Grow Deeper In Christ

Good morning.

Our scripture reading for today is Colossians 2, 6 through 15.

My name is Priscilla Braun and I serve in Harbor Kids, and it's a joy to share the scripture with you this morning.

Colossians 2, 6 through 15.

Therefore, as you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority.

In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead.

And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.

This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing them in him.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks, Priscilla.

All right, good morning, Harbor.

My name is Ryan.

As Trevor said, I will not sign your Bible because you wouldn't be able to read it if you've ever got a note from me.

Hey, if I haven't had the chance to meet you, I'm grateful that you're here.

I'm humbled that you're here.

What we love to do at Harbor is we love to grab a book of the Bible and just kind of slowly work our way through it, trusting that God's word is the best and ample diet for us, rather than maybe like our own personal antidotes or personal hot takes.

But we've been working our way through the book of Colossians, and one of these letters that Paul has written to a specific people at a specific time, and this whole letter is about Jesus.

It's about the sufficiency of Jesus, the centrality of Jesus.

And uh man, I hope you walk away with one thing today.

It's all about Jesus.

And because it's all about Jesus, I want to invite you again.

Can we just pray to Jesus again?

Would you pray for me?

And I'll humbly pray for you.

Jesus, we need you.

We love you because you first loved us.

And uh we just humbly come before you.

Uh, it's an honor that you've given us your word.

Uh, but we just we just confess.

Sometimes it's hard to understand what your word is saying.

And so we ask that your uh spirit would illuminate, would clarify uh for us what we should take home today and actually put into practice.

Help us to be hearers and doers of the word.

And uh, Father, I pray particularly for the people in the room.

Would you make us sensitive to the Spirit?

Make me sensitive to your spirit, uh, bind my flesh and uh herald your good news through me.

Uh let me be an instrument for your redeemer's sake.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, I want to start this morning by being pretty vulnerable with you.

Well, before we get too dramatic, uh I'm just gonna share one of my biggest regrets in life.

Uh, and one of those regrets, calm down, it's not that serious, is that I actually just stopped playing a musical instrument when I was young.

Uh hard to believe that I actually like took up the trumpet, I think in like fifth or sixth grade, following in my brother's footsteps.

But very quickly, uh I realized that one of my best skills was actually like dropping the trumpet when I put it back into the case.

It like I think the trumpet that we actually had, like three dents in the end of the horn.

Uh but I also played piano as a kid.

And like sincerely, one of my biggest regrets is that like it wasn't very cool as a young boy to play piano, and so I hung it up.

Uh but we all get older and we realize, like, man, it's actually a really beautiful skill or trade to actually get up here and be able to play a song.

Uh but I've recently been thinking about playing piano a lot because my two oldest daughters have been taking piano lessons, and they're learning uh how to play piano.

But what's interesting is when you first start to learn an instrument or an instrument, what do you learn?

You learn the basics, uh, you learn the notes, uh the chords.

Uh, and what's interesting and what's funny is the concert pianist isn't doing anything different.

They're actually playing the same notes.

Nobody interrupts the Omaha Symphony and is like, that's the middle C.

My seven-year-old knows middle C.

Right?

Like, they're not asking, like, when are you gonna get to advanced notes?

There is no advanced notes.

Like, you don't unlike become so accomplished at playing an instrument that you unlock like a 13th note.

No, the master musician is actually just becoming more familiar and mastering the basic notes.

And the difference is that the master has actually spent his whole lifetime actually just knowing how to actually grow and utilize what he started with.

And I think for a long time, I misunderstood Christianity.

Like, I thought the gospel is how you actually basically just got started.

When I say the gospel, I mean the good news of Jesus, that God is so loving and he's so gracious that because us as sinners actually rebel and go the opposite way, that he actually sent his son Jesus to live the perfect life that we can never live, to die the death that we deserve, and then to rise victoriously from the grave.

And upon belief and surrender in him, we actually not only are forgiven of our sin, we belong to him.

Man, and I understood that part.

That's how you get in.

But then I think somewhere along the way, uh, I kind of thought, like, now what?

Like, what's the advanced stuff?

Like, what's what do I need to actually mature in Christ?

And somewhat intentionally, but some obviously just like subtly.

I stopped seeing the gospel as like the pathway that I started and needed to continue to walk on.

And I think we tend to think that in order for us to mature, we need something else.

I mean, that's kind of what our culture tells us in general, right?

We live in a world that tells you that maturity means independence.

Right?

Like you grow up, you stand on your own two feet, you start paying your own bills, you take your own responsibility, you have your own phone.

That's maturity.

And if we're not careful, that can actually start to bleed into how we view and practice Christianity.

Like, like I've been following Jesus for 20 years now, like I know the gospel.

Give me something more, Pastor.

But see, Christian maturity moves in the opposite direction.

The world tells us that maturity means greater independence.

The gospel teaches us that maturity actually deepens your dependence.

The more mature you become in Christ, actually the more deeply you understand you need Christ.

That's exactly what the Colossians need to hear.

And I really believe the Holy Spirit wants us to hear that this morning.

See, remember, Paul is writing to the Colossians.

It's a church uh filled with people who are being confronted with like kind of rival ideas that essentially said, Jesus is great.

It's not a rival idea that said, like, Jesus is wrong.

It was actually, they were affirming Jesus.

Jesus is awesome, Jesus is a one way and probably a primary way to God.

But they were probably saying, like, there's something more, there has to be more to this.

And Paul says, No, there's not more.

You actually don't move beyond Jesus.

You actually need to understand more deeply who Jesus is, what he's done, and actually who you are because of who Jesus is.

So listen to this just in verse 6, real quick.

It says, As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.

The way you began is the way you continue.

You didn't merely receive information.

That's what I want you to see.

What did you receive?

You received a person.

And therefore, Christian growth isn't primarily about knowing more and knowing more things, it's actually about cultivating and deepening in a personal relationship.

Tim Keller used to say that the gospel is not the ABCs of the Christian life.

He he said that the gospel is actually the A to Z of the Christian life.

In other words, Jesus isn't merely where you begin, he's what you spend your whole life actually mining and growing deeper into.

So here's the big idea I want you to see this morning, okay?

We don't move on from Jesus.

We grow deeper in Jesus.

We don't move on from Jesus, we grow deeper in Jesus.

Don't move on, grow deeper.

And Paul's just gonna walk us through these verses and he's gonna show us how do we actually grow deeper in Jesus.

There's three things.

Harbor, first we got to put down roots.

The second is we gotta avoid captivity.

And then the third is like we gotta embrace our union or embrace your union.

And we'll unpack that a little bit more later.

But first, let's look at put down roots.

Verse 6.

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.

Notice that word, received.

Not achieved, not earned, not attained, not accomplished, received.

That's like saturated grace language.

Wages are earned, gifts are received.

Like, think about it, Christmas like you didn't earn that gift your spouse gave you or your dad gave you.

No, you receive it, and you what do you need to do with it?

You actually need to unwrap it.

That's how all of us actually come to Jesus.

No one receives the gospel proudly.

We come empty-handed.

We receive what Christ has actually done for us.

And Paul says, as you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.

So walk in him.

You began with grace, therefore continue walking by grace.

You began dependent upon Jesus.

Keep being dependent upon Jesus.

But notice how Paul describes Jesus here.

He describes him as Jesus Christ the Lord or Christ Jesus the Lord.

Like Lord matters.

Receiving Jesus doesn't mean you just like add Jesus as like a cute little nativity scene to your life.

Lord means King, like master.

Receiving means actually like bowing the knee to King Jesus and surrendering yourself to him.

And then he actually says, like, now walk in him.

I love that language.

I don't look like a runner, do I?

Okay?

That's why I love this language.

I love to walk.

But walking is a slow-paced reality.

It takes time.

It's ordinary.

You go on walks with the people you love, your kids.

You're moving through ordinary life together, step by step.

That's the Christian life.

And then Paul's gonna start doing something here.

He's gonna start just like throwing pictures at you for you to actually understand what this looks like.

Okay?

He says, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith.

So first, like rooted.

That's agriculture farming language, built up.

That's architecture, like construction language.

Established, it's actually like in the Greek, it's actually more probably like a legal term.

Uh the idea of being sealed or uh confirmed or made firm.

So I mean, you could say, like, hey, blue collar, white collar, redneck, polished.

It doesn't matter.

Like, there's no excuse.

Paul doesn't want you to be a shallow or flimsy Christian.

He wants you to like put down roots.

Here's what's interesting now.

Nobody walks up to a tree and is like, what a beautiful underground root system.

No, you notice what you can actually see, like the height, the branches, the fruit.

But but everything you see above ground is actually sustained by what you can't see underneath it.

And the deeper the roots, the deeper it is to actually like uproot the tree.

My in-laws have a beautiful place down on the Lake of the Ozarks.

And one thing that's always struck me down there is the difference in the soil.

Like the soil there is uh like it's a little bit rockier and softer, and there's beautiful trees along the lake.

They're majestic, but what's interesting is those roots can't actually penetrate super deep, and so they actually become surprisingly vulnerable in a storm.

Like it actually takes no time uh compared to like where we live today to like clear a lakefront lot because there actually just aren't very much deep roots.

And Harbor, that's the kind of church I want us to be careful not to become.

Like the kind that looks very impressive from the outside or from above the soil.

I want us to have deep roots beneath the surface.

Roots are what sustain you for 30, for 40, for 50 years in the faith.

How do you put down roots?

I'm glad you asked.

Umtice what verse 7 is gonna say.

He says, just as you were taught, you don't become rooted accidentally.

You gotta know what you believe.

Like some of us have lived for years with borrowed convictions.

You know what your grandparents believe, what your parents believe, you know what your group leader believes, what your church believes, what your favorite preacher believes.

Or maybe like, we're gonna step a little bit here, or maybe you're a Midwesterner or American, or maybe a certain political party, but honestly, you really don't understand what it means to hold the Christian faith.

This is not a decoration.

Like at some point, you have to become more familiar with this so you can actually know Jesus.

At some point, your faith has to become more than just borrowed conviction or convenience.

Like, you gotta know what you believe and why you believe it.

And I get it, like, not all of us are like the greatest students.

And you might say, like, hey, yo, pastor, like, I'm not a student.

Friend, you're being taught.

Every one of us is.

And the question is, like, who's teaching you and where are you learning from?

Like, the reality is like some of us, like, we have shallow roots, and God is inviting us to believe and to study his word and to deepen your roots so you can actually stand when the storms come.

So, for some of you, like that means you gotta stop listening to Fox News or CNN.

And you actually gotta pick up your Bible.

That means you need to stop scrolling TikTok and actually like pick up a book.

I like I said that very humbly, but like intently.

Paul's gonna continue on here what it looks like to be rooted.

He says at the end of verse 7, he says, abounding in thanksgiving.

Isn't that interesting?

Like, look of all the things Paul could have told you what a rooted, mature Christian looks like.

You're not abounding in theological clarity, you're not abounding in productivity, you're not abounding in religious activity.

What are you abounding in?

You're abounding in thanksgiving.

The more grounded you are in Christ, the more grateful you are.

That's because thanksgiving is both fruit and fertilizer.

Let me say that again.

Thanksgiving is both fruit and fertilizer.

It's evidence that roots are actually going down, but gratitude also drives those roots even deeper into the soil.

Because gratitude actually trains your attention towards something you've received rather than constantly obsessing about things you haven't received.

Like, do you know that your heart actually can't at the same time simultaneously be thanking the Lord and be complaining to the Lord?

I was really convicted by that this week.

My wife's like, about time, you know.

There are things in my life that I am so much quicker to grumble about than give thanks for.

And the Lord has subtly just been reminding me, like Ryan, like above everything else, you have me.

You have Christ.

You've you've been forgiven, you've received identity in me, you have forgiveness, you have me.

So here's a diagnostic question for you.

Would the people closest to you describe you as increasingly grateful or cynical?

Ask your spouse on the ride home.

Those those roots, like those who have roots, they have an attitude of gratitude.

But here's the thing: not just for the gifts and the blessings that you have, actually, then a true attitude of gratitude, actually, you're grateful for just Jesus in and of himself.

And Paul knows this.

He he knows this because, like, because an ungrateful heart eventually does something.

It starts looking around and wondering like, is there something better?

Is there something I'm missing?

Is there something else that will actually satisfy me here?

And Paul wants you to be rooted deep in Christ because he knows there's actually voices just swirling all around.

And you know what they're trying to do?

They're trying to take you captive.

And so the second point is we need to avoid captivity.

Look with me at verse 8 if you got your Bibles.

Or you can follow along on the screen.

It says, see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

Okay.

Notice the urgency here.

The first few words.

See to it.

Pay attention, be alert.

And then Paul's gonna do something fun here.

He's gonna use strong language, takes you captive.

Y'all, that's wartime language.

Paul doesn't just say, hey, be aware that there's some alternative.

I don't know why I did an accent there, okay?

I have no idea.

Uh be aware that there's some alternative perspectives out there.

Some of you are awake now, okay?

I'm embarrassed, I'm secure in Christ, let's go.

Okay?

He's describing somebody that actually actually can be carried away as plunder in war.

Because here's what's important ideas don't just inform you, ideas capture you.

Paul says, by philosophy and empty deceit.

Now, before anybody in the room just gets like hyper-fundamentalists here, what Paul is not saying is like you should just take your thinking caps off.

See, when you hear philosophy, don't think like Socrates or Plato or Aristotle.

Like, we're good with a lot of those guys.

We love them.

But Paul doesn't want you to turn off your brain.

What he wants you to do is that he's trying to convey to the Colossians at that time that there were specific ideas or worldviews that he wants to kind of counter that they're not actually according to Christ.

Ways of thinking, it says, that are of empty deceit.

See, empty deceit always promises fullness.

Man, if I just had their approval, if I just made a little bit more money, if my kids could actually just behave or get a certain grade or turned out, then I'd finally be okay.

But see, those are false promises, and they leave you empty.

And then notice Paul's gonna mention both human tradition and elemental spirits of the world.

Human tradition, like traditions and beliefs, that you kind of think that we can earn our standing or our place with Jesus by our religious activity.

Or you can almost say you receive your identity by your religious activity.

That's anti-gospel.

And there's also some debate about exactly what Paul means when he says like the second phrase, elemental spirits of the world.

That can carry the basic idea of the basic principles of like the ABCs of the world, or the basic elements, you know, gravity, all those things of how the world works.

But it also could include the spiritual powers associated with this fallen world.

But either way, Paul is reminding us that this isn't merely an intellectual battle.

There is a spiritual battle going on right now.

Right when I said that, some of you are like, mm-hmm, amen.

And some of you are like, whatever.

See, C.S.

Lewis said there's something always going on when we talk about the devil and demons.

There's always two and opposite equal airs that we make.

One is to ignore and disbelieve in the spiritual in the spiritual realm.

The other is to have like an unhealthy, excessive like fascination with it all.

And I have to believe that in a room this size, it's all going on.

Like some of us actually just functionally ignore spiritual warfare.

It's not even a category for you.

If we can't see it, measure it, diagnose it, or explain it, we don't really want to know what to do with it.

And others of us can become so obsessed with it, right?

Like every flat tire's a demon, you know, or I ran out of gas on the way to Bible study, therefore the devil's out to get me.

No, that the light was literally blinking for 47 miles.

Like that's just you, okay?

Like I knew a sweet woman back in this uh small little Reformed Bible church that we are a part of in northwest Nebraska.

She loved Jesus.

Like, hear me say that.

But like we could run out of animal crackers at VBS and we were like five minutes from like praying and rebuking and dumping oil over on the demon of snack shortages, okay?

I loved her dependence on the Lord.

I really did.

But Paul does something here.

He doesn't ignore spiritual powers and he isn't obsessed with spiritual powers.

What's he do?

He puts them underneath Jesus.

It says according to Christ.

But here's the interesting thing: don't assume captivity is gonna show up and be like, hey, I'm false teaching, here to take you captive.

No, like the most dangerous false teachings are actually like half-truths.

Think about it, guys.

Satan quoted scripture to the Son of God in the wilderness.

He is a fallen angel.

He knows your Bible better than you will ever know your Bible.

The most dangerous lies are usually subtle half-truths.

They actually aren't masquerading in things that are anti-Jesus.

They're Jesus plus something, or they have the name of Jesus.

Some of the ideas most likely to capture Christians will actually use that language.

And that's why Paul says that this is so important.

Here's the test, though.

Is it according to Christ?

That's the dividing line.

Here's Paul's warning for them specifically and for us.

Don't be captured by the promise that says it's Jesus plus something that you need for fulfillment.

Because that's exactly how captivity happens for us as Christians.

You don't necessarily reject Jesus.

You're good with Jesus.

You're probably wearing something that has Jesus' name on.

But you just stop believing that Jesus is actually totally sufficient.

Like you functionally believe it's like Jesus plus being liked, or Jesus plus perfect parenting, or Jesus plus financial security, or Jesus plus having my desires satisfied, or Jesus plus that right, like new age spiritual practice, or Jesus plus like my perfect attendance.

And before long, what happens is what started as Jesus plus something, it starts controlling you.

One pastor said it so helpfully.

See, we must avoid captivity of thinking it's anything else.

We don't need anything else.

We must go deeper into Jesus.

We must be aware of the subtle voices kind of whispering and bartering for our authority in our lives.

What you repeatedly listen to, what you scroll, who you associate with, it's all forming you.

The question isn't whether you're being formed, it's who's forming you?

Who has functional authority in your life?

So ask yourself, what voice has more functional authority in my life more than Jesus?

Is it an influencer?

Is it a talk show host?

Is it your team captain?

Is it your boss?

Is it a family member?

Maybe.

It's that inner voice, that inner critic.

Christian, you do not need anything plus Jesus.

Paul's gonna tell you why.

Let's look at three.

Embrace your union with Christ.

Verses six through eight uh have really just been building for us.

Paul's main argument is what I want you to see.

Paul does not want you just to know that you should uh grow deeper.

He wants you to actually understand how.

And this is actually where I want to spend the bulk of our time.

Like I want to like just camp out here for the next few verses because there's one of the most beautiful and richest realities in here that I want to show you.

And so if you walk away with one thing today, here's what I hope you walk away with.

You are united to Christ in faith.

I walk, I hope you walk away with embracing your union with Christ.

And so we're gonna do something a little bit different here, okay?

Like normally we just put some verses on the screen, we walk through it, we explain, illustrate.

Oh, that's a good story.

Okay, and like we do this, okay?

I'm gonna read verses 9 through 15 over you.

And here's what I would invite you to do.

You don't have to close your eyes.

We got a security team, don't worry, okay?

You don't have to close your eyes.

Some of you, that might be helpful.

Maybe you just want to follow along in your app or your Bible, but I just want you to be listening for like little words, powerful little words, little phrases that catch your attention.

What do you notice?

Okay?

What do you notice?

For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.

In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead, and you who were dead in your trespasses, and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.

This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him.

Did you hear it?

In him, in him, with him, with him, together with him.

Man, Paul's a walking prepositional phrase machine right now, okay?

But those little phrases carry the weight of this whole passage.

One of the biggest realities in all of Christianity.

Union with Christ.

I'm gonna say it again.

Union with Christ.

For some of you are like, I've never heard that.

Some of you are like, that's all that guy talks about.

That's great.

I want you to get this.

Here's the fascinating and unsettling reality for us.

The actual word Christian, the primary way we refer to each other or those believers in Jesus, is actually only in the New Testament three times.

But the phrase in him is in your New Testament like over 200 times.

That's not accidental.

See, for Paul, being a Christian isn't merely believing certain things about him.

He doesn't care if you check yes on your political survey if you're a Christian.

It's being intimately joined with Jesus.

In fact, John Calvin, like a starter and reformation like leader who is champion for just being a pinnacle of the gospel.

Most people think he's like just like champion, sovereignty of God, providence of God.

The number one thing he really even just said and cared about and quoted is he said, the mystical union between Christ and his people is of the highest degree of importance.

Why?

Because union with Christ means that, guys, by faith, you've been joined with Jesus so that what belongs to Jesus now is yours.

It belongs to you.

Like his death became your death, his resurrection becomes your new life, his righteousness becomes your standing, his report card is yours, his victory is your victory.

And I want to help you kind of remember this in a really catchy phrase.

This isn't mine, this is from one other pastor, but union with Christ means this: it means you are in Christ and Christ is in you.

You are in Christ and Christ is in you.

These are two sides of the same beautiful reality.

First, you are in Christ.

This actually just speaks to your standing.

Like when God actually looks at you and sees you now, but even on judgment day, like He's not gonna evaluate you based on your spiritual resume.

He's gonna evaluate you based on Christ's spiritual resume.

If you've genuinely trusted in Christ.

Now, when I say trust, none of you trust that that chair will hold you.

Because no one ever sits right there, by the way.

I don't know if I spit or what, but like none of you actually trust that.

You know how I know that?

You're not sitting there.

The chair you're sitting in shows that you're actually trusting.

That's the biblical idea of trust, that your whole life reflects.

It's not earned, it just reflects the actual faith that you hold.

And so if you trusted in Christ, you stand clothed in the righteousness of Jesus.

And then the second reality is that Christ is actually in you, he inhabits you.

That speaks to his presence and his power.

Galatians 2, one of my favorite Bible verses, it says, like, it's no longer I who live, but it's Christ who lives in me.

Christ is the one animating my life.

The spirit of Christ actually takes up residence in me.

Guys, like we're weird as Christians.

We believe that, right?

Like we believe the Holy Spirit of God takes residence in us.

So union with Christ doesn't mean you just like get a clean record.

You get a new standing, you get a new power.

And Christian maturity means you spend your whole life mining the depths and the and the depths of who you are and what it already means to be in union with Jesus, that you belong to Jesus.

And so what I want to do is just do for the next few minutes is I just want to walk through these verses real quick with you and just kind of just point out some beautiful realities for you.

Look at verse 9 and 10.

It says, For in him the full the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him.

Do you see how that actually answers verse 8?

See, the world is offering you like false promises, and Paul says, You don't gotta listen to those.

You're already filled in Christ.

The one you're united to, too, guys, isn't just some great religious teacher.

What's he say?

In him the fullness of deity dwells bodily.

Jesus is fully God.

And if you have Christ, that means you don't need to look anywhere else for what you already have in Christ.

Jesus isn't missing anything.

You don't need to go anywhere else.

You just need to go deeper.

Verse 11 then says this It says, In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands.

Now I realize some of you are like, I didn't see circumcision coming, okay?

I didn't realize that's where the sermon was gonna go.

And Paul's gonna say it several times, and I'm gonna say it several times, so we just gotta be adults for a few minutes, okay?

And but listen, you actually need to understand circumcision to understand your Bible.

You need to understand circumcision to understand how the Old Testament and the New Testament even fit together.

See, Paul says something deeper is actually happening in you.

See, circumcision in the Old Testament was an outward covenant sign marking you as God's people, marking God's Old Testament people.

But see, notice the phrase here.

It says, made without hands.

See, this isn't primarily about something external that you've accomplished.

God has done an inward spiritual work.

And so, really graphically, like the old you, the the old fleshy identity of you has been stripped away or cut away.

You've been fundamentally changed.

And so Paul is explaining that there is a spiritual circumcision that actually happens upon being born again with faith in Christ.

Paul's gonna go on then to baptism.

Look with me at verse 12.

Says, having been buried, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God.

Baptism is an outward picture of an inward covenant reality.

Like, take this wedding ring, for instance.

Okay, this isn't my original wedding ring.

This is like, you know, a rubber rudding wing.

Uh but my original wedding ring is in some lake in Missouri.

Me and Emma were swimming one day, and anyways, I don't know why I'm telling you that either, but okay.

Okay, but but take this wedding ring.

This wedding ring does not make me wed to Kelsey.

Like if one of you single guys comes up here and wrestles me and takes my wedding ring, like, like, good luck, you own a$6 ring.

You're not married to Kelsey.

The ring is an outward sign pointing to a covenant reality.

In a similar way, baptism doesn't save you or like enforce that covenant reality just because you got wet.

Notice Paul's words here.

Through faith in the powerful working of God.

It's by faith.

It's been, it's by faith you've been buried with him.

It's by faith you've been resurrected with him, you've been raised with him into new life.

By faith you've been joined to Jesus.

And now Paul's gonna just keep going here.

Verse 13.

He says, and you were dead in your trespasses.

Dead.

Paul does not say you were spiritually struggling.

He doesn't say you were like spiritually underperforming.

He doesn't even say you were like spiritually sick.

He says you were spiritually dead.

That means you don't have a pulse.

Dead.

So we gotta stop kind of convening and saying like the gospel is about like, you know, bad people becoming better.

The gospel story is all about like dead people becoming spiritually alive by the work of God.

Dead people don't resurrect themselves.

Verse 13 goes on to say that God made alive together with him.

God is the actor, God acted, God came after you, God gave you life.

That's grace.

And then it says, having forgiven us all our trespasses.

Harbor, don't rush past that word all.

Not merely the respectable sins, not merely the sins everyone already knows about.

All.

The sins you cringe about.

The sins you won't even journal in your journal.

The thing you wish you could go back and undo, or maybe, the sins that actually the accuser just keeps replaying in your mind, either done to you or that you've done.

You need to hear that if you belong to Jesus, Jesus bore your sins fully at the cross.

Here's a beautiful reality: past, present, and future.

You ever just think about that and dwell on that?

The sins you will commit tomorrow have already been paid for.

He knows you better than you know yourself.

He knows your propensities.

Past, present, and future all.

See, union with Christ is a beautiful reality that God is not in love with a better version of you.

God isn't more pleased with you because you've actually become more holy.

The reality of union with Christ is that God could actually not be more impressed and more in love with you right now because you are standing in Jesus.

When he looks at you, he sees Jesus.

And see, verse 14, Paul's gonna continue just to like throw on another picture for you.

He's gonna say, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.

Man, many of us know what it's like to live under debt.

Like whether it's medical expenses or student loans, or maybe even just the reality of like owning a mortgage or having a mortgage.

But with God, there's real debt.

Not imaginary guilt.

Not even like merely negative feelings about ourselves.

We've sinned against a holy God.

Romans says like the wages of sin is death we owed, and there's a record standing against us.

But see, Paul doesn't stop there.

What does Jesus do?

He said, This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

Church, some of you walked in this morning still carrying a record that Jesus says has already been canceled.

You're like still reading charges that have already been paid.

You're like trying to submit a bill or pay a bill that literally has paid in full across the top.

And you know what it's written in?

It's written in scarlet.

It's written in the blood of Christ.

And I know what some of you are thinking right now.

That sounds great.

I know, Pastor Ryan, I believe Jesus forgives me.

But I don't always feel forgiven.

Or I believe Christ has risen from the grave and then he has sent his spirit into me, and I have a new power to fight sin, but I don't always feel full of power.

That's where union with Christ becomes so important, friend.

We live in a therapeutic culture, but reality is not established by your feelings.

I need to say that again.

Reality is not established by your feelings.

Your feelings have to be discipled by reality.

See, it's ironic, right?

Like you sometimes you can actually feel completely healthy.

Many of us have this has happened.

And then you go and sit across the doctor and you have him tell you test results that reveal you're actually not.

Your feelings don't determine the medical reality.

And in the same way, there's gonna be mornings and evenings where you don't feel forgiven, or you don't feel like you're able to fight sin.

I've talked with many of you even in the past week, like you wake up like, dude, you're wrecked with anxiety in the morning, or like you can't even sleep because things are just running through your mind, anxious thoughts.

I'm right there with you sometimes in seasons.

And I'm no way being the pastor saying, like, dismiss your feelings, numb out.

Your feelings are real, but they are not reliable interpreters of reality.

Your feelings don't get the final word over what God has declared to you in Christ.

You gotta know why some of us even maybe have a higher propensity to different feelings.

I love what a kind of a distant like father has even said to me, Eugene Peterson.

Listen to this quote.

This is helpful.

We're not always reading quotes from here, but this is helpful.

He's a spiritual grandfather to our generation.

He says, we live in an age of sensation.

We think that if we don't feel something, there can be no authenticity in doing it.

But the wisdom of God says something different, that we can act ourselves into a new way of feeling much quicker than we can feel ourselves into a new wage of acting.

See, union with Christ does not ignore your feelings.

It just means that they actually come second to the reality that you are not a summation of your feelings.

They may tell you something that's real.

They're like the blinker light on your dashboard, right?

But they tell you something important about maybe what you fear or you love or have suffered.

And maybe we need to distrust our feelings sometimes.

But they do not need to tell you who you finally are.

So, friend, do not shame your feelings, but also do not surrender to your feelings.

You actually need to get curious about the story that those feelings are telling you and bring that story under the truer gospel story of Jesus Christ.

See, if it because if you're united to Jesus, Jesus has the final word over your identity.

Not your fear, not your shame, not your past, and friend, not your diagnosis.

Your feelings are real witnesses, but they are not the final judge.

Christ Himself tells the truest story about you.

And so I know there's gonna be days like when you just don't feel what's true.

And so I want to invite you, like as one of your preachers, like you need to preach the truth of union with Christ to your feelings.

Like, I am in Christ.

My debt has been canceled.

I may feel powerless, but I choose to believe that Christ's power is at work in me and alive in me.

And slowly our hearts are gonna start.

Learn to rest in what God has declared.

That's why we also need one of each other.

When I actually don't have the strength or the feeling, I actually need Christine or somebody else to actually believe that for me.

It's the gift and spiritual practice of impartation.

Growing deeper in Christ means we're actually increasingly learning to live out of what is already true of us in Christ.

Some of you are like, man, I want to grow in this.

I want to learn how to actually do this.

We never do this from the front, but I just felt like it was appropriate.

I felt it was from the Spirit.

I actually want to give you a book recommendation.

I want you to understand the book recommendation is just this book right here.

Just to understand your reality of union with Christ.

It's just deeper by Dane Orland.

It's not an inspired book, but it's really helpful at mining the depths of scripture, showing you that this is all over the scriptures.

We should see that our union with Christ is of vast and mighty importance.

And that's what Paul is teaching us to do here, to embrace our union.

But not just to merely know things are true, but to actually learn to live from that reality.

And I love how Paul's gonna finish this text, verse 15.

Paul's gonna finish with a battle cry.

Like picture like movie 300, okay?

Some of you guys just woke up.

You're welcome, okay?

But but like one of those epic battle scenes where after all the fighting, the armies collide and the enemy is like pushed back, and there's that moment of victory where everybody knows who's won.

And this is the kind of imagery that Paul's gonna give us here.

He says in verse 15, he says, He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him.

You remember verse 8?

Don't be taken captive.

Now, verse 15.

You gotta know your captors, they've been conquered.

To the watching world, think about it.

The cross looked like victory.

It looked like Jesus' defeat.

Rome had stripped him, they had mocked him and spit on him and shamed him.

They nailed him publicly to a cross, probably naked.

It looked like the powers of darkness had won.

But you know what Paul does?

He actually pulls back the curtain and says, like, you completely understood, misunderstood, what happened at Calvary.

Jesus ultimately wasn't being conquered.

Jesus was conquering.

At the very moment it looked like Christ had been triumphed.

Christ was triumphing over evil.

The accuser had lost his case.

The deceiver was reckoning with truth.

Now, Christian, like that that doesn't mean the battle's over.

Like the war is won, but the battle's not over.

Scripture says that the devil actually prowls around like a roaring lion.

He's still accusing and deceiving and disorienting and even striking.

But his decisive defeat has already happened.

But very soon, or very early, even in the scriptures, Genesis 3, the seed of Eve is said to actually, aka Jesus.

It says he's gonna crush the head of the serpent.

My kids love this image.

We have a book at home.

It's called The Snake Crusher.

They get really excited about them.

Like, stomp on, stomp on the serpent.

See, the devil is like the snake whose head has been actually crushed, but whose body is still thrashing around.

You ever notice about a beeheaded snake?

What can it do?

It can frighten you, it can still strike you, but in the end it's settled.

See, our pictures of Jesus are always like cute and cuddly.

Like blonde hair, blue-eyed.

But if you read your Bible well enough, like even at the end, like what's Jesus pictured as?

He's coming back as Christ the victor, riding on a white horse to fully, decisively and proactively and respectably display what he accomplished at the cross.

See, Satan's gonna be forever bound, and sin is gonna be completely eradicated.

So, Christian, stop surrendering to an army who's already been defeated.

Don't be taken captive any longer.

Your captors have been conquered.

You've been joined to Christ, you've been buried with him, you've been raised with him, your sins have been forgiven, your debt has been canceled, your enemies have been defeated, and you've been filled with the same power that raised Jesus from the grave.

You have access, you have the Holy Spirit ruling and reigning in you.

So, church, don't move on from Jesus.

Go deeper in Jesus.

Let's put our roots in him.

Let's avoid captivity and let's embrace our union with him.

Let's pray.

Father, we humbly, but also thankfully come to you.

We abound with thanksgiving.

We want to just even practice thanksgiving.

That we deserve the best, but you deserve the worst, but you gave us your best in Jesus.

Father, we I just want to confess, I recognize this often on an intellectual level, but we don't grasp or I actually, this doesn't permeate our reality, this reality that we are united to Christ, that the most important thing about us is actually that Christ is joined with us.

So, Father, I pray in your power, in your time, would your spirit do what he does best?

Would he apply the work of Christ's redemption on the cross to hearts in the room?

There's people in this room that are not sealed with Christ, as the word says.

They affirm truths about you, but they actually don't know you.

They're not sitting in the chair.

And so, Father, by your spirit, would you move them?

And would you also remind them that it takes agency, that they need to respond in faith.

They need to eat, that the hunger has been birthed with.

Father, I ask that you would do that.

And for many of us, we're a little bit sleepy, we're tired, we're we're we need to be awakened.

That we actually need to be deepening our love and affection for you.

There's not something else out there.

You're everything.

I pray that you would be our sustenance, that you would be our power.

And that causes deep worship.

So, Father, would you just stir our affections, even in these last songs during communion?

Would you stir our affections deeper for you as a result of the fact that you abide with us?

And we are with you, and you are with us.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.