COLOSSIANS - Completely & Utterly Jesus // One Church Podcast, 12th May 2025

We are one church. We love God, love people, love

His mission, and love His church.

Welcome to the One Church podcast and.

If you've ever thought about how rarely anything is absolutely

completely anything in life, so have you?

Have you ever been completely happy, for example, or

absolutely sad with not even a glimpse of joy, or completely

fulfilled or completely healthy? There's always 1 little tiny

niggle or something or scratch or something or other completely

bad, completely good life in the human world is really never

absolute or complete. The perfect day in case you I'm

sorry to disappoint you, but the perfect day you might have been

hoping for all your life doesn't exist.

There's always something, some little speck on the horizon,

some tiny fallout in the family or something that means the

perfect day doesn't exist. The perfect holiday marriage,

the perfect moment. They're not real.

But increasingly, it seems that people are looking for

absolutes, that they're looking for something for somebody who

is completely and utterly worth living for.

For perfection, for absolute truth.

Many people, as it's already been hinted at through this

meeting, believe that God is working powerfully in Britain at

this time. We're seeing glimpses and as

Alice said, it's not everything, but it is something.

It's not everything we're hoping for.

It's something. It could just be the breath, a

deep breath before the dive. It could be just be the moment

before the move. Let's pray that it is.

Some people, especially younger people, are turning back to

church. More people are reading the

Bible, searching. People especially want to know

that there's a God, that he exists, that he's completely

good, that he's completely powerful, that he's absolutely

supreme. And today, as we continue our

series that we started two weeks ago in the letter that Paul

wrote, one of the early church leaders, two people in a place

called Colossae, the Colossians, then we're going to see all

this. So if you're looking for that,

then listen in. Today we're going to focus again

on the one who stands above it all.

And we see that it's all completely and utterly Jesus

because in him there are absolutes and there is a

complete and there is an utter truth.

Two weeks ago we saw there are two opposing kingdoms and that

Jesus is the one who rescues us, transforms us from darkness to

his Kingdom. Last Sunday we studied an

amazing passage exploring the supremacy of Christ.

He's over all, He's in all, He's through all and he holds all

things together. So how could he not hold your

life and my life now? A few months ago, David and

spent a few hours in Doha airport in Qatar.

Has anybody been there? It's an amazing huge airport.

34.5 million passengers a year pass through that airport, 100

planes land or take off every hour.

The passenger terminal is huge. It's got 130 plus shops, many

cafes and restaurants, play areas.

There's even this fake forest where you can wander around and

people were having sleeps or having a picnic.

It was very bizarre. There are lights, LED screens,

there's pieces of massive art, sculptures.

It's overwhelming. It's easy to lose your way, and

that's for normal people because for David and I, it's very easy

to lose our way anywhere that we are basically.

And what do you need? You need a map.

You need that map that says here we are.

Here's these shops, here's this cafe, here's this terminal.

And there's the little red dot. And it says you are here.

You know, it's got Alaro and it says you are here.

And Paul basically is doing that in these verses we're going to

look at today because he's just set out this huge, overwhelming

poem of the greatness of Christ. He's the image of the invisible

God, the first born over all. And now he shows us a little red

dot and he says, let's ground this because you are here today.

We're going to see the absolute, complete, utter opposites of two

possible states of a person. There's only two things that a

person can be either lost or saved and the absolute complete

finished work of Jesus and the absolute complete response that

will be ignited in you and me if we understand the depths of all

this. And Paul brings it all home to

us. Once you were alienated from God

and we're enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour.

But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through

death, to present you wholly in his sight, without blemish and

free from accusation. If you continue in your faith

established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in

the gospel, this is the gospel that you heard and that has been

proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I,

Paul, have become a servant. Amen.

Thank you for the word of God. Lord, we ask you to speak to us,

Jesus name. In this passage.

We see there's no middle ground. There's no sort of salvation in

the Kingdom of God. There are absolutes.

It's darkness or light, it's alienated or reconciled, it's

enemies or friends, it's evil or good in God's eyes.

Everyone in this room, everyone across history has been one or

the other will die or has died in one state or the other.

So let's look at them completely and utterly lost.

Once you are alienated from God and we're enemies in your minds

because of your evil behaviour. Have you ever experienced being

separated from someone you love or someone who loves you, even

temporarily? When our eldest son Sam was

about, I think he was about two or three years old, he was only

very small. He started and the rest of the

cousins we used to gather for Sunday lunch at David's mum and

dad's, their grandma and granddad's and great grandma

would come as well, and auntie and uncle cousins and so on.

And they started being given pocket money by grandma and

granddad, a pound from Grandma and granddad, 20P from great

Grandma. After lunch one Sunday, not long

after they started being given this money, we noticed that

Samuel wasn't there. Oh no where Samuel?

We were also sat relaxing after Sunday lunch, feeling a little

bit, you know, you feel quite full, so quite sleepy.

And then somebody remembered because we saw that Samuel's 20P

had gone from the sideboard and we remember that he loved the

horse by the Co-op, this little mechanical horse that you could

put 20P in and have a ride. Not for very long and not very

exciting in my view, but he liked it.

And so we ran out the whole family.

Because he was only small, we ran out over the whole village.

There was quite a main road nearby, so we were quite

worried, and sure enough we saw him trotting back across the

village green, NO20P in his hand.

He'd obviously been on the horse, had a ride on his own and

was walking back home looking very proud of himself.

That was only a temporary separation.

We were soon reconciled. But what about the deeply

wounding impact of being wrenched away from our home?

Some of us in our church have experienced these things,

leaving a country, leaving a family, not knowing if we'll

ever see that family again. Even for some of us, being sent

away, maybe to school or to live with another member of the

family when we were small and not understanding why these

things have an impact. Or maybe for some of us, it was

somebody who left us. Our father or our mother walked

out of the family. For example.

Separation brings pain, and Paul uses this picture to describe

the state of somebody who is apart from God.

This is how the new Christians he's writing to were not so long

ago. They were completely and utterly

lost, he says. They were enemies in their

minds. When we're away from God,

there's a tug of war in the head.

Will I surrender? No, I'll go my own way.

Evil behaviour, sin, selfishness.

We can say oh, it's just a little white lie or it's just a

little bit naughty or it's slightly wrong.

But if God is perfect and the past mark is 100 a 100%, then

all sin is devastating. It's why we need the grace found

at the cross and then think about beyond this life.

Because while we're on this earth, there's something that we

might call general grace, where God is still active in the world

today. There's still beauty, there's

still goodness, there's still God's hand all around us for

everybody. As the Bible says, the sun

shines on the righteous and the unrighteous.

But what will it be like after this life for those who die

without Christ? Complete and utter darkness,

Lostness, no hope of escape. Bearing the weight of our own

sin because we chose to reject the offer of Jesus.

Salvation, eternity lost, alone, alienated, punished.

Where will you spend forever? Because we all spend it

somewhere with God, with everything restored as it always

was, meant to be, in perfect peace, joy, worship,

relationship with the God who loves you, a new heavens, new

earth, all completely separated from God, forever lost in the

dark, bearing the consequences of our own sin in excruciating

agony. There are only two options,

absolutely and completely. And the only difference is

saying yes to Jesus. Because it's all grace.

It's all undeserved, a free gift of forgiveness, open to all of

US1 Completely on the cross. So Paul is writing to those who

can say they were once like that.

This is how you once were. And are you glad in this room,

if you've been rescued, that you were rescued today?

We were. We're surrounded as well by

people who are completely and utterly lost.

Some in this room might, you might know that's where I am

right now. Because there's only in or out,

alive or dead, lost or found. And This is why we must never

stop reaching people. You know, if you're still there,

if you're still lost, the transfer window, as it were, is

still open from one Kingdom to the other Kingdom, who knows for

how long. And it's urgent that you make a

decision. So there's one way to be

completely, utterly lost, and that's just to say no to Jesus.

But there's one way as well to be completely and utterly saved.

But now, says Paul, he has reconciled you by Christ's

physical body through death, to present you wholly in his sight,

without blemish and free from accusation.

If we could only see what actually happens.

The moment that we say yes to Jesus, the moment that we invite

Jesus into our life, that we receive forgiveness, we pass

from darkness to light. Was thinking about the day I

often think about it, the day I asked Jesus into my life, the

day I said yes, the day I understood age 14, nearly 15,

that the cross was for me, and the day I said be my Lord.

It seemed a really normal quiet day in a way.

I went to this meeting. It was the first time I'd really

heard the good news shared. Somebody shared about the cross

and how the cross was the only way that I could be forgiven.

And I just said yes in my heart. I don't think I even responded

outwardly. I don't think there was an

opportunity to respond outwardly, but I went home, drew

this little cross in my diary and the next day I got up Monday

morning because that was a Sunday night, and went to school

as normal, had my school dinner and so on.

I had no idea everything had changed in my life.

My life was forever transformed. I only realised how lost I'd

been really when I was found. Do you know this is no small

salvation if you can be blase about this today, Let's think

again, because this is no small salvation, this complete and

utter salvation. This is what we can be so

grateful for today and what we can rejoice in and what we all

have. Complete salvation.

Now. He's reconciled you by Christ's

physical body. Through Christ, every part of a

spirit, body, mind, soul is regenerated, is restored.

We have purpose in him now, in our lives.

Isn't that amazing? We can wake up in the morning

and know I've got a reason to be here on this earth.

Our relationships. We have a huge life to live now.

If we give our all for Jesus, we have the most exciting,

wonderful life. Sometimes people say to me,

well, how have you gone to all these places in the world?

What's what? How come all this has happened

in your life? It's only because of following

Jesus and in the future, in eternity, wholly in his sight,

without blemish, free from accusation, forever made new.

This is once for all time, completely and utterly lost

before we encounter Him. But once we've encountered him

at the cross, completely and utterly saved.

And yet many ask a question. Will I get to the heavenly

reception desk? And here, no place for you.

How can I know that I'm saved if I forget God?

Does he forget me? Let's remember what happens to

us when we become Christians. I haven't got time to read all

the scriptures. I'll just shout them out so that

you know they're in the Bible. And if you want them, you can

ask me later. So what does the Bible say?

We're sealed. Ephesians 113 to 14 we are

saved. Ephesians 28 to 9:00 we are

secure. One Peter 1/3 to five, we are

sons and daughters. Romans 815 to 16 we are sealed,

saved, secure. We're children of God, we are

safe. John 316 And then listen to this

from Jesus. Jesus himself said, I give them

eternal life, and they shall never perish.

No one can snatch them out of my hand.

My Father has given them to me, and he is greater than all.

No one can snatch them out of my Father's hand.

In the Greek, that is a double negative.

Never, never is the strongest way to say never is never,

Certainly not, not at all. By no means, if you're saved

will you become unsaved. David and I believe the Bible

makes it really clear salvation is not a repeated thing.

You can't get saved again. It's once for all, ever,

completely, utterly. And yet if we are saved and we

walk away, there is a lot we can lose.

This is what we can lose. We can lose our reward in heaven

and be saved as if through the flames, as it says in the Bible.

We can lose our fellowship with God.

We can use joy. We can lose the fruit of the

Holy Spirit in our life. Joy, peace, love, patience,

kindness, all those things. We can lose direction and

meaning in our life. We can lose our testimony.

We can even lose the ministry that God may have had for us.

We can lose victory over the world.

We can lose spiritual stability. We can lose growth.

These are serious losses, but we never lose him.

There's hope in this room. If you're believing for

prodigals to come back, there's hope for prodigals.

Max Liccardo tells the story of two young girls, sisters who

were abducted from their family with other children in a war

situation. They were carried off into the

wilderness. They were indoctrinated into

another way of life, and they forgot their language.

They forgot their past. They forgot everything.

One of them escaped and did get back to her family.

But she never stopped praying for her sister.

And one day she and her mother heard that a large group of

these children had been rescued. They walked up and down the

lines of the faces. By now these children had grown

into young men and women. They tried to recognise their

sister, their daughter. The children, though, were

unresponsive. No one responded, no face smiled

or or made any sense of recognition.

And when they called their daughter their sister's name,

Beatrice, nobody responded. Which one was theirs?

And the police guard said, is there a birthmark on her or some

way to recognise her, something that might jog her memory?

And then suddenly one the other daughter remembered.

What about the song that our mother used to sing to us when

we went to bed? What about the song you sang to

us, Mum? And in their own language, they

began to sing a simple Christian lullaby as loud as they could.

And suddenly there was a cry and a girl stood up from the group,

rushed over to them and hugged them and sang along.

She'd forgotten her name, she'd forgotten her language, so many

things. But something woke up when she

heard the familiar song. You know, Psalm 40 verse 3 says

Psalms 40:3

he has put a new song in my life.

And God places a song in the hearts of his children too, A

song of hope, a song of life. Some Christians, and I hope

we're all going to be those, they sing this song loud.

They sing this song long for every single day that they live

on the earth. Other people have some things

happen to them, or the song falls silent.

Life's hurts and happenings. They just mute the music inside.

And long seasons past when God's past, when God's song is not

sung. The truth is, we don't always

know if someone has trusted God's grace.

A person may have feigned belief and not meant it.

It isn't ours to know. But we do know this.

Where there is genuine conversion, there is eternal

salvation. Our task is to trust God's

ability to call his children home.

We join God as he walks among his wayward children, as he

walks among the children who have maybe got that bit lost

singing, and eventually his own will hear his voice and

something within them will wake up.

And when it does, they'll begin to sing again.

Let's just say, Lord, sing your song again out loud over the

prodigal children. Sing your song over them this

week. So in the light of all this, let

us all be completely and utterly committed to continue.

Paul goes on to say, if you continue in your faith,

established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in

the gospel, surely our response to this complete and utter

salvation is to give our lives completely to the one who gave

us this doorway into life, the one who gave it all, our Lord

Jesus Christ. Let's commit again to continue

established firm do not move from the hope held out in the

gospel. Continue to let him work in our

lives, change us, mould us, whatever stage of life we're at

to be constantly saying Lord, whatever the question is before

I even know what you're asking me, I'm going to say yes.

I'm going to say yes to you. I'm willing to change.

I'm willing to do what you want me to do.

Continue to be faithful to him. Say Jesus over everything.

Continue to live wide open for all he wants us to do.

You know, for this we need fresh water, we need an altar in our

lives where we go and we receive from him and we, we worship him.

And can I say come to our breakthrough nights?

Yes, come and bring people. Yes, come and bring somebody a

prodigal or somebody, you know, who needs a miracle because

we're going to pray for breakthrough miracles.

But also come for you, come for you, come to come to the altar

yourself, come to bring yourself, and to be set on fire

again. With a fresh fire, I believe if

we come even to several of those nights and just dedicate

ourselves, change our Diaries for it, we will receive from God

and we will be fired up for the next season of our lives.

Because I don't believe this is time to hold back.

It's not time to sit on the sidelines and just watch what's

happening. We need to make a fresh decision

to be all in. There's one life to live and

I'll live it for Jesus. I know our young people are here

in here this morning. Can I just say to young people,

young adults right now, choose who you're going to serve for

your life. Who are you going to put first

in your life? What are you going to seek

after? What are you going to do?

And Jesus promises. He's got an amazing promise if

you seek first His Kingdom. And here's righteousness.

If you put those first, then everything you need will be

given to you as well. It's an upside down Kingdom.

We seek Him first and He will give us everything we need.

All will follow. Decide now.

You're not going to marry anybody if you can't marry

somebody who will be, somebody who will inspire you in your

faith, Somebody who will walk with you, run with you through

life. So make right choices right now

while you're young. And for all of us today, if

we've not already made the best choices, there is a way back.

There's always a way back with Jesus.

Don't sit in shame. Confess, receive and make a new

commitment. Even this morning.

And when Paul says to continue, he's not as well talking.

This is really good because he's not talking to one person.

He's not saying, oh, Charlie, who lives in Colosse, you know,

you carry on, you continue. He's saying to all of them.

He's saying the church continue, praise Jesus, that we are

completely and utterly committed to continue, but also as a

church together. He puts us together.

We don't do it alone. It's all our hearts joined

together, our commitment united, our gifts which are varied, used

to serve, surrendered to Him, and then we can help those

coming in to grow. Then we can plant again as a

church. Then we can care for those in

our church family. Well, I wonder, are we willing

just to say yes to Jesus? Because that's all he needs.

He just needs our willingness. And finally, may we have more

confidence in the wonderful gospel.

This message has changed us. Yes, completely and utterly.

We have no idea how much it's changed us.

If we could only see what went on inside us.

It has worked and it will always work and it's at work today

around the world. It's the complete and utter

finished work of Christ. This is the gospel Paul says

that you heard and has been proclaimed to every creature

under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

You know, a few years ago, David and I travelled up to the

northeast, which is where my all my side of the family came from.

David preached from John 14 on that day and he was very clear

about Jesus being the way, the truth and the life being the

only way to eternal life. And afterwards Brenda came

running up. Now Brenda was the secretary at

the school where my uncle was a head teacher and she always was

a great witness to him. She is a lovely Christian and

even after my Uncle Leonard and Auntie Elsie retired, she looked

after them with great diligence. And even now she'll go and see

my uncle, I think, nearly every day.

She's fervent in her faith. And she was delighted and all

she kept saying she came up to David and she kept going, EE,

that's the gospel. EE, that's the gospel.

That's the real gospel. That is, the Colossians had

heard this gospel and it saved them the finished work of

Christ. Here lies all our hopes, says

Paul. The gospel, you heard it and

it's being proclaimed now all over the world.

And he says something which I'd never noticed before.

He says he has become a servant of this gospel, this gospel of

which I, Paul, have become a servant.

The work of Christ in salvation is completely finished.

Jesus said on the cross, it is finished.

It was a cry of victory. It is finished, it's done, but

the task is not. This is where we come in.

Jesus said to his disciples, as the Father sent me, so I send

you. We're privileged to join in

Jesus mission in the earth. The Father sends him, He sends

us, and the call has not been revoked.

Paul heard it. We hear it today.

We're sent so that the gospel will be proclaimed to every

nation on earth. And then as Jesus said, the end

will come to every nation. So all we need to be asking is,

where will Jesus send me? Where am I sent right now?

And this is the gospel, the unchanging, wonderful truth that

each precious person is completely and utterly alive or

dead, lost or found in their sin or forgiven, standing alone or

covered by the blood of Jesus. And there's only one way to go

from one to the other, and that is the precious blood of Jesus

shed on the cross for you and for me.

And we believe the power of this message.

So one church, I just want to say, prepare your hearts for a

week of breakthrough. Change your plans, come bring

your family, bring your friends, your neighbour, your someone who

needs a miracle. Get involved with the sessions,

get involved with the times on the street with Mission 2014.

And let's remember from these verses, once you are alienated

from God and we're enemies in your minds because of your evil

behaviour. Without Christ we are completely

and utterly lost. But now He has reconciled you by

Christ's physical body through death, to present you wholly in

his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.

With Christ we are completely and utterly saved.

If you continue in your faith, establish and affirm, and do not

move from the hope held out in the gospel.

Therefore, we will be completely and utterly committed to

continue. This is the gospel that you

heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature

under heaven and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

And we'll remember it's not our work, it's the complete and

utter work of Christ. We just proclaim and serve this

message. The Lord bless you and keep you.

The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you.

The Lord turn his face towards you and give you peace.