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Good morning, everyone. You look bright eyed and bushy tailed. How you doing on a Sunday morning? You ready to sing? Shall we?
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How about we stand up? How about this? From first Chronicles sixteen thirty four, it says, give thanks to the Lord for he is good. Indeed he is. And his faithful love endures forever.
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Let's sing of it.
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Alright. Give thanks to the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord, our God who came. His love endures forever. Oh, he's good.
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He's above all things. His love endures forever. Sing praise. Sing praise for the mighty hand, for the mighty hand. And I'll stress on
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forever. God is faithful.
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Forever and God is strong. Forever and God is with us Sing praise. Sing praise. Sing praise.
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Forever God is faithful.
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Forever God is strong. Forever God is with us. Forever Burn, for in Burn. For in God is faithful. For in Burn, God is strong.
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For in Burn, forever. Forever. For Forever.
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Amen. Good morning. Y'all can have a seat. I've got a few announcements. We've got a connect hour that's happening between services and there are breakfast burritos down there.
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We had breakfast last week and breakfast burritos are down at the other end of the hall, fellowship hall today. Nancy Terraziano is kind of taking care of us this morning. So that's happening between services at about 10:00. Oh, don't fret. Monday nights is not happening this week, but it will be back next week.
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We're running on the same Awana schedule for right now, so Awana is not happening tomorrow night either. So no Awana because of the long weekend and sickness is going around. Did you all notice? Have you all noticed that there are more people in Jackson that are sick than aren't? Yes.
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Yeah, hopefully that will end soon too. Men's retreat is happening February twenty fourth to twenty sixth and that is more like me than that slide that we've been showing with the guy jumping something. No, that's more like my speed right there. This is happening this coming weekend, Saturday, men's retreat. I talked to Kyle Knutson.
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He's in the back. His mustache is not nearly as large this week. Alright. The Truth Project started on February 8 at 06:45, but it's been going two weeks now. The third week is starting.
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There are 12 total, and it's a great, great time. So that's Wednesday night at 06:45. We'll watch a video together and then break into small groups after that in the fellowship hall. Wednesdays from ten to twelve. This is starting this week, February 22.
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This week is starting unashamed Bible study. Christine Cain's book, Unashamed, is what they're going through. The books are available in the church office if you want one, and that's the women's Wednesday worship time. Seamless is happening on Thursday evenings at 06:45. This is another small group.
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Understand the Bible is one complete story. Maria Knutson is kind of facilitating that one and it's been really good to have more people show up than they thought this week and so we're ordering more books. If you want to be involved in that, talk to Maria and we'll have you one. And I want to invite up Carolyn Warzyniak. There's a prize for the first person who can spell her name right.
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She can do it though. She's gonna come up and talk about the baby bottle campaign for Turning Point. Thank you.
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Thank you. Can you all hear me? Good morning. It is a sparse crowd this morning. Wow.
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Well, is the annual time for our baby bottle campaign at Turning Point. We just celebrated our 30 birthday at Turning Point Pregnancy Resource Center. So as we just sang in the song, it is because of the grace of God that we will endure forever because he is with us, he is for us, he is in us as the body of Christ and as believers. So we celebrate that. His word in Psalm one hundred thirty eight eight says, he will accomplish all that concerns us for his loving kindness is everlasting.
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We're located at 250 East Broadway next door to the Animal Adoption Center. We're the little 1928 House next to the brand new two story Animal Adoption Center. So we're tucked in there. So please feel free to come by and see us. We're staffed by a board of directors of which pastor Ray is the chairman.
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Our own Judy Basie is the executive director, but she and Frank are on a six month leave right now spending time with their grandchildren in Billings, Montana. So I'm stepping in for her during these months. We have Alyssa Massey, who's one of our own, and she's in charge of our media marketing and all of our volunteers, also an advocate counselor. And we have a number of people from our own congregation here that are our volunteers. I see Laura Seaton walking in.
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Laura is graciously graciously coordinating our annual gala to be held at Spring Creek, July 13. So we thank Laura for her wonderful way of planning events. We have two nurses on staff and we have at any time during the year 11 to 13 wonderful volunteers. We have our own Tanya who comes in and works with our Hispanic clients in teaching them parenting courses or just translating for them. We have Helen Courtney from our congregation who comes in and translates when a client cannot speak English.
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We have Liz Jacobson from our congregation as a volunteer and a number of others from other churches here in Jackson Hole. One of my favorite times is every week we start off with the devotional time and we've been studying John Eldridge's book, Moving Mountains. It's a book about prayer. And we've learned that indeed we are at war. And we all would like a place of ease and comfort, put our feet up, but God has called us to be outfitted in our battle array to fight this ongoing battle that we have.
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We are told that we are more than conquerors and we do see that on a daily basis, at Turning Point that we are at war. We're on the front line down there fighting a battle for life and from promoting life and promoting healthy relationships. So we're also called to grow up. I said, do we have to grow up yet? And we're studying that, yes, we have to grow up.
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And we have to grow up as individuals and as a church in the body of Christ. In Ephesians, Paul tells us until we all attain to the fullness of the measure and the likeness of Christ. We're called to speak life to people, to speak hope, to speak encouragement. We're called to speak the truth and love to people, to be ambassadors, to be ministers of reconciliation. And this is what we do at Turning Point on a daily basis.
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So how do we do that? We do that by providing pregnancy testing. Ultrasounds have really changed the decision making of men and women when they see the heartbeat of their baby on the ultrasound monitor. We provide all types of resources from parenting classes to post abortion and post miscarriage Bible studies and we're there to promote healthy relationships whether in the womb or at any age in life. So we're also called to pray.
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We appreciate all of your prayers, we're also called to participate. So this morning, we're asking you to not only give us your prayers to help us fight the good fight that we're fighting for life, but also to participate. So this is our annual baby bottle campaign, just a fun way that you all can participate with us and children can participate in putting your coins in a bottle, your checks. And, really, it'd be nice if you could bring the bottles back, say, next Sunday, but you're welcome to bring them anytime here to the church or drop them off at our office. So inside gives you some instructions, very simple, just fill up the bottles.
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That's all we ask. Fill up the bottles and return them to us. And it also asks if there's any other way you'd like to participate, through prayer, through volunteering, through walking alongside with us. We would so appreciate that. So thank you for that one minute this morning, pastor Rayson.
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I had one minute. I better step down.
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Thank you very much. Good job. So the baby bottles are out there in the little bassinet and they're over to the side over here in the decorated little thing on the burlap covered table. So grab one of those on your way out, fill it up, and you can bring them back next week or you can wait and when they're full, them back. Checks fill fast though.
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Trust me. Anyway, there's no children's church today. So the Peak Children's Church not happening today. We have had so much sickness and so many, out of it right now that we're not doing that today, but they're gonna stay up here and we'll see how fun that is for them. Yeah.
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Today, we're doing a handshake time digitally this week. We're trying to get as much information as we can from you as you will give us, about about yourselves and your family for the directory. And so, if you would, take the time right now to send in who you are and a picture of yourself and your family, and that would be great. You can take a photo of everyone in your family. Together would be great.
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Faces are most important. This is it. So this is your digital handshake time. We'll give you a few minutes and then we'll bring you back together with a song. Okay?
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Everybody with us? Does that sound fun? Not at all. Yeah, do it anyway. Alright?
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Hey hey everybody. Y'all are welcome to stand up and greet one another too. I didn't mean just stay seated. You could greet one another. We're bringing you back together in a song in just a second.
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Who breaks the power of sin and darkness? Whose love is mighty and so much stronger. The king of glory, the king above volcano. Who shakes a horn, who shakes a whole earth with holy thunder, who leaves a spread of things and on and wonder the king of glory, the king above all kings. Is amazing grace, let's sing it.
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This is amazing grace. This is unfailing love. That you would take my face. That you'd bear my cross. You'd lay down your life that I won't be set free.
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All that you've done for me. Good job, everyone. You sound great. Who brings our chaos back into order? Who makes Eurethan a son or daughter, the king of glory, the king above all kings.
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Who rules the nations, Who rules the nations with truth and justice? Shines like the sun in all of its brilliance. The king of glory, the king above all kings. And it's amazing grace. This is amazing grace.
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This is unfailing love. How do you take my face? Set free. Oh, Jesus is thankful all that he'd done for me.
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Sing worthy is the lamp whose
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worthy is a king who conquered the grave. This is amazing grace. This is unfailing love. That you take my face. That you would bear my cross.
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You would lay down your line. That I would be set free.
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From Acts 17, it says for in him, we live and we move and we have our being. It's his breath in our lungs. That's why we can sing out to him and praise him.
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Sing. You give life and you are love. You give life, you are love. You bring light to the darkness. You give hope, you restore every heart that is broken.
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Great are you, Lord.
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And sing that again. Give life.
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You give life. You are loved. And all the earth will shout your praise. Our hearts will cry. These bones will sing.
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Great are you, Lord. All the earth. All the earth will shout your praise. Our hearts will cry. These bones will sing.
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Our lungs. So we pour out our praise to you only.
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From Romans eight, it says, and the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don't know what God wants us to pray for. We don't always know what to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that can't be expressed in words. And the father who knows all of our heart knows what the spirit is saying for the spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God's own will.
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Holy Spirit, as we sing, you are welcome here, we mean it. And we thank you, for being able to intercede for us. And when we don't know how to pray, you spirit set in our hearts what we ought to to pray for with words that can't even express. And so I pray, Holy Spirit, that you would reveal things to us this morning that we we may not even be aware of and be speaking to us and and give comfort and strength and encouragement and even exhort us and and rebuke us and teach us just what what you would. In Jesus' name.
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Amen. There's nothing worth more. Let's sing.
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And there's nothing worth more that will ever come close. No thing can compare You're our living hope. Your presence, Lord. And I've tasted and seen of the sweetest of loves. Where my heart becomes free and my shame is undone.
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By your presence, Lord and Holy Spirit, you're welcome to the sanctuary. Holy Spirit, you are welcome here. By your presence alone. Your presence alone. And Your presence, Lord.
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And I've tasted and seen of the sweetest of love Where my heart becomes free and my shame is undone Come by your presence, oh. By your presence, Lord. And let us become more aware. Let's sing. And let us become more aware of your presence.
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Let us experience glory of your goodness. Let us become more aware of your presence. Let us experience the glory of your goodness. Let us become more aware of your presence. And let us experience the glory of your goodness.
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Holy Spirit, you are welcome here. Comfort this place and fill the atmosphere. Your glory, God, is what our hearts long for. To be over come by your presence, Lord. Your presence, Lord.
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God, thank you again for your presence and really there's there's nothing worth worth more than, just to just to be with you. I think of the the Psalm in Psalm 84, a single day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. And indeed it is. God, you give life and you are love and you heal broken hearts. And I I thank you, God, for everything that you are capable of, but I pray that, it would be our joy then to to tap in, to tap in and experience your your power and your presence and and everything that you have to offer because really there's nothing like it.
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And this is what we were created for, to know you, to love you, to love others. And I thank you God for every gift that you give. And as we give, we're we're not just storing up treasure here on on earth. We're storing up treasure in heaven that that is lasting, that is eternal. And I thank you, God, for for that, the hope in which we cling to.
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In Jesus name, amen.
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Feel like I got off on the wrong foot this morning. Just kind of coming in and saying, you know, everybody's sick. I I feel like we're all a little weary from the sickness that's been passed around. I don't mean anything ugly by it. Just telling you and welcome visitors if I scared you to death by saying, hey, send us all your information.
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I forgot to say, we're looking forward to update our membership directory. That's why we did the whole picture taking thing. So, hopefully, sorry. Excuse me. I'm sorry.
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I didn't mean to do that. Nobody whispered that in my ear. That was on my own. Colossians two one through 15. I I also, this morning, we're we're not having children's church.
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So, there's some kids in here and that's great. I'm happy to see em. I love it. I like having kids in here. I always feel though that that I feel more self conscious in front of children than I do adults.
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I don't know why that is. Probably because they're more honest. I don't know. But the most scared that I have ever been in my life was preaching at a middle school camp. And I'm not joking about that.
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I was more fearful and scared about sixth through eighth grade watching me preach than seminary professors. It's worse. So, I will thank you for, just bearing with me on that. So I've got a few little things here. We're gonna start out.
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I've used this analogy before with this crosshairs and we're gonna go for that. But I've also got another one. Do you know what this is? Does anybody know what this is? So here are a few of them.
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You can pass those around. I sanitized them and my hands before this started. Alright. There's that. Y'all can just pass them around and look at them.
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So that is called either a spirit vial because it's filled with a spirit which is water or antifreeze in this case, a spirit vial or a spirit level it may be called. There are lots of different shapes that they take. That's one. This is another one. These are plastic ones that I'm sending around, you know.
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This helps you know when you're level. Now, y'all know that I was a carpenter before coming to this and so, and did tile work and stuff like that. So I use the level all the time And I've used this before to sit this up here and say, this helps you know when something's level. It's an objective standard. So we go by an objective standard to see what level is because you want for your house to be built plumb and level.
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Straight across, straight up and down. It stands longer, it works better, it's easier to measure, it's more efficient. There are all kinds of reasons for it to be level, plumb and level. You want to keep it straight up. And if it's level here and it's level there, then it's the same distance from the bottom as it is to the top.
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It's really easy to do construction if you keep everything plumb and level. Construction guys, there are tons of you in here. Is it hard to do construction when somebody will not pay attention to a level? Yes. And it's wrong.
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It's just wrong. Okay? It's not like, oh, we'll get we'll pay we'll make it up on the other side. No. You won't.
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If it's not level, it's not right. It's not straight up, it's not right. Zero. You're looking for zero. You're shooting level.
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So this is a shooting analogy. I know guns upset some people. I realize that. But target practice we can all kind of agree on is you're shooting for the center, you're shooting for the center. That's what you're aiming for.
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Right? Now, is that right to hit right there? No, it's not a bad shot, but it's not the center, is it? Is that one? Woah.
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Getting further away. How about that or that? Yeah. Those are you know, tighten that pattern up. We'll work on that.
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We have our tendencies. I know some shooting experts out there. Most people have a tendency to pull which way, Steve Marstella? Right and down. Right.
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Because when you're pulling the trigger, if you're right handed, you're pulling to the right and down. And so most people have a tendency to go that way. That's just the way it is. So in our crosshairs this morning, I'm going to say, this is my goal each week. My goal is to weigh the scripture, balance it out, look at it, look at all the other scripture, and then try to hit the center.
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That's what I'm going for. Exactly what it says. Now we can go wrong in at least four ways. One of those ways is too naturalistic. We read the Bible and we say, well, that's great.
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It's all about how we live right now. There's not any really supernatural power there at all. Thomas Jefferson, great man, great statesman. He did not believe in the supernatural of the Bible, so he cut all the supernatural stuff out. The Jefferson Bible's about that thick.
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Really? He was a very naturalistic guy. So if he were off, he'd be off in that quadrant right there. Supernaturalistic. We've all met supernaturalistic people that everything, everything, everything is, oh, God did this.
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Well, in a sense that God is sovereign and it happened, he did do that, I guess, if you look at it that way, but there are supernaturalistic people are constantly looking to angels and demons and things beyond the realm that you can't see. So there's an error in going naturalistic, only Carl Sagan. This is all there is. All that we can see with our eyes or our instruments and our touch, taste, smell. We can see it.
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We can feel it. We can sense it. It's there. And if it isn't, we can't. I mean, if it if we can't, it isn't.
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So supernaturalistic is the other way around. Everything all the time is depending on the spirits, and they're at work on us all the time. Both of those things can be errors. Now within Orthodox Christianity, we have to see that he expects for us to live in a very real life where we have actions that affect us and other people and he gives us the power to do that. So that's supernatural.
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I will say that ring right there, we're gonna call that orthodoxy. Okay. Orthodox Christian faith is somewhere between those two. And then we have this one down into the right. This is our tendency as human beings down into the right is to go dogmatic, is to pick.
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Aiming for the center, we lean a little bit down. And rules and regulations or religiosity, religion tends to sneak in by our natural human bent. God has set eternity on our hearts. That's a supernatural thing that we cannot quite understand. In our natural life, we have a longing for it, there's religion all over the world, and there are different ways of seeing what we should do so that the gods or God will do what we want him to do.
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Dogmatic. We must follow these rules. This is what it says. This is what it says. This is what it says.
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I'm all for this is what it says. Existential. There's some component of having a real experience and a real relationship with God involved. Now does your real relationship trump scripture? No.
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It doesn't. And so we're shooting for the center. That's what we're shooting for. And it's not always an easy place to hit. And Christ hit the absolute center in his life and in his walk.
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He started shooting in the center and he kept shooting in the center throughout his whole walk. He never got outside of the bounds. Now some stories we see about Jesus are very, very natural, and we see these very natural good teachings, and we see how he does. But some of them we see is he reaches out and spits and rubs clay on a blind man's eyes and it heals him. And he prays for somebody at a distance or he says, go because your servant is healed at a distance.
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That's supernatural. He's got the power. He stood up in the temple and said, I've come to set the captives free. And then he sat down and said, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. You have experienced what it is.
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I've opened up the favorable time of the Lord. So Christ hit the absolute center. Now, sometimes people will point to one, usually the one they agree with, instead of the other, But this is this is what I go through each week in my head. How how is this? I want for it to be presented in the real world, the real God, and I don't want for it to be so dogmatic that it is unwavering and unbending and has no heart.
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We're all over the map. We're all over this target shooting thing. And I would say that some denominations tend to pull one way and some people tend to pull one way, but what we're shooting for is sinner. And so I I say that because Christ hit the sinner over and over, and Paul in Colossians points back to Christ. He is the center.
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He's the preeminent one, and by his perfect life, perfect death, he's offered to us this perfectly level. Absolutely correct. Absolutely right. He's offered that to us and as we will surrender our will to his or as we will use his level and his supernatural power. He will do this.
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So Paul starts Colossians two this way. For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you. Paul, great apostle Paul, he's met lots and lots of Christians. By this time, he started lots and lots of churches. He's met lots of pagans that turn to Christ.
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He's met lots of Jews who have turned to Christ. He's had tons of them that rejected him and he wants for the Colossians to know how great a struggle I have for you, Colossians, and for those at Laodicea. Laodicea is a town just about 12 miles away. Laodicea actually means the people rule. The people are right.
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The people rule. The people's church. Okay? That's like the People's Democratic Republic Of China, okay? The people rule.
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Is that really real? Is that really an objective standard, whatever the people think? Whatever the most people think, the majority thinks? Does that mean it's right? So Laodicea, that's just the name of the town.
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You and for those at Laodicea and for all of those who have not seen my face. So that's for you. He Paul is struggling to hit the center in his communication with them, he's struggling to hit the center in his life and walk because he wants for it to be purely ministered, the gospel to be purely ministered to all. And he says, for I I struggle for all of you who have not even seen me face to face and what's he struggling for is that your hearts may be encouraged. So, that's one of the purposes that Paul has written to him.
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It's one of the purposes that we get up and we do this. We come together on Sunday mornings. It's that your hearts may be encouraged and being knit together in love to reach all of the riches of the full assurance of understanding, to be able to be comfortable with what it is that you believe. I think of Stevie Wonder right now to believe in things that you don't understand, very superstitious and all that song. To believe in things you don't understand, you suffer.
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So I want for you not to suffer. I want for you to feel like I have a grasp of what it is that Christ has done for me so that I can express that to other people. So to reach all the riches of the full assurance of understanding to understand and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ. The mystery for ages past, he said in other places. From the mystery which has been concealed for ages past has now been revealed in Christ.
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So Christ is all of this, and your hearts may be encouraged and knit together, and you may reach the full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery in Christ, and in Christ alone. He is the one who's hit the center. So there he is, hitting the center. The knowledge of God's mystery which is Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. They are hidden.
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It does take some work to find them. I say this to you in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. Plausible arguments doesn't sound like a bad thing, does it? Anybody? I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments.
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Scientists who have studied and studied and studied like Carl Sagan say, this is all that there is. And we've studied it and we've never been able to measure the supernatural. So we are going on the natural and it is a universe and it is expanding, but that's all that there is. Y'all know that's an absolute statement just like there is a God is an absolute statement? So that no one may delude you with their plausible arguments.
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Now I like this word. It's pith anal pith analogia. Pith analogia. And it's like a pithy analogy, a little succinct saying that could be persuasive, a speech that's persuasive. So we're shooting for the center, and we've got some guys that are right here, and they're using plausible arguments.
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And we've got some folks quoting scripture here or maybe other holy books. In Jackson, you're just as likely to hear somebody quote the Bhagavad Gita right here about karma or something along those lines. Or there may be those I talked to a fellow a while back. I I explained this little drawing quite often. And I talked to a fellow a while back.
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He said, Well, I think that these other three, you're right. You can go wrong there. But dogma is the lens through which we see the other three. And we need to be in dogma because that's certain. It's the word of God and it will endure forever.
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Yeah. It will endure forever, but you can't be too dogmatic about scripture. You can be. He didn't see that. That's fine.
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We'll keep praying together. For though I'm as absent in body, Paul's already talking to people he's never met before and he tells them how much he cares for him and how much he loves him and the people he hasn't even seen and he wants to have pure doctrine. For though I'm absent in body, yet I'm with you in spirit, Rejoice in to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. He's encouraging him. He said he wanted to encourage him and there's a little bit of encouragement right there.
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Sounds like Carl or Scott Eichen. They're encouraging guys. They just keep on keeping on. He wants for them to hit the center. He knows Jesus has.
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He's shooting for the center himself. Therefore, just as in the same way that, that's what that as means right there. Therefore, just as you receive Christ Jesus in the Lord and how did they do that? How do you receive Jesus? By faith.
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How? Peter? Okay. I thought you had something else. He always has a good idea.
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By faith, it's his grace but it's obtained by faith And so by faith, he's saying in exactly the same way as you receive Christ Jesus as lord, so be walk in him. Walk in the faith. So here we go. So walk in him. This is another great Greek word.
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Children, this is squiggly lines. Peripete. Peripete. Peripate. I like the word.
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Peripateo. It is the present active imperative second plural. Active just means it's walk. Okay? Walk.
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Present mean it's walking. It is a progressive action. Walking. Imperative means be walking. It's a command.
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You people actually, it's y'all people. It's second person plural. Okay? Y'all be walking. Y'all be walking in him.
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If you have him as a coach, that's great. I think of Steve and Aileen. Steve, Marcela, and Aileen go out and they shoot things, little targets sometimes, and they go out and shoot animals sometimes. And Steve has trained Aileen in how to shoot. Now Aileen is actually legally blind.
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She can see shapes. She hears voices much better than she sees shapes. If Steve knows what he's doing, and he does, and he's got the setup and the gun to do it, and he's got the iPad and the iPod and he makes this image large enough so that she can zone in on it, he is helping her shoot straight and accurately. Right? Sorry, Steve.
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I hadn't planned that one. It's gonna make me cry. Therefore, as you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. Now what chance no disrespect, Eileen. But what chance do you have of hitting an elk or an antelope or a target without having been trained by Steve?
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Do you think you have much chance? No. But with his help, can you hit the target? I get the I get the text. I get the pictures.
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I see them. And yes, you can and yes, you do. And it's a it's a great it's a great thing. So just as you received by faith, Christ Jesus the Lord. So, be walking in him, rooted and built up in him, trained, rooted and built up, encouraged in how it is that you follow him.
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When Paul says, follow me. He says, follow me as I follow Christ. So rooted and built up in him and established in the faith. Awana. Awana is not happening tomorrow night.
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It happens most every Monday night. But kids, any one of you, who's not afraid? Anybody? Would you share one verse from Moana? Child.
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You will. Good. Just kidding. Kidding. Would you share one?
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Nope. Anybody? I didn't mean to scare you. Come on. I should have set this up ahead of time.
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Made it look like, oh, they just are jumping out of the boat. What? You're a child. You are. There's somebody with childlike faith.
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Alright. Thank you. Finally. Yes.
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For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believe in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
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Amen. How many of y'all know that verse? Everyone of y'all knows that verse. Everyone of the Awana kids knows that verse. I didn't mean to put you on the spot.
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Actually, I meant to put you on the spot. Just as you were taught. Now, you were taught that by someone else, weren't you? You didn't come up with it on your own. You didn't just fumble around.
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You didn't cut up a book, drop the pieces on the floor, and then come up with that verse. You learned it from someone else just as you were taught. That's the way that you should be walking is the same way that you were taught. Awana is great. Awana does a good job.
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If you want to volunteer for Awana, it's an amazing, amazing thing. We could use the help and it's a privilege like no other to help kids to understand how they should be walking as part of it, who they should be in Christ as that verse in particular says, who you should be. Doing follows being but it's very helpful. Just as you were taught and abounding in Thanksgiving. I am very very thankful for the people who don't feel nervous in front of kids who teach them about Jesus.
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I'll play the bass at the owner of the hall and pray for you. I really, really appreciate it and I mean that. I'm just not as, that's not as good. That's not as much of a gift of mine, but I'm very, very thankful for it and I love y'all. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit.
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Now philosophy and empty deceit harkens back to when he said those plausible arguments. If you follow the logic of the philosophers all the way forward, it's funny how they get further and further away from reality as we all experience it, but they're logically correct. That is an empty, deceitful philosophy. There's a Rene Descartes. Y'all know who Rene Descartes is?
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Cartesian philosophy. Do you know who he is? He's the one. So he goes into a restaurant and the the waiter comes up to him and says, would you like the soup? And he says, I think not.
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And poof, he disappeared. Okay. Rene Descartes was the guy who said, I think, therefore I am. If you don't think, you're not. Okay?
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Never mind. Sorry. Philosophy, empty deceit, there's probably something about jokes up here. According to the human tradition. So there's a way that seems right to man, but in the end, it's the way of destruction.
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Human traditions have a way of creeping into the truth. Human traditions for some people get to be the truth, and they're not the truth. They are merely human tradition. The way that you do what you do in church for some people gets to be very, very important. My brother does not like the way that lately they've been taking up the offering at the church that I grew up in because for forty, you know, thirty something years, it was always the same way and they made a change.
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And he doesn't like it. It's uncomfortable. We don't like it. According to human tradition. According to the elemental spirits of the world.
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Now elemental spirits of the world, if you look up the Greek on that, you'll find several people that argue for that being about the planets and the things in their orbit around the earth, but that didn't happen until the third or fourth century. The elemental spirits that he's talking about are the elementary principles that just seem right religiously. It could be any set of religious rules. They are the the norms for religiosity. What you're supposed to do, how you're supposed to act, the the religious norms.
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It does even include the Old Testament law. Now that one's a hard one to swallow sometimes because it says of the world. But at the time of Christ, he fulfilled that law. This is thirty years later. Right?
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He's fulfilled that law. And the elemental spirits of the world, if you're saying, and some of them were, we'll get to it in a minute, that you must feel you have to be circumcised and you have to go by the law. You have to follow these things. Those are the elemental spirits of this world. The religiosity that creeps in and not according to Christ.
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He says that's not according to Christ. For in him, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. We've already heard almost exactly this in the first chapter. The fullness of God was pleased to dwell in him. For in him, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.
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He brings it from the supernatural. The whole fullness of deity, supernatural, dwells bodily, natural. And you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority. Christ is the head. He is the preeminent one even if it might not look like it right now.
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Even if it doesn't look like it then or now. Christ is the head and he is head over all rule and authority. Romans 13. That's why we are to be in subjection to the governing authorities that are over us. In him also, in in Christ, in him also, you were circumcised, pagan Colossians, not Jewish background guys for the most part.
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In him also, you were circumcised with a circumcision that was not made with hands or made without hands. That bubble of those little levels. Christ did everything everything everything exactly as he should have, correctly. Now the offer of the gospel is we can take his center of the target shot or his absolutely dead level best. We can take that for our own, though we are way out of the bounds a lot of the time and have been.
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Do you get that? Does that make sense to you? Christ hit the absolutely center in his life and walk. He was circumcised as he should have been according to the law. His mom and dad did the right thing by him.
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They trained him up. He did everything that he should do. Now, by putting off the body of flesh, Christians, by putting off the body of flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, by his doing everything the way that it should have been done, he's offering now you that righteousness. Now, from Abraham to Jesus, circumcision was that sign of the covenant that God made that I will bless the ones who bless you. I'll curse the ones who curse you.
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The whole world will be blessed in your seed, Christ. So, from Abraham to Jesus, the circumcision had been assigned. Now, once Christ has fulfilled that, Paul is saying, this was pointing towards him. All of the Old Testament law was pointing towards him. He fulfilled it, and now you have freedom in Christ.
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Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through the faith, in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is the power that is available. That is supernatural power is available to you. And you, you who are dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh. All of you who were dead God made alive together with him.
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Now, he's writing to Christians. These are people who've already put their faith in Christ. So, the righteousness of God is available for all of those who would accept him. God made alive together with him having forgiven us all of our trespasses and Paul says, he's a chief of sinners. He says, nobody's any worse than I am and he's forgiven me, forgiven us all our trespasses by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.
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Our target was all over the map. Most of it completely outside of orthodoxy, outside. We weren't hitting anywhere close. But he he set aside that record, nailing it to the cross. You know, he became sin who knew no sin so that we might become the righteousness of God.
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He set that aside. It is the message of the cross cross. It comes back to this every week because the gospel is central to our faith. It's central to our walk. Believe in that you have deserved a blessing.
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Believe in that you have deserved eternal life. By your righteous actions outside of Christ. You will not get there. You are saying the cross doesn't matter and you are one of those who's perishing. It's mere foolishness.
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But to those who trust in the way that God made, the power of God to those who are being saved. So I want to share this one with you. We've covered this in second Corinthians. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Y'all have been hearing it.
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You've been hearing no one is righteous, no not one, we don't deserve it, yet he still gave. He hit the target center and he's offered us that target. That's by his grace alone. You know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. You've heard about it.
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Though he was rich, yet for your sake, he became poor so that you, by his poverty, the fact that he's giving you over and took the death that you deserve, you might become rich. So I texted somebody this week. They said, what's the sermon gonna be? And I said, this is the passage he said, that's an altar call sermon. I believe it is too.
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I wanna give you the opportunity if you've never said before, you know what? I'm going with that. I'm going with that. I want to be able to hit that target dead center, and I know that I can't do it because I've tried and tried and tried. I end up in another quadrant somewhere.
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I want you to put your faith and your trust in Jesus. Would you stand with us? I'm gonna call the band back up. Christ hit the absolute center in his life and walk. And this, the last verse for today in this passage.
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He, that's God, he disarmed. I've been talking about all these guns. He disarmed the rulers. He disarmed the rulers. He disarmed the authorities, and he put all of them to open shame by triumphing over them in him, in Christ, in death.
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It is so paradoxical, but yet it is the center of the gospel. That's the message of the cross.
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One day when the day heaven was filled with its praises. One day when the city was as black as could be. Jesus came forth to be born of the virgin, dwelt among men, my example you see. Buried, he carried my sins far away. Rising, he justified, really forever.
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And one day, he's coming Oh, glorious day. Oh, glorious day. And one day they laid him
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up
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Calvary's Mountain. One day they nailed him to My hands at hell nations reached out on a tree. It took the nails from me. Living he loved me. Died he saved me.
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Buried, he carried my sins far away. Rising, he justified freely forever. And one day the grave could conceal him no longer. One day his stone rolled away from the door. Then he arose over death he had conquered, now has freely forever one day he's coming oh glorious day oh glorious day
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So, I've got a couple of verses for you as a benediction today. One of em is New Testament. The other one's Old Testament. Now, come back to the new. For the grace of God has appeared and that offers salvation to all people.
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It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and to worldly passions and to live self controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age. Now, that's great. And that's true. Look at it in the Old Testament. Micah six eight says, he has shown you, oh mortal, oh man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you but to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
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That's beautiful knowing Christ. It's impossible without knowing it. So, I like to bring Micah into the New Testament and call it Titus. For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people and it teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self controlled, upright, and godly lives. Seek justice.
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Act justice. Seek mercy and walk humbly with the Lord your God. He's made the way. In Jesus name, amen.
