Colossians: The Supremacy and Sufficiency of Christ

anybody wearing contact lenses in the house tonight show hands amazing anybody just wearing glasses plain old glasses I could see if you're wearing glasses don't didn't you hate the visit to the optometrist I mean are there any optometrist here but nothing personal but in the summer of 83 I met the most beautiful and amazing woman in the world we were sitting in church a couple of weeks after we met that's a good sign because I met her at church because I was a summer college intern and she was in the college ministry thank you Lord for that assignment and it wasn't weird it was okay it was all cool but nonetheless a few weeks into it were sitting in church and she leans over like ladies have a tendency to do and she's helping me already like 10 days into our relationship and she says you need to get glasses and I look back at her and I'm like what are you talking about she says you squint all the time I'm like I'm not squinting so he says you're squinting right now telling me you're not squinting and I'm like no I can see fine what do you want to know that's a guy talking right there I can't see but just tell me what do you want to know I'll point out anything to you well lo and behold a few days later I was at the optometrist getting my eyes checked anybody been there you get there this is the most prideful moment in humanity because they line you up put you under the under the gun a lot of pressure and you're looking at a wall as you and the technician at that point probably the assistant and you're looking at that wall and you're trying your hardest and everybody I love how boldly we all come out with E it's so great E that's good awesome now let's slide down five rows and then that's when you start the guessing game there's only a few letters in the alphabet and I think I can get a few of these and then you end up in the chair I don't want to get into it because it'll get me off track but come on please you get in the chair and eventually you're getting almost finished and it's the whole thing of okay now is one better or - better - better or one better and you're like oh I don't even know what you just did right there I'm thinking in my mind this is one all over again and you're doing one of those things to me I'm on video right now y'all are gonna watch this over lunch and laugh at me and it is like one better - better - better one better environment a few minutes into that you are losing you mine and if you're a high achiever you are melting down on the inside because you want to get it right but it's very tricky especially at the end when it's getting really close every single time can I just say on behalf of all of us to the American Society of optometrists what whoever you are please come up with a different way to do that it doesn't make all of us feel inferior as we're sitting there in that chair looking at that little mirror reflecting it that thing on the wall but anyway all works out finally they say here's your deal I got contacts few days in hello and about three days later I actually got him in my eyes in the next Sunday we were sitting in the same exact church next to each other again and I mean I was like hello and I said things to her like this was there a choir last week [Laughter] she like yeah there was a choir like that many people were in the choir last week amazing did have those windows always been up there above the balcony he just puts those in this week I'm driving down the road a billboard before me I have never seen that billboard before in my life I was nearsighted but my vision got corrected we all understand it I am praying tonight that somebody in this building is going to have that experience with Jesus tonight through the power of the word you're squinting right now you're not even sure you want to see him more clearly but somehow tonight there's gonna be a moment happen where your eyes are open and you're like wow I see Jesus if that happens feel free to say wow I see Jesus your neighbors will be fine with that it's better than a crying baby we'll work it out at the end of the day Colossians in a nutshell let's dive in it's a little book middle through way through the New Testament it's a letter to the church at Colossae so this is a letter written to followers of Jesus at the church in Colossae written by Paul around 60 to 62 ad you're like oh man please tell me this isn't going to be one of those classroom kind of things that's really important for you to know today because Colossians wasn't written hundreds of years after the resurrection we're not talking about since have passed and now people are concocting ideas about faith that you and I are going to ascribe to in our scripture people are still alive who saw Jesus raised from the dead at the moment where Paul is writing the book of Colossians it's four chapters 95 verses but it has one purpose and the one purpose of this little letter to the church at Colossae is the supremacy and sufficiency of Jesus Christ so let's say that together and then we all got the purpose the purpose of Colossians is the supremacy and the sufficiency of Jesus Christ let's all try that together it will make me feel much more positive about how this is all gonna go the purpose of the letter is the supremacy and the sufficiency of Jesus Christ so Paul's writing a letter to a church 6262 ad the church is in a talent called Colossae colossus about a hundred miles from Ephesus where Paul spent some time in his life building up that church we don't think he ever personally went it to Colossae but we know the impact of his ministry would have reached that town a church is now born the people are doing good we see that in chapter 1 they're following Jesus they're growing in their faith but downtown tun tun tun there's a problem in Colossae and that's why the letter is written and this is the lens that we want to put in place today because without the lens I'm about to tell you about you're not going to fully understand the book of Colossians yes you can get something out of it anyone I think could read it and get something out of it but to really get the full meaning of it you need to know why Paul wrote it and he wrote it because there was a threat to the early church in Colossae they were growing in their faith they'd heard about the gospel they'd heard about the grace of God in Christ Jesus but some other guys had come into the story and started threatening the pure faith that they had in Jesus and before you get historical today and think we're looking back long long way back into Colossae be careful someone doesn't come into your story today and start threatening your pure faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ because I guarantee you it is happening all around you right now and so Colossians isn't about something that happen to them Colossians is God's Way of speaking to you and speaking to me so what was the threat well the threat primarily was two things has a few other little tentacles to it but the threat was number one that Jesus is less than God so the deity of Jesus was under attack in the Church of Jesus in Colossae so Jesus is fine but he's less than God he may be better than some angels but maybe not better than all the angels and he's definitely not equal with Almighty God the second threat was that there was a secret knowledge attainable only to a select few people in the faith in other words looking at this gathering today 95% of you are going to get Jesus 101 but 5% of you are going to get the secret sauce the special code the secret knowledge of spiritual things that are too high for the average Joe to understand and we're going to celebrate that inner circle in that secret knowledge that only a few can attain to and as soon as Paul heard the rumors that there were people infiltrating the church that Jesus had established a church that was actually doing pretty well the Holy Spirit inspired him to write this letter to the church to address these threats and he took them head-on and we're gonna see that right away in the text this second one just to touch on it because I think it's the key idea in that the book of Colossians is that there was a secret mystery that only a few people knew about and it's amazing to me how you travel up into our day and that's exactly what people are still drawn away to today there was a book called The Da Vinci Code don't know if you heard about it or not I'm guessing you did because 80 plus million copies of that book were sold in America hello 80 plus million copies of The Da Vinci Code do you know why because it told us about secret things that we had not read about in our scripture secret relationships and other angles on our Savior that we didn't know about from reading the Word of God and so Dan Brown's gonna give us the secret code to help us understand how things really work and apparently people wanted that because I think for a season of time there are probably a lot more people with the da vinci code in their hands than there were actually with Colossians in their hands which sole purpose is the supremacy and the sufficiency of Jesus Christ why because it's a code it's a secret it's a mystery it's something that only a few people are going to figure out and really understand and I think if the enemy can get us on a path to think there's some secret doorway somewhere that's going to get us into spiritual knowledge that only a few people have then he can keep us away from the Word of God which is filled with the power of God which is about the person of God which is living inactive and which actually changes and transforms our lives and if he can get us into some secret code and get us out of the clear Word of God then he's gonna have accomplished what he wants to accomplish so the Holy Spirit says Paul get ready we're gonna write and we're gonna write a letter to the church and we're gonna take these guys head on it and we're gonna with Holy Spirit power bring revelation to people so that eyes are gonna be open and they're gonna see Christ as supreme and see Christ as sufficient in every way in their lives that's why Bishop JB Lightfoot says this about the book of Colossians I love this I study in a little book if you're interested in Bible study called word studies in the Greek New Testament so by Kenneth least you can get it on Amazon hello and it helps you understand verse by verse word by word from the original language the meaning that is in these text deeper than the English language down into the original languages and the inch reduction to Colossians is money because it talks about this Gnostic heresy that had worked its way into the church about how the essence had come in with their detachment from the world and their strict observance to the law of Moses and it unfolds all of this in Wiest quotes Lightfoot in saying this that the doctrine of the person of Christ is here in Colossians stated with greater precision and fullness than in any other of Saint Paul's epistles and I'm like that's mind-blowing because Paul wrote some amazing epistles but he says in this one the doctrine of the person of Jesus Christ is stated with greater precision and fullness than in any other of his epistles why because of the threat against the deity of Jesus that was in the church in Colossae and a threat that there was some secret code that a few people could get their hands on and they could you know graduate up to the higher things in the spiritual life that most people would never fully know so why should we be interested a couple of reasons number one we're gonna figure out who Jesus is and if you really know want to know who Jesus is this is your text and number two because the two basic existential questions of life are answered right in this letter to the church at Colossae when I say the existential questions I mean the big philosophical questions the big mountains that everybody on the planet ask not just people in America but people globally ask these questions Who am I basic philosophy 101 and why am I here this is what people want to know Who am I what's the meaning of my life and how do I know what the meaning of my life is is there any value or worth in my life and secondly why I am why am i alive why am i breathing air on the planet today and if you'll hang on just a couple of minutes both of those existential questions are going to be answered in this little letter to the Colossians so to the threat to the threat that Jesus is not God Almighty to the threat that there's some secret code to spiritual life Paul responds with three main ideas and we'll take them one at a time and the first one is this Jesus is everything first main idea that we see in this little letter Jesus is not like some emanation of God he's not down here in the hierarchy of the Angels because these people infiltrating the church they were promoting the worship of angels in the same way they would promote the worship of Jesus or the worship of God and he's trying to realign everybody's vision to who Jesus is under the banner Jesus is everything and so we see this beginning in verse 15 he's not far into the first chapter before he starts zeroing in on these guys with a left and a right in an uppercut in a jab and then finally just an absolute emm a knockout punch because he wants the church to know who Jesus is verse 15 the pronouns are about Jesus so I'm going to use his name Jesus is the image of the invisible God so not only is he less than God he is the same as God so when he said in the gospel if you've seen me you've seen the father because I and the father are one he was right on that he is the image of the invisible God the firstborn over all creation for by Jesus all things were created things in heaven and things on earth visible and invisible whether Thrones or powers or rulers or authorities hello all things were created by Jesus and for Jesus so not only is he not some agent of God down here in angel world he is God creating the entire universe we know we serve a triune God Father Son and Holy Spirit but the agent of the Trinity that created the universe in Genesis 1:1 in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth the agent of the Trinity that created the world was the person of Christ and we see that right in verse 15 all things in verse 16 were created by him for him and there's your two existential questions and if I could just be so bold there's everything you need to know about you right there because you're one of the everything's so what's your name what's your name with the Hat right there Katherine it could simply say so Katherine you were created by Jesus and Katherine you were created for Jesus that's how you got created and why you got created that's who you are and why you're here by Jesus for Jesus so when you take it from the global everything and you take it down to your life it tells you who you are you are the unique special precious miraculous supernatural creation of Jesus Christ Himself acting on behalf of God he created you Katherine and every single one of us in the building so your value is inherent in your creation by Jesus and no job no accomplishment no pleasure no boy no girl no success no fame no money can ever trump what is already true about you sitting in that chair right now you are valuable because you are created by Jesus that's who you are and then the second thing he says it's answered right in the next phrase and you were created for him so your purpose your gifting maybe accounting your skillset maybe sculpture your particular affinity maybe education or finance or a building up a family who knows what your unique lane that you run in is but your purpose is to know God to be in a relationship with God to worship God to get praise back to God to honor God and reflect back to him all the greatness that he's put inside to view it is by him that you are made and for him that you exist so if anybody's wondering who am I and why am I here you're a precious creation of Almighty God that's who you are and you are here to be in a relationship with Jesus Christ and to shine your light on him for his glory that is the purpose of your life we get it right in the beginning of the text but look what it goes on to say we're just getting warmed up good Jesus is before all things and in Jesus all things hold it together Jesus is the head of the body the church he's the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead so that in everything Jesus might have the supremacy so if you've ever wondered why it's all about Jesus well I can't help you any more than to know that he created everything that exists all authority is his authority to create everything in heaven and on earth visible and invisible Thrones rulers dominions powers all created by Jesus and all created for Jesus so there is nothing that exists without Jesus he's the head of everything before everything holds everything together he's the head of the church he's the first one out of the tomb and the first one out of hell the first one out of death darkness Senate and the grape and then he's brought all of us who've trusted in him out of hell and out of the grave with him therefore he should get the supremacy in everything and if you didn't believe it by then there's one more thing for God was pleased to have his fullness dwell in him now that feels poetic if you don't know why Paul wrote it doesn't it oh isn't that nice that God the Trinity was pleased to have all of the fullness of God dwell in the person of Jesus that sounds nice and spiritual and wonderful but if you get the threat to the church at Colossae that's Paul just stepping up in a real sharp smooth poetic way and going right into the teeth of anybody who's teaching that Jesus is less than Almighty God he says God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Christ and through Christ to reconcile to himself all things here we all are again whether things on earth or things in heaven by making peace through Jesus blood shed on the cross so not only did Jesus create you Jesus shed his blood to redeem you therefore Jesus gets the supremacy from every breath that you live every day of your life because he created you and then he redeemed you so he gets the supremacy in every breath of every day of our lives that takes sight to be able to see that and to live into that moment I love those two things combined together I'm still known to this day as the layman and guy maybe there's even someone here tonight you're like you I know that guy you're the laminin guy I can't go anywhere I mean not to work here people don't care but if I go anywhere in the world literally people will come up to me in an airport in a restaurant wherever we are and say hey you're that you're that guy and they'll give me laminin or lanolin or lanolin or some version of lamin and you're the laminin god I'm like I am the laminin guy I can't get away from being the laminin guy if you don't know what that means pretty amazing moment happened to me in Tyler Texas the end of a night the end of a tour I was on tour with Tomlin we've been playing cities all over the world we come down to maybe having one night left in Austin next to the last night we're in the old palace and in Tyler Texas and the night ended and now they're tearing down everything before we load out and get on the buses and go to Austin but there's no green room at the old palace cuz the old palace is a dump they may have renovated it since we were there but this place was fallen down it needed to be bulldozed except that Willie Nelson had played there and it was like a shrine in Tyler Texas and you could tell he'd played there still when we got in there that night to do the night that we were doing the fragrance of Willie was still in the old palace I think even that night and so there's nowhere to be I'm kind of standing in the corner I don't really know a lot of people and Tyler guy walks up to me hey just want to introduce myself we start talking and he says hey so the tour ends tomorrow night what's coming up for you after that I know you've been on the road for a while I said well I'm gonna go home I'm gonna preach to messages on the glory of God in the human body he goes oh that's interesting tell me about your message and I'm like okay was it ready to like give you like Pacific's on the spot but a few things about it bla bla bla talked about the human I talked about this talked about that talked about development the miracle of God creating us in our mother's womb and we keep I get to the intensely oh that's all great that's all great that's really nice you put your louie giglio what's the left hook at the end of your message I was like yeah I don't have the left hook yet he said you know like that big cross that appeared and the indescribable talk at the very end you got one of those and this one I like no not yet he goes well I'm glad we met because your left hook is called laminin I'm like okay good what is that he said it's a cell adhesion molecule okay he said you know about protein molecules and I'm kind of like no he says the base molecule it's like still don't know he goes Louie they're protein molecules that have amazing functions in the body and they're billions of them inside your body right now one of them is a base molecule called laminin he said it's the glue of the human body he said let me put it down in two terms you can understand then he really got down on my level he said it's like the rebar of the human body you know the metal rods they put in the concrete to reinforce it when it hardens it's like that inside of you it holds your skin on it holds your organs and tissue together it's the glue inside of you that keeps you held together and I'm like okay that sounds amazing that's my left hook he goes that's your left hook go google it so I go all right I'm gonna go google it if you'll write it down on a piece of paper google it he writes down on the back of his card which lo and behold says that he is a professor of microbiology at stephen f austin university which is right down the road he writes down la mi ni ni go google it and I'm telling you took me a while to get to my computer get online and Google and when I the search results came back two things came up on my search result interestingly if you go google laminin right now I bet fifty pages of results come up right now you can get a layman and bumper-sticker you can get a laminate t-shirt you can get a laminate kit for your summer camp you can get layman in earrings a layman in necklace you can get every version of Christianized laminin in the world but that's all because of the dude at stephen f austin not because of me he made laminin famous for people in the church but when I googled it two things popped up the diagram the molecular structure popped up in an actual photograph popped up and when when the world and I saw those we were like oh my word this is incredible the structure is this most of you've seen it that's the the molecular structure of the cell adhesion molecule called laminin nobody doctored that by the way because nobody cared about laminin when he told me about laminate that's just what you get the real image of it kind of blew me away you know blow all of us away that's laminin now the the haters out there over the years have said well it's not in the perfect shape of a cross look it's all squiggly and I'm like Hello I think our bodies are mostly water thank you very much everything but our bones get squishy and squiggly inside our body somewhere you saw this molecular structure but yes inside our bodies it does curve around and do different things but hello I was like blown away that at the end of Colossians this section that is a cross the blood of Jesus that gives us peace with God so I'm held to God spiritually forever by a cross the cross of Jesus but my body is held together tonight literally by billions of microscopic crosses that are holding my body and your body together tonight and immediately my mind went to the end that I have peace through the blood shed on the cross then I rewound a little bit and gee this is before all things and in Jesus all things hold together now laminin isn't proof of anything of God it's just one of the stamps of God that we find all through creation that reminds us that Jesus is everything he's the Alpha and the Omega but he's everything in between he's the one that started your life and is going to end your life but he's everything in between he's the one that created you and gave you purpose but he's the one that's gonna hold you every moment every season every day every challenge every night of your life he's gonna hold you together and he just put his footprint and his fingerprint and little footnotes all through the story to remind us that he is all-mighty God and he is in the story with you and in the story with me the second response Paul makes is that not only is number one Jesus everything but everything Jesus is he is in you you have to think about that just for a moment because it's packed with so much power everything Jesus is which we know is everything he is in you the kief key phrase being in you colossians is a book about the mystery of god so yes there is a code if you will but it's not hidden anymore it's revealed in what's revealed in colossians and all through the scripture is that the miracle of our relationship with God is that we are now positionally in Christ and Christ is in us it's like if you were born in America America is in you for the rest of your life at birth you didn't earn it you didn't deserve it you got it by birth you have a passport that says I'm an American citizen and with that comes rights and privileges and opportunities because America is in you maybe we all know what it feels like to have traveled somewhere around the world some crazy place in some country where you know we were trusting God every step of the way that we get through that assignment and maybe out of that kind tree and then back to the border and back into our country and there's something about knowing that America is in you but there's something powerful about knowing I'm back in America and this is the Christian life at birth God and everything he is through Christ who is everything has come to bring everything Christ is to you so at Birth Christ is in you and in that we now are adjusting to the new reality and shifting our thinking in our behavior to live as though we are in Christ and Christ in you and you in Christ is the new power for life look what Paul writes a little bit later in Chapter 1 we're still in chapter 1 and this is so incredible and amazing this makes me want to just absolutely lose my mind he says in verse 27 to them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery now why did he choose that language why didn't he just say there was an old system from Adam and Eve through Abraham and Moses and all through the prophets and all up to Jesus but now there's a new system why did he say there was an Old Covenant now there's a new covenant why don't he say there was a promise but now the promise is fulfilled why did he say there was a mystery because he was writing to take on a threat to the church and he said I'll tell you about the mystery all right you want to talk about a mystery I'll tell you about a mystery here's the mystery everybody before Jesus didn't understand what I'm about to tell you right now but when I tell you this right now it is going to complete the revelation of the story of God for all people for all time and there's not going to be any more secret codes coming after this I'm gonna reveal the mystery to everybody in other words you want to know how the thing work you want to see behind the deal you want to understand it all I'm gonna give you the full glimpse into everything God did right here he is gonna make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of his mystery and here it comes this is the mystery which is do you see it on the screen with me which is Christ in you the hope of glory so the new message is not a program whereby we adhere to this strict system in law of the past and that gets us to God it's a new position which is Christ in us the hope of glory and by that we know that we in turn are in Christ that's what he says in Chapter three I love the way he says this around to verse three for you died this is chapter three verse three for you died that means you the old you and all of your power and your ability that's gone and done away with and your life is now this is so amazing is now hidden with Christ in God so the mystery is Christ in you the hope of glory so just imagine you with everything Christ is now in you and then you in Christ and in Christ is in God so Christ is in you you're in Christ Christ is in God I'm telling you you are so woven together and so linked together with the the triune God through the work of Jesus Christ there in you and you're in them and to see you you've got to look through God in Christ and to see Christ you got to look inside of you it's a brand new reality and a brand new story and it is available to every single person so he goes on to say in chapter 1 verse 28 we proclaim Jesus this is why we continue to preach Jesus if people are trying to sell you something and it doesn't lead to Jesus I would just politely walk away and people are trying to sell you a higher spiritual understanding and it doesn't ultimately lead you back to the Word of God I would politely walk away Paul says this is the mystery Christ in you the hope of glory that's why we're going to continue to proclaim and to lift up Jesus Christ and to pray that God would give sight to people who are squinting and maybe don't even know they need sight that they could have a revelation of Jesus like they've never had before or and see Jesus more clearly than they've ever seen him before because if they say Jesus they'll see that he is supreme in every way and sufficient for everything that they need in their lives there's not another book coming along I'm telling you that right now there's not another secret revelation coming along somebody that went on that retreat oh did you hear that message Oh have you heard that new prophecy oh did you get that new information did you get that new email that new devotional listen Jesus Christ he is the place where we find the fullness of God resting and dwelling in him and that's why Paul says we proclaim him admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom so that we may present everyone not a few people not 5% of the people but all the people perfect in Christ how do you get complete spiritually by getting in Christ and realizing what you have and who you are in him and then here's how it works its way out in life to this end I labor struggling with all his energy that's Christ energy which so powerfully works in me this is the beauty of the Christian life it's not me and Jesus it's Jesus in me and that is a game-changing revelation when you see it it's not Jesus and Louie Wow we're a powerful team I'm sure that makes him feel amazing it's not Jesus and me it's Jesus in me that's the hope of glory so he goes on to say a few verses later in chapter 2 so then verse 6 just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord continue to live in him how did you receive him Paul wrote to the Ephesians it is by grace you are saved through faith that not of yourselves is the gift of God not as a result of works that no one should both so that's how you received him by grace through faith how do you continue in him by grace through faith if you started grace through faith guess how you finish grace through faith if grace through faith got you into Christ guess how what gets you through Wednesday grace through faith get you through Wednesday it's not just salvation one time when I was 11 it's salvation every time when by grace through faith Christ does in me what I could not do on my own and in my own strength rooted verse 7 built up in him see the in him strengthened in the faith as you were taught in overflowing with thankfulness see to it that no one takes you captive through Hollow and deceptive philosophy which depends on human traditions and the basic principles of this world rather then on Christ and then he just detonates the program he says the law and all of the constraints had had on you he said the certificate of death it was written against you next few verses Jesus took it out of the way cancelled that debt and now you are free to live in the fullness of who he has made you to be the third way he responded to the challenge is simply this by telling us that Jesus changes everything Jesus is everything amen we do it okay everything Jesus is he is in you number two but number three Jesus changes everything so if you want to break Colossians down into an easy easily remembered idea it's this that he is we know he is everything he is in me he is everything in me he is in me changing everything let's say that together Jesus is in me changing everything let's say it again Jesus is in me changing everything one more time Jesus is in me changing everything book of Colossians in a phrase Jesus is in you and he is in me but being in you and being in me he intends to do a total life makeover and he intends to change every single thing about you in every single thing about me it begins by the transfer in chapter 1 verse 13 for he has rescued us just say Amen if you believe it from the Dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the son he loves in whom in the son he loves in Jesus we have Redemption the forgiveness of sins so he rescued us out brought us or transferred us in and in Christ's forgiveness and redemption of sins instantly changed but then what he wants us to see as we move into chapter 3 is that that internal change we call it going from death to life that new positional reality I'm in Christ and Christ is in me he said that changes everything about who you are it is a total life makeover from the inside out and so as he begins chapter 3 he says set your mind on things above he said remember that you're dead and you're your life is hidden with Christ in God and then he just begins to touch every single area of our lives so it's not Jesus is my way to salvation it's know Jesus it's in me and he's doing a complete renovation and a complete total life makeover of me that touches every single part of my life his plan can I just say this for your life and mine to change every thing he wants to change the way you think and the way that you act he wants to change the patterns of your mind in the habits of your life he wants to change your behavior in the process by which you do life he wants to transform all of that from normal human behavior to Jesus filled human behavior to normal human thinking - now I am in Christ in Christ is in me thinking and he wants to revolutionize everything about our lives he just comes down the list to the very beginning in verse five and says put to death whatever belongs to your earthly nature sexual immorality impurity lust evil desires greed idolatry these things are what caused the wrath to come you used to walk in these ways in the life that you once lived but now rid yourself of all such things as these anger rage malice slander filthy language all that's got to go lying all that's got to go why because we're on a program to try to improve ourselves to God know he says in verse 9 do not lie to each other since you've taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its creator in other words every day I'm getting in the word and every day I'm renewing my mind to who you say I am I'm not living like they say I am I'm not living like I say I am I'm not living like the world says that I am I'm living like you say that I am because Christ is in me and I am in Christ I'm renewing my mind and renewing my life every single day to the reality of Who I am in you and then I'm gonna walk in that and then he shifts the gears and shows us what he looks what that looks like as God's chosen people holy and dearly loved clothe yourselves with compassion with kindness with humility with gentleness with patience bear with each other and forgive each other just as God has forgiven you and over all these virtues put on love which binds them all together in perfect unity let the Peace of Christ rule in your hearts since as members of one body you were called to peace be thankful let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with songs Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs and with in your hearts to God and then he just sums it all up and I think the greatest summation of all and whatever you do whether it's in word or deed do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God the Father through him in other words if you see that Jesus is everything and you see that everything Jesus is he is in you then with everything you've got in all that you do do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ giving thanks to God the Father through him our lives get defined in this moment and we understand the beauty of why we're here chapter 4 comes in the letter closes I'll touch on it really briefly but I think three key verses if you want to memorize three verses that probably are going to be great anchors for this little letter for chapters 95 verses one purpose is supremacy in sufficiency of Jesus he is in me changing everything Jesus is in me changing everything I think it would be these we touched on chapter 1 13 and 14 for he has rescued us from the Dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the son he loves in whom we have Redemption the forgiveness of sins like a second anchor verse would be chapter 118 and Jesus is the head of the body the church he's the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead that in everything he might have the supremacy and then this chapter 3 verse 17 which are is our lifeblood at passion and whatever you do whether in word or deed do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God the Father through him so he says I want to change everything all that attitudinal stuff I want to change all that comes right down in the next verse and says wives I want to change you very next verse husbands I want to change you very next verse children I want to change you very next verse fathers I want to change you very next verse employees I want to change you in the context of the culture was these people were slaves he was talking to they didn't have a choice about where they were stuck in life and he said this power even is gonna work in you in a place you don't like where you're stuck in life don't you love that so none of us can say well I would do what God wants me to do if I wasn't stuck in this place that I'm stuck in in life he goes on oh forget about where you're stuck in life this is a power of God because no matter where you're stuck in life Christ is at you and you were in Christ positionally you're seated at the right hand of God you have a brand new identity in Christ and you're a brand new person in Christ whoever he is he is in you and everything he if he is in you so you're not gonna be limited by being stuck in life someplace you don't want to be stuck in life then he shifts gears and says okay so you're not the employer you're the employer I want to change your life in the way you would treat your employees and he says to people in the church I want to change your life and he says the way you relate to people outside the church I want to use you to change everybody's life this new reality ultimately touches and changes every single relationship in everything about you and everything about me and then a little header comes before verse 7 and it says final greetings won't spend a lot of time there but we talked about it in our people of the fine print series so you've probably got some stuff highlighted or underlined from verse 7 down to the end if you were not in that series it's likely you might not have much underlined or highlighted or starred or any circles around anything from verse 7 down because it's the boilerplate stuff that bores all of us about the Bible tickets will tell you all the news about me he's a dear brother and a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord I'm sending to him for this express purpose that you may know about our circumstances blah blah blah he's coming with on this miss Thomas our faithful and dear brother who is one of you they'll tell you everything my fellow Aristarchus sends you his greetings so does marked a cousin a barnabas blah blah blah blah blah blah blah but we learned this is amazing because eleven ordinary people are written into the story of god this story we're talking about tonight is not all about the heavy hitters in the all-stars Peter and Paul and James and John there are eleven people just like me and just like you written right in by the Holy Spirit to the text of the story of the supremacy and sufficiency of Jesus so the message of how he's going to be known as who he is in the world is gonna be because of people like you and people like me being written into the story by the hand of Almighty God as we make our lives available in whatever we do in word or deed to do it all the name of Jesus Christ giving thanks to God the Father and then look at the last verse because here comes the left hook for this message what a game-changing truth right in the 95th verse the last part of the boilerplate Paul writes I Paul write this greeting what greeting starting up here ticha Castel you all the news about us all the boilerplate all the house news all the here's all the people here's everybody I want to thank here's all the people with me here's all the people helping the process here's all the people behind the scenes yes me I'm writing the letter but there's a lot of people in the story he said all that right there I wrote with my own hands and you're like well hello it's only four chapters why didn't he write the whole thing with his hands I thought you said Paul wrote it but now he's saying he just wrote the little part at the end no the Holy Spirit gave him the ability to write it all but from the beginning he probably said to Timothy Timothy get a pen and a parchment and write down what the Holy Spirit is now revealing to me to send in a letter form to the church at Colossae to take on these guys that are threatening the pure faith in Jesus start writing I Paul and Timothy the prisoner of the Lord to the church at Colossae to those who are faithful in Christ Jesus write down what I'm telling you right now so why didn't he write it all because of the next line he says remember my chains and grace be with you this little letter was written by Paul when he was shackled to a wall in a prison for his faith and in that prison chained it to that wall where potentially could have been difficult for him to get the pen to the parchment because I'm sure they didn't chain him at a little writing desk he says you write but did now we're getting down to this last part I'm talking about animus and talking about tickets and I'm talking about mark and I'm talking about Barnabas and I'm talking about a path for us and I want to write this part bring the parchment over here I want to write this part and he gets to the Indian says hey guys I'm writing this last bit with my own hand people like why do you say that remember my chains and I mean at the very last verse I was like there is no circumstance in life including being chained to the wall in a prison cell that can stop Almighty God from accomplishing through your life exactly what he intends to accomplish through your life oh come on church this is amazing right at the last verse in the last phrase Paul saying I'm in Christ and Christ is in me no you're in jail for your faith no that's just a location man let me tell you about the position I'm in right now I am in the Son of God in the mystery of the gospel is that the Son of God is in me and this is the hope of glory they may have chained me to a wall but they cannot chain up my heart and they cannot chain up my god and they cannot chain up the gospel I will proclaim Jesus I'll proclaim them when I'm free I'll proclaim him in a jail I'll proclaim him in the day I'll proclaim him right then night I am going to proclaim the one who has made us all complete in him and he's just encouraging you tonight oh I know your circumstance is absolutely upside-down don't you think for a minute that's gonna stop God from doing everything he wants to do in your life because I'm telling you there's something more powerful about you than your location and it is your spiritual position in Christ and Christ spiritual position in you he is everything and he is in you changing everything about you and still using you in this moment to your full potential nothing can stop God no circumstance no loss can stop God from using your life to do exactly through your life what he intended for you to do praise God and hallelujah I don't know about you but I think we should just give some praise to the one and only Jesus Christ no I think we should get some worship tonight to the one who is supreme and sufficient in everything no I think Church we should give some praise tonight to the one who started it all who created us in His image who made us valuable on day one and who gave us the privilege and the purpose to be in a relationship with him for all time he's above everything Church he's worthy of our praise tonight he is above everything in this world tonight and he is worthy of our lives and he is worthy of our praise and when our eyes are open to see we say hallelujah and all praise to the name of Jesus [Music]

Channel: Passion City Church

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Keywords: louie giglio, colossians, passion city church, louie giglio sermons, colossians 1, louis giglio, giglio louie, louie giglio colossians, lou giglio, book of colossians, giglio, louie giglio indescribable, louie giglio how great is our god, passion church, the supremacy of jesus christ, ben stuart, passion city church sermons, the book of colossians, levi lusko, loui giglio, supremacy of christ john piper, passion 2018, passion city church worship, supremacy of jesus christ

Id: b9yMznrefUA

Length: 52min 45sec (3165 seconds)

Published: Tue May 29 2018