The Substance Belongs to Christ First B Jackson 2017-02-26 Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record. ---- After the announcements, Samuel Labonta is let Samuel Labonta is gonna be baptized. If any y'all need to be baptized and you wanna identify with Christ right here today, you're welcome to, alright? The baptistry is full. We filled it this morning with water straight out of the pipes. So, if either of us shiver when we get in, that's where that's coming from, alright? We usually turn it on a day or two before and warm it up but it is not like soup this morning. It's pretty chilly. Would you stand with us and we're going to sing a couple of songs. First, we're going to sing glory to his name. Hymn number four ninety three. Scott, would you join me up here? Down at the cross where my savior died down where from cleansing from sin I cried there to my heart was the blood applied glory to his name glory to name glory to his his name there to my heart was the blood applied glory to his name I am so wondrously saved from sin Jesus from saintly abides within there at the cross where he took me to my heart was the blood applied oh precious fountain that saves from sin I am so glad I have entered in there Jesus saves me and keeps me clean glory to his name glory to his name come to this fountain so rich and sweet cast thy poor soul at the savior's feet plunge into day and be made complete glory to his name glory to his name to his Amen. Rock of Ages. Rock of Ages. Hymn number three forty two. And behold thee on thy throne rock of ages cleft for me let me hide myself in thee Y'all Amen. Can have a seat. Have a a few announcements this morning. The connect hour y'all know is always happening between services. I see what that is now. The first service, all I can see is the base of that light bulb. It's nice. It's a good place to connect. There's a good place with coffee and treats and stuff like that down the hall, fellowship hall every Sunday between the services. Monday nights at first B happens obviously on Monday nights. Meal, music, and a message and this week, it'll be from Luke and Carl is actually looking forward to this one. He has been. He's we didn't have it last Monday night. So, he's got two weeks kinda stored up. So, that'll be a fun one. Wednesdays at 06:45 in the Fellowship Hall, we are having the truth project and I know a lot of y'all have been coming. They've they've been 30 something there each week. We're three weeks in but they stand alone. If you wanna come and be a part, they work and we have, it's kind of like a small group but it's a big small group. Does that make sense? There are actually two big small groups on top of one another in there but it's a really good. The truth project has been great. So far, we've covered truth, what is truth, philosophy, and ethics, and then the doctrine or what is man and this week is what is God. So, if you're coming to one of em, this would probably be a really really good one examining God. Unashamed is a women's Bible study that's happening on Wednesdays from ten to twelve noon. I sat though I'm not a woman. I sat in the back corner back there the other day and and listened to the video. It's fantastic and it sounds like this is going be a really good time for ladies ten to twelve on Wednesdays. On Thursday evenings, there is a study called Seamless. Maria Knutson is leading that and it's mostly ladies but it does not have to be ladies. Seamless is understanding the Bible as one complete story. So, it will be walking from Genesis through Revelation. Actually, more like running from Genesis through Revelation because it's not a long long study but it is very very inclusive and showing it as a continuous theme. Baby bottle campaign for Turning Point. Do you all know what this is? Okay, Caroline mentioned it last week and talked about everybody that's here that works over there or volunteers or servers over there. Y'all know what this is. They're empty baby bottles in the back back there in that bassinet and over in the tubs to the side. If you wanna grab one of those empties, take it home and fill it with you can fill it with change or with, you know, dollar bills or bigger bills or checks. Either one, fill them up and bring them back. They were hopeful to get them back by the end of February. But honestly, whenever the money gets here, it's fine. Okay? So it just keeps on coming in year round. That's a good thing. The the goal for that typically is 10,000. I'm I and Judy are saying, why don't we shoot for 20,000? Every year, it's been 10 and we've hit it. We said 20,000 one year and we hit that. So, why not say 20 again this year? So, it's 20,000 is the goal for that for turning point. Renzi is going to get up and borrow this mic and talk about the youth retreat. And I will talk about your outfit today. Whoo. Whoo. Looking good. Yes, youth retreat is coming up and we're we're just two weeks until it's actually here. So, I just want to get it out here in front of the congregation. It's for middle school and high school. And this connect retreat is with a few different churches here in Wyoming, getting together and doing retreat and just kind of deepening your relationship with God. And so we're excited about this. You If got a middle school or high school kid at that age that wants to join us, it's at Camp Bethel. It's about a six hour drive in the Bighorn Mountains. And this kind of came together out of Acquire the Fire sort of disbanding about three years ago. So some of the churches got together one and we said it was such a great place for people to see people in their state and get to know them a little bit. And so they want to be able to continue that without Acquire the Fire being an option anymore. So anyway, this is going on March 10 through the twelfth. The kids would have to miss a Friday of school, which I'm cool with. I hope you are as well. So I just want to get that out in front of you and it's happening. Okay, what are the ages on that? Middle school, high school. And next week I would like to know for sures of everybody, probably Sunday. I'll make this announcement next week and that will be the time of reckoning. Thank you. All right. All right. So, you can check your bulletin for all the other announcements. There's a lot going on. There's always a lot going on. So, they're in there. We try not to burden you with too many. Let's skip the greet one another's right now and you can greet one another while I'm changing clothes. Okay? I'm gonna invite Sammy, Samantha Lavanta up to the front. And, Sammy, did you wanna say anything? You are saying something. Okay. You are saying something in that. You are identifying with Christ and today, in our in the sermon time, we're gonna have from Colossians about it is about Christ and about identifying with him. We'll hit it a couple of times that if then, you were buried with Christ or if you died with Christ, then why are you living like the world? So, would you go up to Colossians three one, two, four? I think it's the next slide. So, I I think of this almost every time that we baptize someone. Sammy and I've known for a long time too committed to Christ a long time back, and you've just never taken this step in believer's baptism. And I just think that this is great. If then you have been raised with Christ and you have, then seek the things that are above, and Christ gave a command. He said that you should be baptized. He actually followed through on this, gave us an example in a way but if you seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth. The resurrected Christ is what you're identifying with coming up out of baptism. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. We always say we'll never forget again. Are you okay? Alright. So in obedience, I'm gonna baptize you in obedience to the command of our savior. So do you have you accepted Christ as your savior? Yes. Do you seek to live with your mind on the things above? I do. You've trusted him for salvation, and you're trusting him for sanctification. Yes. Alright. Amen. Then obedience to the command of our lord and savior. I'm gonna baptize you, my sister. In the name of the father and the son and the holy ghost. We'll greet one another for a little bit and then we'll come back and and sing a few songs while Ray and Sammy change their clothes and come around. Okay. Let's gather together and sing a few sweet refrains to Jesus and praise God for being with us today. Why don't we stand as we sing it? Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus just to take him at his word just to rest upon his promise just to know thus saith the Lord Jesus Jesus how I trust him how I proved him oar and oar Jesus Jesus precious Jesus oh for grace to trust him more oh how sweet to trust in Jesus just to trust his cleansing blood just in simple faith to plunge me beneath the healing cleansing blood Jesus Jesus how I trust him, how I prude him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, all for grace to trust him more. I'm so glad I've learned to trust him. Precious Jesus, savior friend, and I know that he is with me will be with me till the end Jesus Jesus how I trust him how I prove him more and more Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, oh for grace to trust him more. Amen. Alright. When I survey the wondrous cross, it's an old hymn. It's got some great words. Listen and be in tune with Christ as we praise and worship this morning. Great to see y'all. On which the prince of glory die my riches gain I count and poor contempt on my pride forbid it lord that I should boast save in the death of Christ my God all the vain things that charm me most I sacrifice them to his blood see from his head his feet sorrow and love flow mingle down there's such love and sorrow me or thorns compose so rich a crown demons my soul my life my Amen. Amen. Thank you. Y'all can have a seat. Can I get the frontline team to come forward? Wow. Those were all heavy hitting hymns. Every one of em and fit the message perfectly for today. God, thank you for being the divine orchestrator as Jean Demar so often prays on Wednesday mornings. Thank you that lord, you are putting things in place. You are Jesus building your church. So, lord, we wanna be a part of that. Thankful for what you've given to us spiritually. And as far as our resources go, we would like, Lord, to extend your kingdom, and we do that out of obedience. Would you take what we put in these plates right here, Lord, and use it to do your kingdom's work here in this valley through the ministry direct ministry of this church, but also to the ends of the earth through the extension of your good gospel, through missionaries, through our members going out. God, would you use us to do your will and your way, and may we never lack your supply. In Jesus name, amen. Blake, can you hear me now? Sorry. So naturalistic would be, that you don't really believe in anything that is above us. Or you can just go wrong and think it's too dependent upon our natural circumstances and our natural means. Supernaturalistic, you can go supernaturalistic and be outside of, I say, the circle is let's say that's orthodoxy. You can get to supernaturalistic where you everything is about angels or everything is about demons and everything there's a devil behind every bush and then there are guardian angels that we have to constantly appease or do certain magical little formula. You can be too supernaturalistic. Do you agree with me? Okay. You can be too dogmatic. Dogmatic has answered all the questions, knows how it is. There's not a whole lot of actual life experience of these things but it says this and so we're gonna go by it. Or this is our tradition and we're gonna do it this way. So dogmatic, I think, is the natural human tendency to be comfortable with the way that we do things to the point that that takes over. A lot of the gospel of John, when Jesus was disputing or they were disputing with him, the Pharisees disputing with him, a lot of it was over dogmatism. Now at the time of Christ, the last prophet had spoken almost about four hundred years before. So the intertestamental silence between the Old Testament and New Testament, that silence takes people in a lot of crazy directions. There were some that were way too supernaturalistic in that realm and dogmatic, and those were the Pharisees. They concentrated a lot of effort on resurrection and angels and being right, dogmatically right. Then you had on the other side of this circle, you had the Sadducees who said, oh, that's all just kinda don't take them too literally with that whole thing. They were very naturalistic and experiential. Now their experiential was a little bit different. They were complicit with the government and so in their experience I don't know if the Sadducees could really be said be existential. Nowadays, people who are concentrating on their experience, on the feeling that's produced, whether it's in a worship service or in their own experience with God, it's less about dogma. It's really a lot of times less about scripture and more about how I feel. So you can go wrong in that area too. Supernaturalistic. Do you all know any of those? Do you? Would you admit it? No? Yes. I know a few. Naturalistic. Do you know anybody that's just so naturalistic? I think that I I am impressed with y'all, with this church, in that there are about 30 different denominations that are represented in this building on Sunday morning, every Sunday morning. And that's crazy to me because typically Christians don't get along very well. Denominations have not gotten along very well. And if I were to say a denomination's name, most of y'all, if I said, I don't know, I probably ought not do this. If I said Southern Baptist, where would you put them? When I was little, I would have put them right there. Dead center because that's what I was and everybody else is wrong, right? It's probably dogmatic. You could find people in both camps. It's probably on this side. It's not very experience based. We're not all that comfortable with the raising of hands. Although, it's shifting a little bit. Experience based worship. If I said Pentecostal straight up AG Church, Assembly of God, where would you put them? They'd be right there. Supernaturalistic and very experience based. And I think that probably most would admit that there has been the detriment to their detriment. They have not paid a whole lot of attention to scripture or even tradition in a lot of cases. I I I love AG's. Melissa's boss. Melissa Landis' boss down there is AG pastor. He's a great, great guy. He has experience but he also has dogma and I think that us pulling one another towards a center is a really, really good thing. And so with the 30 different denominations, I think, you know, there's a lot of we have to let our traditions go a little bit and focus on what the word says. And I think that Paul is pulling the Colossians back from the precipice. He's pulling them back to the center, which is Christ. Christ hits the center every time in his life, in his perfect death. We are all over the map though. If we admit it, we are all over the map. We cannot and do not hit dead center every single time. Now it's available to us because Christ hit the absolute center in his life and walk. If you missed last week, that's the whole sermon right there. Not really. I had a lot of scripture to go with it. Back it up. Like this one, Colossians two six. It says, just as you receive Christ. Now, how do you receive Christ? It is by God's grace but it's accessed through faith. Ephesians two eight and nine says, it is by grace through faith so that no one can boast. It's not of works. It's not of works but just as you receive Christ by faith in exactly that same way by faith, y'all be walking in him. So, he's good for salvation. Yes. He's reconciling everyone who believe. He reconciles them to God but he's also good for sanctification and be walking in him points to that. This baptismal is yes, buried with Christ but raised to walk in newness of life. The cross is good for both. So Colossians two sixteen through 23, we'll go through and then we'll add three one through four again. Y'all saw it during the baptism but we'll add that. That's a good upbeat kind of walking out the door, walk this out type verses right there at the end. So, the first couple verses here, there's an imperative. It's a pretty strong imperative. Therefore, because Christ is the sinner and because you were saved by your faith in him and he can live out his life through you if you will allow it, walking it out in humility. Therefore, let no one pass judgement on you. In questions of food and drink. Now, the Colossians had been receiving some teaching after they accepted Christ. You could call em Judaizers. You can call em legalists maybe. The Bible doesn't use the word legalist but people were coming in and saying, yeah, it's good that you received Christ. It's good that you accepted the truth of Christ but you still gotta do all that other stuff too, right? The whole Old Testament is written. We've got lots of dietary things that we have to deal with. We've got some things that we're not supposed to touch. We've got some things that we're not supposed to handle. You can't eat that food. My goodness, barbecue? Pork? Really? No. The whole Old Testament says don't eat that. No one pass judgment on you in any questions of food and drink. Paul's directly telling the Colossians. Remember he had to tell Peter this one time too. He went back and said, Hey, you're eating with this little group of people and you're not kind of getting together with the whole group and you're falling back some. And so they had a dispute. Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, the freedom that you have in Christ, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath, all of those things in Judaism, but also in paganism. All of those things were important. But these I think are specifically talking about the festival of new moons or Sabbath that were important to Jews. Do you still have to celebrate the Passover? Do you still have to celebrate the different days, the day of atonement? Well, Jesus was the atonement, Hebrews. When we get to that, you'll see that. He was the final sacrifice. So, with regard to a festival or new moon or a Sabbath, if you don't feel that you need to do that, then, don't do that and don't let anybody pass judgement on you for it. Actually, the passing judgement is the word, it's it's it's a word that an umpire would use. This one and the next one. Don't let them make a call on you. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Do you get that? The shadow of these and the substance. For those of you who know Plato's cave analogy, the shadows on the wall are not the substance of what was outside of that cave, but his only experience had been in that cave. Until he got outside of that, he couldn't see the substance, only the shadow. Their experience was building up to this place everything in the Old Testament. All of those laws, all that ceremony, all of the things were pointing towards Christ, but it was fulfilled in Christ. And Paul is arguing in Colossians that having now been complete in Christ, why are you going back and picking those things up again? What was that verse from in between services we were talking about? Do you have that one handy somewhere? Talk amongst yourselves while we look. Galatians two, that's the one. Yep. So, in some experiences, in some churches, I told Blake this in between that in a Pentecostal experience, if he had a word from the back during my first sermon, he would have just raised his hand and given me that word. This was it. So I do not nullify the grace of God for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died needlessly. You see that Christ was the end of that. Those shadows and he was the substance of that and he says bodily. Now, he's the fullness of God dwelling in bodily form. Thank you, Blake. Can we get back to where we were? There we were. There we go. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. The next one is let no one disqualify you. This is referee term again, an umpire or a referee. Let no one sideline you or put you out of the game. So that's two imperatives so far. One of them is let no one pass judgment or make a call on you about these things. Be settled in your questions of who Christ is and what those things, what is allowable to eat, drink, new moons, festivals, Sabbaths, all that, and what is not necessary but complete in Christ. Let no one sideline you, disqualify you, call a tech, throw you out of the building. Don't let them insisting on asceticism. So asceticism or asceticism is the practice of beating up the body, starving the body sometimes, freezing it, going to extreme heat. The Navajo have their sweat lodges where they put themselves through extreme heat, sweat out, dehydration, all that. We have others that put themselves in cold. Martin Luther was one of those guys that said he slept without a blanket to buffet his body, to punish himself until he figured out justification by faith. It's not by works. So let no one call on you or disqualify you insisting that you must be living an ascetic lifestyle. Or that you must worship angels. Now, how many of y'all know somebody that just worships angels? They love them. They talk about it all the time. Got them all over the house. That's central to their theology is angels. Let no one disqualify you because you don't do that. Angels, the word for angel in the Bible is angelos. It means messenger, and it means messenger. You have to really study the context to see whether it means angelic heavenly messenger or just messenger. Like, I'm a messenger. I'm bringing a message. The primary thing that angels do is bring a message from God. Now, you know, when they bring the message to Mary, they also protect, they do. But they're not the ones that we're supposed to lean into and pray to or worship. Worship of angels. Going on and on in detail about visions. Where do you think these people would find themselves on our crosshairs? Supernaturalistic. Going on and on in detail about visions. So let no one disqualify you because you don't have that. There is there are some churches, there are some denominations that kind of have a junior varsity Christian and a varsity Christian. And typically, that is how you relate to the spiritual realm. Holy Spirit, baptism in the Holy Spirit, that sort of thing. This is saying don't let anyone disqualify you insisting that you've gotta beat yourself up or you need to worship angels or have these visions. They are puffed up without reason by a sensuous mind, which is experiential. Sensuous is about your experience and how you experience things. So that's heading out of range on that side. And if you think that it's not a temptation to do that, it is a temptation in all ages. There are no new heresies. The same old heresies play out again and again and again. And if you look at this, there is a temptation even for a good grounded central Christian with a high Christology. If you start concentrating on angels, it can be tempting. Listen to this. This is John who wrote the gospel of John down, who wrote Revelation that he saw and it was delivered by an angel. I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me. But he said to me, you must not do that. I'm a fellow servant with you and your brothers, the prophets, And with those who keep the words of this book, worship God. God must be central. The angel is just the messenger. The message is the important thing and the message is a message of good news in the gospel. Worship God, the angel said so, right? Okay. Puffed up without reason by a sensuous mind. That's the experiential thing we're talking about and not holding fast to the head. You see the capital H there and when it's highlighted, it's almost always Jesus, right? No. It is Jesus. Not holding fast to the head. They're puffed up in their visions and they're getting way out there about all kinds of crazy stuff. But they're not holding fast to the head. The humble life of Christ, the servant who came to serve and not to be served. Go back to Colossians two eight through 10 for just a second. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition. Now, like I said, four hundred years of intertestamental silence will give you some time to build up a tradition, won't it? According to the human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of this world, and not according to Christ. Did they have a completely different idea of who Christ was gonna be? By the end of that four hundred years, they thought he was gonna be a military conqueror that whipped Rome. But that was not according to who Christ actually was. That was according to their their tradition and the elemental spirits that victory must be seen either militarily or we must be on top. Not according to Christ. For in him, in Christ, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. So, the whole fullness of deity, that's really supernatural, right? But it dwells bodily. There is a central thing and Christ hits the center of that every time. The fullness of deity dwelling in a human body, and you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and all authority. He's saying keep Christ central in your theology and bring it back in. Bring it back in. You're not having to pull yourself up by your bootstraps but the angels aren't going to do it for you. Okay? Bring it back in. Christ has made this available and through surrendering your will to his. From whom the whole body nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments grows with a growth that's from God. God grows people up through Jesus. That's that's what he does. Knit together through its joints and ligaments. When I tell you to reach out and grab somebody across the spectrum from you, across that, if you're a dogmatist and you know it, find somebody that's experiential and you all get together and bring each other together. If you're a supernaturalist and you see somebody that's a naturalist, all bring one another together. There are churches in Jackson right now who are definitely in one quadrant or another and proud of it and we're going to stick right there. Right? Some of them are actively preaching against the ones on the other side. I'd say that we as a body, there are a lot of different denominations represented right here. There are a lot of different strains of thought within the scope of orthodoxy. Would you all help me bring people together? Can we do that? Christ hit the absolute center. None of us has that perfect and true aim that he does, but with him, it is available. So if you, with Christ, you die to the elemental spirits of this world, then why is it you are still alive in this world do you submit to its regulations? So the traditions of the world, he's going to go and he's going to list these regulations and they are do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, the do not, do not, do not, do not. How many of us grew up where in our experience the good things we were supposed to do and the bad things we weren't supposed to do is our church experience. Yeah. God's grace was mentioned but law was really really pretty apparent too. Right? Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. Now that points back, it could be, to the Jewish law. There were six thirteen at least kind of ceremonial laws that had been built as hedges around the 10 commandments and a lot of them had to do with not handling, not tasting, not touching stuff. Now pagans have this similar kind of superstition too. You step on a crack and you break your mama's back. Yeah, it's still sticky, isn't it? This primitive religion is something that superstitions kind of exist in every culture. Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, don't do this. Don't why are you submitting to the world's regulations? How many of y'all step on cracks regularly? Yeah. Just wonder. Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. Referring to things that perish as they are used. This is something that's here today, gone tomorrow and that's going to be an eternal thing. So do not taste, do not test, do not handle according to human precepts and teachings. He goes right on to say this. These things do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. They do have indeed an appearance of wisdom, but it's wisdom in promoting self made religion. How many of y'all remember from the seventies, Este? E S T, Este? Y'all remember that? I don't remember the guy's name who started it, but it was kind of an empowerment philosophy. It was empty, but it helped a lot of people. You know, that's what everybody said. Oh, it helped me. It helped me get through this. I I was able to, you know, pull myself up by my bootstraps because I saw then that I should not be upset about blah blah blah, whatever it is. Well, it has an appearance of wisdom. They were denying themselves certain things so that they could achieve other things. That's asceticism. These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self made religion and asceticism and severity to the body. The classic example of this one, I mentioned it, was Martin Luther with his monkery. He said, If monkery could have saved you, then I would have been saved, for sure, because I was twice the monk any other one was. If they slept with one blanket in the cold, cold winter in Germany, I slept with none. If they slept on a straw mattress, I slept on the stone ground. So he felt like he had to do that in order to win favor from God because he felt damned. He felt like he had no chance and that he was damned. So I've gotta do something to earn this. To win God's favor, I have to do something, so I'm gonna be as uncomfortable as I can. Well, he used to confess to a priest for two or three hours at a time, confessing everything that had happened the day before or the hours before. And as he's walking out of the confessional and going outside, he would sin on his way out and have to turn around and come back and confess that one too. And they finally just got tired of him. They got tired of him and they sent him away to train other students and he started teaching through Romans. And when he got to Romans about three twenty, twenty one, justification by faith hit him. Oh, it really is this easy. Accept that Christ loves you, that God loves you, and they made salvation and sanctification possible through the death of Christ on the cross. For all who believe, you will be saved and sanctified, continually surrendering your will to him. He loves you. The asceticism and the severity to the body is found in most religions. Grace is not. This asceticism and the severity and these do not handle, do not taste, do not touch regulations, they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. As I was considering what to say and what to preach this morning and and kind of going through these verses, they are fairly simple. Honestly, there's not a lot of there's not a lot of gray area that I have to lead you down the Primrose path on. It's pretty straightforward. It's about Christ. This one, I started thinking about growing up and having the do not, do not, do not, do not, do not ever before us. And for some of us, that kinda worked, I guess. But it was probably because of the grace of God that we were hearing, that was mixed in there. But for some of us, hearing the do not, do not, do not, do not, you couldn't concentrate on anything except for that. You ended up doing exactly what you don't wanna do like Romans seven. You end up doing what you would just absolutely abhor and not want to do. In particular, in the Southern Baptist Church, it was alcohol. No alcohol. No sale, no consumption, absolutely not. I've told y'all before of the church split that happened when I was about 13 or 14. It's very, very hard, experientially, very, very hard because of the dogma that said we do not do this. No deacon, no member in order to be a member had to sign off on that. No alcohol, period. Now I know the evils of alcohol. I know the excesses that go. And I know that y'all know what you struggle with. I know what I struggle with. Alcohol is not one thing that I struggle with. I I I don't generally, I don't drink. Very seldom, but occasionally at a wedding, if I think it's gonna be an insult not to, I might have one. Maybe. That's just me. That's just the way that I've lived my life, you know. If I were to say that in the pulpit at the Southern Baptist Church I grew up on, my mom and daddy might get thrown out of church. That's just the way it is. Sale or consumption of alcoholic beverages is not to be. Florine told of a very specific conscientious example this morning of having been asked ahead of time. He was invited by a Baptist wife who was married to an Orthodox husband. And they invited her and she had let him know the week before, Florine, do you think that it's okay to ever have a beer? But she gave him a week to think about it. So he prays and he goes through, he's like, I've never done this before. He's thinking about it and then when he goes to the house, he knows that it's gonna be offered and gets there and it is. And he sees that the orthodox guy is gonna have nothing at all to do with him or anything that he has to say about God if he doesn't imbibe, something that he's not comfortable with. But prayerfully, he said the prayer before the meal went something like this, Lord bless this drink I'm about to receive. But it was out of it's conscientious. Do you get what I'm saying? I'm not saying, hey, preacher says alcohol is fine. Y'all go out and drink all you want to. No. Being drunk is definitely a sin. There's no doubt about that. This passage though says where the power is available to get past all of these food, drink, issues, Sabbath stuff, and it's not through asceticism or severity, and it's not through that traditional regulation. Do not. Do not. Do not. Do not. They're of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. But if you concentrate on the things above, which is where three one goes, if then you have been raised with Christ, have you? Because that matters. If you're not saved, this power is not available to you yet. You bow the knee, you accept what God has done for you, and he will bear you with Christ and raise you back to newness of life. If then you've been raised with Christ, then seek the things that are above. Those would be gifts of the spirit. I mean, the fruits of the spirit, right? Kindness, goodness, gentleness, patience, all those self control. My goodness. Seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Remember the Lord's prayer? Lord, let it be on earth as it is in heaven. Where the will of God is done when God wants it done? Seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Would you pray with me? God, pray that you would allow the scales to drop from our eyes. If we have been seeing things so dogmatically through our own traditional lenses, Lord, would you begin to clear up our vision, allow those scales to drop? Lord, if we have been completely making stuff up as we go along in our experience and doing whatever feels good, would you bring us back into the truth of scripture? Would you draw us back into the central figure of all history of Christ Jesus, of his cross? Would you bring us to that place of humility? God, I pray for the churches of this valley, this state, this nation, and around the world, Lord, that we would be true to you. I pray for the Church Triumphant, the capital c Church, that you would draw us in and give us an abiding sense of mission, Lord, that in our experience, we long for mission, but Lord, we carry forth the gospel, the good news, just as it is written, just as it was delivered. God, I pray that we would, with all of our natural resources, lean on you and your supernatural resources, that you would accomplish your mission, to have more come to the center point of all human history and life. The preeminent one, Jesus Christ. In Jesus name, amen. Now would you stand with me and we'll sing as the deer, as the deer pants for the water, my soul longs after you. Would you stand with me? Hymn number five forty eight, Scott. My strength, my shield, to you may my spirit you alone are my heart's desire are my heart's desire and I long to worship thee I want you more than gold or silver only you can satisfy are the real thee. Amen. So I've got two benedictions for you. One of them is right there. And it is, do not conform to the pattern of this world. That's the tradition, the elemental spirits of world. Do not conform to that. But be transformed by the renewing of your mind, then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will. And Galatians five sixteen on top of that says, walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. In Jesus name, Lord, we ask your blessing that we would do just that this week as we go. Amen. Amen.