The Divine Crash

For some reason this week the sermon recorded but it would not transfer to my computer. Not sure why, if I fix it I will post it. Otherwise enjoy the text.

Colossians 2:6-23

Last sermon on what the gospel means for us today.

Next week is a state of the church and then we are jumping into the book of Hebrews which will take us through June.

We learned that Jesus is the head of all our decisions, holding all things.

We learned that we have choices, and that ultimately Love Wins.

We learned that death always brings life.

Today we learn that the gospel sets us free.

This sermon is largely born out of that video clip we watched a few weeks ago on the gospel and that one statement that “Proving God exists is like defending a lion. There is no need, just unlock the cage.”

What would it look like if we unlocked the cage of our faith and let God run wild in our lives

Prayer: Lord, may we unlock the cage and release the lion of judah in our lives

Verse 6

- Live in Christ Jesus the same way you received him.

- Some of you may remember the way you received Jesus. That awe and amazement as you realize that the God of the universe loves you.

- For me it was August 26, 1999 in my pastors car in the church parking lot and I remember a bird singing and the whole world seemed brighter.

- That is how you are supposed to live your life with the awe and amazement that God loves you and has shown you grace when you didn’t deserve it.

- Have you forgotten that? Have you forgotten the wonder and amazement of God’s grace for you?  Then ask God to remind you. Read the gospel accounts of all that was done for you.

- When you live in Christ Jesus the same way you received him you can be like Moses and see the burning bushes where God is speaking to you. And you begin to see the burning bushes everywhere.

Verses 7-8

- Be grounded in Jesus.  Not religion, not a building, not a power structure, but in Jesus himself.  The God who became flesh wants us to be in relationship with Him.

- Martial arts technique called rooting. we ain’t moving but we are flexible because we are planted. strength and size don’t matter. what matters is how rooted you are

I have a pastor friend of mine who has since retired but he does not believe Jesus really existed but is simply a example of how to live life. he is not rooted in Jesus and as a result he would take his church in all sorts of directions.

- This means read your Bible. Pray. Worship

- There has never been a spiritual revival that did not start with prayer.

- When you are grounded in Jesus you won’t become enslaved to false philosophy and foolish deception.

- Some of you don’t read your Bible.

- Some of you don’t pray.

- Some of you show up here on Sunday mornings and assume that is enough.

- If you wonder why your spiritual life feels empty it is because you aren’t grounding yourself in a relationship with Jesus.

Verses 9-12

- Jesus is the head of the church

- Not you.

- Jesus’ fullness and deity rest in the church

- All of Jesus’ divinity is found in the church

- that means when you leave here you are still the church and the image of god. that means when you go into willies smoke house you are an image of Christ.

- Not the building.  The building is not the church.  You are the church. and this building houses the church.

- If this building explodes Harrisville UMC still exists. because you are the church. This means that everytime you say “Well the church should do X” you are talking about yourself.

- This then means that all of Jesus’ divinity is inside of you. think about that the next time you cut someone off in traffic or you come in to a board meeting to complain or the next time you sit around and gossip with tour friends.  you are the divinity of jesus So unlock the cage and let the divinity of Christ run free.

Verses 13-15

- Jesus nailed your sins to the cross.

- Jesus destroyed your debt

- Jesus disgraced the rulers of this world.

- Through the cross all that garbage you did last week was destroyed.

- Through the cross all that junk you have hidden in the dark places of your heart have been forgiven.

- Through the cross death and fear have become a disgrace in this world.

This all has fantastic consequences for us today.

Verses 16-23

- You become unembarrassable.

- Suddenly when someone points out your flaws or your lack of skills or all those places where you messed up that isn’t a bad thing anymore.

- You can respond with “Yes, that was bad, it hurt people, it had horrible consequences, but it was nailed to the cross and destroyed too.”

- Our greatest fear is being exposed for who we really are when no one is looking.

- What the Gospel does is tell us that we are blessed in our mess and our acute awareness that we don’t have it all together. Gods blessing is with your mess.

- God doesn’t bless your mess. god blesses you in the midst of and in spite of your mess.

Yes, I am not good at visits. yes, sometimes I say things I shouldn’t. yes, sometimes I really make a mess out of being a pastor but even that was nailed to the cross and is forgiven and forgotten by god.

- The gospel of Grace frees us to own what we are afraid might be true about ourselves.

- You become unoffendable.

- We become strong and mature and grounded but that makes us flexible to weather the storm.

- Psalm 1:3 like a tree planted by streams of living water.

- Verse 20 is that we have been killed with Christ and the part that can be offended and begs for an ego stroke has died and we live on with christ.

- This means that the gospel is our good news of Grace. A gift we can’t earn but we get to have it for no other reason than we are loved.

- Grace frees us to embrace our shadows.

- Religion is largely about shadow management.

- If we can talk about how to act correctly and make sure everyone else is acting correctly we don’t have to face our shadows.

Chapter 3:1-2

- If we face our shadows and live in the amazement we first had then we are no longer stuck in a matter of how we act or don’t act and fitting in or not fitting in. Instead we are able to look upwards to the things that are of God.

- It means we are able to see God in everything

- Harry Potter is a story about Jesus who died for us.

- That business that you invested everything in and it still failed becomes a story of God’s grace in your life who is with you no matter what.

- That relationship that you invested everything into and they still walked away becomes a story of God’s love and faithfulness to us even when we are faithless.

- That cancer that they said would kill you is no longer a death sentence but a wake up call to a real life.

- It means we are no longer slaves to our own selfish ambitions that really make our world smaller but instead we are freed to be fully human and fully alive.

- John 10:10 Jesus came so that we might be fully alive, truly human.

- Zaruska was a Jewish Rabbi around the time of Jesus who sums all this up this way: “When I meet God, he will not ask me what I was not more like my neighbor. God will ask me why I was not more like me.”

- The Gospel becomes the good news that you get to be you. Not anyone else, not a fake version that has it all together. But a messed up, goofy, confused, sin-saved, alive version.  The real you that God created you to be.

So who are you? you are a child of god. you are an heir to the throne and a beloved of the most high. even in your mess.  ephesians 2:10 says you are gods masterful workmanship created to do good works. workmanship is poema in Greek. means poem. you are gods beautiful poem. even in your mess.

So be the best poem you can be. 

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Sermon by RevBT