Speaker 1: All right, welcome to the Wednesday Bible Study. Thank you
Speaker 1: for being with us today. I'm Rick Burgesson, host of
Speaker 1: the Rick Burgers Show. That's my day job. If you
Speaker 1: want to find out everything about that, just go to
Speaker 1: rickburgesshow dot com. These are the studios in which that
Speaker 1: show's done. So if you're seeing these logos on the
Speaker 1: YouTube option, that's why. Now we got to get this
Speaker 1: right because we're about to make a change after twelve years,
Speaker 1: and I know that's tough those of you that are
Speaker 1: in the room or you are a live option person.
Speaker 1: Many you catch it on the Live option every week.
Speaker 1: Next week we'll be on vacation, so there'll be no
Speaker 1: new Bibble Study next Wednesday. Live are archived. Now on
Speaker 1: the twelfth of August, we'll be back in here, Lord Willing,
Speaker 1: and we will continue our study of colostions. But it
Speaker 1: will start live at eleven am Central noon Eastern, so
Speaker 1: we're backing up one hour and that will start two
Speaker 1: weeks from today. So make that note doesn't really affect
Speaker 1: archive people. You might get the archive a little quicker,
Speaker 1: but that's the only thing that really will affect you.
Speaker 1: But for live people in the room are on the
Speaker 1: YouTube streaming. That's a big schedule change for you. So
Speaker 1: we'll show a little grace, maybe leave the door a
Speaker 1: little longer to begin with for those of you that
Speaker 1: think you're showing up early for the Bible study, only
Speaker 1: to discover you're like crazy late. So anyway, that'll be.
Speaker 1: That'll start two weeks from today. If you want to
Speaker 1: go ahead and turn where we are. This is a
Speaker 1: series called Paul's Prison Letters. We've done Ephesians, we've done Philippians,
Speaker 1: we're now in Colossiance. We finished chapter one last week
Speaker 1: and we'll start in chapter two. If you want to
Speaker 1: catch archives, I will tell you. I just I just
Speaker 1: had a weekend at the time of recording this in
Speaker 1: Missouri where Sherry and I, my wife, we went and
Speaker 1: did a men's event on Friday night, Sherry did a
Speaker 1: women's event on Saturday morning, we did a marriage event
Speaker 1: on Saturday night, and then I preached to services on Sunday.
Speaker 1: So while we were there, one thing that we discovered
Speaker 1: is we could not believe how many people are studying
Speaker 1: the archives of these Wednesday Bible studies. I mean, the
Speaker 1: men were doing the man church curriculum, but they also
Speaker 1: with their wives. I mean, they're studying when we did
Speaker 1: job and somebody else is studying Genesis, and these archives
Speaker 1: are just alive and everywhere, and it was such an
Speaker 1: incredible encouragement for Sherry and I to be there and
Speaker 1: see all that going on, and then of course God
Speaker 1: moved over the weekend in an incredible way. But so
Speaker 1: these archives are available to you and you can use
Speaker 1: them in your own Bible studies by going to the
Speaker 1: Themanchurch dot com our Burgessministries dot com. You can click
Speaker 1: on listen if it's Burgessministries dot com and just use
Speaker 1: the media button at the Manchurch dot com. So, Rick,
Speaker 1: what is the Manchurch dot Com? I'm glad you asked.
Speaker 1: This is a men's discipleship strategy. We're six years old.
Speaker 1: We have over two thousand churches doing our strategy now.
Speaker 1: Two components. High challenge that's in the form of events.
Speaker 1: That's not anything really new that's been going on a
Speaker 1: long time. We do that in the form of conferences,
Speaker 1: our gatherings of men. If you want to find out
Speaker 1: if there's one near you, go to the Manchurch dot com.
Speaker 1: Then coming out of the high challenge of a gathering
Speaker 1: of men, we then go into the High equipping the
Speaker 1: discipleship where we immerse the men in small groups, all
Speaker 1: doing our forty week curriculum. We have six of those
Speaker 1: so for six years, and we're going to keep adding
Speaker 1: to that. You would have a discipleship strategy to reach
Speaker 1: and disciple men. You know this is not gonna get
Speaker 1: done in a six week Bible study. It's just not
Speaker 1: so we ours are a year long and they never stop.
Speaker 1: So if you would like to find out more about that,
Speaker 1: go to Dmanchurch dot com. Let's open up in a
Speaker 1: word of prayer and we'll be in Colossians chapter two. Lord,
Speaker 1: thank you for today. Thank you for the men here
Speaker 1: in the room, a lot of familiar faces and today
Speaker 1: faces that I haven't seen in a while, just to reconnect.
Speaker 1: It's just a great time to be together studying your word.
Speaker 1: And for those that are not in the room but
Speaker 1: are watching. Men and women, we want you to Lord,
Speaker 1: to continue to use this Bible study to cut our
Speaker 1: hearts with the Holy Spirit, to give us the discernment
Speaker 1: and give us the proper interpretation of what you're trying
Speaker 1: to say today through the Apostle Paul. Inspired by you,
Speaker 1: may all of us as a group benefit, but also
Speaker 1: as individuals. Whatever you're saying to us, may we hear
Speaker 1: it it, may we apply it today, and the glorious
Speaker 1: name of Jesus we pray Amen. All right, So we
Speaker 1: know this Paul has been talking about. He's very concerned.
Speaker 1: One thing I want you to understand about Colossi, there's
Speaker 1: really no historical indication that Paul had ever been there.
Speaker 1: He had not visited this church. And you'll see in
Speaker 1: our study today. Something convicting to me this week is
Speaker 1: Paul is extremely concerned about this church because it's a church,
Speaker 1: it's part of the Church universal. Uh. He has this
Speaker 1: pastor that has visited him while he is in jail
Speaker 1: in Rome on house arrest and says, hey, I got
Speaker 1: a problem. I'm in over my head. I've got the Judaizers.
Speaker 1: Uh they're they're in here sprinkling some of this legalism
Speaker 1: from the Old Covenant. I'm fighting that. I got the
Speaker 1: Gnostics in here. They're coming in here with some weird
Speaker 1: mysticism and kind of a commendation of odd things. And
Speaker 1: they're they're they're teaching bad theology. And and Paul goes
Speaker 1: right into action and he writes and sends with this
Speaker 1: pastor back, Hey, let me remind you of the Gospel.
Speaker 1: Let me remind you of who Jesus is. And so
Speaker 1: he has spent time reminding them about the deity of Christ.
Speaker 1: That's the thing that's that's really being debated by those
Speaker 1: that are trying to influence this this little church, and
Speaker 1: they're trying to take away or dethrone Jesus. They certainly
Speaker 1: believe in Jesus, but they dethrone Jesus. And the one
Speaker 1: thing that they keep taking issue with is the deity
Speaker 1: of Christ. So Paul has reminded them of that. And
Speaker 1: now when he gets into two, what he wants to
Speaker 1: do is say, I want you to experience the truth,
Speaker 1: but I want you to experience where the issues are.
Speaker 1: And't that important If you're ever discipling someone or you're
Speaker 1: helping somebody and they're getting bad theology, we can't just
Speaker 1: tell them it's bad theology. We got to tell them.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you why it's bad theology. Here's what's
Speaker 1: wrong with it. And so what Paul wants to do
Speaker 1: is saying, I want you to know the truth about
Speaker 1: this cult. And I know we don't like using those words.
Speaker 1: If we don't want to but this garbage of us
Speaker 1: almost kind of being a little squeamish about calling something
Speaker 1: what it is, any philosophy theology that anyone is trying
Speaker 1: to sell you on, even if they're using the banner
Speaker 1: of Christianity, if they remove and dethrone Jesus from his
Speaker 1: proper place and take away the deity of Christ, that's
Speaker 1: a cult, that that is not part of the faith.
Speaker 1: And so uh and and you know what, it's time
Speaker 1: we just say that. I remember dealing with uh something
Speaker 1: of this nature. Uh when when a person kept calling
Speaker 1: the show on my day job, and because we do
Speaker 1: talk about our faith even on the day job, and
Speaker 1: he said, we're just part of Christianity. We're just another denomination.
Speaker 1: And I said, so you're telling me what y'all believe
Speaker 1: is no different than what I believe in the Bible.
Speaker 1: He said, that's right, We're just another denomination. I said,
Speaker 1: so I don't need the Book of Mormon. Then silence.
Speaker 1: I said, so, if we're the same and we believe
Speaker 1: the same thing, then why do I need the Book
Speaker 1: of Mormon. Well, it's because you don't have the whole truth,
Speaker 1: I said. See there is a difference. See see y'all.
Speaker 1: Y'all do have something different and and so so. So
Speaker 1: now now that we got that established, it's not true
Speaker 1: that you're just like us, because you're trying to add
Speaker 1: something a new revelation that we don't believe ever took place.
Speaker 1: And oh, by the way, we don't believe in the
Speaker 1: Jesus that you perpetuate in these latter day saints. So
Speaker 1: it's not the same. So so Paul, I'm gonn to
Speaker 1: email on that one. You can tell I will saved
Speaker 1: that for my vacation week. So anyway, wonderfully nice people.
Speaker 1: Of course, if you look at your theology, they better
Speaker 1: be are there in trouble. It is a works based faith,
Speaker 1: they better be good. So anyway, so we now go
Speaker 1: to chapter two and he says, I want you to
Speaker 1: experience the truth in one through seven. That's all we're
Speaker 1: going to cover today. First, he says, I want to
Speaker 1: talk to you about being part of the Christian faith.
Speaker 1: Look at this he's in. This is chapter two, verse
Speaker 1: one through verse two A. The first part of that
Speaker 1: for I want you to know, this is the Paul.
Speaker 1: This is Paul. I want you to know how great
Speaker 1: a struggle I have for you. And for those at
Speaker 1: Leiah Decilla, we'll talk about that, and for all who
Speaker 1: have not seen me face to face that their hearts
Speaker 1: may be encouraged being knit together in love. So let's
Speaker 1: just take on that part right there. So, So Paul
Speaker 1: has never been to Colossie that we can document. I
Speaker 1: mentioned that, but this is conviction number one of the week.
Speaker 1: He made the battle his own. It doesn't matter if
Speaker 1: we've never been there. When our brothers and sisters are
Speaker 1: being attacked by false theology, being attacked and persecuted, being deceived,
Speaker 1: it is our job to care. We should care about this,
Speaker 1: and even if we can't get there, we should do
Speaker 1: what we can do to help them any way that
Speaker 1: we can. He made anybody in the church in trouble.
Speaker 1: He made that his own issue. And the first thing
Speaker 1: I thought about is our brothers and sisters in Nigeria.
Speaker 1: And I asked myself a hard question, do I even care?
Speaker 1: It's not affecting me. Uh, I'm just gonna worry about
Speaker 1: what I'm doing at my local church. I mean, we
Speaker 1: have brothers and sisters being slaughtered by Muslims because they
Speaker 1: will not denounce Jesus. And you really have a hard
Speaker 1: time finding anybody who cares that. It's a pretty big deal.
Speaker 1: And Paul says, we need to make the problems of
Speaker 1: our brothers and sisters our own. And so he's gonna
Speaker 1: call the believers in the church to experience the truth.
Speaker 1: And then he's going to expose the lie. See that
Speaker 1: goes back to this thing we said a thousand times
Speaker 1: about counterfeits. Now, how do how does the Secret Service
Speaker 1: teach these agents to spot a counterfeit? They don't show
Speaker 1: them counterfeits, right, they show them the genuine article. So
Speaker 1: we must be so familiar with the genuine article we
Speaker 1: can spot a counterfeit. If we don't have good theology,
Speaker 1: we can't recognize false theology. Amen. Right, So so he said,
Speaker 1: so let's let's You would think, Paul, this is the
Speaker 1: convicting part. Don't get in your mind that Paul's decided
Speaker 1: to get up off his spot on the beach while
Speaker 1: he's kicked it out of gear to say, maybe I
Speaker 1: should care about the folks at Colossie. Paul's got enough
Speaker 1: trouble of his own. And you would think that Paul,
Speaker 1: of all people, say, hey, man, I appreciate you bringing
Speaker 1: that to my attention. Let me see if I can
Speaker 1: send Timothy over there, maybe he can write you'all something.
Speaker 1: I just I got a lot on my plate right now.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you know this. I'm waiting to
Speaker 1: see Nero and he's going to decide whether they're gonna
Speaker 1: cut my head off or not. So I can't really
Speaker 1: be bothered with this. Anybody gonna get their head cut
Speaker 1: off this week, but yet we can't be bothered with it.
Speaker 1: So he's sitting there, possibly on death row, and he
Speaker 1: doesn't say, you know, I'm in a tough situation right now.
Speaker 1: I got all the problems I can stand. I really
Speaker 1: can't you get a path forrus. I appreciate you coming
Speaker 1: up here. Sounds like it's awful. I gotta farm this
Speaker 1: out to somebody else. I got enough on my plate.
Speaker 1: He did not see that. Okay, in prison, he's been
Speaker 1: arrested for propagating what they called an illegal religion. The
Speaker 1: judge he's gonna face is Nero himself, which is a
Speaker 1: whack job, a wicked, evil guy. Paul did not think
Speaker 1: that was more important what was happening to him. He
Speaker 1: thought it was critically important what was happening to the
Speaker 1: church at Colossi, that's a selfless attitude. And we're living
Speaker 1: in a time that getting anybody to not think about
Speaker 1: self is an uphill climb. Okay, and how about this,
Speaker 1: I'll go this far. And you've heard me say this before.
Speaker 1: If Paul were to say to me, birds you understand,
Speaker 1: I mean, I got enough of my plate, I probably
Speaker 1: would say, that's a perfectly natural reaction. And you know what,
Speaker 1: that's why's wrong, because it is natural what Paul says.
Speaker 1: Oh well, I appreciate that, But I think I'm gonna
Speaker 1: have a supernatural reaction to this and not worry about
Speaker 1: myself and make myself more important what they're going through.
Speaker 1: I care about this little church. Remember what I told
Speaker 1: you we before started started this. Colossie was not a
Speaker 1: big place. This was not some you would think like
Speaker 1: these other churches that were in these meccas. It really wasn't.
Speaker 1: It was a small town. And so he didn't think
Speaker 1: that uh he had uh, he had issues in Rome.
Speaker 1: But Colossie and apparently layah de Sea, where they were
Speaker 1: in the thick of a battle themselves, and he found
Speaker 1: their battle to be at least either more important than
Speaker 1: his own or at least as important as his own.
Speaker 1: Now Laya to Sea was different. We we knew that
Speaker 1: in the Revelation when when we have the letters to
Speaker 1: the church. What was going on with with with Layah
Speaker 1: de Sea, And that's a whole different study. Their problem
Speaker 1: was luxury. They had gotten to the point that they
Speaker 1: had it so good they really didn't think they needed Jesus.
Speaker 1: And that's why Jesus is telling John, tell them that
Speaker 1: I stand outside the door of the church at Layah
Speaker 1: de Sea and I knock. Now many people who preach
Speaker 1: that as a gospel message, and I got no problem
Speaker 1: with that, But that's not what it's talking about. What
Speaker 1: he's saying is Leah de Sea has decided to have
Speaker 1: church without Jesus. They don't think they need him, so
Speaker 1: they've kind of moved on. They've got it so good.
Speaker 1: What do we need? And what does he tell John?
Speaker 1: Tell them they're delusional. They think they're wealthy when they're poor.
Speaker 1: They think they're healthy when they're sick. They think they're
Speaker 1: clean when they're dirty. And I stand outside the door
Speaker 1: and knock, and I'm wondering if anybody at Laiah de
Speaker 1: Sea is going to get up off their luxury rump
Speaker 1: and come to the door and invite me back in.
Speaker 1: And so that was their problem. I guess I did
Speaker 1: do a lesson on Leao to see it quickly. But Colossie,
Speaker 1: the problem there was lies and deception lies in deception
Speaker 1: with this cult. And we should care about the church.
Speaker 1: And I will go this far. If you want to care,
Speaker 1: and Rick, you want to care, remember it starts with me.
Speaker 1: Then there's battles going on everywhere you can find them.
Speaker 1: There's battle lines being drawn against the church everywhere. And
Speaker 1: if you don't have the battle drawn, but you probably
Speaker 1: do at your own church, there's battles you could help with,
Speaker 1: because I promised that. So he says in two, A
Speaker 1: says we're all encircled in a common bond. Look what
Speaker 1: he says in the first party two that we're all
Speaker 1: in this together, and we need to see that that
Speaker 1: their hearts may be encouraged being knit together in love.
Speaker 1: We're all knit together in the same church. We share
Speaker 1: a common bond, and we've got to see our brothers
Speaker 1: and sisters no matter where they are, it's one church.
Speaker 1: We're all together. And if we could please drop all
Speaker 1: these silly denominational dividers that we have that are miners,
Speaker 1: they're not majors, and we're gonna separate ourselves over things that, frankly,
Speaker 1: are silly when we all should be advancing. If you
Speaker 1: disagree with the Gospel, then fine, you're not with us.
Speaker 1: But if you believe that when Jesus ascended to heaven,
Speaker 1: that he told all of us, however you see your
Speaker 1: little minor denominational things about timelines and baptism and all this,
Speaker 1: if you agree that we were told to be his disciples,
Speaker 1: then go make disciples, teaching them all that he commanded
Speaker 1: baptizing them in the name of the Father and the
Speaker 1: Son and the Holy Spirit, and that he would go
Speaker 1: with us, and we're to keep doing that until he returns.
Speaker 1: If you're for that that, I'm with you. I don't care.
Speaker 1: I really don't care how you see election. I don't
Speaker 1: care how you see you know, predestiny. I don't care
Speaker 1: if you think baptism, you know, is immersion. I mean
Speaker 1: what I care about is whether we're going to advance
Speaker 1: the Kingdom of God or not. Do we all believe
Speaker 1: that we're supposed to be evangelical? Always think that's weird.
Speaker 1: It's always weird to me when I have somebody mentioned,
Speaker 1: are you part of the evangelical church? I say, what
Speaker 1: other kind of church is there? What's this other one?
Speaker 1: So there's one where they're not called to be disciples
Speaker 1: and make disciples and teach all that He's commanded and
Speaker 1: baptized people in the name of the Father's Son, the
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit, and do that till he comes back or
Speaker 1: you die. What church is that? What's the name of it?
Speaker 1: I think that we're all supposed to be evangelical, right,
Speaker 1: if that's what Jesus said, he just said to some
Speaker 1: of us, or do he say to everybody this part
Speaker 1: of the church. So anyway, we need to be concentrating
Speaker 1: on what we agree on and spend less time and
Speaker 1: save your emails on talking about the things that we
Speaker 1: don't agree on. If I have another person tell me,
Speaker 1: I'd really be solid follower of Jesus if I just
Speaker 1: get this right. You know, I don't care about those things.
Speaker 1: I care about if we are on the same page
Speaker 1: in the deity of Christ, redemption in Christ and faith
Speaker 1: alone by the grace and mercy of God, and advance
Speaker 1: that to the to the ends of the earth. If
Speaker 1: you want to do that, I don't care what it
Speaker 1: says on your sign, I'll go with you, okay, So
Speaker 1: about Christ to be through verse four, let's talk about Jesus.
Speaker 1: The second part of verse two, Paul says that we
Speaker 1: all have been knit together in love to reach all
Speaker 1: the riches of full assurance, of understanding and the knowledge
Speaker 1: of God's mercy in Christ. What I just said, so,
Speaker 1: he says, with the knowledge of Christ and in riches
Speaker 1: Us is the first thing. He says, know Him in
Speaker 1: an increasing way. It's a different kind of rich because
Speaker 1: it centers on the richness we have in redemption in Christ.
Speaker 1: You know what he's saying right here. You can't walk
Speaker 1: away from the riches that you have in Redemption and
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ and go chase like a beggar some worthless cult.
Speaker 1: Tell me what they can give you that's more than
Speaker 1: what you already have in Jesus. Right, be careful of
Speaker 1: the wolves in sheep's clothing if they come preaching Jesus plus,
Speaker 1: be real careful with that. How about this, We are
Speaker 1: redeemed in Christ alone, not Jesus plus something. And you say, well,
Speaker 1: what about obedience? Don't know? Jesus said, obedience flows from
Speaker 1: being redeemed. It didn't redeem anybody, you know, And that's
Speaker 1: where some of these rituals that people get carried away.
Speaker 1: I don't see anywhere in scripture where Jesus told me
Speaker 1: it was him plus a ritual. All I saw is
Speaker 1: the rituals in the worship, and the obedience flows from
Speaker 1: being redeemed by him. I've already been redeemed by his
Speaker 1: crucifixion and his resurrection. I wouldn't redeem by anything else. Okay,
Speaker 1: So I repented. I put my faith in what Jesus
Speaker 1: had accomplished, and then I was redeemed, and I confessed
Speaker 1: him as my Lord, and I believed in my heart
Speaker 1: that God rose him from the dead. I did that sincerely.
Speaker 1: I repented of my sin sincerely. And when I see
Speaker 1: Acts chapter two, I'm supposed to repent. When I see
Speaker 1: Romans ten nine and ten, I'm to confess him as Lord,
Speaker 1: and I am to believe in my heart that his
Speaker 1: father raising from the dead by the power of the
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit, and that I have been redeemed by what
Speaker 1: Jesus has already completed when he said it is finished,
Speaker 1: if I have faith in that, and I asked to
Speaker 1: be forgiven and I repented my sins. I have been redeemed,
Speaker 1: and I really don't need anybody to add anything to that. Now.
Speaker 1: What I do after that might be proof of my redemption.
Speaker 1: It might be the fruit of my redemption. John chapter fifteen.
Speaker 1: But none of it earns me redemption. And so what
Speaker 1: Paula is saying, if you've got that gospel, why are
Speaker 1: you chasing this other stuff? You have all the riches
Speaker 1: in the world. Hey, let me tell you something, brothers
Speaker 1: and sisters out there, there's nothing that makes us more
Speaker 1: rich than be redeemed. I have been forgiven. I have
Speaker 1: been reconciled to a holy God. When I was on
Speaker 1: the outside, being cast into the lake of fire, God
Speaker 1: gave me a bridge to avoid what I deserve and
Speaker 1: to come back into His presence, being seen through his
Speaker 1: son is fully righteous. What's better than that? Man? Sometimes
Speaker 1: that's all that gets me through the day. But it's enough,
Speaker 1: right am I most time of difficulty, when I cling
Speaker 1: on to that, I get a little hope. Right. So
Speaker 1: next he says, Christ enlightens us in terms of the
Speaker 1: mind full assurance of understanding, all doubts and difficulties raised
Speaker 1: by this cult are swept away in Christ. That what
Speaker 1: he's saying is just remember in your mind is these
Speaker 1: deceivers are trying to accuse, trying to say there's something else,
Speaker 1: trying to say. It's really hopeless. And like I said,
Speaker 1: I love my brother rich Wing. Go and if you've
Speaker 1: never heard my brother teach the word of God, go.
Speaker 1: The other night, man, we had a man church somewhere.
Speaker 1: Rich was there. Four hundred men came, and one hundred
Speaker 1: of them came forward to give their life to Jesus
Speaker 1: out of four hundred men. And one of the things
Speaker 1: he said that he remembered playing a role in his
Speaker 1: redemption was going to a meeting when he played for
Speaker 1: the Green Bay Packers where the Christians on the team
Speaker 1: were getting together. They brought in a speaker. He said,
Speaker 1: I can't even remember who he was. He was a
Speaker 1: famous baseball player, so that I can't remember his name.
Speaker 1: And he gave him that analogy. He said, let me
Speaker 1: just give it to you. He said, I picture myself
Speaker 1: standing before the throne of God. He goes, and as
Speaker 1: I'm standing there ready to be ready to hear from
Speaker 1: the one and only living God, he said, I look
Speaker 1: over here and Satan, my accuser is standing there and
Speaker 1: he's holding a piece of paper with every sin I've
Speaker 1: ever committed. He goes. Then I noticed that the paper
Speaker 1: is actually connect connected to the back of an eighteen
Speaker 1: wheeler and stacks of paper inside this eighteen wheeler. And
Speaker 1: he's ready to keep pulling another one off and another
Speaker 1: one off, and he's reading to God everything that I
Speaker 1: ever did. And he goes and I'll drop my head
Speaker 1: and I'm about to weep because I realize there's no
Speaker 1: way I can be right with God of all these
Speaker 1: horrible things that I've done. He goes with Just when
Speaker 1: I'm about to lose hope, he said, the Son of God,
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, walks in front of me, looks at his
Speaker 1: father and says, he's with me. None of this matters.
Speaker 1: And the Father saw none of what Satan was trying
Speaker 1: to say. And so this is what Paul saying. You
Speaker 1: got to have assurance. Don't let these people cause you
Speaker 1: to doubt or think you got some works based religion.
Speaker 1: They're coming up with it somehow. You've got to earn
Speaker 1: God's approval. It can't be done. You need to have
Speaker 1: a mind that's at peace, and you have the riches
Speaker 1: that you have are the full assurance of understanding and
Speaker 1: the knowledge of God's mystery. What's God's mystery? That he
Speaker 1: would redeem us, especially the gentiles being worked into the church,
Speaker 1: that this is available to you, which is in Christ.
Speaker 1: Why in the world would a holy God come off,
Speaker 1: is thrown, take on human flesh, be lowered to a servant,
Speaker 1: struggle with all that we struggle with, be beaten, be crucified.
Speaker 1: Why would he do that? But the beautiful thing is
Speaker 1: that he did. And your mind needs to change the
Speaker 1: way it thinks. You need to always every doubt go away,
Speaker 1: every difficult you face, that the occult may be raising,
Speaker 1: or your life may be raising, that's all been swept
Speaker 1: away in the beauty. You've been redeemed by Jesus. He
Speaker 1: enlightened us, enlightened us, neacks what in terms of the
Speaker 1: mystery I just talked about that He's the one who
Speaker 1: incarnated the fullness of the Godhead. Now here. This is
Speaker 1: the thing you just got to take by faith. There's
Speaker 1: enough there to you to ponder for the rest of
Speaker 1: your life. Is the Trinity if you'd like to take
Speaker 1: on the Trinity? Adrian Rogers said it best if you
Speaker 1: try to completely grasp it. You'll lose your mind. If
Speaker 1: you reject it, you'll lose your redemption. And Jesus, yes
Speaker 1: it is true when he said, if you see me,
Speaker 1: you see the Father. So you and the Father are
Speaker 1: the same. Yes, we are. And then also I'm sending
Speaker 1: a helper that I also represent, and that's the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: So you're all of them, Yes, I am. What about
Speaker 1: the Father he is too, What about the Holy Spirit? Yes,
Speaker 1: so wait a minute, there's three of y'all. But there's
Speaker 1: just one of you, that is correct. So three gods,
Speaker 1: not one God. It's the Godhead. And he said Jesus
Speaker 1: was the full incarnation of the full Godhead, and then
Speaker 1: at the same time took on human flesh. That's how
Speaker 1: we were redeemed. He goes, and that's a mystery, and
Speaker 1: it's a lot to take in, but you should be
Speaker 1: assured by the fact that it's true. Okay, And then
Speaker 1: he says, knowing Christ enthralls us to the wonder of
Speaker 1: it all. The Father in Christ are both God. God
Speaker 1: had a secret, and that was Jesus Christ, in whom
Speaker 1: we have a new life life. Redemption is a secret
Speaker 1: we are told not to keep to ourselves. You ever
Speaker 1: been told that. Look, I'm gonna tell you a secret.
Speaker 1: I don't share. There's anybody by the way, if you
Speaker 1: tell that to our family, just know they're going to
Speaker 1: tell the next family member, not tell anybody else as well.
Speaker 1: So what I would say is what he's saying is
Speaker 1: this is a mystery. This is a secret, but we're
Speaker 1: told not to keep it. And I would ask you, guys,
Speaker 1: I love y'all, when's the last time you told you
Speaker 1: about about it? When's the last time you said let
Speaker 1: me tell you why. I have full assurance and I
Speaker 1: have a peace that defies all understanding. Let me tell
Speaker 1: you about what God did for me, and he can
Speaker 1: do it for you, and He's done it for all
Speaker 1: who are willing. So the next thing he says in
Speaker 1: verse three now is to know him, not just in
Speaker 1: an increasing way, but know him in a way that
Speaker 1: cannot be exhausted. You're never tired of it, You're never
Speaker 1: done with it. Verse three and verse chapter of chapter two,
Speaker 1: he says that in Whom are hidden all the treasures
Speaker 1: of wisdom and knowledge. So in Christ is every treasure
Speaker 1: of wisdom we need and every bit of knowledge. Now
Speaker 1: that's important because you can have knowledge and still not
Speaker 1: have wisdom. Knowledge is not enough. So but in Christ
Speaker 1: we have knowledge. He has it all. The cult claim
Speaker 1: that they had a special knowledge, which was nonsense. Jesus
Speaker 1: has it all. Now the cult might have said, we
Speaker 1: can teach you some new things, but what they were
Speaker 1: teaching had no wisdom and it wasn't worth anything. Knowledge
Speaker 1: must have wisdom to be of any value. And in Jesus,
Speaker 1: and only in Jesus, you have knowledge and you have
Speaker 1: wisdom all at the same time. And that is that's
Speaker 1: much greater. And I want to ask you, guys a
Speaker 1: hard question, okay, And this is another one. This was
Speaker 1: conviction number two as I prepared over the last week
Speaker 1: for this lesson. Have you gotten to the point where
Speaker 1: you think you know enough about Jesus and you know
Speaker 1: enough about God? You're satisfied. I'm done with it. I
Speaker 1: don't want to pursue this anymore. Apparently not because y'all
Speaker 1: come here like almost every single week. These same faces
Speaker 1: are here, so y'all must care. But I can remember,
Speaker 1: and it's very dangerous. When I was a cultural Christian,
Speaker 1: all right, and I had a demonic faith, which is
Speaker 1: all I had one of the things that's assigned that
Speaker 1: that was not a saving faith. Faith is I had
Speaker 1: no interest in learning more. I thought, okay, I think
Speaker 1: got furied. I had not to go to hell. I
Speaker 1: think I've done that now. I'm going back to my life.
Speaker 1: And a Bible study didn't interest me. Church didn't interest me.
Speaker 1: I wasn't pursuing knowing more. I thought, I know enough,
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna caution you if you're if you're out
Speaker 1: there and you think I'm kind of good on what
Speaker 1: I know, I don't want to go. I don't want
Speaker 1: to continue to study. I don't want to continue to pursue. Listen,
Speaker 1: I know that, like I said about the Trinity, God
Speaker 1: is something with our finite brains that we can't fully
Speaker 1: comp But listen, you go and grab every single thing
Speaker 1: he allows you to know. Don't draw a line and say, well,
Speaker 1: I guess that's it. You let him decide when you've
Speaker 1: run out of things you can grasp, because he's revealing
Speaker 1: incredible things about himself in his Word of God. And
Speaker 1: this thing is alive. I have seen things. I have
Speaker 1: a message that's that about anony since a fire up
Speaker 1: that I've taught it many times It's one of my favorites.
Speaker 1: And people have asked me before about well, did where
Speaker 1: did where? Did you see how that all worked together
Speaker 1: in the Book of Acts? And I won't get into it.
Speaker 1: You know what I told him, I said, Well, for
Speaker 1: twenty years, I didn't see it. I read these things
Speaker 1: over and over again, and I benefited from it. But
Speaker 1: you're talking about the thing I just shared with you. Oh,
Speaker 1: I've only known that for about the last eight years.
Speaker 1: And I've been a follower of Jesus since ninety six.
Speaker 1: And I read Acts chapter five, and I read Acts
Speaker 1: chapter seven, Acts Chapter eight many times. But then all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, one day, I guess when the Lord
Speaker 1: deemed that I was ready, he goes, let me show
Speaker 1: you this right here, and I went, wow, that's really interesting.
Speaker 1: How did I miss that? And I'll tell you how
Speaker 1: I missed it. I wasn't ready for you yet. I
Speaker 1: didn't have the ability yet to see it. So I
Speaker 1: see things in scripture that I've never seen before. That
Speaker 1: doesn't mean I've never read it before. It means I've
Speaker 1: never truly understood it before. And so that and that's
Speaker 1: not me looking for a new Hey, I got a
Speaker 1: fresh word I'm talking about that. I'm talking about sanctification.
Speaker 1: As we grow, we're told that it's predestined in Romans,
Speaker 1: that if we are willing to pursue Jesus and you've
Speaker 1: been redeemed, there's gonna come a moment when we will
Speaker 1: be acting like Jesus. You'll become like Jesus. Your coheres
Speaker 1: with him. You know, like in John fifteen when he says,
Speaker 1: if you abide in Me, that means make a decision
Speaker 1: to remain act in accordance with If you really abide
Speaker 1: in Me and I abide in you, you connect yourself
Speaker 1: to me divine. Do you ever know this, whatever you ask,
Speaker 1: my Father will give it to you. You go, oh,
Speaker 1: that's a name it and claim it verse No, it's not.
Speaker 1: What he's saying is you'll become so much like me.
Speaker 1: You'll stop asking for the wrong stuff because God said
Speaker 1: he'll give you everything you need, and they won't give
Speaker 1: you everything you want. So what you'll do eventually in
Speaker 1: your sanctification process, you'll stop asking for the wrong thing.
Speaker 1: You'll ask for the same thing from my father that
Speaker 1: I ask, so he'll grant that because it'll be right.
Speaker 1: So that is available to us Now it ain't overnight,
Speaker 1: but it's available. So the next thing, in verse four,
Speaker 1: he says, I want you to know him who I
Speaker 1: love this one in an invincible way. No one can
Speaker 1: sway you looking forward. I say this in order that
Speaker 1: no one may delude you with plausible arguments. I want
Speaker 1: you to know him in such a way that you
Speaker 1: can't be deceived. That you'll never accept anything that's not
Speaker 1: the true gospel. Now, how's the only way. I can
Speaker 1: never accept anything with the tr true gospel. I have
Speaker 1: to know the true gospel. So this is a let
Speaker 1: me tell you, this is something you might want to share.
Speaker 1: So I've had the privilege and honor of getting to
Speaker 1: disciple my own kids and being able to disciple through
Speaker 1: various things as a coach and things like that, and
Speaker 1: ministries is working with the youth ministry where I've got
Speaker 1: to disciple a lot of young men. And there was
Speaker 1: one thing that we begin to establish the ones that
Speaker 1: would not fade away, that would stay. And like if
Speaker 1: you saw one of them right now and they walked
Speaker 1: in and saw me before they left, most of them
Speaker 1: would say it. And it's what Paul just said. This
Speaker 1: is what I would always tell them, all right, man,
Speaker 1: it's good to see you again. Let me pray for
Speaker 1: you before you go. And then I would say, never
Speaker 1: compromise the gospel. And so every time I would see them,
Speaker 1: I would say, hey, what's going on? They said, never
Speaker 1: compromise the gospel. Before they leave, they say, never compromise
Speaker 1: the gospel. And so I've heard them, I've seen them
Speaker 1: say it as they've grown into young men. Never compromised
Speaker 1: the gospel. And this is what Paul is saying, like
Speaker 1: me talking about what's happening in Nigeria. These people are
Speaker 1: dying because they will not compromise the gospel. We mentioned.
Speaker 1: Was it last week or the week before the Coptic
Speaker 1: Christians there with in Egypt when they lined those guys
Speaker 1: out up on the beach and they were looking out
Speaker 1: at that water. All they had to do was compromise
Speaker 1: the gospel. And they wouldn't have cut their heads off,
Speaker 1: but they would not compromise the gospel. Now here's the thing.
Speaker 1: You and I may not be on our knees with
Speaker 1: somebody saying denounce Jesus or we're gonna cut your head off,
Speaker 1: but that is not an excuse to compromise the gospel.
Speaker 1: It's just as we are betraying Jesus just as much
Speaker 1: if we compromise him on a regular day without our
Speaker 1: lives on the line. Because I'm going to tell you something.
Speaker 1: You've heard me say this before, I'll say it again,
Speaker 1: and it certainly to me, there is something that is
Speaker 1: even more difficult than dying for Jesus, and that's living
Speaker 1: for him. And we're all called to live for it.
Speaker 1: You may not be called to die for it, but
Speaker 1: everybody's called to live for which is another little thing
Speaker 1: that we say in our family and in our inner circle.
Speaker 1: Not be careful today because you might die. Be careful
Speaker 1: how you live today, because the odds are what you
Speaker 1: do today. You're not going to die, so you might
Speaker 1: want to live your life like you're not going to die,
Speaker 1: versus living it like you're going to die. So people
Speaker 1: people tell me that before, they'll be like, hey, you know,
Speaker 1: you live every day like you're going to die. You know,
Speaker 1: if I can probably get through a day if I
Speaker 1: thought I was going to die and do everything right,
Speaker 1: what's harder is to know I'm not going to die today,
Speaker 1: and I've got to live right today and then again
Speaker 1: tomorrow and then the day after that, and then the
Speaker 1: day after that, and then of course I passed along
Speaker 1: to you which applies to this what Steve Ferrar taught me.
Speaker 1: God rest is so just do the next right thing.
Speaker 1: Don't get overwhelmed by it. Just through the next right thing.
Speaker 1: In this moment I'm in right now, how do I
Speaker 1: not compromise the gospel? And then in the next moment,
Speaker 1: how do I not compromise the Gospel? And then in
Speaker 1: the next moment, how do I not compromise the Gospel?
Speaker 1: Before you know it, you put together some good days
Speaker 1: and some good moments. So don't get overwhelmed. And that's
Speaker 1: what he's telling them. He says, I want you to
Speaker 1: be ready because I don't want you to be deceived.
Speaker 1: I don't want you to compromising the Gospel because as
Speaker 1: we move further in this study, Paul is going to masterly,
Speaker 1: by the way, dissect this cult. He's about to start.
Speaker 1: But he says, I know Christ, don't be deceived. He
Speaker 1: is the Truth, not the Gospel. John fourteen six, Jesus said,
Speaker 1: out in the way the truth and the life no
Speaker 1: one comes to the Father is set through me. And
Speaker 1: you know these worlds of man made religions are based
Speaker 1: on human philosophy, and they've shown themselves to be bankrupt.
Speaker 1: Christ stands alone. No one and nothing can compare to
Speaker 1: his words, his wisdom. They're so high above the smartest,
Speaker 1: arrogant human being you've ever heard. And he looks at
Speaker 1: the musings of men and he has totally eclipsed the
Speaker 1: greatest philosopher you think you've ever known. Be invincible because
Speaker 1: nothing compares to Jesus. And it is kind of sickening,
Speaker 1: isn't it, when when you'll see people and you'll find
Speaker 1: out if they've taken the time to read, they've spent
Speaker 1: that time reading people that have nothing to help us.
Speaker 1: I love what Granger Smith said when he thought that
Speaker 1: he he said, I thought I was redeemed. I didn't
Speaker 1: think it was a big deal that my job took
Speaker 1: me away on Sundays that we were never in church.
Speaker 1: I thought I have believed enough. And when I went
Speaker 1: through a rough patch in my life with the earthly
Speaker 1: death of his son, and he and I that's obviously
Speaker 1: how we became friends. Of course, of course, as many
Speaker 1: and women who do y'all think started networking. First the wives,
Speaker 1: you know, and then the two husbands were like, Yeah,
Speaker 1: we need to get get together some time. And the women,
Speaker 1: they're the emailing back and forth, they're doing letters back
Speaker 1: and forth, they're writing each other, they're praying on each other.
Speaker 1: We keep going, yeah, we need to talk. At some point,
Speaker 1: I'll get back with you on that. So eventually we
Speaker 1: did meet, and I read his book and about what
Speaker 1: he went through, and certainly I could relate to a
Speaker 1: lot of it. But he said, the one thing that
Speaker 1: he began to notice when he was grieving is instead
Speaker 1: of he didn't know to go to the scriptures, he said,
Speaker 1: I begin to pursue philosophy, and he goes. And then
Speaker 1: I begin to realize that every piece of material that
Speaker 1: I was getting or being given to me had the
Speaker 1: word self in it. Self help, How you can get
Speaker 1: through this? These are the things you need to do,
Speaker 1: And he said, and all of a sudden it dawned
Speaker 1: on me, the biggest problem with self help is the
Speaker 1: word self. And he said, I realized I was reading
Speaker 1: a bunch of garbage, and none of this is compared
Speaker 1: to what Christ had to say. And so he gets
Speaker 1: into a moment which I won't give it away, where
Speaker 1: he's really close to ending his own life. And he
Speaker 1: knew in that moment, And he said, and I could
Speaker 1: sense in the moment as I was squeezing that trigger
Speaker 1: on that tour bus, I could literally hear just squeeze
Speaker 1: it and all this will be over. Just squeeze it.
Speaker 1: And he said, and I knew. Then I threw the
Speaker 1: gun down. I knew I needed to change. And then
Speaker 1: he got on his face and he cried out for
Speaker 1: God to forgive him, and he said, I started realizing,
Speaker 1: and man, he is on fire for the Gospel is
Speaker 1: a great teacher, has great He's doing such a good
Speaker 1: job studying the Word of God. And he said, I
Speaker 1: realized that what the Word of God had to say
Speaker 1: for me to get through things like this in this
Speaker 1: world far above anything some counselor or philosopher or whatever
Speaker 1: could bring to the table some self help book. So
Speaker 1: be careful about self help because of the word self.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying you should never go talk to a counselor,
Speaker 1: but I wouldn't talk to one of witne Christian that
Speaker 1: psychobibble a lot of that. So now we get to
Speaker 1: verse five and he says, you need to have a
Speaker 1: life and a new dimension a life and a new dimension.
Speaker 1: For though I am absent in body, yet I am
Speaker 1: with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order
Speaker 1: and the firmness of your faith in Christ. Now this
Speaker 1: is beautiful. Paul was immobilized. Okay, remember this. He's a
Speaker 1: prisoner in Rome, under house arrest, chained to a soldier,
Speaker 1: under constant surveillance. There is no way he can be
Speaker 1: in colossity. So imagining you got, you got. He's not
Speaker 1: talking about that. See some people say, well, Paul's imagining
Speaker 1: he's there in Colossie. No, no, no, it's deeper than that.
Speaker 1: I look, the lost people can imagine to be somewhere. Right,
Speaker 1: This is not imagination. I'm picturing myself there. That's not
Speaker 1: what he's talking about. He is saying he is with
Speaker 1: them in spirit because of the union knitted together in
Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit. Do y'all see the church that way?
Speaker 1: I hope we do. It's something far greater than someone
Speaker 1: imagining being there. Paul was. Now this is this is
Speaker 1: a deep concept. Come on with me already, Paul was
Speaker 1: in Christ. Right when we're redeemed, I now become Rick
Speaker 1: in Christ, Paul in Christ, Danny in Christ, being he
Speaker 1: in Christ, these are guys in the room, by the way,
Speaker 1: so you don't think I'm losing my mind. And so
Speaker 1: that's our that's our new identity. Paul could be with
Speaker 1: the believers as together as they could if they were
Speaker 1: both being at the same time in the same place,
Speaker 1: because he is united with them in the spirit, united
Speaker 1: and steadfast in Christ. So in the spirit. Think about this.
Speaker 1: John on the island of Patmos he said, I'm in
Speaker 1: the island, and I'm also in the spirit. Right, I'm
Speaker 1: in the spirit. It's two dimensional. We have a two
Speaker 1: dimensional mode of living. The cultists had apparently made little,
Speaker 1: if any progress, because Paul says, what I'm hearing about
Speaker 1: you is you're still steadfast. Don't compromise, don't listen to them,
Speaker 1: don't waiver. I'm with you. Have you ever have you ever?
Speaker 1: Have you ever been comforted by a brother that way? Hey, man,
Speaker 1: I know that I'm in Missouri and I just heard
Speaker 1: what's happening with you. I'm with you. You're not alone.
Speaker 1: I can't get to where you are right now physically,
Speaker 1: hopefully I can, but I don't have to be there physically.
Speaker 1: I'm still with you. And that Isn't that a great feeling. Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm praying for you right now. I'm with you in
Speaker 1: the spirit. I'm as with you as if I was
Speaker 1: present there. Because of that two dimensional living that we
Speaker 1: have as the Redeemed. We can physically be together, but
Speaker 1: we can always spiritually be together because put your name here,
Speaker 1: every one of us are knitted together in the power
Speaker 1: of in Christ. I hope that comforts you and use it. Guys,
Speaker 1: I know we're the worst. Women are so much better
Speaker 1: at this than we are. We want to get off
Speaker 1: on the island by ourselves and and and and be
Speaker 1: alone and work this out. I'm one of the absolute
Speaker 1: worst at this. And I'm glad I have friends that
Speaker 1: that don't let me get away with that. Uh. They'll
Speaker 1: sit down if they know I've been through something. And
Speaker 1: when I say, man, I'm good, they won't let me
Speaker 1: get away with that. And uh, because you know what,
Speaker 1: usually you're not okay? How about you not good? And
Speaker 1: so lean on what Christ has given you and your
Speaker 1: brothers and sisters in Christ. And the good news is
Speaker 1: he says that they have been steadfast and he's telling
Speaker 1: them to stay firm, which is good news. It doesn't
Speaker 1: like the cults having much impact. And then he says
Speaker 1: in verse six, live under a new direction. Look at
Speaker 1: verse six. Therefore, as you receive Christ Jesus the Lord,
Speaker 1: so walk in him. You have a new direction of
Speaker 1: Christ Jesus Versus Jesus Christ. Have you noticed that? Therefore,
Speaker 1: as you received Christ Jesus. Interesting, there is a difference,
Speaker 1: by the way, if you see the term and we
Speaker 1: use both titles for Jesus Jesus Christ, that is starting
Speaker 1: with his name as a human, and then it's finishing
Speaker 1: that he's Israel's Messiah. He is Jesus, who is the Christ. Now,
Speaker 1: look what he's saying here. He's turning this around because Jesus,
Speaker 1: whose title is the Christ. Now in the epistles, see
Speaker 1: Paul go far beyond that. Okay, he's going to denote
Speaker 1: and does many times in his epistles Christ Jesus. That
Speaker 1: has the opposite emphasis. It prevails the title first. He's saying,
Speaker 1: because you are now you have received Christ Jesus, which
Speaker 1: means you have received the position. You have received Messiah,
Speaker 1: who is Jesus. Now the name Jesus is becoming descriptive
Speaker 1: in the name Christ. The title is first in this order.
Speaker 1: The truth is conveyed as the one who is now
Speaker 1: exalted and glorified, who once humbled himself. You see the flip,
Speaker 1: because Christ is not in that, He's not Jesus Christ
Speaker 1: anymore in that humble state. He has now returned to
Speaker 1: his glorified state. So he's now gone from Jesus who
Speaker 1: is the Christ, to Christ who was Jesus. Does that
Speaker 1: make sense. He's letting them know, Hey, we got the
Speaker 1: full power down. Hey, the suffering servant, the baby and
Speaker 1: the feeder. That's over. Okay, let me tell you you
Speaker 1: have now You're not just falling around. He's limited itself
Speaker 1: like the disciples did. Those of you in the church.
Speaker 1: You now have access to Christ, Jesus and his glorified state.
Speaker 1: Because you gotta love this. There's no distinction between the
Speaker 1: man Jesus and the Christ. And they taught that Christ
Speaker 1: listened to the Gnostics. They taught that Christ was part
Speaker 1: of him when he was baptized, when God said, behold
Speaker 1: my son, when he fulfilled all righteousness. But when he
Speaker 1: went to Calvary, that left him. I mean after that,
Speaker 1: I mean it's just that he couldn't have been They
Speaker 1: couldn't let that happen there's no way. And he said, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: What happened on the cross and didn't take away Christ
Speaker 1: at all. It actually pushed him into the glorified state.
Speaker 1: The or wasn't taken away from him. He's now fully glorified.
Speaker 1: He's back at the right hand of the Father. And
Speaker 1: Paul wasn't gonna have anybody teaching his church that somehow
Speaker 1: the deity of Christ was lost on Calvary. Not gonna
Speaker 1: let it happen. I was gonna say something right here,
Speaker 1: but I'm not going to because I think it'll bring
Speaker 1: me even more trouble. But Jesus ain't on the cross anymore.
Speaker 1: I'll just say that, and he's done up there any more.
Speaker 1: So well, I'm gonna be quiet, all right. So now
Speaker 1: Paul is gonna finish with seven and will be done life,
Speaker 1: not only with the new direction, but life with a
Speaker 1: new distinction. This is a lot of John fifteen. Here,
Speaker 1: This abiding in Christ. So listen what he says, rooted
Speaker 1: and built up in him and established in the faith,
Speaker 1: just as you were taught abounding and thanksgiving. And that's
Speaker 1: where we're gonna stop. He said, look, you need it
Speaker 1: to be this biding in Christ. He's using the word
Speaker 1: rooted here now rooted is in past, tense, built up
Speaker 1: in the present, rooted in the past. God sees the
Speaker 1: new faith Christianity in terms of space, height, and light.
Speaker 1: But when God builds the new person, he expresses his
Speaker 1: thoughts in body, soul and spirit, being born again. We
Speaker 1: are born again. So now we're being built up the
Speaker 1: new Man. Remember, we needed a new atom because we were
Speaker 1: failed by the original atom. Jesus becomes the new atom,
Speaker 1: and in him, when we're born again, we're now not
Speaker 1: being built up in sin anymore. We're being built up
Speaker 1: in Him. Our lives become cathedrals of praise, bringing glory
Speaker 1: to God and blessing not just to Him, but also
Speaker 1: we should be going out as these built up new people,
Speaker 1: new creation. We we have a we have a new distinction.
Speaker 1: And so I've been born again. So the new Man
Speaker 1: now goes out. And because my dead spirit has now
Speaker 1: been renewed and made alive, and my former soul now
Speaker 1: understands who I am in Christ. Yes, my body is
Speaker 1: still dying. That's that's that's that's never more driven home
Speaker 1: than the older I get. But I will say this,
Speaker 1: that's okay. Because I'm gonna take off this sin suit
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna put on a glorified body that's not
Speaker 1: gonna have these issues anymore. But even before that takes place,
Speaker 1: I still am a new cathedral because Christ abides in
Speaker 1: me as I abide in Him. And Rick and Christ
Speaker 1: should be constantly throwing out praise and thanksgiving to the
Speaker 1: one who redeemed me, and not just doing it to
Speaker 1: worship God, but to do it to impact mankind. That's
Speaker 1: who we are. He said, you were taught abounding in thanksgiving,
Speaker 1: established in the faith, rooted and built upon Him. And
Speaker 1: that is a new life, and that is a new distinction.
Speaker 1: And though you were rooted in the past, you're being
Speaker 1: built up every day in the present. And that brings
Speaker 1: back that wonderful, wonderful hope that now we are seen
Speaker 1: by a holy God as fully righteous in Christ. The
Speaker 1: question is when we go out into the world, do
Speaker 1: people see a good representation of all this? I mean,
Speaker 1: would people watch the way that we live and say,
Speaker 1: like in the Book of Acts, I love after they
Speaker 1: have received the Holy Spirit, and all these flawed guys
Speaker 1: that never could get Jesus right. And poorl Peter, He's
Speaker 1: been reconciled back to God. And now there is at
Speaker 1: Pentecost with the Holy Spirit getting them right. Everybody's cried
Speaker 1: out what to do? He says, repent. I've been taught repent.
Speaker 1: And of course we know there were right at three
Speaker 1: thousand people that did that. And now they head out
Speaker 1: taking the gospel. And now we're in the church age.
Speaker 1: And I love when all the authorities that wanted to
Speaker 1: beat them, wanted to kill them, wanted to stop it,
Speaker 1: said this about all of them. They recognized that they
Speaker 1: were with Jesus. And before the resurrection and before they're
Speaker 1: forty days with Jesus, they were afraid to be associated
Speaker 1: with Jesus. And now they were boldly associated with Jesus.
Speaker 1: And that's the power we have in the church. We're
Speaker 1: not before Pentecost, we're after. So the way they acted
Speaker 1: after Pentecost is the example to us. And let's examine
Speaker 1: ourselves to see if we see that kind of distinction
Speaker 1: and direction in our own lives. And if we don't, well,
Speaker 1: as I've said many many times, if you haven't been
Speaker 1: radically changed by Jesus, Jesus is not the problem, because
Speaker 1: he transforms all that he redeems. So never ever grow
Speaker 1: weary of wanting to abide and immerse yourself in Jesus
Speaker 1: to know everything that God, the Holy Spirit, God the Son,
Speaker 1: and God the Father will reveal to all of us.
Speaker 1: We should never exhaust our pursuit of always wanting to
Speaker 1: know more and to be I'm talking about radically transformed
Speaker 1: and changed by the power of Jesus. That's good. Let's pray, Lord,
Speaker 1: thank you for today. Thank you for these men that
Speaker 1: are here, thank you for the faces that encourage, Thank
Speaker 1: you for the men and women that have joined us.
Speaker 1: Thank you for Adler for all he does to make
Speaker 1: these things available to know exactguay ration tens of thousands
Speaker 1: of people all over the world. And bless this work.
Speaker 1: Convict us where we're wrong, affirm us where we're right.
Speaker 1: And Lord, as we take some time to follow your
Speaker 1: example next week, because you did show us when you
Speaker 1: were here as an example of how to be a man.
Speaker 1: One of the things you showed us is there's a
Speaker 1: time to rest. So bless the time of rest next week. Lord,
Speaker 1: if you're willing, bring us back together on August the twelfth,
Speaker 1: And Lord, I pray for each and every man that
Speaker 1: is here that today we all applied what you intended.
Speaker 1: And if you're out there and you're watching and you're
Speaker 1: listening somewhere in the world and you're like, I don't
Speaker 1: see this in my life. I think I need help.
Speaker 1: You can reach out to me Rick at Burgessministries dot com.
Speaker 1: I'm happy to help you. Maybe today for the first
Speaker 1: time of the first time you meant it. You just
Speaker 1: need to say, Lord, I repent of my sins. I
Speaker 1: turn a one eighty from the person that I am,
Speaker 1: and I turn to you. I'd like to be made
Speaker 1: in you. I'd like to be born again. So I
Speaker 1: repent of my sins, and I do confess you as
Speaker 1: my Lord. I leave my own authority and I submit
Speaker 1: to your authority. I take faith in myself, and I
Speaker 1: leave faith in myself, and I place my faith in
Speaker 1: you and you alone to redeem me. I know that
Speaker 1: you love me, Now teach me to love you. Scriptures
Speaker 1: tell us that the sincerity of your heart and the
Speaker 1: volume of your oral confession, and the turning from your sin,
Speaker 1: if you are sincere, that you will be forgiven and
Speaker 1: you can maybe today be born again and start a
Speaker 1: new life in Christ. And it's in his name, we
Speaker 1: pray Amen. Thank you all for being with us.