.

That would have been a partial rescue, a partial salvation.

They would have perished, but they got fully rescued, they were fully saved.

There's no doubt about it.

Now, what's the big picture here?

Well, the current president of Columbia called it a magical event.

The former president of Columbia said oh, that was a miracle.

There's no doubt about it, and that's my worldview.

My worldview as a Christ follower and yours probably is too, is oh, listen, we can talk all we want about them knowing plants and being able to eat from some plants and not another, and to know where to get some water, and to know what to save out of the plane to try to help them stay.

Bottom line is about every 20 or 30 feet.

There's something that could kill them dead in there.

We're talking about a one-year-old up to a 13-year-old, alone in a forest for 40 days.

You don't tell me that wasn't God's intervention there.

When God intervenes in your life and my life, you only need to know who is behind it.

That's the whole gospel.

Now we'll spend the rest of our lives trying to understand this.

You got me.

I'm not saying, neglect this.

I've staked my life on this.

This is better be true, and I believe it is.

But let's get it.

Let's not forget who's behind everything.

There's an old saying, an African proverb, that says don't let a naked man sew your clothes.

I think that means don't put credibility to someone who maybe doesn't know what they're talking about here, who are speaking on what they don't know.

Another thing real quick, is don't fall for salvation without freedom.

Verse 13,.

When you were dead to your sins and in uncircumcision of your sinful nature, god made you alive with Christ.

He said look, whatever elective surgery you had or didn't have, that's not going to get you there.

It has to be a who.

Who is Christ.

He forgave us all of our sins.

You cannot have Christ personally in your life without the remission or the forgiveness of your sins.

So what do you say?

And repentance is a have to?

Oh, absolutely.

Repentance is turning from those sins and embracing Christ instead of the sins.

That's called.

Transformation Starts with belief.

When belief moves to faith, oh, you don't have to have that stuff proven, you know, it's true, those of you who, like me, were in the room when your son or daughter was born.

You don't need a birth certificate, you know, and you don't have to ask Him or her a series of questions today.

You know the answer to their questions.

So, jesus, my contention is Jesus was never stronger than the day he hung on that cross.

The very ideal to the enemy of oh, we got Him now was when he actually was at His strongest and most powerful, and we're thankful he was there.

We're crucified with Christ only through our repentance.

So 14, he canceled the written code traditions with His regulations against us.

That stood and appeared to us.

He took it away, nailing it to the cross.

Nailing it to the cross figurative speech there.

But what got nailed to the cross?

Actually, remember Pilate, had it done?

The sign?

And what did the sign say this is king of the Jews Verse 15,.

And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public, not a private, a public spectacle of them triumphing over them by the cross.

Roman ruler analogy.

They come home after a big victory.

They parade the POWs in front, the conquered kings in chains.

Emperor comes behind the generals.

Everybody loves them.

They're the heroes you know, and they're like yep, we're going to parade them through the streets to make sure you know who defeated, who beat who.

But let me go back to theand the cross.

Crucifixion was a very public thing.

So let me go back to this sign business over Jesus.

I've wondered many times I don't know, maybe you don't know, we all can have an opinion what was going on in Pilate's mind when he ordered that sign done.

Was it a skeptical cynicism, sarcasm, or was there something in Pilate that could not allow him to rest?

And then, almost a conscious, stricken state, he nails that up there.

Had he begunstarted to become a believer that this might be the Jewish Messiah?

Because he is confronted?

Remember the high priest and them.

They come into him after they see it and they say that's blasphemous, take that thing down.

What did Pilate say?

No, it says what it says.

Leave it up there In back all these years.

He was prophetic.

He had it right, didn't he?

That was the king of the Jews.

That was also the king of the Gentiles.

That was also the king of 2023.

What you know is really good.

I think you ought to know everything you can about every topic that interests you.

I think we all ought to be really good students of the Bible, but our eternal destiny and our effectiveness in blessing the rest hinges on who we know.

Let's don't get that confused.

There is no other gospel.

All of our eggs are in one basket.

I hope you can say just like I was there when my boy was born, I was there when Jesus arrived into my life.

If that's not yet true out there or in here, I got great news for you today.

It can be true in about five minutes, if you're willing to believe.

Can you put that last quote up there, pamela Farme?

Nope, I'm going to skip that part.

Thank you.

Anybody know who said that.

You're looking at John 14.7.

Jesus makes.

I don't know how much more clear he could have made it.

If you knew me, you'd know him.

He goes on to say because you don't know me, you don't know him, and he didn't have to finish the rest of the story of their future there.

So I'll be down front.

Eddie is going to come and lead us.

We'd love to pray for you down here.

We'd love to celebrate a decision you need to make for Christ today, or, as we call it around here, a next step decision.

Guests, only thing we're asking of you is, please fill out a little card in the P-rack in front of you or go to the tent and get one.

We're not being nosy.

We just want to know how to, this week, pray for you or to send you.

If you need information.

Tell us that.

We've had some lately who have checked on the back.

I do need to be baptized, and that's a great conversation we enjoy having with that.

So if that's your case, we'd love to talk to you about that too.

Don't stand, let me pray for you.

Lord, I'm grateful for the way you take such complexity and boil it down to the essential, and Jesus advent into this world did that for all of us.

We don't have to know everything.

We don't have to figure out everything.

We do not have to know all the answers to all the questions.

We just are called to know Christ, and if we know Jesus, we have what we need to battle the things that we do not know and do not understand.

So God help us in this moment, amen.