Colossians: Forever Qualified

So we're going to walk through the book of Colossians the next couple of months.

And so I'm so excited about this.

What I'm hoping for and praying for is that God, by his radical grace, he would root us in even more to himself and to his grace for us.

And then also in a way he would make us extremely uncomfortable with ways we think, with ways that we think about ourselves, ways that we think about him, the ways we think about how we're righteous before him, the ways that we think about how we are valuable in this world.

And then also as we get into chapters three and four, that he would make us extremely uncomfortable even on how we live.

And so that's even how the book is broken up.

You'll see as we go through it that chapters one and two are all these promises of who we are in Christ, all these promises that God gives us, who you are when you place faith in Christ.

And then chapters three and four start to transition into kind of the practical outworkings of, okay, if this is true about you, what God is saying about you, well then here's what the life that starts to come out of that.

And so I'm just hoping for a lot of heartwork inside of us that will create some work and life coming out of us.

So the the city of Colasse, southern Turkey today is the area.

And this was a marketing center, it's very pluralistic, a lot of ideas kind of flying around, of course.

Anytime a lot of ideas flying around, a lot of ideas competing for people's lives and hearts and the way they think.

And Paul's in Rome, most likely still in prison, writing this letter to a church he's never been to, but he's gotten reports back about this church.

And so we heard at the beginning of the greeting, right, that Sam just read Grace and peace to you from God our Father.

And so I just right away we've got to be real clear about what grace is.

And so grace is God's unconditioned, right?

So what that means is it means nothing you brought it, there's nothing that brought it about, and there's nothing that continues it.

Nothing you do keeps it coming.

It is one way from God to you.

That's what grace is: unwarranted, unconditioned love, uh, goodness to you, which is clearly seen for us to know in Jesus.

So we are made right with God.

This is the gospel.

We are made right with God based on what he did for us on the cross, right?

If you've been around for a while, you know this.

If you haven't been around, this is groundbreaking, unfathomable, incredible news.

Because what it means is you're made right with God based on what he did for you, not based on anything you do.

So all your sin, your junk, and your shame and all that is put on Jesus on the cross, and all his righteousness and goodness is put on you.

And we are made beloved children of God based on what he did for us.

Is any anybody else, is anybody on Amazon Prime, are you ordering?

Are you ordering?

Anyone doing the the app?

Ordering off the app?

Alright, I hadn't got there.

That's really addictive.

So you might win this little contest we're about to have.

I'm ordering all sorts of things.

So uh a lot of swim goggles.

We lose a lot of swim goggles in our house.

A lot of swim goggles.

Uh food.

I've ordered food.

Anybody else ordered food off of Amazon, which is kind of strange.

Uh cleaners, right?

So I'm a little interested, so entertain me.

I sort of want to know what's the most random thing in this room somebody has ordered off of Amazon.

And I'm not talking weird.

Let's not go like personal weird stuff.

Let's let's just keep that to yourself.

Just random.

So I think we can rule out books and like music, diapers.

I think these things can be ruled out.

I'd I'm by you some time to think about if you think you can perhaps even enter this little contest we're gonna have.

I looked online my account, ordered uh a bird feeder.

It's kind of random.

I don't know.

A mattress topper, uh, a toilet lever, a little lever, right?

Um uh our church's Christmas candles.

I ordered those off Amazon.

I ordered a bathtub, right?

I don't know if you're gonna be able to beat that.

I'm not gonna be able to win the prize since I'm holding the contest here, but I ordered a bathtub off Amazon Prime.

All right, so uh who and we'll make it interesting,$10 gift card, just to kind of motivate you to talk here.

Um Michael Jackson glitter in the club.

My fortieth birthday party, which is on Michael Jackson glitter.

Okay.

All right, so here's how this works.

So people, you I that's the s that's the base.

So you think Matt Okay.

Some more.

Okay, okay.

David, the weird, is that the I Michael Jackson, radioactive coasters, some oars, uh, a cattle prod.

Anyone else want to enter?

Aaron, do you have angel wings?

Okay, angel wings.

We're just gonna give it to the angel wings.

All right, so here's what we all know.

We all know the feeling, right?

We've been ordering stuff, and you sort of lose track of of uh what you've ordered.

So when the box comes and it's on the porch, you sort of don't remember what's in the box, okay?

And if you're not into the Amazon thing, then just pretend it's Christmas time and a box is showing up, and so you don't know what's in the box.

We all know that feeling.

This box is on my porch, and you get a little excited to open this up, and so you pick it up off the porch and you take it in your kitchen, you pull the scissors out of the cupboard, and you open it up, and you get excited to open this up and to have it in your house, in your life, to have it integrated into your life.

Okay, so here's my point.

My point is this, um, and it's this question How does this box called the Gospel of Grace, which has been dropped on your front porch, how does this box integrate into your life to create peace and patience and endurance?

This is what this passage is talking about.

Because what's easy is this.

What's easy is to have the box on the property.

Right?

Like it, you know the grace of God, you're you've become a Christian, it's on the property, but you never open that up and really begin to trust in it and let it integrate into all these different areas of your life.

That is very easy for us to do for the Amazon box just to stay on the porch.

So this verse 2 is actually a pretty typical greeting.

The Jews would always just say, peace to you, which meant shalom, which is a state of life.

This this word peace, uh, is peace and wholeness, this feeling of uh a fullness, of being full.

And then Paul takes that phrase and he says, Grace and peace to you.

And this is original, this is new.

Because what Paul is saying is there's no shot.

There is no shot at peace, there's no shot at fullness unless you understand grace, unless you understand God's grace to you.

And that it's more than just a doorway into the Christian faith, but it is actually your day-to-day standing and reality, the thing that you're rooting into.

And many of us never experience true peace or true freedom because we're still living really a philosophy of moralism.

We talk a lot about kind of Christian moralism around here, and what that is, is this sort of like um twisted view of the Christian faith, which really you're going, by the grace of God, I've entered into a relationship with God.

But really from now on, um, day to day, I will base my standing with God, I will base who I am based on what I do.

And it never ends, right?

There's no end to it.

And you sort of, well, you you sort of just carry around this scorecard, right, like in your pocket of how you're doing.

I did well, doing well, or feel like I'm doing well, uh, didn't do too well.

And you're kind of up and down based on your scorekeeping on yourself.

That's moralism.

And then you go and you hand your card to God, you know, show it to other people.

See, I am valuable.

Christianity says you're standing with God and your value as a person is not based on what you do, it's based on what has been done for you, and that the scorecard is gone.

See, this is the only way peace happens.

Grace and peace, the only way peace happens is if grace is in your life and you're resting in it, and you're letting go of that scorecard.

See, when I was 29 years old, not that long ago, six years ago for me, I was ministering, and really when it came down to it, there were days I felt like my standing with God was secure and great, and it was, and it was all based on what I was, what I've done, what I was doing that day, how well I perceived how I was doing it.

And so I knew Christian moralism.

That was my reality.

And there's a lot of self-dependency and then pride and then failure, just that this constant scorekeeping.

So I'd receive forgiveness of my past sin, but the reality on a day-to-day basis, in many ways, it was it was darkness because it was a life still based on merit.

So grace and peace, this was not something I knew.

Grace was something on the porch, still in its box.

It was on the property, but I had not begun to open that up and let it work its way into every room in my heart and my life.

And then one day I met some friends, some new friends.

And these people started to help me see.

I was reading over all these promises in the Bible.

I was reading straight over chapters one and two of Colossians to get chapters three and four.

Like, just tell me what to do.

Because I want to sign on to the tell me what to do part, and I was missing, I was not rooting my heart and my life into the promises so that, so that the fruit would occur.

Maybe you're here and this is all new and it's gonna be groundbreaking.

We're so ecstatic for you.

We're so excited you're here to hear this.

Maybe you're here and you're thinking, like, here we go again.

Like peace, yeah.

Like I've I've been around and it's not working.

The Christian life hasn't worked, it's not working, I've tried, it didn't take.

And what you you just you've signed on to I'll just play the game.

I will play the game, but underneath it, you are exhausted from pretending.

And perhaps, maybe, you would consider this that your problem is, is that you think you have to pretend.

That grace isn't quite enough for you.

This passage, uh, it gains steam as it goes.

It's like a building wave, sort of building, building, building, building.

And then verses 12 through 14 starts to crash down.

So I want to start there and then we'll jump back and work our way through.

So we're jumping into verse 12, which is sort of Paul has this long, uh, long run-on sentence, and we're gonna jump in in mid-sentence.

And giving joyful thanks to the Father who has qualified you, he qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people and the kingdom of light.

For he has rescued us, he rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son, He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

So in this passage, the kingdom of light refers to goodness and truth.

Right?

I mean I'm thinking about this, and I'm thinking like southern France, 300 days of summer, of sunshine, Mediterranean water, and good food, and good wine.

I mean, I mean, this is the goodness and truth, and then you have the kingdom of darkness, like the pit of a North Korean jail, and no hope, and no light, and no food.

And a life in the kingdom of darkness is a life oriented around lies.

Things we think about ourselves.

And here's how you know it's darkness.

You want to know how you know it's darkness?

It's producing shame, it's producing anxiety, it's producing fear.

And we revolve our lives around those kinds of thoughts, those kinds of lies.

And that's a life revolved around a kingdom of darkness.

And the core lie to all of that is that God's grace is not enough for me.

And so I will set myself on a mission to qualify myself before him and before you, and before the other person, before the other person.

I don't even know him, but I want to feel qualified before him.

And because of that, I'm gonna feel the pressure of that and the anxiety of that and the fear of that.

This is how destruction begins.

This is how affairs happen.

This is how people steal stuff.

This is the beginning of it is a heart that is unsettled and it's itching to qualify itself in some way.

So, two questions for today to sort of organize a sermon I've been rambling for a while.

The first one is this, and we've already sort of answered it, so this would go really quickly.

How do we get out of the darkness?

And then number two, once we're out of the darkness, what will our lives look like?

Number one, how do we get out of the darkness?

Well, how do you get out of a place you can't see to get out of?

There's only one answer: somebody else comes in to get you.

Light comes in from outside.

That's what this whole passage is saying, right?

I mean, he qualifies us, he rescues us, he delivered us.

We can't qualify ourselves, we can't rescue ourselves.

Some of us have been trying for so long.

And some of us, even as believers, are still trying.

You got the scorecard, the record of your earnings, the record of your looks, the record of your weight, the record of your performance, your perfectionism, or the ability to kind of keep everything under control.

And God's just saying, you can stop now.

You can stop that.

I'm the one who rescues you, I'm the one who qualifies you.

So, question number one, how do we get out of the darkness?

By Christ's qualifications for you, not your qualifications for yourself.

So you root yourself more and more and more and more into who God has been for you.

You learn more about it, you rest more in it, you put your mind more into it, you let your heart and your mind transform more into those truths.

Question number two.

So once out of the darkness, what should our lives look like?

Verses four through six.

Because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love you have for all God's people, the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven, and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you.

In the same way the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world.

Don't you love that?

Not just here.

Like our friends in India, Richard Samuel was here a month ago.

They were worshiping earlier today, I think if I get my times right, like while we were still asleep.

Friends in Uganda, they're worshiping early, early morning for us.

Right now, Guatemala, people worshiping it, it all looks different, different cultures, the whole world, the gospel is growing and bearing fruit.

Just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God's grace.

So how does that's the whole sermon right there?

The whole sermon is there at the end of verse 6.

How does fruit and the gospel, how does the gospel bear fruit?

You've truly understood God's grace.

That word understood means you know it, but you know it and you apply it into your life.

It's been integrated into your life.

So it's it's the Amazon box in the house, cut open, and whatever it is is getting integrated into your life.

And that we feel safe enough in God's grace that we can put before him our junk.

That you know that dream that you dream and it's messed up, you know it's messed up, but you would never say it to somebody else.

And that you feel secure enough in God's grace that you could confess it to him.

You know that brings that act of repentance and confession and resting in God's grace brings great appealing to that idolatry.

And the gospel's bearing fruit and it's growing.

I mean, I just hope that I was thinking about this week, I was just hoping, like, you know, that someday people would say, Man, what happened- what happened to Marietta?

What happened there?

Oh, well, they just they just man, they got their hands on a really good sound system, and that really helped their church out.

Oh, they really got some good property.

And that property they got, that was that's where things turned around.

That's what really happened for them.

Or, oh, he had this great illustration with an Amazon box one day, and that was it.

That the church soared and people's lives changed.

No, it those people discover God really loves them, and Christ really is sufficient for them, and they unpacked that box and let it redefine them completely, and crazy stuff started to happen.

Like shame no longer ruled over them.

And they could fail and be safe within God's grace and just repent and move on with their life.

They quit sitting in judgment over other people, they quit burdening their spouses, they started loving without expectation, they became unusually patient and giving and loving, and they found themselves strangely content in a culture that's not content.

They quit using work or social status or socioeconomic levels to feel valuable.

They were at rest.

At peace.

Let's jump to verse 7.

So they learned this gospel from Epiphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, and who also told us of your love in the spirit.

For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you.

And then now Paul kind of breaks down how does gospel uh lead to fruit?

How does how does gospel, the grace of God in the heart, lead to something coming out of your life and behavior?

Uh here's what he says.

We continually ask God to fill you, so God's doing the filling, with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so the Spirit's giving it, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way.

Now, if you just read verse 10, uh part A, uh that's scary.

That you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way.

I read that and go, well, that's not happening.

I'm not real good at that.

Now, if you read the verse before it, I start to get some help because God is the one who is helping me do this.

The end of verse 10.

Bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God.

Well, how's that going on?

Verse 11, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might.

Now, what would that do?

So that you may have great endurance and patience.

So do you see it?

Do you see it in these verses?

The fruit in verse 10, part A, that life that honors God comes by the wisdom and understanding the Spirit gives.

So it's God's grace to you.

The fruit in verse 11, endurance and patience comes by being strengthened by his glorious might.

Again, God's grace to you.

See, the process over and over and over again is what God does in us and what we rest in creates the life that flows out of us.

So, what does this mean for you?

Well, it means you trying on your own to become more peaceful, you trying on your own to have more patience, you trying on your own to have more endurance doesn't really work.

You might be able to pull it off for a little bit.

But it doesn't really work.

It's not sustainable.

What does work is a deepening understanding that you are not really good at being those things.

You are not at peace.

You are not very patient.

You're not real good at endurance.

And that bringing these things to God and saying, I am not these things, and yet you love me, and that it's that grace that begins to birth those fruits.

So instead of trying to be better constantly, you finally admit you're not that great to begin with.

And I hope you're getting that because the people around you know it already.

And your heart becomes relieved and healed by the grace of God.

Your life is changed.

Then we find ourselves back at verses 12 through 14, this idea that God has rescued us from darkness to light.

And I love that verse 12.

I'll reread it, giving joyful thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.

So if you've been around here for a while, you've probably picked up that Christy and I and our girls, we go to Orlando a good bit.

We probably, I don't know, we probably go like four times a year at this point.

And we're not going for parks.

Christy's parents have a home down there.

It started as an apartment for business, and now it's a house.

And so for us, it's a free place, right?

I mean, it's like out of town, free place, and there's a pool.

So this is like, this is fantastic.

And so you know, the rhythm's always sort of the same.

You know, we drive down 75 through McDonough, which we all have evil thoughts about McDonough when you're driving through there on I-75 headed south.

This is just traffic everywhere.

And then we we eat Chick-fil-A at Tifton.

Anybody been to Tifton Chick-fil-A?

Okay, head of Florida, everybody knows that Chick-fil-A.

And then bathroom break in Gainesville, there's a one-hour bridge by the uh retirement Mecca of the villages.

Anyone, okay, we hit that one hour bridge, and then Turnpike, and then west on I-4, and then we exit on Sand Lake Road, and as soon as we exit, I get the same feeling every time.

And you know the feeling if you've ever been on you know vacation somewhere, or maybe you're going camping, and you're getting close, right?

You're getting close to the place that brings you relief, and you you start to get you know excited.

And we drive down the road and then we turn left on the esplanade, that's the road, and you drive through some trees, and then and I I can see, I mean, I can see beyond the big guard gate, which I got to get through.

I I see palm trees and a fountain and a lake, and man, I'm like, I want in there.

Like, that's where I want to go.

I don't have a lot of ability to get in there, but we pull up to that front gate, and there's two guards, and one guard will step out, and the process is always the same.

And he says, you know, how can I help you?

And I said, Yes, um, I'm on Frank Queen's list.

Do y'all have you ever had this moment?

Maybe not Frank Queen's list, but you're on somebody's list.

Maybe it hadn't happened to you.

It's a great feeling because what it means is somebody's done something for you.

I'm on Frank Queen's list, and what is your name?

And I'll say, My name's Russ Masterson.

And she'll say, just a second, let me check.

And I already know.

I'm on the list.

See, he he I'm on the permanent list.

Guard doesn't know that yet.

He's going to check.

I already know.

I'm looking ahead where we're headed, but I'm already in the list.

I'm not going to be cleaning the gate to work my way in here.

I'm not going to be cutting the lawn.

I'm on the list that gets me in.

And the guard comes back in, he says, Yes, you are.

And he hands me the pass, and in we go.

And how have I entered into this relief?

By the qualifications of my father.

And you and I are not qualified by our work or our record.

We are qualified by what God has done for us.

Christ's qualifications for us.

He wrote your name down.

So we rest in it and we remember it.

And we let his grace integrate into all the areas of our lives and rescue us from all the toil of constant qualifying.

And out of that births peace and patience and endurance.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you for your grace toward us.

Thank you for the relief of your work for us that we can stop working and know our standing is right before you.

And as we know that and rest in it, our hearts are relieved and empowered to live a life that honors you, to live a life that pleases you in every way, that bears fruit toward you, a life that has peace, a life that has patience and endurance.

God, as we come to receive communion, would we remember as we receive it, would we remember it is you that shines your light into our darkness?

It is you that rescues and you that qualifies.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.