Sermon Transcript
Well, good morning to everybody at every campus. I wanna first begin by just commending you as a church for your generosity, not just last week with EduNations and being able to, they wanted to see 100 kids sponsored in 100 days, and we sponsored 153 in one day. And that's a really encouraging act of generosity that I'm grateful for your participation in that. And I also want to encourage you to be engaged in "Eight Days of Hope" and show the west side of our city, the love of Jesus Christ. And so I know that you'll respond in generous ways there as well. Now, some of you are old enough to remember an event that occurred almost at this exact same time and maybe in a week and a half, it'd be the exact same time, about 53 years ago. Some of you're old enough to remember that, some of you're not. Here's what happened: There was a Republican president named Richard Nixon, and serving him, were some people in his administration who ended up breaking in, burglarizing, so to speak, the Watergate Hotel Complex, because the Democratic national office was housed there. What they were doing is they wanted to steal some secrets that would help their chances of reelection. And so they photographed some campaign documents and they wire tapped phones that were in there to be able to listen to conversations. It was extraordinarily illegal. Now, helping in the leadership of this was a man named G. Gordon Liddy. Some of you may know who this is, but you may reference him more as he got older 'cause he had this mustache that he was kind of known by. But this was about 1972 in that exact timeframe. And it's interesting because among a few others, not only Mr Liddy, but some others were caught for burglarizing this place and for being involved in such illegal activity. They were tried and they were found guilty and had to serve prison time. Now, what was interesting is that when G. Gordon Liddy eventually got out of prison and was interviewed, this is what he had to say, "I have found within myself all I need and all I shall ever need. I am a man of great faith, but my faith is in G. Gordon Liddy. I have never failed me!" So Liddy did indeed get out of prison, but he failed to account for the prison that he would walk into, the prison of pride. You see, we don't always know that we're in that prison. Some have said before me, "Pride is the only disease that makes everyone sick except the person that has it." And the truth is, is that person is sick and just doesn't know it, and that person's in prison and may not actually know it. Now, as we've been following the Apostle Paul's Letter to the Colossians, we've read how he wanted to make sure that the church there was not put in prison, so to speak. As I talked about last week when I was covering verse number eight, here's what Colossians 2:8 says, "See to it that no one takes you captive," puts you in prison, kidnaps you, "through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ." As we continue in that line of exaltation from Paul that he's speaking to the church of Colossae, he decides to get more specific. Here, he's talking about these ideologies and hollow philosophies, but he wants to get more specific. He begins to warn believers that things like legalism and mysticism and asceticism, that they can all lead them into a place of mental and spiritual imprisonment, that you can be put in jail in your mind and in your soul because of these things. And here's why. Because at the of all of these things, whether it's legalism, having to obey the works of the law, and this is not by faith, or whether it's by mysticism and getting involved with kind of angel worship and that kind of stuff, or whether it's asceticism, all the things that you don't do and you refrain from doing. Whatever, all of that is, at the root of all of those things, is pride, self-will, these are the things that are there. You see, Paul was contending for the church at Colossae because he knew the ripple effect of self-will that's based in pride would be a spiritual prison for them and be a spiritual prison for others. But he provided an answer to these ideologies. And in fact, the answer to these ideologies could imprison the ideologies. And that answer was Christ. Now it's interesting because you may be thinking to yourself, "That sounds like a churchy answer, Jerry," that you're like, you know, "Every kid in every class, everywhere, when they're growing up in church, the teacher asked the question, and they could ask any question, and the answer's always gonna be Jesus." Even if the question was about cookies, they somehow think the answer is Jesus because they're in church. And you may be thinking this is kind of a churchy answer that anyone could give. But because Christ is reality itself, the only satisfactory answer to the ideologies that want to take us captive is Christ. You see what Paul's already done in chapter one and into chapter two, he's already testified to the supremacy of Christ over all creation, every created thing. He's also testified to Christ holding all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge inside of his person. He's testified to Christ being all sufficient because he's the fullness of God in bodily form. And he's testified to Christ being the victor who has defeated the spiritual powers through His death and through His resurrection. That's why Christ is the only answer to these ideologies that want to take our hearts and our minds and put them into a spiritual prison. Maybe, if I could say it in maybe a sticky way for you to be able to remember, I'd say it this way, "Pride is prison. Christ is freedom." This is what Paul's getting after in this text. Pride is prison, Christ is freedom. If the ripple effect of pride is spiritual prison for ourselves and for others, then the ripple effect of life in Christ is spiritual freedom for ourselves and for others. So beginning in verse number 16 of Colossians 2, Paul begins forwarding his argument that he started in the verses that we looked at last week when we looked at verses 8 through 15. His words in verses 16 through 23, certainly tell the church in Colossae what not to do. In fact, a few times Paul says this, "Don't." He just says, "Don't," and I'll talk about that in just a minute. It's simple instruction, really. You know, sometimes that's what, that's the basis of my biblical counseling sometimes with people. Did you ever see that Saturday, I think it was Saturday night, Bob Newhart was on there, and he would be this counselor and they would come to him, and his council every time was, "Stop it." "Just stop it." Sometimes that's what's needed, right? You just go, "Don't." Now, Paul's doing this, not because he's creating a new law, but he's saying "Don't," because he's pointing them to Christ and not wanting them to get locked up into this spiritual prison, whether it's legalism or mysticism or cynicism, that are trying to lock up their minds and lock up their hearts and lock up their souls. And he's trying to remind them that underneath all of this is pride, and pride is prison, but Christ is freedom. So here's what Paul says to legalism. To legalism, Paul says, "Don't let them judge you." And I'm gonna show you that in the text. I know some of you are note takers, so I'm buying you just a moment before I show you the text. To legalism, Paul says, "Don't let them judge you." Here's what verse number 16 says in Colossians 2. Paul says, "Therefore," now remember, all that's come before that is the argument that he's made about who Christ is, what Christ done, and then he says, "Therefore, do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration, or a Sabbath day." Now, you'll remember that there are a lot of ideologies and influences in Colossae. Remember I used that big word, I said, it's "syncretistic", that they've kind of all been fused together in this place. But it seems like the first one that Paul is specifically dealing with is a bit more Jewish in origin. This particular one right here, the Jews were keepers of the law, right? You remember the kind of the Jews have their laws and not just the moral law that moves forward into the new covenant, that's God's heart, right? But the dietary laws and the ceremonial laws, and Paul points out that these matters of the Jewish law, what you can and cannot eat, you know, and what you can and cannot drink, and whether or not you observe the Jewish festivals, remember he is talking about like the Feast of Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, of First Fruits, of Weeks, of Trumpets, of Tabernacles, all of those feasts, or celebrating the New Moon, which is how they kind of marked time, it was the beginning of a new month. And so they would mark it by the New Moon celebration, and it began a new month, or even the Sabbath day. Paul says, none of these were matters about which the people of Jesus should be judged or criticized, none of them. He says, "Don't let them judge you based on this." And why not, why shouldn't they? Christ, that's why. Look what he says in verse number 17. "These are a shadow of the things that were to come. The reality, however, is found in Christ." Now, Paul is a product of his day, and he's using actually a pretty famous metaphor that Plato used, "Shadow and reality" or "Shadow and substance." And it's interesting kind of in the early ancient world that that figure was used a lot. Plato kind of made it famous, but it was used a lot. In fact, the writer of Hebrews borrows that same language when he's talking about the law. In Hebrews chapter 10:1, the writer of Hebrews says, "The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming, not the realities themselves. For this reason, it can never by the same sacrifices, repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship," why? Because it's shadow, It's not the reality itself. It makes sense, doesn't it? We're talking about Christ and we're talking about things that point to Christ. I mean, it's like being in a field where you've got the bright sun, and you can see a massive shadow of a tree on the ground. That shadow gives us the idea of the tree, but it's not the tree itself. But if we walk out that shadow and begin following that shadow to its origin, we can actually put our hand out and we feel the substance of the tree that's there. Now, listen to this, now, we don't really need the shadow because we've got the reality, the tree is here. And you're like, "Well, the shadow works good for shade." Yeah, great, it does work good for shade. We can be reminded while we're in the shade that the only thing that's giving us shade is the reality, it's the tree, right? And so we should be reminded here that Christ is the fulfillment of all of these things that Paul just mentioned. And we no longer need the shadow because we've got the substance, we've got the reality, and it is the person of Christ. In other words, instead of letting people judge us by what we eat or drink, that's ceremonially pure or not pure, we should be reminded that our nutrition and our sustenance doesn't just come by food and drink, it comes by Christ himself. We're not just going to be judged whether or not we hold to the feasts, whether it's the Feast of Passover, or Tabernacles, or whatever, any of those things, because the outcome that all of those feasts were pointing to is Christ. They're the shadow, He's the reality. We don't have to worry about New Moon celebrations and marking the new month because every day is new for us, because we found the reality, it's Christ, everything else is just a shadow. And we don't have to be locked down about one particular day called the Sabbath because Jesus himself is our Sabbath rest, and in Him, we, every day, can find that. So to legalism, Paul says, "Don't let them judge you." But to mysticism, Paul says, "Don't let them disqualify you." This is great, I love the book of Colossians, it's so rich. To mysticism, Paul says, "Don't let them disqualify you." Let me show you what I mean in verse number 18. Paul says, "Do not let anyone who delights and false humility," right? Here's where we see pride, the undercurrent of all of these things, right? "Who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they've seen. They're puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind." So not only do we see the the pride that's underneath this, that's imprisoning their minds and their hearts, but Paul uses the word "disqualify", and in the Greek language that means to defraud or to rule against, like an umpire in baseball, to rule against, for instance. And what he doesn't want is he said, you don't want the church to get caught up in the pride of being inflated by visions, by initiation rituals like they did in those days, by special experiences reserved for only those in the know. That's what gnosticism did. It was like you only have... There's only these few people that have this special knowledge, and they're super spiritual and mystical. And boy, if you could just get into their group, and there's these initiation rituals to get into their group, and it makes you look spiritual because of these external things that you do. And he also talks about like the worship of angels, right? And that text is very complex in the grammar. So it could mean the worship of angels directly or it could mean trying to worship like angels. And so always showing themselves prostrate on the floor so that people will look at them and go, "Wow, how spiritual they are." All of these things are rooted in pride and building up the flesh, that's what they're rooted in. So how does Paul say to combat this? Christ, that's the answer, Christ. Listen to what he says in verse number 19. "They," the people that are trying to disqualify you, "they have lost connection with the head." Who's the head?
- Christ.
- Christ. "From whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow." So Paul says that people that want you to live like this, that they want you to be engaged in all the external piety acts of spirituality without actually engaging Jesus, he said they're actually disconnected from the head. Now, that Greek word for head, kephale, can mean both authority and source. And most of the time that Paul uses it in the New Testament, he's talking about authority, but it can mean both. And the truth is, is that it probably is used both ways here. To be separated from the head obviously means that the body can't function. Have you ever heard this phrase before? It's kind of a gross phrase, but whatever. "They're running around like chickens with their..."
- [Congregation] Heads cut off.
- Why do we even say that? Because when you remove the head of a chicken, the chicken's still running around, that's frightening. The same thing, by the way, is true of snakes. I know this because when I grew up in Georgia, I lived in my home where I grew up in, I lived near a creek, and me and one of my neighborhood buddies were out at the creek one day and we saw a cottonmouth snake. Those are no bueno, right? There's some snakes out there, little green garter snakes, we would pick those up, wear 'em as necklaces, hang out, we're just kids at a creek, right, it's fine. But when you see a cottonmouth, you're like, that's a problem, that is a big problem right there. So there was this little side of the creek like this, and there was this little opening there, and the cottonmouth kept going in there like that. So my job was to lure him out. My buddy's job who was standing on top, he had a flat shovel, a hoe. And so my job was to lure him out, and I did, and then he just went, goom, just like this, head gone, body, coming after me. I'm like, "I'm gonna get outta here. That's a cottonmouth with no mouth." The head's over here, the whole body is just going ballistic. It's a show of sorts, isn't it? The body looks alive, but it's clear that it's not, and that will be clear soon enough. To be separated from the head means there's no source of life and there's no growth. And when, listen to this, when we embrace the pride of outward spiritual signs without Jesus, it's worthless. So to legalism, Paul says, "Don't let them judge you. To mysticism, Paul says, "Don't let them disqualify you." And to asceticism, Paul says, "Don't let them rule you." Don't let them rule you. I wanna show you where this is in verse number 21, watch this. "'Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!' These rules which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use are based on merely human commands and teachings. Such regulations in deed have an appearance of wisdom with their self-imposed worship, their false humility," you're seeing pride again here, right, "and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence." You see, the language of the aesthetics was easy to find, "Don't, don't, don't." This is how they lived. Everything was about what you could not do. Paul says that the things that they are avoiding are temporary anyway, like food and drink and those kinds of things, they're temporary, and they're rules that are just based on human commands and teachings, and they're trying to steal your freedom. Because the underlying pride that leads them to say "Don't, don't, don't," that thinks that that makes them somehow spiritual, that underlying pride is a prison, but Christ is freedom. You see, when Paul is talking about human commands or teaching, he's got the backstory of Isaiah 29 in his mind. Paul knows the Old Testament, the Hebrew scripture so well, and this is what's going on in his mind. Isaiah 29:13, "The Lord says, 'These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me,' watch this, 'Their worship of me is based on merely human rules that they have been taught.'" You see, that's going on in Paul's mind when he talks about these human commands and teachings that aren't really of God. And you know, by the way, Jesus did this also. In fact, he used that very same passage in Isaiah 29 when he was talking to the Pharisees, and the Pharisees were talking about how what they're doing with some of their money, and they designate some of it, korban. Jesus is saying, "You should be taking care of your aging parents." And they said, "Well, we can't because we've designated some of our money here as korban," dedicated to God. And really what it was was a workaround. They should have been honoring their father and mother, as the command said, and Jesus was affirming that. And instead, they're working around it saying, "Oh, no, no, no, no, we're actually, we've dedicated this money and time to God, so we can't really care for them," but they're using now God as like... It's interesting, they're using God as an excuse to break God's law. Isn't that weird? They're blaming God for their breaking of God's law. And Jesus quotes to them, this very passage in Isaiah 29, and says, "These are human commands and teachings," and then here's what he says in Mark 7:13, "Thus you nullify the Word of God by your tradition that you've been handed down. And you do many things like that." In other words, he was reminding them that they are embracing the teachings and commands of men that are not divine revelation. And as a result, it is nullifying the Word of God in their lives and it's stealing from them, it's imprisoning them instead of walking in freedom. So what does Paul prescribe to be able to deal with these kinds of things?
- Christ!
- Christ! You guys, you're slow today, I don't know what the deal is. Literally, he says it's about Christ. Look at what it says in verse 20, "Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belong to the world, do you submit to its rules?" In other words, "Why are you letting the world rule you in this way?" Paul is trying to remind them that in Christ, they died to the powers of the world, they died to sin, they died to self, so why do they keep on giving themselves over to these external rules? Listen to me, friends, restrictions from without cannot bring renewal from within. Restrictions from without, cannot bring renewal of soul from within. So Paul walks through all of this with the church at Colossae, and he is helping them to understand the things that are causing them to be imprisoned. Now, I realize that you and I are sitting here in this year, and it's clear that we don't live in Colossae. And you're thinking to yourself, "Well, I don't really know how this fits or how this applies to my own life, because I'll be honest with you, Jerry, I'm not really tempted to celebrate a New Moon celebration, and I'll be honest with you, I'm not particularly tempted to worship angels. So what exactly is this saying to me?" Here's the thing. The problems that they're experiencing have different faces, but the same root issue that we face in the world that we live in, self-centered pride, it's the same. It's just the different issues that are manifesting in Colossae 2000 years ago, are different than maybe the ones that we're feeling now. But you do realize that there's modern legalism, there's modern mysticism, there's modern asceticism, that can all be issues for us. In fact, if I could say it this way, here's what I would call modern legalism, measuring ourselves. Lemme see if I can explain what I mean. We are a culture that loves to measure. We've got scales, mm-hmm, that we stand on to measure how much we weigh, because we're constantly thinking about that. I mean, I've got two sons that played ball, both pitchers, there are radar guns for pitchers to find out how fast they're throwing a baseball. It's interesting because one of the most asked questions of Alexa is about people's net worth, because they wanna know what celebrities are making, that's one of the most famous questions, certain people, whoever they are, you know, "How much does Josh Allen make?" Like this is one of the most famous questions. Or, they ask Alexa what their net worth is compared to someone their same age.
"How much does Josh Allen make?" Like this is one of the most famous questions. Or they ask Alexa what their net worth is compared to someone their same age. Because you can see what happens. With all the measuring we do in our lives, here's what it leads to, comparison. And then comparison leads to judgment, because pride gets involved in it. "I weigh less than you," if you're a lady. Some men are like, "I weigh more than you," because you've beefed up, right? And it's a comparison that basically leads to a judgment. "I'm a pitcher and I throw harder than you. Therefore, I'm here, you're here." "I lift more than you." "I earn more than you." You see what measuring does? Measuring leads to comparison, and comparison can lead to judgment, and this happens spiritually. This is what kind of that modern legalism is. For instance, we read a passage of scripture as Paul wrote, "Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit," absolutely true, 100% true. And then we decide, based on that, with our own consciences, what some things that we need to do as a result of that teaching. If our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, then we decide we don't drink any alcohol. Now, I don't. But we can view others that have an occasional beer or have a glass of wine or champagne at a wedding, we can view them as less than spiritual, because we've chosen, based on this passage of scripture, to do something that the scripture doesn't mandate. The scripture doesn't say, "We are not allowed to consume one drop of alcohol," that's not what the scripture says. It says that "Drunkenness is sin." "Drunkenness is sin." It also says "We shouldn't be causing other brothers or sisters to stumble in what we do." So you can invert this, the legalism of this as well, about the believers who choose to flaunt their freedom. Because you're on Instagram, showing your margarita at the Mexican restaurant, "Whoo, whoo-hoo." Like, what are you doing? What are you doing? And it's not like... Like you know what you're doing, right? You know what you're doing. And so this legalism can actually go one way or the other. And we can view others who don't do what we do or who don't do what we do as less than spiritual. I mean, that can be tattoos or no tattoos. I would say people with no tattoos look at people with tattoos and they're like, "Hmm, you know, hmm." But to be honest with you, in the generation that we live in now, it's probably the opposite. People with tattoos looking at people without tattoos going, "Well, I don't know what they're doing." Now, I don't have a tattoo that you can see. Just kidding, I don't have one, except for that eagle on my back. right, I don't have one. See, here's what legalism does, friends, listen to me, here's what legalism does. Legalism endeavors to make your preference someone else's conviction. That's what legalism is trying to do, to make our preference someone else's conviction. And do you know what we get from that? We get building basically a whole kind of theology on the commands of men, on the tradition of humans, instead of on divine revelation. When we look at others with disdain because they don't do what we do or they do what we don't do, be warned, prison's approaching. Because that's what pride does, it puts us in prison. But as Paul says, "Christ is our freedom." Laws that we create that are outside of the command of scripture impede our freedom in Christ. We live by the law of Christ, the law of love, that's what we live by. So modern legalism is about measuring ourselves. But if modern legalism is about measuring ourselves, modern mysticism is about finding ourselves, all rooted in pride. You know, we've got crystals, and horoscopes, and tart cards, and astrology. Do you know that new research from the Pew Research Center shows that 27% of Christians consult one of these things I just named at least once a year?
- [Congregant] Yes!
- 1/4 of Christians. Why do they do that? I'll tell you why. Self-interest, self-fulfillment, trying to find themselves. The largest section in whatever bookstore that you walk into, self-help. It's the largest section that you walk into. And you've got books in there that range from moderately helpful to borderline demonic in their New Agey ways. We've defined spirituality in our age, we've defined spirituality as whatever we say it is. There's no defining characteristic. We just say, "No, I'm spiritual." "No, they're spiritual." "Yeah, I'm working on my spirituality." And it doesn't have to have grounding, it doesn't have to have rooting, it can just as easily, spirituality can just as easily, in our day and age, be defined without Jesus as with him. Our culture talks about following our hearts. But friends, what we don't realize is that our heart is like a GPS, you have to program it. And what it's programmed with, generally speaking, when nothing else has really happened, it's programmed with self-interest, with self-fulfillment, with self-pride, that's what it's programmed with, and we're saying "Follow your heart, instead of programming it with eternity and with Jesus and with the Kingdom of God." In our day and age, we love to find gurus so that our self feels empowered. There's health gurus, there's information gurus, there's discipline gurus, and then there's spiritual gurus, they're everywhere. Anybody that's got a TikTok, or a podcast, or anything, can say whatever about anything that they wanna say, and they can... You don't even know these people. It's like one of those potluck dinners you go to when you're in those small churches that it's whatever point, you remember those? You know, remember, you know, potluck dinners? Those are frightening, frightening things. I was talking to one of my pastor buddies and we were laughing about kind of the days of potluck dinners, and we were just like, "I don't know what their kitchen is like. I don't know how clean it is. They might have cats just walking all over their countertops while they're making stuff. Can I get a witness?
- Yeah!
- Don't be coming up in here with potluck stuff talking to me. I do not know what that looks like. But here's the thing, we don't even think about it when it comes to all the things we're allowing into our heads and hearts from all over social media, we don't even know those people. It seemed like they said something good, but you don't know them. The reason it's important to have pastoral leadership in local context is because their lives are known to you. The community knows them, the people of God know them, and there's an accountability in that. There's no accountability when you just flow to TikTok out into the ether, people don't know who you are. We go to, in our context, the modern mysticism, trying to find ourselves, we go to technology to ask transcendent questions for us. We Google, or we ask some AI search engine, "What's the meaning of life?" "What's my purpose?" Friends, we need to root ourselves in Jesus, because just like Colossae, we have this potluck of beliefs and philosophies and ideologies that are all over our culture, and we need to root ourselves in Jesus. So this applies to us. So if modern legalism is measuring ourselves and modern mysticism is finding ourselves, then modern asceticism is promoting ourselves. Lemme show you what I mean. Here's what modern asceticism seems like to me. It seems like denying yourself in order to declare it. I'm denying myself in order to tell everybody. You know the social media meme about "What my day looks like." "I'm up at 4:30, I get a little bit of healthy food, purely organic, I'm eating soil." "Then I get in a monster workout, followed by a cold plunge." "Then I'm doing intermittent fasting and denying myself all of these..." These people that do this kind of stuff, here's what they're basically saying, "Be like me, or at least look like me," right? Because I'm denying myself of all these things, which makes me so much better. And people begin to associate it with our spiritual condition. Or maybe modern asceticism is the people that treat eating as a test of spirituality, right? And Jesus made it clear. Listen, Jesus, I'm trying to pay attention to what I eat. I'm 55, like I can't, I'm trying to be an idiot. Like I'm smart about that, I look at labels, and like I'm doing all of that stuff. And we should, I think Jesus wants us to be wise, and what we're consuming and all of that. Listen, but Jesus made it clear when there were those that were talking about food laws and those kinds of things, His concern was the heart, His concern was the heart. Here's what he said in Mark 7, "Jesus called the crowd to Him and said, 'Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it's what comes out of a person that defiles them.' And after he left the crowd and entered the house, His disciples asked him about this parable. 'Are you so dull?' he asked. 'Don't you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn't go into their heart, it goes into their stomach and then out of the body.' And in saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean." Now, he was talking about those foods that were within or outside of the law, that's what he was talking about. He wasn't talking about toxins and all that. But Jesus is concerned about the heart. Or maybe the modern aesthetics are the ones who fast and they tell you about it, or they pray all night and make sure everyone knows it. Or they sacrificially give a bunch of money and make sure that everybody knows that it was them. Or they get on some social media channel and they promote simple living, and they monetize it on their podcasts and their YouTube channels. None of these things typically that I'm mentioning are bad in themselves. In fact, some of them are very good, praying, fasting, giving, simplicity, all good things. It's just that pride gets in and corrupts it all. Self-abasement or self-sacrifice for the sake of spiritual favor or recognition simply works against all that Christ is and all that Christ does, because it can be co-opted by pride, and pride is prison, and Christ is what?
- [Congregation] Freedom.
- Freedom. The issue is the heart that's set on Christ, not external markers that we think make us look more spiritual. Christ wants us to live in the freedom of relationship with Him. But that freedom, listen to this, that freedom is not unconstrained. That freedom is actually restrained by love, it's not a license to do whatever we want. Here's what Peter said in 1 Peter 2:16, "Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a coverup for evil, live as God's slaves." Our freedom is to live in obedience to a good God. Freedom has constraints, but there are constraints of love. Now, I mentioned at the beginning, G. Gordon Liddy's involvement in the Watergate break in earlier. There was another man with him that also went to jail. His name was Charles Colson, that's a picture of him. Charles Colson ended up, he was one of Nixon's key aids. He met Jesus in jail, and he was radically transformed so much so that when he got out, he started prison fellowship. And listen to what Charles Colson said, long after getting out. "It's not what we do that matters, but what a sovereign God chooses to do through us. God doesn't want our success, He wants us. He doesn't demand our achievements, He demands our obedience. The Kingdom of God is a kingdom of paradox, where through the ugly defeat of a Cross, a Holy God is utterly glorified. Victory comes through defeat, healing through brokenness," watch this, "finding self through losing self." Pride is prison, Christ is freedom. Give up, give up on trying to figure out all the external markers of spirituality to feed yourself, and instead, find yourself rooted in Christ. And if you've not before, put your trust in Jesus, then I can't recommend a better time or place than right now to do so. Let's bow our heads together for prayer. In a moment, we'll be dismissed, and maybe what God was showing you through this timeframe is that you've allowed the prison of pride to take root, to hold sway. And maybe for you, if you would allow the Holy Spirit to examine your own heart, what you might see is truly that you've been infected with a sense of self, even when it comes to following after Jesus. You need people to know how spiritual you are, that these external markers have become for you more of an opportunity for measuring yourself against someone else so that you can feel good about yourself. Pride is prison, Christ is freedom. So maybe you need to confess that, surrender that to the Lord, and ask Him to shape you and to form you as He desires to do, because He's true reality. He alone is who frees us to walk in the beauty of relationship with Him. Maybe you're here and you have yet to put your faith and trust in Jesus, and maybe you thought to yourself, "You know what, like life is about being self-made, I'm a self-made person, I pick myself up by my bootstraps and I've got a lot of willpower," I can tell you this, willpower will not get you into heaven. If so, what was the point of Christ coming and dying for sin? Jesus died for the sins of humanity, rose from the grave, conquering them, because it was in fact Jesus taking upon Himself the judgment that was due sinners, because God and His holiness won't just wink at sin, He judges it, and He judged it in the sinless Son of God who took our sin upon Him, died for us, rose from the grave conquering it. And now when we put our faith in Him, we can be reconciled to God, not because we are worthy, but because He is. This is what grace looks like. And if that's your need, when I dismiss us in a moment, down front will be a number of men and women who would love to take a moment and pray with you and talk to you about what a relationship with Jesus Christ looks like. So Father, I pray that you would do your good work among us, that you would speak clearly, and that God you would write on our hearts, "Christ is Lord," and that all of our life would be rooted in you so that we would not be taken captive by the things that this culture and this world wants to take us captive with, that we would be different than this world. Because you care about the heart. And oftentimes we care too much about the externals. Lord, I pray that you would shape us to have hearts that are formed in the image of Jesus. And I pray this now in Christ's name, amen.
