Christ is Our Confidence

To be a sports fanatic. I love competition. Now that I'm getting older, I don't compete the way I used to, but I love watching competition. This is one of the most fabulous times of the year because we have what's called March Madness. But sports aren't what they used to be. Steroids have done an amazing damage to sports. Sports is all about competing. It's all about entering into a competitive battle where you try to rise above and compete with another athlete. Steroids tarnishes competition. We now no longer know who is enhancing illegally, who is adding to their skills and their athleticism with steroids and with drugs. See, steroids enhance your ability to compete, whereas real competition is taking your God-given gifts and going up against someone else who has God-given gifts and competing fairly. When you use steroids, you disqualify yourself from the competition. You stop competing. You've already lost. The real sad thing is anybody who uses steroids, they believed a lie. They believe that they needed that in order to truly compete, where in reality, they stopped competing. They stopped working. They stopped competing because they broke the rules. Any just judge would disqualify them. We know of the numerous drug abuses that have at least been published in baseball and biking and others, all sports. It's hard to trust anyone. As we look at how steroids affect those who are trying to compete. We can see a clear parallel in our race. We are supposed to be running a race by faith alone in Christ. We are supposed to be setting ourselves on a on the way of Christ by trusting Christ alone. And we are oftentimes hindered by in that race by trying to add something to Christ. We don't want to just trust Christ alone. We're not satisfied by our faith alone in Christ. We tried to figure out the latest gimmick, the latest fad, the latest spiritual truth, the latest practice or ceremonial aspect of Christianity. We're always looking to get to the next level by by trusting something other than Christ. No, we must realize that he is the level. There is no way to accomplish anything spiritual good apart from faith in Christ. We must place our absolute confidence in Christ, the head of the church, our only savior. Our message this morning comes to us in Colossians chapter two, verses 16 through 19, as we continue to walk through the book of Colossae, the book of Paul to the letter of Paul to Colossae. Our passage contains two warnings. Each with its own prescription. In verse 16, Paul warns them not to let anyone pass judgment on them with regard to food and drink and festivals and new moons and Sabbath. He then gives the prescription, don't let anyone pass judgment on you because all these things were shadows pointing to the true substance, Jesus Christ. Then we see in verse 18, let no one disqualify you. Let no one make a judgment against you to say you are no longer worthy of the prize because of asceticism and worshiping of angels and such. The reason is Christ is the head of the church. He is one that gives growth. He's one that gives nourishment. There's two warnings and each warning has the positive instruction. Look to Christ. The way to avoid the judgment, the way to avoid the disqualification, the way to avoid being overwhelmed with guilt is to look to Christ, to place our confidence in Christ. Again, our message is Christ is our confidence because he is the Savior and our head. Let me read our text in its entirety. Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or the regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come. But the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you insisting on asceticism and worship of angels going on in detail about visions puffed up without reason by its sensuous mind and not holding fast to the head from whom the whole body nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments grow with a growth that is from God. If you look to the last page of your bulletin, you will see a sermon outline that I hope will help you. Our first point comes from verses 16 and 17. We have confidence in the Savior, not in the shadows. He says, no, no one passed judgment on you in question of food or drink or the guard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are shadows of the things to come. But we have the reality. We're no longer looking to the shadows. We look to Christ. The first thing we see is that we are to trust Christ, who is the substance. Everything in the Old Covenant was pointing forward to Christ. Everything God was doing was giving the people of God, Israel, promises saying, I will deliver you. I will reverse the curse. I will bring life. I will bring peace. I will bring forgiveness of sins. Everything in the Old Covenant was a shadow. We see this in the book of Hebrews numerous times in chapter eight of the book of Hebrews, the Levitical tabernacle is referred to as a shadow, that holy of holies that the sacrifices were done in in the old covenant. It was just a shadow of the real holy of holies where Christ's sacrifice took place. The priests were nothing but shadows of the true great high priest. The lambs that were sacrificed were nothing but shadows because Christ is the real perfect lamb who was sacrificed, who brought a factual forgiveness. Here, chapter 10, verse one of Hebrews. For since the law was but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. The problem with the old covenant system was it needed a new sacrifice over and over and over again, proving that those sacrifices never provided perfect satisfaction to God. They never perfectly forgave us. But Christ's sacrifice was once and for all. The shadows are now obsolete. We no longer need those shadows. We have the reality of Jesus Christ. The old covenant laws and ceremonies, they're all pointing to Christ. The way his covenant functions now is different because the sun has come. He is the reality. But so often we try to go back and think, if I only add some of those shadows to the reality, I'll get a deeper sense of who Christ is. We can learn from those shadows, but we can never depend upon them. Our confidence must be in Christ alone. We've already seen some Jewish influence in Colossae. The city was destroyed in the 10th century. We know very little about the city. We don't know what this exact problem was. There's no doctrinal statement for these folks that are coming in and hindering the church. We have to do our best to try to figure out what were they teaching. There's clearly a Jewish influence here because, as we saw earlier, they were insisting on circumcision. There was a Jewish, a Judaism that was being brought back up in the church. They were saying, as we saw a couple of weeks ago, you need to be circumcised. Well, again, circumcision was a sign that was pointing towards Christ. Now that he's come, circumcision is no longer a religious practice for God's people. We have baptism. We see more Jewish influence now as we look at the new moons and the food laws. But let's consider this problem. There's a Judaism present. They're looking to the old covenant practices, the old covenant things that God prescribed that were good in order to help God's people look forward to the reality of the sun coming. So these things are good, they've been revealed by God, but Judaism says this, we can accomplish a good standing with God by obeying these commands. That really wasn't ever the purpose of the commands in the Old Testament. It was still salvation by faith alone. It was still believing that the promises were true and that God would fulfill them. And so there's a Judaism that's present. They believe that by obeying these ceremonies, they're making themselves more fit for God. There's also a Gnosticism. That's a big fancy word, but there's a clear Gnosticism present. Gnosticism says this, there's multiple layers of spirituality and in order to get to those different layers or to accomplish the next level, one has to trust a different being. As if each level had a different archangel watching over it. And Christ, while he himself is one of the greater powers, he can be complemented with. These other beings that will assist you on accomplishing and ascending to God. The problem here is that Christ is all we need. Christ is God himself. Christ is the God who descended all the way down so that he could ascend us all the way back up. The Colossians have believed in a lie that there are angels or other powers or the rulers that need to be believed in and trusted alongside of Christ. No, Christ is all we need. We need to want nothing else. Now, when I walk through, I'm not going to walk through all the different food laws. I'm not going to walk through all the different bloom of the moon festivals and the the Sabbath. I want to walk through some of these shadows and I want to show how they should only point us to Christ. First, let's look at food. We'll do this early instead of closer to lunch. In Judaism, some foods are clean and some foods are unclean. The Jewish practice was to not eat things like pork and bottom dwellers, crawfish, shrimp, things of that nature, because they were unclean. There were dietary laws, and you can read about these dietary laws in Leviticus 11 through 23. That's a good devotional reading. You can see all the different clean and unclean animals. While we may look at this because we know that all things are declared clean now, we can see that this was a true way of expressing one's faith. by resisting certain foods. Daniel, one of the great heroes of Scripture, what got him in trouble and one of the ways he expressed his faith in God was by keeping a Jewish diet, by keeping a God-given diet in the land of exile. So as we look at these, we don't want to dismiss the food laws, but we also want to consider them in the full scope of Scripture. Daniel was loyal and trusted God, and he remained steadfast in God's commandment because he trusted God. Acts 10 changes everything. Peter's given a long list of foods and they're all clean. Don't say what I have declared clean to be unclean. God has changed this code because the covenants changed. We're no longer looking forward to Christ. We can know Christ. More so, we can look at Matthew 15. There we'll look at it more next week, but Jesus says it's not what goes into your mouth that makes you clean or unclean. It's your heart and what comes out of it. You see, the food laws were meant to separate Israel. They're meant to make them realize there's clean and unclean and we're all unclean. We need to be cleansed by God. And it's not what you eat and not what you do not eat that makes you clean or unclean. It's your heart and it's trusting in God who will forgive you. Christ is the true substance who truly cleanses us. It's not the food laws, the food laws will help us help us understand there's a there's a distinction between between clean and unclean, but was always supposed to be trusting God to clean us. Let's look at festivals this past Wednesday, the Moralysis led us in and observing the festival of Purim. Steve read from the book of Esther and Alicia really gave a a clear prescription of how we should view this. It's not obligatory for Christians to observe, but it is helpful as we look back to the book of Esther to see how God was always faithful to see that God has always been faithful to a faithless people that he made promises to faithless people and he was faithful to keep them and they have been fulfilled in Christ. We see we saw a beautiful picture as Steve read through the book of how God remained faithful, how God was to deliver, how God was the victor. We can look to the different festivals and we can see how they were pointing to Christ, but we should never seek to practice them thinking they add anything to Christ. Next, let's look at the Sabbath. This is a big one. How do we as Christians relate to the Sabbath? of the Old Covenant. Now, I'm going to walk through a bit of a biblical theology here. I'm not going to say everything there is to say about the Sabbath, but I do want to say quite a bit. The Sabbath was the last day of the week, as represented in Genesis 1 and 2. It was the seventh day. It was the last day of creation. It was the day God rested. It was the day God stopped creating and He began rest. And our pattern, the seven days, are meant to help us remember that we are finite. We are dependent. Our week, according to the creation calendar, had in it designed a day of rest. Because that is what we need. We can't keep working every day, all day. We are not infinite. The same reason the tree was placed in the garden. To remind us that we are not independent. We are not autonomous. The last day of the week, I believe one of the reasons is there is to remind us we need rest. We are dependent upon God, we are not God, we need rest. The Sabbath was a day for ourselves to gain rest. It's a day for others. We rest with one another. We we take time apart from the busy work to spend time with other believers. And it's not just another day. It's the day we stop and we contemplate the things of God. Now, the Sabbath was one of the most controversial topics that Jesus had to address numerous times. Mark 2, Jesus begins his public ministry declaring, I will forgive sins. He heals the paralytic and he says, your sins are forgiven. And that begins a hunt for him. We've got to trick this man. We need to kill him, many were saying. And so the Pharisees, they saw that his disciples were going through the fields and grabbing grain. And they said, how are your disciples not going to be disciplined for breaking the Sabbath? Jesus says, I am Lord of the Sabbath. How is this unlawful? David, when he was starving, he went and he ate bread on the Sabbath. How is it my disciples? are breaking the Sabbath. In many ways, we can see the Pharisees were adding too many rules and regulations, human traditions to the Sabbath. But most of all, we need to realize here that that Jesus Christ, he is the one who created the Sabbath. He's got himself the creator. He is the one who ordered the Sabbath. He's the one who put the Sabbath in place. He is not subject to the Sabbath. He is Lord over the Sabbath. More importantly, he reminds us the Sabbath is for our good. The Lord doesn't lord over us. The Sabbath is for our good. Now, the main issue that we need to think about is how are we supposed to observe a Sabbath? An obvious change between the old and the new covenant, just like circumcision is now obsolete and baptism is the sign of the entering into the covenant. The day has changed. Yesterday was the Sabbath. Today is the first day of the week. Yesterday was the last day of the week. According to the calendar that we would follow from creation, yesterday was the Sabbath. That's the day the Jews gather in the synagogue and they rest from work. Today is Sunday. It's the first day of the week. It's the day we recognize as Christians that God rose Christ from the dead. We observe the first day because that is the day the Lord rose. We can see this in Mark 16, verse one. We also recognize in Acts 20 verse 1 that it's the day that the early church gathered to remember the resurrection. The day changing is a significant event in history. All these Jews stopped taking the last day off and they started committing themselves to gathering for worship on the first day. It's actually one of the amazing, great evidences of the resurrection. All of these men and women who were committed Jews stopped worshipping on the last day of the week and began worshipping on the first day of the week because that is the day the Lord rose. See, we're supposed to gather today. I realize I'm preaching to the choir here a little bit because you're all here worshipping. Today is the Lord's Day. As John says in John 1. Today is the Lord's Day. It's a day that we come to remember what Christ has done for us. Today, we come together to remember the resurrection, his victory, his forgiveness, his power, his new creation. It's very significant. He rose in the first day because this is beginning a new creation. He's doing away with all things old. He's doing away with all of our sin and all of our death. He's bringing in perfect peace. Eternal life. What does this mean in terms of the old regulations of the Sabbath? What we're not allowed to do and what we're supposed to do and not do on the first day, I think we need to be very cautious and making a clear prescription and clear regulations of what you cannot do on today, the Lord's death. As Paul said in Romans 14, whatever you do on any day, every day is God's day. Every day is a holy day. Every day is meant for worship. But today is special. Because today we gather for the resurrection. It's the day we gather to remind ourselves of what God has done for us in Christ. So if anything, I think the Lord's Day actually has prescriptions and what we're supposed to do. We're supposed to gather. We're supposed to fellowship. We're supposed to come together as the body of Christ, seeking to experience Christ in one another. Seeking to have others experience Christ in us. That's what Christian fellowship is. It's not just eating together. While that is great, that is a good venue for fellowship. Christian fellowship is talking about Christ, talking about what God has done in your life. It's coming together and singing songs and spiritual songs and hymns together. It's praying, hearing scripture read, hearing the word proclaimed. This is what we're supposed to be doing on the Lord's Day. It's a day to set aside to be committed to God and his people. Today is a day to worship the head specifically and uniquely with the rest of the body. As we continue to look at our passage, Paul gives a strong warning. Let no one pass judgment on you in question of food and drink. Maybe on guard against those who judge us. It's a it's a it's a warning to say, be careful of those who are trying to overwhelm you with guilt because you do not do these other practices. We do not need to follow these practices for righteousness sake. We need to trust in Christ for our righteousness. Now, as we look at this, any program for spirituality that does not have Christ at its beginning, middle and end is not a Christian program for spirituality. If there's anything we ever need to say, we need to add Christ in this particular we need to add to Christ in this particular way. It's not true Christian spirituality. It's so easy to try to figure out a way to get an easy loophole. We can be more spiritual if we just do this. Now, we become spiritual by trusting in Christ completely. Now, I am a very strong advocate of regular church attendance and church membership. Am I adding, am I judging in a way that Paul would condemn here? I don't think so, obviously, or else I wouldn't do it. Because we're supposed to experience the head. And the way you experience the head is in his body. We are supposed to gather because the author of Hebrew says, do not forsake the gathering. It's clear prescription in Scripture, we're supposed to come together if we're not present with one another, we cannot grow with one another. So you don't just come to church to get what you can get out of it. We should come to church realizing that other people need to experience Christ in us. When you're not here, it's not just a head missing. No, you're keeping us from experiencing what Christ is doing and has done and can do in your life. Regular attendance is important because we have to get to know one another. We need to learn how to love one another. See, it's only dangerous church membership and church attendance is only dangerous when Christ isn't at the forefront, when the gospel isn't central to everything we do. If this is a social organization where you just come and you feel welcome, if this is your equivalent of cheers, yeah, you're adding something to Christ or you're neglecting Christ altogether. Now, we come here not because people know us by name, but because we know Christ and one another. And we're experiencing Christ and one another. If you're not a Christian this morning. We've been talking about rules and regulations and how to find peace and acceptance with God. I want to ask you a question. Why do you think God will accept you or do you think God will accept you? What do you count as your righteousness? Why do you think when you face God that he will or will not accept you? You see, we all have to ask this question, if you never asked that question, please ask it now. Why would God accept you? Now, maybe you have a long resume. I have done this many charities. I've given this much money to charities. I've done all this work. I've been nice to people. I've been a helpful person. I've never intentionally hurt anyone. That makes you a good person in the worldly sense, in the sense of what we would consider a good person. But it's not a good person according to God's standards. So in order to be good, according to God's standards, one not only has to be nice to other people, one must submit to God himself. He is our creator. He deserves our allegiance. Our allegiance should be to him. We must submit to him and obey him. It's not just about being nice to other people. It's about loving the Lord, your God, with all your heart. And if we have not loved the Lord our God with all our heart, we will not be accepted because God is holy and just. He will punish us for our sin. He will judge us justly for our sin. This leaves us with nothing but death. This leaves us nothing but judgment. When we ask ourselves, why would God accept me according to God's standards? He won't. Now, we're all Christians gathering here. If you're not a Christian, we're glad you're here. But one of the things you have to realize about us is that we don't come together because we think we've got it all together. We come together because we actually recognize our weakness. We recognize our failure. We recognize our sin. And we're all coming together because we've recognized the one man, God himself, who became a man who takes away our sin. who heals our weakness, who fixes our infirmities. You see, Jesus Christ is God himself, and he came down to live a life that we were meant to live. He was a human being who was perfectly innocent and perfectly righteous and just in everything he did. Yet he still died. He died on a cross, and the great punishment on that cross wasn't the nails going in his hand. It was actually when God the Father poured out the wrath for all of our sin upon him. Why would he do that? See, when I believed in Christ, all the wrath that was due me for all of my sin, for all of my rejection of God and his authority over me, all the wrath that was due to me was poured out upon Christ. He was just. My sin was punished, not in me, but in Christ. And then when I believe in Christ, not only is my sin punished in Him, but then His righteousness is counted towards me. I am now considered a son of God because I believed in Christ. See, being a Christian isn't about being a good person. Being a Christian is actually recognizing that we are sinful people. We are selfish people. And God alone has sent the one good person, Jesus Christ, and He has died on our behalf. The innocent one has taken upon himself God's wrath. He has taken upon himself our death so that we might live. So I ask you again. Will God accept you? What are you trusting in? To think God will accept you for. Friends, if it's anything other than Christ, he's not going to accept you. Our sin is too gross. Our sin is too offensive. Our sin is too rebellious against God. It's in Christ alone that our sins are forgiven and that he accepts us into his home. If you're not a Christian this morning, I would love to talk more about that with you after the service or any time. Our second main section. We have confidence in the head who unites and grows. I've added this, the body that needed an object. We have a confidence in the head who unites and grows the body. Now, this warning is a bit more focused. Really, it's the same kind of judgment being made. Let no one disqualify you insisting on asceticism and worship of angels going on in detail about visions puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind. and not holding fast to the head from whom the whole body nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments grows with a growth that is from God. The first thing we do is discern the judgment against us. But the judgment is one that is disqualifying it. This is very much the language of a competitive game, an umpire that would say you're disqualified. OK, you ran the race, but you didn't obey all the rules. You broke the rules. You ran an unfair race. Your trophy is taken from you. Now, I talked about the stairway scandals at the beginning of the sermon, and we can think of those who have been charged as guilty. There's a shame and dishonor upon their name and what they did to their different sports. Well, it still weighs heavy among many who are watching them and rooting for them. But really, I don't want to take anything away from their personal responsibility and culpability. But for every person who was guilty of that, there was somebody in an institution pushing that drug. There was somebody, a coach, a trainer, an organization owner, somebody saying, hey, you're not going to be able to compete as well unless you do this. If you take this enhancer, then you will start competing at a whole nother level. See, that's actually the real danger that Paul is warning us against. Listening to somebody who's saying, here's an enhancer. If you only add this to Christ, if you stop trusting only in Christ and you start doing this. Then you will compete at a level. They're actually saying you cannot accomplish that next level unless you do this. Whereas really the sad truth is when you take those illegal enhancers, when you take those drugs, if you're an athlete or if you add worse, really you're keeping yourself from the true joy and the only one who can continue to ascend us to heaven. Now let's look at these judges. Who are these judges and how do we recognize them? We need to make sure we recognize the kinds of men and teachers that Paul's talking about. Well, one of the things in the list that describes these judges is they insist on asceticism. That's a big word, asceticism. An ascetic is someone who denies himself of something that most would assume a right or something expected. So, an ascetic denies himself food, sleep. A popular item to neglect in the early church was a pillow. That was a way of trying to suffer with Christ. It was an ascetic practice. Most monasteries were pillow-free. So, if you're looking to suffer with Christ, you can lose your pillow. I wouldn't recommend it, but that was a popular tradition in the early church. Now, asceticism As I said before, the most dangerous lies are the ones that contain partial truth. Asceticism sounds right. Jesus Christ said, if you want to follow me, you must deny yourself, take up your cross. There is something about self-denial that is inherently true in Christianity, and so asceticism has just enough truth in it to make it sound, yes, that is the right way. If I just deny myself of this, Then I'll be closer to Christ because Christ said I must deny myself. Well, the issue here is whenever you're denying yourself for the purpose of denying yourself, you're denying yourself for the purpose of growing in the love of Christ. We deny ourselves none of the things God has given us. We deny ourselves of sin. We deny ourselves of the things that easily entangle us. We're supposed to be repenting of sin and our selfishness. It does not mean we have to resist everything that God gives us. Now, the fun about this, there's actually a very well, there's a lot of books being written and popular sermons going around insisting that we should sell everything we own. This is based upon Jesus' teaching in Luke 18 with the rich young ruler. We should sell everything we own. Now, the problem with the way this is being taught is that it's being treated as if it's a universal command. Some are treating this as a universal command that everybody's supposed to sell everything they own. The problem with that interpretation is Jesus tells one person throughout all of scripture to sell everything they own. It's not repeated. It's obviously a very focused instance. Now, do we need to hear this message? that that Paul's teach or that Jesus teaching Luke 18. Yeah. We live in a greedy Western American world. Wealth and material things are all around us. We need to hear the message that greed is dangerous. We need to be on guard against it. But do we need to take in the command, sell everything you own as for us? In every instance, I don't think so. Because what Jesus is doing there with that rich young ruler is he's putting his finger in his particular sin. He could not love the Lord his God with all his heart because his greatest love was for the things he owned. The command to sell everything you own for him was pointing out to him how great his love is for stuff. And it helped him realize that he could not stop loving his stuff enough to give his greatest love to Jesus Christ. Now, many folks are burdened with the idea that I actually like my stuff. I would have our time partying with my stuff. We need to realize that God gives us things. And we're supposed to use those things not for our own well-being, but for his glory. The problem isn't the stuff. It's our hearts. So you can sell everything you own and you're still going to have that heart problem. You can sell everything you want. You're still going to be greedy if you sell everything you want to the greed still exists, then you're going to be coveting those things. If you keep everything you own and you covet, you're going to cling to those things. If you keep the heart sinful and greedy, you've got a problem if you have stuff or if you don't have stuff. We're going to focus on is do we love our things that God gives us for his glory? Or do we love him and seek to use those things for his glory? Now, I say I use that particular example because many carry on the guilt, I have too much stuff. If you really need to repent and sell things and give things away and get rid of things, don't let your heart and your justification keep you from that. But also don't feel guilty because God has given you good things and those things can be used for his glory. The second thing we see about these judges, they worship angels. Now, this is actually really odd to have in the list of all the things that are Jewish, because it is clear in the Old Testament, in Judaism, God alone is to be worshiped. But here we see that there's a worship of angels. This is quite curious, but it actually makes sense. I worship Jesus because he saved me. He saved me, and therefore I recognize him as God, and therefore I recognize that I must worship him. That's the logical connection that I make. Once I realize that Jesus is my Savior, only God saves, and therefore I worship God. Here, they're trusting angels to be part of salvation. The angels are helping me get rid of sin. The angels are helping in my salvation. Therefore, they're worthy of worship. That's the only logical connection I can make sense of and why they worship angels. We worship the one who saves us, we worship the one we trust for our salvation. And my only conclusion is this must be why they worship angels, because they were trusting them to save them. The next thing we see, they go on in detail about visions. We don't know what these visions are. Again, we don't know a whole lot about the Church of Colossae. What stands out here is that they're going on in detail about their personal visions and making them the personal standard for other people rather than trusting the universal recognized word of God and it as the only standard for all people at all times. They're going on and on about their personal revelations, their personal visions and saying these are what everybody needs to recognize as authoritative rather than saying this is authoritative word of God for all of God's people at all time. They can't stop talking about their own experiences long enough to talk about Christ. This last one is is is an interesting play on words, they are puffed up without reason. by a sensuous mind. Now, to be puffed up without reason or to have a sensuous mind, that's kind of an oxymoron. It's kind of like a sophomore. I know at UVA you're second years, but in most places you're sophomores and that word is actually a combination of a wise fool. A sensuous mind is like being a wise fool. It's a mind that thinks it understands things, but really it's so set on the carnal desires of this world. It is counterproductive. It's a carnal mind that seeks its own pleasure, seeks its own delights. It's how the false shepherds of Jude and 2 Peter are described. They are seeking to lead others. with what they think is right, but really they're just satisfying their own selfish appetites. As we look at this, the big picture again is to think about those who are trying to disqualify you. Recognize those who are putting unnecessary judgments upon you. This really takes us back to the 1 John prescription. Test the spirits. When someone is trying to weigh you down with guilt, when someone is trying to place a judgment upon you, you really must weigh the spirits. Weigh the message and the messenger. We must consider who it is that's saying these things and what their message is actually accomplishing in us. And so I've written out some questions to really help us think about the messages we hear and what they accomplish for us. We'll put these in the evangelist so you don't have to write them down. They'll be published in our weekly newsletter Wednesday or Thursday. But but listen. Do you hear about Christ and his word or their own opinions and experiences when you hear someone proclaiming what the truth of God is, do you hear more about Christ and his word or do you hear more about their opinions and experiences? Is the message focused on the central themes of Scripture, God's glory and the gospel, Or is it focused on secondary matters and the secondary matters necessarily lead you to look down on other Christians who do not share your same position? Do you hear about what their experience is and that their life should be the standard for everyone else, or is it God's standard and how we can experience Christ? Does the message draw you to the presence of God with joy and peace because you're brought in by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Or does it cause you to fear? Does the message discourage you because you realize all the things you do not do and you feel helpless about your numerous sins? Is the mystery focused on your failure or on Christ's victory? Does the message focus on the wisdom and freedom that Christ provides that allows us to enjoy him, or does it make us judgmental and cynical or maybe even defeated In our own senses. The whole point here is. When we hear someone is it about Jesus Christ and his gospel. And what is the fruit of that message. Is it a love for God. Or is it getting focused on secondary matters that really keep us from focusing on Jesus Christ and his gospel. It's so easy for our minds to desire a self righteous standard. We look down upon others, we make ourselves feel better by saying they don't view things like we do because of these secondary matters. No, it's all about Jesus Christ and his message. Our second main section here says they do not hold fast to the head from whom the whole body nourishing it together through his joints and ligaments grows with the growth that is from God. Notice what these teachers do not do. They do not hold to Christ who unifies and nourishes the church. Now he provides unity. One of the things about the church that's supposed to be glorious is it's supposed to be a gathering of every different kind of person. Now the universal church does have every different kind of person, every tongue, race, nationality, economic background. But every local church, I pray, would actually be a witness to how God is working in all people in all places. He is not committed to just one kind of person. A church should have multiple cultures and nationalities represented. The church should be the one place in the world where people can see the harmony that they so desire for the entire world. The world loves the message, love your neighbor. The world loves that they want more of that they want us to all come together in unity and harmony. The problem is, is we cannot love Our neighbor, until we love God, until we have been corrected and brought back into the love of God, we can never love our neighbor. And this is why at our deepest core root, our heart, we're sinful and selfish. We don't like those who are different than us. We're afraid of them. Whenever someone hurts us, we don't forgive them. We cannot love our neighbor until we have been brought into the love of God and we love God. It's not until we recognize our own need for Christ that we're able to have the humility to love others and the humility to forgive others. It's not until we realize that we are loved as sinners that we're able to love other sinners. This is a mission aspect of the church. We should be unified in our love for another as a great witness to the world that says, look, this is the only place, the only way that all these different kinds of people can come together and be unified. It's in the love of Christ. This is why we're so excited about partnering with Fuente de Vida, a Spanish speaking church. I talked to the pastor that I said I would love to go in your church, our church, and do a mission there in that community. And he said, you have no idea how far that would go. to have the different multiple cultures and aspects of these two churches come together and say we're unified for one purpose. I want our church to look like that. Every church should look like that. As we consider what these ligaments and joints look like, we actually see a clear picture. Ephesians was written at the same time as Colossians. If we look to 4.11-16, I'm going to read it. We actually hear what these ligaments and joints are referring to more precisely. Starting in verse 11, and he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of the ministry for building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood. to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped when each part is working properly makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Every joint and ligament must be nourished and directed by the head for the body to function in the way it's supposed to function. Every member of Christ's body must be nourished by him, must be submitted to him, must follow his order, his focus, his command. That's the only way we're going to all be functioning in a way that accomplishes what he desires. Now, the question is, what are our gifts? What are our callings? What are our roles? And are we willing to accept our gifts, our callings and our roles? Are we willing to not submit to one another necessarily? Of course, that has a big part in it. But are we willing to submit to Christ in the way he has gifted us and equipped us to be a body? Finally, he gives the growth. He alone nourishes. He gives the growth that comes from God alone. He nourishes us because he's the only one who can heal us from our sins. He's the only one who gives us the sustenance of life. He's the only one who gives us the Holy Spirit that illuminates us so that when we read the word of God, we are challenged. Our sin is revealed. God's grace is revealed and we grow closer to God. He alone is the one who fits us together, builds us up and gives us all we need. And we have to realize We want to grow the way God desires for us to grow. This church is going through growing pains over the last few years. Well, Lord willing, it looks like we're in the midst of another growing thing. But we have to constantly be seeking to grow according to the way God wants us to. And this is how we know we'll do that. Are we growing in our love for Christ? Are we growing in our love for one another that comes out of our love for Christ? Are we growing by seeing people come to Christ by their confessing their sins and confessing Him as a Savior? How many people we have doesn't matter. What we do and how we act, that matters only in the sense that we're doing what God has prescribed us to do. Are we growing in His love for His glory by His Word? Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, protect us, your sheep. Protect us from the evil one and his numerous snares. Protect us, Lord. From the seat that so easily entraps us. In our lazy sin, we desire an easy way out rather than a disciplined faith in you. Help us, Lord, to grow, to recognize Your power, Your faithfulness and Your love more so that our faith in You grows. Help us, Lord, to be unified under Your headship. Help us, Lord, to grow in a love for You that submits to You and that desires to gather together because we experience You in one another. Lord, let us not Get focused on how we want this church to grow. But let us stay committed to praying that you will grow this church according to your will and your glory. In your holy name we pray, Amen.