Life in Christ (The Next Chapter Series)

All right. Well, now we have come to the point in our service where we dive into God's Word and we we ask the Lord to speak to us through it, as we kind of have have already done. There's a notes page inside your bulletin if you want to take that out and begin to take notes as well. But last week, as many of you know, we finished up our verse by verse sermon series that we were doing through the Book of Acts. It was a year long series, and it was a great series. I had a lot of you who reached out and just were so grateful that we walked through it verse by verse, so that we could really understand what God was up to from the beginning of sending the Holy Spirit and how He birthed the church through that, and then launched the church out to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. And if you were here last week, you may remember that one of the things that we said was that there was no real ending to the book of Acts. It just kind of comes to an abrupt end, and really, that's the case because Acts continues today. Jesus is still at work through the people of His church to take the gospel to the ends of the earth, and so we said that we may have finished Acts chapter 28, but Jesus was still writing Acts 29 and Acts chapter 30 and chapter after chapter of this story is he's just kind of been sovereignly at work through the people of his church over the years, so that no one misses the grace of God. And the next chapter is being written through his church today, and so we mentioned this last week as we closed out our series on Acts. But there were some of you who were here almost six years ago in January of 2021 when I shared something similar with you around that time. How how we were part of this great story that God was writing, and I did a sermon series, the very first sermon series that I did as the new pastor here at Colonial Hills at that time called the next chapter because we were beginning a new chapter. Jesus was taking all of the great things about Colonial Hills, and we were-he was moving us forward into this next chapter to write that next chapter and continue this great story of what he's been doing. And almost six years later, he's doing the same thing today. He's moving us into a new chapter. A lot of you were here last week, in between the services, and were here for the announcement that we made. If you weren't here, many of you heard through other communication that we sent out about the announcement that was made? But if you were not here last week, we made an announcement that we really feel like Jesus is leading us to come together as the one church that we already are, but to do one worship service together and continue to partner together on mission. And if you missed that announcement, and you want to find out all the details about that, and and even more about the heart behind why we're doing that, you can see that entire meeting on our YouTube channel and learn all of that there. But this is the next chapter. This is the next chapter that Jesus is going to be writing through us as His church, and so beginning today, as you can see here, we're starting another sermon series that we're also calling the next chapter. And you can see down at the bottom, it's going to be all about Him bringing us together as one church and one service and on this one mission together. If you happen to be here during that series in the beginning of January in 2021, it's going to feel a little bit like that same series because it's wrapped around four core values that I introduced to you at that particular time.

Acts 28 · chapter mention

Things that the Lord had impressed upon me and and and in my own life and in my life as a pastor and the way that he kind of works in and through me and I invited you guys during that time as the church and me coming in to be a part of this church with you to see if we could share these values together if these could be the things that guided who we are as a church, and even though there will be some things that are changing in this new chapter, those things will not. These core values, those core values, are going to remain the foundation of who we are as Colonial Hills, and as we remind ourselves of those things, some of you who weren't around during that time, you begin to learn these things because you're a new part of Colonial Hills. These will be the things that help bring us together as He moves us through this transition of being one church and doing one service and uniting around that mission together. And so let's. Jump right in and cover this first core value today, which is life in Christ. In John chapter 10, verse 10, Jesus says that the thief came only to steal and to kill and destroy, but I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. And so Jesus said, "The reason that I came, the reason that I left the glory and the riches of heaven to come here, is so that you and I may have life, and we may have it abundantly. Now that is a familiar verse to many of us, and a lot of us, when we hear that we agree with that and we say yes. Jesus came to give abundant life. He he came to give real life, to give a satisfying life, an overflowing, joy-filled life. And so many of us, when we read that, or have read that, or heard someone talk about it, what we do is we go in search of it. I mean, Jesus says that He came to give us abundant life, and so we go. Well, where's the life? He must be trying to give it to me in some way, and so for many of us, we go looking for that abundant life through our situations and through our circumstances, and so we start by going. Well, maybe that's found in a relationship. And if if Jesus would just bring me a boyfriend, or He'd bring me a girlfriend, or like the one that I'm supposed to marry and be with, or once we're married, if He would bring us children, and we would have these people or those people in our lives, then maybe that's the way that Jesus is going to give me abundant life, and so we're praying for Jesus to do that-to bring me those people into my life, so that I can experience this abundant life that He said He came to give. So many of us have been there, and we've prayed those prayers. Some of us have prayed the prayers where we're asking Jesus to give us a good job and to give us a lot of money, so that we can then buy all the stuff that makes us happy and fills our life with joy. And maybe when He brings us those things, then I mean that's going to provide abundant life for us. I mean, when we buy things and we have the things that we want, it provides for us at least for a while. And if we have more of those things and can always buy more things, we'll just stay filled and we'll have that abundant life together. And then, for some of us, it's not just the relationship, it's not just the job, but it's the the status that may come with the job. Right? I I am looking for the title doctor or lawyer or CEO. If I can reach that status and that level and that identity, then Jesus will bring me abundant life. For others of us, it's a status on social media, and we've reached a certain level of followers and likes and all the above because because people notice us in that way, and it makes us feel good to be noticed and thought of. In other words, we're we're viewed as a success, right? That's where the abundant life is.

John 10:10

And so Jesus is is going to bring it. I'm just asking that He'd bring it through those things that I know bring me life in this way. And so that's what a lot of us do. This is the way we react when we see that Jesus said He came to give us abundant life. We ask Him to change our situations and our circumstances and our status and the stuff that we have, so that we can begin to experience that good life. That I mean, evidently He said He came to give us. Sometimes, if we're not looking for it in those situations and circumstances personally, we also begin to look for it in our church. We begin to look for it through either religious things that we're doing and certain checklists of things that, if we can just do these things that maybe we know we're supposed to do, or or maybe in the church if we we do it the right way, we sing the right songs and and we play them the right way, then then we're going to be able to experience life, and it's kind of an emotional thing that we're looking to feel. In other words, regardless of whatever it is, we we believe this. We we believe it. I mean, Jesus said that He came to give us an abundant life, but we just believe that He's going to do that through changing the situations and circumstances that we happen to be in, because that is the problem that's preventing me from experiencing the abundant life He came to give. The problem with that is is just not true. It's not what Jesus meant when He said that he came to give us abundant life, let me show you kind of more about what I mean by that. John, who was the author of the Gospel of John that we just read from, if you back up to chapter one of his gospel, describes Jesus in this way. He says, "In him, in." Jesus was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. When he wrote First John, the letter, a little bit later on in your New Testament, he said this one, which is a reference to Jesus. He was describing him, so he says, Jesus, who is life itself? That's how he describes him. This one, Jesus, who is life itself, was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. So this is how the Apostle John describes Jesus. The question is, where did he get that idea from? Like, where did he get the idea that Jesus is the one who is life itself, and that in Him was life, and that He is the one who is eternal life? Well, John was a disciple. He spent three years with Jesus, and so he saw him and he saw his actions and witnessed who he was and what it is that he did. But John also heard him teach. He heard the things that Jesus said. Let me show you a couple of things that Jesus said that are recorded by John in his gospel there as well in John 1125 Jesus said I am the resurrection and the life in John 14 six he says I am the way the truth and the life and so John records Jesus is making personal statements about himself where he says I am the life Jesus says, "I am the life. In other words, in John chapter 10, verse 10, where we read about Jesus saying that He came to give abundant life, and then we turn around and see that He makes the statements that He is the life. What's He trying to say? I'm trying to give you myself, like I'm the one that I am referring to when I say that I came to give you abundant life. The abundant life, he said, is me. It's not found in your situation, situations or circumstances, or the stuff that I bless you with. It's not found in your favorite songs or certain kind of worship set or or style, the life is found in me. Why? Because I am the one who is life itself. I'm the resurrection and the life. I'm the way, the truth, and the life.

John 10:10

If you want to experience real life, Jesus says, meaningful life, satisfying life, fulfilling life, a joyful life. Then he says, "Look no further than me. I am the abundant life that I came to give you. So the Apostle John, one who was a disciple, after writing all of these statements about Jesus, declaring these certain descriptive ways of writing about him. He just kind of keeps it real simple and sums it up whenever he gets to First John chapter five verse 12. He just makes this very clear statement that we all need to see. He says, "Whoever has the Son has life. So whoever it is that has the Son has life. Whoever does not have the Son does not have life, and that makes sense, right? I mean, He says He's the resurrection and the life. He says He's the way, the truth, and the life. And so, therefore, if you have the Son, the one who is life, then you have life. You have abundant life. If you do not have the Son of God, then you do not have the abundant life, and you will have to go try and find it in any or all of those other things that we mentioned right there. So, so the question then is: Is who is it that has the Son, and who is it that doesn't have the Son? Because evidently, those are the two kinds of people there are that are walking around the planet right now. There are those who have the sun, and those that do therefore have life, and then there are those who do not have the sun, and therefore those people do not have abundant life. And so, how do we know? Well, this is where we come to the gospel, and what was preached all throughout the book of Acts that we studied for an entire year. Because anyone who has put their faith and trust in Jesus for salvation, the salvation that He purchased for us on the cross, He forgives us completely, and in that moment, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us and unites us in a spiritual union with Jesus Christ Himself. It's why the Apostle Paul could write in Galatians 220 that I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but what Christ. Lives in me, and it's not just true of Paul. That's true of anyone who's put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. And so, if that's a decision you've made, a response that you've had to the gospel, then you do have Jesus dwelling in you, and that means that you have abundant life. If you have never put your faith and trust in Jesus, received His free gift of salvation, it means that you do not have the abundant life. This is how we know, and it's all based on the gospel. This is the good news of Jesus Christ, as declared by Jesus Himself, and all throughout the New Covenant, really, and even prophesied about in the Old Covenant. However, even though this is good news, even though it is a reality in the situation that many of us are in, once we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation, for a lot of us, it takes a while to figure that out. There's there's kind of this process that sometimes we actually end up having to go through in order to get there. One of the books that has made the most significant impact outside of the Bible in my own life has been a book called The Rest of the Gospel by Dan Stone, which many of you have read as well, and in that book, in the opening chapter, he he kind of talks about this. He talks about how life and the journey that we're on in life is like a series of of gates that we come to.

Like you're you're on this journey, you're on this path of of life, and all of a sudden you come to this this gate that you have to walk through, and then you go through that gate, and you come through this journey to another gate, and you have to open it and walk through the next one, and it's just this this process that we go through until we get to this realization and this understanding and this ownership and this true belief of what we're saying here that whoever has the son actually has life, like has abundant life because abundant life is found in a person and not in situations, circumstances, or stuff. He talks about his own journey and his own journey to walk through many of those gates. and And for him, and it's different for each one of us, but for him, it was right off the bat this this gate of being Baptist. It was kind of this denominational gate, right? It was like, well, well, well, the life is found in being a good Baptist, and so I'm going to find out all the things that good Baptists believe, and all the things that good Baptists are supposed to do, and I'm going to believe those things and do as many of those things as I can, but as he began that journey, it wasn't really enough. He couldn't really maintain this abundant life and enthusiasm around those things, and so he said, "Well, this is good, and and it's providing me some things, but you know what would be even better is if I was a pastor of a Baptist church, and so he walked through the next gate and became a pastor of a Baptist church, and now he's got status. Right, I'm the pastor. I'm the overall one that people are looking to of the Baptist church, and so he's speaking into people's lives, and he's he's preaching, and he's experiencing life in and through all of those things, and this new identity that he had. He was Pastor Dan, right? Well, eventually, that wasn't even enough, and he was invited to speak at another church, an event that another church was having, and it was a church in a different denomination. And he walks into that particular setting, and it was a more charismatic church. And his first thought was, "This, this is it. I mean, this is actually what I've been missing, right? I mean, there's there's emotions and there's there's energy, and and I mean, when these people play songs, and I mean, there's they feel something, and and and when they speak, there's emotions and charisma, and it it seems like people are filled with joy, and and the spirit's really moving in this place, and so so that's it, and that's the next gate that he began to walk through is planning services and pursuing experiences and styles of worship where there's more charismatic emotional highs, but eventually after reaching those heights and all of those emotions, those emotions, excuse me, wore wore off, and he kind of came back down to reality. And at times, he got sad, and he eventually got depressed. And when he got depressed, he just got angry. Like God, I've tried the Baptist thing. I've tried, you know, becoming the pastor thing. I've tried the charismatic thing, and and you said that you came to give me abundant life. But where is the abundant life? And he became so depressed and so angry that he felt like he kind of reached this this. Bottomless pit, if you will, where he was just giving up on the Christian life. It was about that time that he met someone who began to show him what I've kind of been showing you today through Scripture: that Jesus is the one who is life, that He is the abundant life, and that it's found in Him, and that quite honestly, He already had the abundant life. He was just looking for it in the wrong places instead of the person that it's ultimately found in. This is how he finishes up that section of that chapter after introducing those gates and that process that he was going through. He says, "Guys, we have to be grateful to God because He drives us to Himself, but He does it with love. He says, "You want that? You can have that.

You you want that external thing? Then go get it. He says, "I know you're going to actually lay it down at some point, but I'm not going to keep you from picking it up from touching it, examining it, playing with it for a while, and finally putting it down. He says, "Then you'll pick up the next thing, and then you'll go on to the next thing, and the next thing, and even the next. But one day, one day, you're going to get to that final gate. You're going to walk through that holy place, and you are going to meet me, not not that you haven't met me before, but you're going to meet me and only me. You'll have the answer, good teacher. Where where is the life? Well, you've you've been religious. Yeah, yeah, Lord, I've I've been religious. I've tried to follow all the rules. Well, well, you've done the denominational thing. Yeah, yeah, I've done, I've done the denominational thing as well. Well, you've been, you've been charismatic. Yeah, yeah, I've done that too with success. Yeah, I've chased the success and gotten there as well. I've done all of those things. But Lord, where, where is the life? He says, "When you are perfectly prepared, Jesus whispers the old news, which is still the good news. I am the life. You take me into you, and you have the life. And then he says, "All those years in the wilderness then actually turn into a blessing. The lost job yields a blessing. The wayward child becomes a blessing. The failed marriage becomes a blessing. You've gone through the gifts of misery, and you thank God for them because you came out with one precious possession: Him. You've come to the end. He and you. and you in him. You've arrived at the pearl of great price. There isn't any place else to go. Where is the life? The gate is small, the way is narrow that leads to life. May you find that final gate pointing the way to the only one who is true life. I don't know what gate you're at in your own personal life this morning. I don't know where you're trying to find abundant life, but my prayer is that would just that you would not miss it. That that you would see when Jesus says that He came to give abundant life, and then He declares that He is the one who is the resurrection and the life that it can only be found in Him. And my prayer is that for those of you who have never said yes to Jesus, and you've been pursuing, trying to find the life that you're missing through all of those things, that you would come to the point of realization that Jesus is the life, and that He laid down His own life, and God raised Him from the dead, offering you real, abundant life in forgiveness that you just can receive as a gift by pushing your chips all in on Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life. You you put your faith and trust in Him to be your Lord and Savior. But my prayer is also for those of you who have said yes to Jesus that you won't miss the abundant life being found in a person, and we'll stop trying to pursue the abundant life through all of the other things that you're asking Jesus to give you, so that you can finally get there when you already have it in Him. So, so this is how that can kind of play out in our lives personally, but let me just quickly remind you that those of us who have said yes to Jesus are not just in this ourselves. Like this has application for us as His church, as a collective group. The Apostle Paul in Ephesians one says, "And God." Placed all things under His feet, referring to Jesus, Jesus's feet, and He appointed Him to be the head, the head over what, over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.

And so, Jesus is the head of the church; we are His body, in other words, the the head, Jesus, the one who is life itself, the one who is the resurrection and the life, the one who is the way, the truth, and the life, is the head, and every single one of us are pieces and members of His body, joined together underneath the one who is life. So we don't just have abundant life in a personal relationship with Him. We have abundant life in Him collectively as His church, as brothers and sisters in Christ. He is not just my life. He is not just your life. He is our life together. He's our life as a group. He's our life as a family. He's our life as brothers and sisters. Together, we have abundant life in Him, and together we experience life in Him. And so, that of course has application for us as a church. If we're His body, and He is the head, and He is our life. Then, as the body, we commit to resting in Him as the abundant life, allowing His life, the One who is life, to flow through us, so that other people begin to experience His life together. And so, when we talk about life in Christ being a core value here at Colonial Hills. This is what we mean. We we you will not hear us talking about the life being found in the things that you do for Jesus, which is the message. Unfortunately, I heard in church growing up, and that many of you have heard in your own church experiences, is that yeah we would agree with this phrase right here, but then what we ultimately believe is that life is found in the stuff that He gives us because that's all the stuff that we're praying about and that we're pursuing and that someone is telling us if we'll just do these things and stop doing these things then we'll have abundant life. And here at Colonial Hills, it is a core value of ours to say no, no, no. The life is Christ Himself, and you have it in Him if you've said yes to Him. So you can just rest, and because you're at rest, and you don't have to pursue it in so many other things, then guess what you're free to do? Just about anything else. I am so free from having to pursue trying to find life that I think I'm missing somewhere that when I finally believe and rest in the fact that I have it, and we do as His church together, we're just free to love people and serve people. Because I'm a lot less busy than when I was trying to run around and get the life I felt like I was missing. So this is who we are as Colonial Hills. A core value of ours is preaching and teaching that Christ is our life, believing that in our own personal lives, and collectively believing that together, and of course that has applications as well when we think about this transition, this transition that will begin on October the 11th, us coming together as one church and and and one service and one mission. After I made that announcement last Sunday, there were a number of you who reached out to me. You texted me, you emailed, you called, you stopped by in between, and I mean, 98 to 99% of it was extremely positive, was encouraging, was yes. Let's go. I see it. I get the why now, and Jesus is the head of our church, and so so let's go. We're in it with you, and thanks for you know what it is that you're doing and and where we're going, and I'm here to support and all the above. I had had one person who who basically texted me, and it was it was a long list of things that basically, in a nutshell, were saying that if if we didn't sing these types of songs and they weren't sung in this particular way, that there was actually no way that they were going to get anything out of worship and be fed spiritually. It's just not going to happen. And my first thought was how sad. I mean, my my first thought was, it sounds like you're kind of putting God in a box.

In other words, God, you're such a small, minute God. That you can only work in this particular way with these songs being sung and them being sung in this particular way, and yet the opening pages of the Bible describe a God who took nothing and created everything and spoke things into existence. I'm pretty sure He's a big enough God that He can speak to us in a number of ways, if we're just open and looking for Him to do so, regardless of whether it fits our style or our preferences or not. But second of all, above and beyond that, it goes back to what we're talking about today. I mean, the biggest problem with that mentality is what we've been looking at it, Scripture this morning, the abundant life is found in Jesus Christ. When we make statements like like it's got to be done this way or these certain songs, what we're saying is is if it's not done this way, I will not experience abundant life. The abundant life that Jesus came to give me, and yet Jesus says, "I am the abundant life. We do not have to do a service a certain way and sing songs a certain way and sing certain types of songs to experience abundant life, because the abundant life is found in Jesus. And if we've said yes to Jesus, then every one of us in this room have Jesus and have abundant life, so we're already experiencing abundant life together, regardless of what style of worship or what songs we're going to be sung this morning or any other time. And so we rally around these kinds of things together. Of course, it's going to look different. We are taking different styles and we're blending them together with our band and and choir. We're going to be singing hymns and contemporary songs, but we cannot fall for the lie that the style of worship and the types of songs is where the life is found, because Satan would love to do that. He is a master deceiver in many of us who even know the truth and understand our life is found in Christ, can fall me included for His deception of pulling our eyes away from that truth and believing in various moments that it really is found in situations, circumstances, or the things that we're doing or not doing in the services, and so our response is to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, hold to this core value that we share and partner in together, and then we stay together, and then we're used by Jesus to point others to the life that we have in Him, and we're also used by Him to point that life to others who don't yet have Jesus in their life. So this is way better and bigger than just ourselves. It's the life of Christ in us and working through us, so that others can see He is the abundant life. He is what they're missing in their lives, and we can be used by Him to help them take that step of faith. And so, as we look forward to this transition and this change that's going to begin on October the 11th, let's commit. I mean, let's commit together to rest in the life that we have in Christ, and allow Him to do what we just said-to point point other people around us to the life that they can experience in Him. Too, let's pray and give Him the opportunity to do that, even right now as we get ready to close today.