The Incomparable Christ Pt 2

me this morning Calvary Chapel would y'all stand if you're able to who are joining us just be encouraged today as we worship in song and all the other ways that we are able to worship you Lord and as Ryan comes and teaches your word I lift up all the activities Lord that will be going on the children's church and the teachers working with them the nursery workers the toddlers are being ministered to and and Lord right here in our sanctuary would you be glorified today Lord just speak to us by your Holy Spirit and by your Holy Spirit fill us afresh Lord thank you Lord Jesus just impart your spirit of wisdom to us in the revelation of the knowledge of you enlighten the eyes of our

understanding Lord that we may know that hope we have in you the inheritance that we have in you or Jesus who has adopted us as your children amen father bless we pray they be seated Jesus Messiah at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord oh thank you Lord Jesus thank you oh but you rose again and our hope is in you and it's an assurance it's not a hope that rather than hope that kind of hope that when you were by Christ now

that's more hope but it's not about that kind of hope that oh I hope it rains tomorrow but it's on Jesus and you only is where it needs to be! it belongs to you Lord Jesus without you were nothing Lord Oh we thank you Jesus would you all stand little stretches little stand if you're able before we Chickenatie praising you for you're so good to us. And so, Father, now as we have a little fellowship time and Pastor Ryan comes up to teach your word, Lord, prepare our hearts to receive that which you have and then to be willing to give out what you give to share with others the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you now.

Please anoint Pastor Ryan by your Holy Spirit forth your word with your might, your power. In Jesus' name, amen. Lord bless y'all. Let's have some fellowship.

I was like, not yet. If you could begin the process of finding your seat, grab a bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements.

Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you have joined us this morning. As always, the things on the left-hand side of your bulletin are going on this week. In the middle section of your bulletin, you may notice it is dominated by one theme, and that's Vacation Bible School. So there is a workday today. From 2 o'clock to 4 o'clock, if you're able to make it for that.

And then if you have signed up to be one of the VBS leaders, my wife is having a short meeting, a stand-up meeting right after the service, down at the other end of the hall in the Agape room. So stick around for that. And then also the registration QR code is there. If you have not gotten your kids registered yet, that's right there. So take advantage of that.

No men's breakfast this month because of all the VBS things. And because there's just a lot going on in June. And so those are the things that are going on. I would like to invite Elaine. Is Elaine in here? There she is. I would like to invite Elaine up to share a quick little word with us here.

Good morning. I want to announce that I am going to facilitate a ladies' Bible study for women only called Experiencing God. It will begin July 9th. It will be in my home. It's 13 weeks, so it's from July 9th. To October 1st. Experiencing God is a study for anyone. In fact, after the first service, I had one of the ladies tell me that their whole church did it at one time

and it led to revival. So that's exciting. It is the most powerful Bible study that I personally have been through and I did it twice. And so I'm kind of looking forward to doing it a third time. It's not a method. It's not a formula. But it is learning how to hear God, to know when he speaks, and how to step out in obedience. It's really learning God doesn't want us

to just believe in him. He wants a love relationship with us and what that looks like. So it is 13 weeks and starts July 9th. It will be from 1030 to 1230. It will be in my home and it will be for eight people. So there's a sign-up sheet out on the table. I've added another sheet because we've talked if there's women who might be interested in an evening study sometime,

not this summer. So there's another sheet if you might be interested in the study in the evening time. So that's one of the things. The workbook is the study. So there will be workbooks that look like this. Again, I facilitate. The Holy Spirit will be your teacher. As well as the Blackabees. Henry Blackabee started this study in 1990. His son Richard has continued this study

and done some revision. And now the grandson Mike is also involved. Henry went home to be with the Lord in February of this year. So the study has been around a while, but the message never changes. It's rock solid. So hopefully, there'll be some who can join me. Thank you.

Very good. And then one other thing that I did not announce is we are starting new small groups here. And there's going to be some training sessions for those that signed up to either host or lead one of those small groups. They were supposed to start today, but they are going to be put off until June the 30th just because of some different things going on here in the church.

So that'll be coming up on June 30th. So he's going to be reaching out to those of you that signed up between now and then. So those are the things that are going on. If you'd make sure that your mobile device, is silenced, we're going to be for our responsive reading in Psalm 99. Psalm 99, looking at the new American standard for this part of the service. If you need a copy of the new American standard,

there should be one around you in a row. And as you are turning to Psalm 99, if you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's word. We'll read the odd verses. If you will follow along with Glenn and the even verses. Psalm 99. The Lord reigns. Let the peoples tremble. He is enthroned above the cherubim. Let the earth shake. The Lord is great in Zion

and he is exalted above all the peoples. Let them praise your great and awesome name. Holy is he. The strength of the king loves justice. You have established equity. You have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob. Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his footstep. Holy is he. Moses and Aaron were among his priests and Samuel was among those who called on his name.

They called upon the Lord and he answered them. He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud. They kept his testimonies and the statute that he gave them. O Lord our God, you answered them. You were a forgiving God to them and yet an avenger of their evil deeds. And read verse 9. Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his holy hill for holy is the Lord our God. And Father, we do praise you

for who you are. That you are truly the Lord who is enthroned above. And Lord, as we have always said and yet you make yourself known to us. And so Father, as we spend more time looking at you today and the work that you have done through Jesus, I pray that you would give us a clear mind to think with. And Lord, that you would give us hearts that are in tune

with what your Holy Spirit wants to speak. In Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. And if you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Colossians chapter 1.

Colossians chapter 1. I gave this disclaimer to the first service too, although that went a lot better than I thought it was going to. This is the fourth message I've taught in five days. So if I'm a little more unhinged than usual, that's why. So I'll try to keep it on the hook as best I can, but you know how it goes. Sometimes I shoot from the hip. So we have been looking at

the incomparable Christ. We said that basically once we got done with the introductory statements as well as Paul's prayer for the people of Colossae, he moved into really just looking at Jesus because the problem that they were having in Colossae is that they were drifting slowly, they had not gone there yet, but were drifting into false doctrine. And the false doctrine that they were drifting into was perverting the message of Christ. It was turning Christ into legalism.

It was turning Christ into asceticism. It was turning Christ into mysticism. And so he needed to correct them. And so the first way that he does that is simply by presenting Jesus to them. And so this is part two of the incomparable Christ. Last week, we looked at the preeminence of Christ, the attributes of Jesus, that he was the firstborn over all creation,

that he's the image of the invisible God, the creator of the heavens and the earth, the very purpose of creation, and all of those different things about Jesus. And we closed with a thought, and that thought was that Christ is also the one who reconciles us. Well, as we move into today, there's two other things that we will look at as far as the incomparable Christ is concerned. We will see that Christ is not only the preeminent one, but that's number two, he is our reconciliation, and number three, that he is our hope of glory.

And so picking up in verse 21 of chapter one, it says this, and although you were formerly alienated and hostile, and mind engaged in evil deeds, yet he has now reconciled you in his fleshly body through death in order to present you, excuse me, before him holy and blameless and beyond reproach. If indeed you continue in the faith, firmly established and steadfast, not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul was made a minister. Now, again, he started this thought of being reconciled, that Christ is the one who has reconciled us to himself, has reconciled all things to himself. And we said that that word reconcile means to bring back into harmony.

But like Paul often does, he got a little distracted. And I appreciate that about Paul. It sort of goes off on a little bit of a tangent about reconciliation, because if anybody understood what it was like to be reconciled back to Christ, it was Paul. And so he goes in, he goes into really kind of who we were, what God has done for us, and our need to continue in the faith.

And so there's a handful of things I would like for you to pay attention to. The first is that he says, who you were. It says in verse 21, and although you were, and he tells us three things, formerly alienated, hostile in mind, and engaged in evil deeds. Those are important phrases for us to pay attention to because those are all who we were before Christ.

So let's take them one by one. Number one, he says, you were formerly alienated. That word alienated means transferred to another owner. And so when Adam and Eve sinned, they transferred all of humanity to a different owner. Rather than being under the headship of God, we were transferred to the headship of Satan because all of the world was sold into slavery to Satan.

And so you and I were at that point in time under the ownership of not only Satan, but in the bondage of our sin. That's who we were before Christ intervened in our lives. We were completely alienated, separated, transferred to the ownership of someone else away from God. The second thing that he tells us is that we were hostile in mind, that we were hostile in mind.

That word hostile is very fascinating. It means to be hateful or even better, this is a great word, odious, right? Again, another word we don't use nearly enough. That's how Satan is. That's how Satan is. Some people are, right? But that's who we were. Before we came to know Jesus, we were kind of hateful and odious when it came to the things of God. Now, some of us were not that way outwardly.

Maybe you're just a really nice person. And so you were never hostile on the outside towards the things of God, but on the inside, you always were. You know how I know that? Because everybody that has the conviction of the Holy Spirit come upon them, get a little angry about it. Because as the Holy Spirit begins to convict you of sin, especially if he uses someone else to do it,

it creates a lot of conflict. It creates a certain amount of anger on the inside of you because after all, who are they to tell you what to do? Who are they to tell you what's right and what's wrong? And so we start to kind of get angry. And can I tell you that even as believers in Jesus Christ, that doesn't always stop. Sometimes we're still a little bit hostile

when conviction comes into our lives, but that's who you were. You were hostile in your mind. You may not have shown it outwardly, but that hostility was on the inside of you because you did not like that God said that this favorite thing that you like to do is sin. And then it's separating you from God and you are hostile in your mind. But then there are those

who are not only hostile in the way that they think, but they are hostile in the way that they act towards the gospel. They are hostile in the way that they act towards Jesus Christ. And this is one of the things I think that we have to be reminded of as the church. Because I don't know if you've noticed this or not, but when people bring up godly things, the world doesn't like it.

Have you noticed that? And we as the church go, I can't believe the way they're acting towards this guy who wants to do something. Something godly, I can. Because before you came to Christ, you were hostile in your mind towards the things of God. That's why the rest of the world, when they hear biblical truth put out there, they are hostile towards it. You see, we used to live in a culture

where the hostility was only on the inside. Sin was still taking place, but the hostility was only on the inside. But now that the culture has shifted, especially in the United States of America, we have become hostile outwardly towards the things of God. And we as the church have got to stop being angry that the world is hostile towards the things of God and understand that that means that the world still needs to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

And it brings me to a really interesting point because of the month that we're in right now. Usually at the beginning of June, which if you don't know what June is, you're A, clearly living under a rock, but B, let me explain to you what June is. June, as far as the world is concerned, is called Pride Month because it's the month, one of the many, where the entire world celebrates the LGBTQ community. And people are supposed to celebrate their pride and their homosexuality or whatever other aspect of life that they are choosing to live in at that point in time.

And I don't know if you've noticed anything about this community, but it's fairly hostile towards the things of God. And usually at the beginning of this month, I give a charge to all of us because I feel like when it comes to the LGBTQ community, the church has handled it wrong. We have actually come off so hateful and we have been hostile towards them seeing that we're not supposed to be hateful. And so forgetting that particular group as the greatest enemy to the gospel, forgetting that the greatest enemy to the gospel is sin, that is just an expression of sin.

So as we come into the month of June, I always like to remind people, so please forgive me for failing to do this last week. I always like to remind people, our job is not now to go out and protest. Your job, listen, I'm gonna tell you something that's gonna hurt some feelings in here. Your job is not to post things on social media that say, happy straight Pride Month.

That doesn't help anything. That does not help anyone. It's not your job to make all kinds of comments hatefully towards the LGBTQ community. Do you know what it is our job to do? Our job is now to, first of all, stand for what's true because we are to stand for truth. We are to stand for the truth of what it says in God's word, that God has created the male and female

and that marriage is according to what God has to say, which by the way, it's his institution, so he gets to say what it is. It's between one biological male and one biological female, female for life. That is God's intention for marriage. There's nothing wrong with standing on that truth, but our second job is to begin to pray for those that are caught up in this lifestyle and pray that they will be delivered from it because I'm here to tell you right now, unpacking that lifestyle is not as simple as we like to make it because there's reasons why they've ended up there and at the root of all of them is sin.

And what we need to do is we need to pray that those people who, by the way, are hostile in their minds towards the things of God, just like you were, still need to be saved. And Jesus still loves them. And Jesus still died for them. And they are still people that are created in the image of God. And it is not our job to be hostile towards them. It is our job to give them the grace of God.

Stand on the truth, but do so in love. I always like to point this out. Do you guys remember when the gay nightclub got shot up? I don't know if I'm allowed to say that from the pulpit or not. You remember when the gay nightclub got shot up several years ago down in, down in Florida. You guys remember when that happened? Do you know that when that happened,

several people in that nightclub ended up getting saved because they were there and they knew that they were doing the wrong thing, which by the way is why people are hostile towards the things of God, because they know that God says that what they're doing is wrong and they don't want to admit that it's wrong. And so they are hostile when God says this. Do you know people from that nightclub got saved? When that gunman came in and opened fire, there are people that hid under tables and said, Lord, if you set me free, if you deliver me from this situation, I will leave this lifestyle.

And now I read an article a couple of years ago about two or three guys that have left that lifestyle. And now instead of marching in gay pride parades, they march in freedom parades because they have been set free from sin by the power of God. Brothers and sisters, that's what Jesus is able to do because they are hostile in their minds towards the things of God and alienated from the things of God, just like you used to be. Right?

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Right? Right? Right? hostile in our minds number three we were engaged in evil deeds in other words we were alienated and we showed that we were alienated by the lives that we lived that's who you were before jesus and then comes this great phrase in scripture yet now yet now notice what it says in uh verse 22 yet he has now reconciled you in his fleshly body through death in order to present you before him holy and blameless and beyond reproach yet now what has god done now well now he has reconciled you again that word reconcile means to bring back into harmony to to bring back into peace to bring back to a place where there's harmonious living between two people who are at one time alienated from each other

and that's exactly what jesus did how did he do that he did that by reconciling us how did he reconcile us well he tells us right right here he did it in his fleshly body through death now i want to point out why he gets mildly redundant why does he use the word fleshly body how else does someone die right well he did that because remember at the heart of the false doctrine that was going on in colossi at this time is the idea of gnosticism and gnosticism says that all fleshly things are evil jesus could never have come in the flesh he was simply a spirit that dwelt among us and paul points out that no he was a fleshly body that died for us let me put it to you in the most simple terms

that i possibly can he was a real man who died on a real claw on a real cross in real time it was not just some made-up thing it was not just some spirit jesus actually died for us and why did he have to do that because the wages of sin were not the wages of sin but the wages of sin were the wages of sin is death right like like the only way that we could be purchased back off of the slave market of sin is if the purchase price were paid and the only purchase price that god would accept for sin because he's a holy god is death death is the requirement for sin and so jesus stepped in and said i will take their penalty for them i will pay the purchase price for them even though it cost me my life and that's exactly what he did for us he stepped in

he reconciled us in his own body on the tree through death and can i just say that i think sometimes especially for those of us that have grown up hearing this message since the time that we can remember sometimes we can forget that it was a real man who died on a real cross in real time sometimes it just becomes another movie that we watched on tv and brothers and sisters we need to understand the reality of the death of jesus christ because nothing declares the love of jesus christ greater than the death of jesus christ because we were alienated we were hostile we were estranged because we are engaged in evil deeds and now he has reconciled us and he did so through his own

death on the cross and he did so so that he could do something fascinating so that he could present us just take note of that at the end of verse 22 in order to present you that's that's sacrificial language that's sacrificial language that's sacrificial language that's sacrificial right there right like paul uses the language of a priest presenting an offering on the on the altar before the lord so the idea is that that jesus did this so that he could present us a living sacrifice unto god and when he presents us to god notice how he's going to present us it's going to be three ways it's going to be holy it's going to be blameless and it's going to be beyond reproach

let's talk about those words because this is now who we are number one you are holy do you know that do you know that's who you are you are holy you are holy you are holy you are holy you are holy because of the blood of jesus christ because of his reconciling work on the cross he took that which was unholy and he has made it completely holy the word holy is the greek word hagios it means set apart set apart from the common use and now is only fit for sacred use because that's who you are now because of what jesus has done for you you are no longer common you are now sacred because of what jesus has done you are now set apart unto god therefore don't go back to doing

common things any longer does that kind of make sense because you are now set apart unto god he says so that he could present us holy set apart unto god but not just holy take note of the second word blameless blameless that word blameless means without spot or blemish matter of fact some of your translations may say that he may present us holy and spotless the idea is this you don't have any more stains on you now i don't know about you but because i still live on this side of eternity and because i still live on this side of eternity i still live on this side of eternity i still know all of the sins that i've committed in my life sometimes i look at me and i look at me

and i see stains right right i see a white pair of shoes with a whole bunch of stains on it and and those stains just don't seem to go away but when god sees me he just sees a brand new white pair of shoes completely and totally stainless without spot without blemish blameless that's who we are now and we have to stand up and we have to stand up and we have to stand up and we have to stop seeing ourselves as tainted by sin we have to stop seeing ourselves as tainted by our past failures as stained by our past failures and now see ourselves as who we really are that we are presented to god as holy and blameless without spot or blemish and the third thing that he tells

us that we are is that we are beyond reproach beyond reproach i want to read to you how kenneth weiss translates this phrase beyond reproach unchargeable before his penetrating and searching gaze isn't that great unchargeable before his penetrating and searching gaze now if you really want to know how amazing that is follow me real quick with a little story that i'd like to tell you if we were to jump all the way back into the old testament and go to first samuel we would come to the day that david was anointed as king the day that david was anointed as king saul had been rejected by god and god told samuel i need you to go and anoint who the next king is going to be he's going to come from the household of

jesse and when you get there i'll tell you which one it is and so samuel shows up to jesse and says hey present to me your sons and of course as they would have at that point in time he brought the oldest out first right and as he brings the oldest out the oldest looks like the king he's the big guy he's the strong guy he just looks kingly and samuel like we often would do looked on the outside and said that must be the guy and god said that's not him sam you need to realize something i don't look on the outward appearance i see the heart i get past all of what's on the outside and i get down to the reality of who you are on the inside now this is why it's amazing that when

god looks at us we're blameless that we are before him unchargeable through before his penetrating and searching gaze is because god can see past all of the games that we play god can see past all of the fronts that we put on i know some people that are so good at playing the game but i also know that they're not good at playing the game they're not good at playing the game when they're not playing the game and i'm like you know what stop acting like you're holy because i'm seeing how you're living your life right but god cuts through all that and because of what jesus christ has done for us when he cuts past all of the stuff and he gets down to the heart of it he says

nope still blameless still blameless why because i'm so good no because reconciliation is so complete because the blood of jesus christ is so is so sufficient to cover all of our sin and that's now who you are you used to be alienated hostile and engaged in evil deeds and now you are holy you are spotless you are blameless and you are a beyond reproach unable to be charged with anything wrong because now god looks at you and says i find no fault in him because of the complete reconciling work of jesus christ is that not the most beautiful restful thing you can imagine is that that's now who i am in christ well that brings us to the next verse where he says if oh man if it's not just a kid's movie

it's something we have to pay attention to in scripture because the if verses in scripture are really important because the if verses in scripture keep us grounded right you see he just presents it to us who we are in christ and because of our flesh when we find out who we are in christ what might we do well then it really doesn't matter what i do because i'm blameless before god so if his blood covers my sin i suppose i could get away with a little bit of sin right no no that's not what that means he says this is who you are if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven and of which i paul was made a minister

let me tell you what i mean by that i mean by that i mean by that i mean by that i mean by that i tell you what he did not say if indeed you now do all of the right things that's not what he said there did you notice that she knows the word do or works was not involved in that verse at all what does it say that we need to keep doing we need to remain in the faith we need to remain in the faith and we need to be unmoved from the hope of the gospel that means that all of those things are true about me if i don't get away from the gospel of jesus christ the moment that i start saying yes the gospel of jesus christ the moment that i start saying yes the gospel of jesus christ

those things are true of me and now i'm going to work really hard to achieve them nope that's not what it said now if i can just do these things nope that's not what it says it means you need to continue in the faith you need to continue in the gospel it's amazing how quickly we can be moved from the hope of the gospel and there's two directions we end up moving from the hope of the gospel on one side is the first one that i mentioned and that's licentiousness right we can say oh i've been granted god's forgiveness and his grace now it doesn't really matter how i live because after all god's grace covers a multitude of sins that's called licentiousness i can live however i want to the words that i say don't matter the

life that i live doesn't matter i'll just keep confessing it before the lord and know that he covers me with all of his sin no or with all of his grace no that's being moved away from the hope of the gospel because the hope of the gospel says i've been set free from sin not set free to sin right but then the other end of it which i think is what a lot of us tend to do especially in the church is we say i've been set free now it's time to work now it's time to work really hard and make sure that i do all of the right things and i've got my holy spirit checklist and as long as i do these things i'll be okay in life no because the grace of god that brings salvation is the same grace of god that maintains salvation

the grace of god that saves you is the grace of god that teaches you and you cannot get away from the hope of the gospel because the same blood of jesus christ that cleansed you the first time is the same blood of jesus christ that continually cleanses you from all sin listen keep your heart and your mind focused on the reality of the gospel because the gospel is what continues to give freedom in our lives that reconciliation is for every aspect of our lives right and so he says if you continue in the faith and if you are not moved away from the hope of the gospel so why does he give this warning because they were moving away from the hope of the gospel and he reminds them to come back to the center of things well the end of this

verse segues us into the next section because he talks about the gospel that he was proclaiming in under heaven and of which into verse 23 i paul was made a minister now as we move into this last point the hope of glory we have as a backdrop the ministry of paul because as paul begins to present this last truth about the incomparable christ he uses his ministry to bring about this point he talks about the fact that it is because of his ministry that he is able to preach this last point and so he he starts with this aspect of rejoicing in suffering notice what it says in verse 24 now i rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh i do my share on behalf of his body which is the church

in filling up what is lacking in christ's affliction he says i rejoice in my suffering now i don't know how you picture how paul wrote this book i think you should picture it sometime because remember paul's sitting there chained to a roman garden he's writing this book most believe that paul's eyesight was really really bad so he probably didn't actually do the writing he probably dictated it to someone else who wrote it down for him now remember paul's saying all these things from his heart based upon what the holy spirit is laying upon him to say and you can almost imagine the holy spirit allowing paul to go off on just a little bit of a tangent when he talks about the gospel of which he was made a minister and it may take

kind of took him all the way back to the very beginning i want to know the story of how paul came to know jesus he was actually on his way to damascus to persecute even more christians he had started a persecution within jerusalem because he hated jesus and he hated christians he had begun a persecution in jerusalem that had forced christians out all over the place he said hey i heard there's some christians up in damascus and i want to go try to arrest some of them and bring them back and put them on trial and as he was on his way the holy spirit showed up jesus showed up and he knocked him down and paul was literally blinded by take a minute okay he was blinded by the light right and he was led into town and as he was led

into town he had basically blinders over his eyes actually something like scales that was on his eyes and as he scales that were on his eyes he's sitting there contemplating everything that had been taking place jesus making it all make sense and the lord appeared to another man and told him i need you to go and i need you to find a man named saul and i want you to pray for him and this guy goes listen i don't know if we're talking about a man named saul but i want you to talk about the same guy here or not i don't think you realize who you're talking about but let's discuss this for just a moment shall we this guy hates me this guy hates you this guy hates

christians he is not a nice human being i don't think that's who you meant can we think about this for just a moment and god says don't worry i have already revealed to him just how much he's going to suffer for the name of christ and so from the very beginning of paul's ministry god told him suffer in your ministry now we live in 2024 we're not supposed to have suffering anymore right everything's supposed to be perfect between technology and medicine we've eliminated all suffering right not as far as i can tell the brochure has lied right and i don't know about you i'm not very good at rejoicing in my suffering you know why because i don't like to practice it

paul had practiced it so much that he was now in the place where he could rejoice in the midst of it now i want you to notice what he does not rejoice in he does not rejoice in the fact that he rejoices in the midst of his sufferings in my sufferings i rejoice why can he rejoice in his sufferings notice what it says i rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh i do my share on behalf of the body speaking of the body of christ which is the church and filling up what is lacking in christ's affliction how is he able to suffer and in the midst of it rejoice because he knows why he's doing it he knows why he's doing it and it's a two-fold purpose number one he's suffering

because he loves his savior so much number two he's suffering because he loves the body of christ so much it's amazing how much you are willing to endure for someone when you love them right i love watching old war movies um i think i told you guys a while back i watched band of brothers and it's just so fascinating to see these guys that that live such hard lives in war and the thing that always ultimately was the love that they had for each other right they had a camaraderie that was unmatched by anything else because they had such great love for each other and because of that they could go literally to the edge of hell for the guy next to them because they loved them because

listen they knew why they were doing what they were doing and it was because of their great love that they had for each other and you and i as believers in jesus christ don't just have a body of christ that we're willing to suffer for but we have a savior that we're willing to suffer for because he loves us so much the sufferings of this life are nothing to be compared with the glory that's to be revealed right and so he knew why he was doing it he said i can rejoice in my sufferings because i'm well aware of why i'm doing this and i'm doing this for the body of christ why are you suffering today do you know why you're doing it do you know that the things that you're going through god wants to use for good and for his glory and the body of christ

but you have to know why you're doing it and that's what paul was able to do and he says and i do my part in filling up what is lacking in christ's afflictions now this is one that we have to be a little bit careful as we dance around it because paul can do nothing to add to christ's redemptive suffering and that's not what this word afflictions means matter of fact this word afflictions which in the greek i think is flipsis t-h-l-i-p-i-s always speaks of suffering in the midst of ministry suffering affliction for the ministry of the gospel that's how it's always used in the new testament and so what he's saying here is i'm filling up what's lacking in christ's

sufferings while christ was on earth he suffered for the ministry of the gospel it wasn't just the cross everything about his life dealt with a certain amount of that right but now that christ physically isn't on earth he's suffering for the ministry of the gospel and so he's saying that suffering is continued on through his body it's continued on through the body of christ and so one of the things that you can take heart in is if you are suffering for for the sake of jesus christ you are continuing the work of your savior because there's nothing more like being like your savior than the sufferings of jesus christ amen and so paul says i rejoice in my sufferings because

they came about because of the preaching of the word of god into verse 20 or uh filling up what is lacking in christ's afflictions into verse 24 and then in verse 25 he says and of this church i was made a minister according to the stewardship from god bestowed on me for your benefit so that i might fully carry out the preaching of the word of god paul says of this church i was made a minister now this word minister is kind of an interesting word you know what the word minister literally means in our world we see ministers as the that's up front right or or if you're in another country a lot of times dignitaries or leaders within the government are called ministers like you might have the minister of defense right but

you know what the word minister actually means the word minister actually means servant that means that paul is saying i am a servant according to the stewardship of god now i think that this word servant's a really important word in the new testament because being a servant is something that's kind of lacking in our culture today and sometimes it's something that's kind of lacking in the church today we don't always have a lot of servants in the church today and listen i'm not just talking about the church in general sometimes i'm talking about here and this is a little bit of a word of exhortation we have a lot of wonderful people that do a lot of wonderful serving here in

the church but there's also a lot of people who want to leave the serving to somebody else and we've all been called to serve that's what the body is for that's what the body of christ is intended for no one's intended to be a spectator in the body of christ the body of christ is not a spectator sport being in the church means that you're not a spectator you're not a everybody should be serving in some way shape or form everybody should be serving in some aspect and sometimes we like to leave all of the serving to somebody else as a matter of fact most churches today love to leave the serving to the guys that are on staff or the guys that are on the board or

the elders or the deacons or something like that and it's like wait the serving is supposed to take place by everybody everybody in the church is a servant we've all been called to be ministers you know how i know that because that's what jesus told his disciples you know his disciples more than anything else in the world lord who's going to be the greatest can i sit at your right hand maybe i could sit at your left hand i'm happy to be second greatest but i want to be somewhere close to the greatest and jesus said you guys don't get it do you in the gentle patient way that only jesus can he said i don't know if you guys are fully grasping this the son of man did

not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many therefore the lord's the rulers of the gentiles lord it over them but it shouldn't be that way among you if you want to be great in the kingdom of god you have to learn to be a servant of all a servant of all and listen there's lots of places that you can serve everywhere in the world but start in your family and then move into your church because we need people in the church right now i've mentioned it a couple of times right now we we would love to have some more folks teaching kids because we got a gaggle of kids in this church i don't know if y'all know they're not we got just a just a grip of them right and and so it's like man we need some more

folks uh teaching down in these sunday school class you know what really need in the sunday school classes fellas we need men teaching in sunday school classes because we need men that are going to lead these kids we need men that are going to look and say hey let me tell you what god's word has to say because i'm here to tell you right now when a fella shows up and teaches a group of kids those kids listen in a different way and this is nothing against you ladies because i i had some amazing sunday school teachers growing up in this church and they were ladies some of them are sitting in this room this morning and i'm here to tell you right now that it's a beautiful thing but when there's a fella

that comes along and says you know what god's word isn't just important to my wife god's word is important to me that's when people start paying attention especially kids especially boys start paying attention to those sorts of things but paul says i was made a minister and i was made a minister because i was given a stewardship you know stewardship is a stewardship is a responsibility you know what my responsibility is my responsibility is to teach god's word i've been told that that's what god told me a real long time ago i said lord am i saved and he said yes i said lord what does that mean and he showed me the cross i said lord what's the power for living as a

christian and he showed me the holy spirit i said what do you want me to do now and he showed me from ezra he said i want you to study the word i want you to live out the word and i want you to teach the word and i said you got it and i can't do anything else matter of fact if i'm sitting around a group of people and they're talking about the bible and they're talking bad stuff about the bible even my wife i'm like i'm sorry i just you heard that i can't i can't just let that go right and so i gotta see i gotta go talk to him about what the bible has to say i was just telling a story about sitting in a starbucks i love coffee shops because people love to talk

in coffee shops and so i start talking to people about the bible or i read it and they ask me questions and it's what i'm always going to do with my life will it always be up here maybe not but i'm always going to teach god's word because that's my responsibility what's yours what's your responsibility because you have a responsibility and god is laying that on your heart as a matter of fact i bet that's the thing you keep telling god no to god keeps saying do this and you're like i can't or i won't or that wasn't how i thought i was going to serve you do it anyway because you've each been given a responsibility and he says i am a minister according to the stewardship of christ

and that stewardship was bestowed upon me for your benefit so that i might carry out the preaching of the word that is the mystery oh that's another fun word the mystery what's a mystery what he's going to tell us here in just a moment what a mystery is a mystery is not what we think of like who committed the crime a mystery is something that was previously concealed and now it is revealed and one of the greatest mysteries that god has revealed is the mystery of the is that the gentiles are now a part of the church right let's read just a little bit further that is the mystery which has been hidden from ages and generations or from past ages and generations but

has now been manifested to his saints to whom god willed to make known what is the riches of this glory among the gentiles right like the the old can you imagine being an old testament writer like like you're writing the book of like you're isaiah right and you're writing the book of isaiah i have no idea what this means that doesn't that doesn't make any sense at all how's this supposed to work out and god's like well that's not for you to know just yet i gotta keep it hidden from you it'll be revealed later right i wonder if when uh jesus came down you know because it says that when he was sorry it's tangent see i told you i'm a little more unhinged than usual this morning i wonder if

when when jesus went down and set the captives free from from abraham's bosom like the holding place for those that would go to heaven and he sent him to heaven isaiah was like now i get it oh my gosh right and he's like oh i had no idea what i was writing that is phenomenal right like i just kind of think that that's probably what took place that's why i think when paul got saved he like put the last little piece of the puzzle in and it was just like right and everything just became clear to him he's like oh jesus was the thing that's that's jesus and that's jesus the whole this is going to take a long time to talk about that's why he had to go spend three years in arabia in the desert

having god teach him all those things because he had to go spend three years in arabia in the desert couldn't take it all in at one time and his little brain was about to go right because as they were writing those things they were a mystery to them and then in christ they all became revealed and one of the greatest revelations was that we the gentiles would become a part of the church that's the funniest thing in the world because jews hated gentiles they were like those losers are the are the fuel to fire hell and and then jesus was like actually they're a friend right gentiles are friends not food right there's one of those sort of situations like bring them in and everybody's like why are they here like well because apparently

the same grace that saves us saves them i'm not real wild about it yet either but apparently we got to get used to it because this is the new reality peter said so right and peter's like well that's what jesus said and jesus is like got it right so so this is this mystery that god would bring the the gentiles in well there's another mystery that comes about and the mystery is this that christ will be in you the hope of glory says start at the beginning of verse 27 again to whom god willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the gentiles which is christ in you the hope of glory christ in you the hope of glory a short sentence that carries a powerful impact right so so let's

kind of break this down a little bit stick with me don't don't fade on me yet christ in you the indwelling christ that christ would bring to you the hope of glory and the hope of glory come and make his home inside of you this is what jesus kept saying over and over again if you believe in me then i and my father will come and make our home inside of you this is why i don't understand that people that are reformed in their theologies start saying things like stop asking jesus into your heart you don't ask jesus into your heart well jesus said he can make his home inside of me i don't know how else you put that right like that's what he said he was going to do

he was going to make his home inside of me and that's exactly what happens do you realize that you are the temple of the holy spirit that now jesus literally dwells inside of you and if one member of the trinity is in there then theoretically speaking the trinity is in there because christ has indwelt you that's one of the most awesome things that you can ever imagine and our brains don't fully grasp it because the living god the one who is the image of the invisible god the firstborn over creation the creator of the heavens and the earth the purpose for all of creation the one who is holding all things together the beginning the firstborn who has first place in everything who have all the fullness of the godhead bodily dwells in him

made his home in you and it's the most miraculous misunderstood things ever because our brains can't take it in but he came and he made his home inside of you how do you do it through the presence of the holy spirit why is that important well because the indwelling christ that mystery of him dwelling inside of us means that he is that as we are the temple of the holy spirit we now have a hope of glory if you were to go back to the book of ephesians which don't do that right now but if you were to go back to the book of ephesians you would find that paul tells us that we were given the holy spirit as our down payment our earnest it can also be translated as an engagement ring a promise of a yet fulfilled reality right so my wife and my

daughters went up to kansas city this weekend to see tim mcgraw right and somebody goes you didn't go with him i'm like really um don't get me wrong i do like to live where the green grass grows and watch my corn pop up in rows but i really don't want to every night be close to him okay so i just not not not huge on some of that but they went up there and so they went the night before and spent the night with her folks and and it must have been memory time because she's sending me pictures of pictures right must have been going through a photo album and she sent me a picture of her this picture and it was from september of 2003 it was our engagement picture it was the night that

we got engaged september 12th 2003 and we went back to her parents house so that we could tell them and and she and her mom took these pictures of us and aaron sent it to me and she goes i can't believe i found this old picture so i call him up and and my girls are like hey dad you used to be well a little more fit than you are now and i was like you know what that hurts okay they don't even mention that i had hair back then right that that joke's old right it's it's gone now it's dad you used to be fit and now you couldn't fit into those pants anyway so so um and so i look and i'm like oh that's exactly what this this this picture that's exactly what that picture said that picture is the guarantee of a promise that was to be fulfilled because on

september 12th of 2003 i got down on one knee in loose park in kansas city on a bridge over a over a little pond and i said will you marry me and she said yes yes and so i put the engagement ring on her finger and that engagement ring was a guarantee of a promise that i would fulfill on may 1st of 2004 and on may 1st of 2004 i fulfilled my promise that i guaranteed to her with that ring and that's exactly what the holy spirit dwelling inside of us is is it is the promise the guarantee of a promise yet to be fulfilled our hope is to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be

fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be

fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled and to be fulfilled to. We have a home that we're looking forward to. And that Holy Spirit inside of us always bears witness of the hope of the glory that we have. That's why if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you find yourself getting more and more weary of the earth that we live on. Some of you young

people in here today, which people keep telling me I'm not one of anymore. All you young people in here today, I remember being your age and thinking, Lord, maybe just don't come back till I get married, right? Maybe just don't come back till after I have kids. And that's because I was immature in my faith at that point in time. It's because I was immature in my understanding of

what I have to look forward to. And the longer that I live on top side of this earth, the more I go, Lord, maybe today, or maybe today, because the Holy Spirit is bearing witness inside of me that this place is not my home. And I am so looking forward to the day that the guarantee of the promise is fulfilled, just like it was. Amen. May 1st of 2004, because Christ in me is the hope of glory. Amen.

Now, Paul goes on from here to say, and we proclaim him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom so that we may present every man complete in Christ. We should look at those first three words of that verse. We proclaim him. Who's the him? Jesus. And brothers and sisters, that is what we are supposed to proclaim. It hurts my heart so much when I talk to somebody and I ask them if they're a believer and they're

like, yes, I'm a believer. I'm reformed in my theology. Yes, I'm a believer. I am a Calvinist. Yes, I'm a believer. I'm an Arminianist. Yes, I'm a believer. I go to the Methodist church. Yes, I'm a believer. I go to the Baptist church. Yes, I'm a believer. I go to Calvary Chapel. And it's like, whoa, where have we started making it that being a believer associates us with anything other than Christ? Because we are to proclaim him, right?

I'm not to proclaim my church. I'm not to proclaim my idea. I'm not to proclaim my teaching. I am to proclaim Jesus. And if I ever stop proclaiming Jesus, if that ever stops being the central theme of everything that I bring to you, please pull me off the stage. Because that I have absolutely missed my point because my job is to proclaim Christ and brothers

and sisters, that's what your job is to quit saying, yes, I'm a Christian. I'm a member of Calvary Chapel. When people say, are you a Christian? Yes, because I believe in Jesus because he is my place of salvation. This church won't save you. The, your, your ideas won't save you. Only Jesus can save you. That's why we proclaim him because it is Christ in you.

That is the hope of glory. And can I be completely honest? There's a bunch of people on YouTube and there's a bunch of people on stages, men and women alike across this country that need to get pulled off the stage because they've stopped proclaiming Christ because that should be the central thing that comes out of everything that we proclaim. Because listen, it's the central thing in every aspect of scripture. And we proclaim Christ. Why do we proclaim Christ? Well, because we admonish

every man and we teach every man with all wisdom so that we proclaim Christ. And we proclaim Christ so that we may present every man as complete in Christ. You know how that word complete can also be translated mature so that we can present every man as mature in Christ. Do you know, you know what we're all hopefully striving towards? Hopefully we're all striving towards maturity, right? Like

I've worked with kids for a real long time. I love working with kids, but the older I get, I think I'm finally starting to mature because I do enjoy a good mature adult conversation. It used to be, and when I say used to, like two years ago, I would always just rather talk to a kid, right? And I still love talking to kids. Yeah, I love you people. But now sometimes I'm like, oh, we kind of want a mature

adult to talk to, right? I've matured a little bit. And that's who we're supposed to be as believers. We're supposed to ultimately end up in a place where we mature, to where we are not tossed about with every wind of doctrine, to where we're not tossed about with every idea that's out there, to listen. Every time that something comes out, we don't say, oh no, maybe this is the end. Let me go

my gun, right? Oh no, maybe this is the end. Let me start stocking up on all of my things. Look, as the church, we got to quit being chickens with our heads cut off, right? Right now the world is looking at us and everything freaks out in the world. What do we do with them? We kind of freak out too. And we need to remember that whatever happens, God's still in control. No, no matter

what comes up next, God is always going to be in control. And that's maturity. Maturity says, I don't care who's elected president next. I do. I ultimately do. But when it comes right down to it, whoever gets elected president next, I still know God's in control, right? When it comes right down to it, whatever happens in any other part of the world, I still know that God's in control.

Will inflation keep going up? Probably. Invest in it. It's the only thing going up. Will inflation keep going up? Absolutely. Will we not be able to afford anything eventually? Probably. Will things keep getting crazier? Definitely. Will we end up losing our freedoms? Possibly. But we can live in a life where we don't freak out. You know why? If we are mature in Christ.

Amen. Because if my hope is in the glory of God and not this earth, then I can live in maturity. And I can say, none of these things move me because I know whom I have believed and then persuaded that he is able to keep everything that I have committed to him until that day. Amen. And so he says, to close it out, he says, and for this purpose, I also labor, striving according

to his mighty power, which mightily works within me. If I may, I am without any certain knowledge of the knowledge which mayot so that I may not walk in the sights of the whole world s and never if it was not for his preaching. And so Lord, I thank you that you have brought us together this morning. Lord, I thank you for each person that's gathered here. Lord, every person that's watching online.

And Lord, I as always pray that only the things of you would remain, that anything that was of me, that was not profitable, Lord, that that would just fall by the wayside and only the things of you would remain. And so, Father, be with us as we go out from here. Lord, keep our hearts focused on you. Keep our hearts close to you. And, Lord, may that hope of glory always be at work in us.

And, Father, I don't want to be remiss. I want to lift up those that are caught up in the LGBTQ community, Lord. Know that your greatest desire is to see them saved because your word tells us that you desire that none should perish. Lord, you take no pleasure in the death of the wicked. And so, Father, I just pray for salvation. Lord, I pray that you would give us as your people

the grace to speak the truth in love. But, God, that you would give an extra measure of your spirit to those who are caught up in this sin, Lord, that they would truly understand that your spirit would convict of sin and of righteousness and of judgment and that you would set people free, free to know you, free to follow you, free to find them. And, Lord, I pray that you would make yourselves spotless and blameless before your penetrating and searching gaze. Lord, we thank you for who you are.

In Jesus' name, amen. Be blessed. Yes, Lord. Thank you for this time we've had together, Lord. Now, just go before, encourage us, strengthen us in our walk and witness for you, Lord. And encourage us to just trust you, Lord. Not to be afraid to step out and do what you want to do. Share your love with others. Be glorified. In Jesus' name, amen. The Lord bless you.

Have a great week.