The Goal of Jesus

[0:00] So we've been talking over the last month or so about being faster learners. You may recall that that's an acronym. I'm not trying to force you to learn faster.

[0:12] John and I were just joking about the fact that I already talk fast enough. I don't need to pick up the pace. I actually heard a preacher this last week that was speaking so fast, I thought I'd accidentally set the replay on YouTube to double.

[0:26] And nope, that's just the way that guy talks. He had a lot of material. But we want to be faster learners. And we talked about that each of those letters mean something. The F is for we want to be forgetful.

[0:40] Forgetful in the sense that we want to come to Scripture as if it's for the first time. Not that what we've learned in the past doesn't have value, but it's that we want to hear, what does God have for me today?

[0:54] What is he saying? And then he will use that and build upon what you knew in the past. And so we're coming to God's Word with a fresh, looking for a fresh perspective. It's another F.

[1:05] And then the A is to act. And there's two ways we looked at that. One of them is to be an active learner. Take notes. Jot down things you want to remember later that you want to look up, or you think, is this guy nuts?

[1:20] I don't think that's in the Bible. Write down your questions. Don't hesitate to ask. I welcome questions because they keep me sharp, and sometimes they do make me realize, oops, I made a mistake.

[1:32] And those things need to be corrected. So be an active learner, but also be active in the sense that you want to apply God's Word. We're not here just to get an A in a class.

[1:43] There is no test. Well, actually, there might be, but it's in heaven. But there's no test. God's expectation is that we take in the Word, we receive it as if from Him, not from me, but from Him, and then we put it into practice for our benefit, for His glory, for the expansion of His kingdom.

[2:06] So we want to be forgetful, looking with a fresh perspective. We want to be active learners and active appliers of God's Word. We want to be aware of our state.

[2:18] I was at a vacation Bible school at the end every week this week over at Arbor Oaks because I was picking up the grandkids. And it was really cool to watch the kids. The speaker was doing a great job of engaging the kids, and he'd ask a question.

[2:29] Every kid's like, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, me, pee, pee. Now, there may have been some candy involved, but they were so engaged, and they knew the answers. You don't have to do that, that animated, ooh, ooh, ooh, here I am.

[2:43] Can you see that I know the answer? But in your heart, are you here to learn? Do you recognize that this isn't about hearing me entertain you?

[2:56] This is a means for God to use my study this week and the preparation I've put in, that God is using what he's given me through the Holy Spirit to deliver to you, by means of the Holy Spirit, what you need to hear for your life.

[3:13] So are you in a state of being receptive and being open and being eager to hear what God has to say to you? I know if somebody famous says, hey, John, I want to talk to you for a second. I want to hear.

[3:25] There's some gold here that I want to pick up from this person. And that's the way we want to come to hearing God's word, is you're hearing from God himself. So what's the state of your heart? And then what do we do with this?

[3:37] So we look to the F-A-S. T is to teach. Mastery is demonstrated in any subject when we can teach it and the other person can receive it and then teach it themselves. Isn't that the idea of discipleship?

[3:50] Jesus said, go and make disciples, teaching them to obey all that I've commanded you, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. And what happens, that gets replicated and replicated and replicated.

[4:03] We are believers today. Those of us who are in Christ receive the gospel because we can trace an unbroken chain of people who are discipled and discipled and discipled and discipled back generations, back hundreds, more than 2,000 years to Jesus himself.

[4:24] Teach what you learn today. Find somebody. You can share a nugget that you got from this message, from God's word. And then today we're on E. E is for enter.

[4:37] And of course, there's a couple of different ways to look at it. The first of which is very simple. This is my brain. I keep track of my thoughts. I keep track of what I'm supposed to do.

[4:49] My calendar is in here and online. But enter into whatever your record-keeping device is, an appointment to meet with God to go over what you've learned this morning and to go deeper and to think more in his presence.

[5:07] God, what do you have for me? I'll give you an example. For years, I have worked out on my own. I either, I've got some weights at home or I'd get a membership to Planet Fitness because it's cheap and so am I.

[5:19] And I would go sporadically. I'd see some benefit, not much, because I'd work out three times this week, then two times next week, and then once or none, and then three because I felt guilty, and up and down, and I was always sore, interestingly enough, because if you don't do something consistently, your muscles don't adapt and you're just sore all the time.

[5:45] Well, about four months ago, I joined Planet Fitness, I joined Orange Theory. It's a bit more expensive. And they charge you if you don't show up for a class. It's a great deal if you own the gym.

[5:55] But that accountability that's in my calendar, I've worked out three times a week, every week for the last four months.

[6:08] I feel great. I've lost a little bit of weight. Some of you are thinking, how is that even possible? But I've lost a little weight. I've got more energy. I've met some great people because it's in my calendar.

[6:22] That's all it is. And I got some skin in the game. I have to pay for it. But enter, make an appointment with God that you're going to meet with him at a certain time. For me, my meeting with him is in the morning before anybody gets up.

[6:33] I make a cup of coffee. The weather's nice. I sit on the back deck. And me and God have a conversation about his word. But enter into, enter it into your calendar. And enter into a space where you're in the presence of God.

[6:49] Recognize in those special times you are in God's presence. Think, I am entering in the presence of God. And then there's another application of the word enter. Enter into what you're learning, like you're putting on a coat.

[7:02] We're going to look at that in Colossians chapter 3 in a few weeks. But enter into what God is saying to you and possess it as your own. Make it yours and live it out.

[7:14] So we want to enter into, we want to enter an appointment. We want to enter in the presence of God. And we want to enter into what he is teaching us. Amen? And that's going to make us faster learners.

[7:27] You know what's cool? I've been telling you every week that I've talked about this, that typically studies show we retain 10% of what we hear in this format. You know what? That's actually only partially true.

[7:40] I'll tell you where it's not true. It's not true if you're engaged. It's not true if you're a faster learner. If you take these things to heart and engage with me and not be passive, you're going to retain way more than 10%.

[7:53] And more importantly, you'll live it out. And you'll see the blessings that come, which are rich. We're going to see that this morning as we go into Colossians chapter 1. So turn in your Bibles to Colossians chapter 1.

[8:07] And we are going to take a deep dive into just a few verses that I hope just leave you in awe of what God does for you and what he has for you and what he wants to do through you.

[8:24] So Colossians chapter 1, we're going to read verse 23, which we covered last week, all the way down to verse 28. So we're starting in the middle of a sentence, so let me give you some context.

[8:39] Paul in 22, and the few verses that precede 22, is talking about the benefits that we have in Christ, in the gospel. And he says to them to wrap up verse 22, that Jesus is going to present us to his Father holy and blameless and beyond reproach.

[8:55] And then verse 23 begins, if indeed, and remember, we studied this last week, it's not if you continue in the faith, firmly established and steadfast, but it's since indeed, if you're in Christ, he is carrying you to the finish line, your endurance is proof of your salvation, not a requirement of it.

[9:15] If indeed, you continue in the faith, firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.

[9:27] Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh, I do my share on behalf of his body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions.

[9:41] We're going to unpack that phrase just a little bit because do we really think that there's something where Jesus, suffering on the cross, falls short?

[9:54] We're going to unpack that. I want to highlight that. Of this church, verse 25, I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God.

[10:07] That is the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to his saints. That's us. To whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

[10:26] We proclaim him, that's Jesus, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom so that we may present every man complete in Christ.

[10:37] Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, we don't ever want to forget that you are at the center.

[10:51] You are the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You will be unveiled at the end of days. You are our Lord. You are our Master.

[11:04] You have plans for us, for our good and for our prosperity. You have good works which you've ordained for us to do, to carry your word into the world.

[11:19] And all of it, Lord, is for your glory, to honor you. And so as we take some time to look at Colossians 1 this morning, God, I pray that we would just be captivated by you.

[11:35] That we would center our lives, every part of us, our thinking, our emotions, our actions, our relationships, everything will be resting in and on you.

[11:47] God, we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So just briefly, it dawned on me this week as I was doing some review and then getting ready to preach the sermon that in verse 23, we talked about this last week, about the security of the believer.

[12:01] If indeed you continue in the faith, firmly established and steadfast and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, I think when Paul wrote that verse, what he was thinking about was Jesus' word to the disciples at the end of Matthew 7, at the end of the Sermon on the Mount.

[12:18] He's talking about two men, one who built his house on sand and the other one built his house on a rock and of course the one that's built on sand gets blown away when life gets hard and the one that's built on the rock stands.

[12:34] It stands and the rock was the word of Jesus Christ, the word of this gospel, our hope. That's what we stand upon and that's what we're going to be looking at this morning in great detail.

[12:45] So as I prayed, the first thing we're going to look at is Jesus is the center of this passage all the way through from the first verse of the book all the way through 28.

[12:56] Jesus is the focus. When I first wrote the outline for Colossians and read through it, my habit is to read through and break it down into a sermon series that John and Tim and I then go through and make sure that those breaks make sense.

[13:10] I had entitled this passage Paul's Ministry and it does talk about Paul's ministry but you can't get to Paul's ministry until you talk about Jesus as the center.

[13:21] So by way of review, let's look at how we've seen that again and again and again over the last weeks. Paul opens the book, verse 1 of Colossians, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, how?

[13:34] By the will of God. By the will of God. Now if you remember from the book of Acts, Acts 26 is a great place to look where Paul shares his testimony.

[13:47] Paul was a raving maniac. He was so dedicated to his understanding of what God's will for the world was and God's will for man that he dedicated himself to stopping this sect of Judaism called the way.

[14:03] These Jesus followers who were undermining the law and he was rabid. He was filled with rage and wrath. We first meet him when Stephen is martyred at the end of Acts 7 and you go into Acts 8, 8-1 and it says that and there's a young man holding the coats of the people doing the stoning and he approved.

[14:30] What kind of a person can watch someone be murdered by stoning? And approve. It's somebody who's obsessed.

[14:42] That was Paul. And then he gets permission to go up to Damascus which is up to the north in Syria to search out more of these insurrectionists, these followers of the way and he's going to arrest them and put them in chains and drag them back to Jerusalem to stand trial before the Sanhedrin.

[15:03] And as he's going up to Damascus, he's knocked off of his donkey, he's bathed in light, he's blinded and he hears a voice. Why are you persecuting me?

[15:17] And Paul says, what are you talking about? I don't even know who you are. I am Jesus and I have a plan for your life. I am going to send you to the Gentiles.

[15:31] You are going to carry my message and you're going to suffer but it's going to be great. Sometimes God says that to us. We're going to talk about that more in a minute.

[15:42] But Paul, by the will of God, by the will of God, was called and made an apostle in very specific circumstances.

[15:53] So we see Jesus is central. Jesus is calling Paul into this activity. Then he goes on in verse 2.

[16:04] To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae. That's us as well. It could, Paul could have just as easily written to the saints and faithful brethren who are in Christ in Dubuque.

[16:18] But we are who we are by the will of God, by his choice. He is willed that we would come into relationship with him.

[16:30] That we would accept him as our Lord and Savior. That we would be changed. That we would be made his saints. Remember we talked about that was his work on our behalf and that we would be faithful.

[16:42] That's our work in response. That's the work of God in our lives brothers and sisters. Jesus is still central in our lives. And then in verses 9 through 14 as we did that sermon we looked at what does it mean to be filled with the knowledge of the will of God.

[17:00] And I gave you that image of the sailboat. You remember it was all the way over in this wind and it was in a race with other yachts or a regatta. And I talked about my friend from France who was an amateur sailor racing sails whatever you call that racing sailor and he would pull back on that mast and hold on until the boat was leaning over and he was parallel to the water and just the joy of flying across the water propelled by the wind.

[17:30] But the big takeaway was the wind does not shape itself for us. We have to trim our sails to conform to the wind. I've been thinking about that imagery a lot over the last couple weeks.

[17:44] We need to be aware of where the wind is blowing. Jesus uses the analogy of wind in John chapter 3 when he was talking to Nicodemus. The wind blows wherever it wills.

[17:56] Our responsibility is to trim our sails. And sometimes it's that steady strong wind that's firing across and it's perfect for a God and it's perfect for a race. And it's exhilarating it's fun it's exciting to be a part of what God is doing.

[18:11] Other times it's like the storm of the Sea of Galilee where you've got a boat that's upended in a wave and the lines are breaking from the strain and it's terrifying.

[18:26] Even professional sailors Peter, James, John, Philip and Andrew were afraid at the face of that storm that wind and Jesus was asleep in the back of the boat and they woke him up and said aren't you afraid?

[18:44] What's wrong with you? Jesus is kind of I imagine him groggily looking up and going what? Oh, relax. Peace, be still. Boom.

[18:58] What's scarier? A wind that threatens to capsize your boat and end your life or somebody who can just with a word stop the whole thing. Boom.

[19:11] I think I'd be more afraid of that guy. Jesus is the center. Jesus is in the middle of it and sometimes to continue that analogy we end up in the doldrums.

[19:23] I read a story about sailing ships and warships of Great Britain. In the 16, 17, 1800s the Navy of Great Britain was the pride of the nation. It made them a world power but for all of their power there's places along the equator where the wind just stops.

[19:41] It dies. And this mighty ship is at the whim of the wind and the sails just flap or hang loose and there's nothing the sailors can do but pray which is a good thing to do because in the doldrums you're stuck until the wind picks up and you just pray that the doldrums stop and the wind starts again before your water and your food run out.

[20:11] People died caught in the doldrums. Sometimes in our lives walking with Christ it feels like we're in the doldrums. Nothing's happening. Heaven is just blank.

[20:24] We don't hear God speaking to us. There's no movement. I would submit to you brothers and sisters first of all expect those times they come.

[20:36] I was telling somebody this week those seasons of life are well documented throughout church history by truly godly people where God just doesn't respond for whatever reason.

[20:50] I think the reason is so that we turn our focus to Him. So we're looking to Him. because oftentimes we end up in the doldrums in no fault of our own.

[21:01] It just happens to be that's the latitude or longitude that we're at and the wind has stopped. God withdraws in order to pull us into His presence to make us feel a little bit desperate.

[21:13] Our water's running low we're running out of food. God we need your help. That's the purpose of the doldrums. But all of this is centered around trimming our sails to be filled with the knowledge of the will of God.

[21:24] God has a plan and we want to be conformed to that plan so we're going in the direction in the manner in which He has planned. So again Jesus is the center. And then we looked at that glorious passage.

[21:38] We went from verse 12 down to down to 50 where was it here down to 19. And we looked at the person of Jesus. Who is this person that's our Savior?

[21:50] He is the image of the invisible God. The exact representation of His radiance it says in Hebrews. And this person became a man lived the life that He expects us to live yet without sin then died on the cross for us.

[22:12] Like John said earlier while we were still sinners Christ died for us demonstrating the love of God for you. It was God's good pleasure for the fullness to dwell in Jesus Christ.

[22:27] He is fully God. And though He was He took upon Himself humility He appeared as a child a baby helpless in a manger and then grew until He was a man to die on the cross.

[22:43] He is our God. He is our Savior. He is central. He died for you and for me. We need to remember that.

[22:54] We need to keep our focus on that. And listen to these words that come to us as a result of what Jesus did for us. He qualified us for citizenship in His kingdom.

[23:06] He transferred us from the domain of darkness into the domain of light. We've been redeemed. We've been forgiven. We've been reconciled to God.

[23:17] We have peace. Jesus is going to present us to His Father. Ta-da! Ta-da! Holy, blameless, beyond reproach.

[23:30] He is going to carry and sustain us to endure all the way through to the end of our lives when we will see our salvation brought to its fullest. That's what we have in Christ.

[23:41] That's this gospel. He created all things, both visible and invisible. All things are held together by the word of His power. He's the head of the church.

[23:54] That's us. He directs us to work together for the building up of the body. This is our Jesus. This is your God.

[24:07] God, you need to set aside time every day to just think about what you have in Christ and who it is you're talking to.

[24:24] What, what wonder it would make sense if our, the response of our heart should be to cower in fear before the greatness and awesome majesty of God.

[24:37] But it says in Romans, no. We approach Him as our, as our brother, as our father.

[24:51] As I walk through my house, these little grandkids give me hugs. They run up to me. I need something. I need this. I need that. Sometimes they demand it and stomp their feet.

[25:02] That's the relationship we have with God in Christ. You need to spend some time and really soak that in and enjoy it.

[25:16] So God is at the center of this entire passage. So we're going to come back to that. Let's talk about Paul's ministry. First of all, he was called by the will of God, which I, Paul, was made a minister.

[25:33] I'm not going to have you turn there. I want you to listen carefully to Acts 26. This is what I described earlier. This is Jesus speaking to Paul. But get up and stand on your feet. For this purpose I have appeared to you to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you.

[25:53] Remember, Paul was old, Saul was old enough that he saw Jesus crucified. So he's witnessing the things he observed. He denied them prior to this encounter, but he saw them.

[26:06] To appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you, rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you. That's a harbinger of things to come.

[26:17] He's going to need to be rescued. To open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God. Gee, doesn't that sound familiar? Didn't we read that somewhere? Like in the first chapter of Colossians?

[26:30] Yes. That they may receive forgiveness of sins. Oh wait, that's the next verse. And an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in me.

[26:47] That was Paul's calling. Each of us, maybe not as dramatically, but each of us has received a calling from God. We have been called not just to be saved, not just to be redeemed, not just to receive forgiveness of sins, but also to become participants actively engaged in God's mission on earth.

[27:11] That mission hasn't stopped because the end hasn't come yet. God is continuing to advance the gospel. And the ministry that was given to Paul to go and proclaim has been given to us.

[27:24] that word in the Greek that's used for minister in this passage is diakonos. For us, it's the word deacon.

[27:35] We most frequently translate it as servant. It's also translated as an assistant, so we're God's assistants, or as a herald. A herald who proclaims the king's message to the citizens.

[27:52] Before there was radio, before there was the internet, before there was instant messaging, there were heralds who would go into a town and ring a bell and proclaim this is the king's will in this moment in time, pay more taxes.

[28:05] That message hasn't changed for millennia. But we, all kidding aside, we are God's heralds proclaiming his truth to the people around us. That's your job, brothers and sisters.

[28:16] That's what you've been called to, just like Paul. Paul. Now what comes with being a minister? Paul says, in verse 24, now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of his body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions.

[28:40] I rejoice in my sufferings. I took a few minutes, or actually I took a couple hours to work my way through 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and 2 Corinthians chapter 11. I don't have time to go through them.

[28:52] You should. Paul suffered unbelievably in carrying the gospel and obeying his commission from God. Over and over and over again he suffers because he was putting himself in harm's way.

[29:08] He wrote to Timothy, 2 Timothy 3.12, all who desire to live godly lives in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when.

[29:19] If you're not enduring some sort of persecution, and I'm not talking about the normal things that happen in life, I'm talking about active, malicious opposition to your life as a believer in Jesus Christ.

[29:35] You may want to think, why am I not seeing this opposition? Maybe I need to show some courage and step out and be more bold in sharing my faith. I'm not saying do stupid stuff. I had a fellow student when I was at Emmaus back in the old days that got a job at Target and he thought that the application of this verse was to give the entire gospel to every person who came through his line at Target.

[29:56] I think I've told you the story and he got fired. He was just doing a bad job. He didn't understand his job. He didn't understand the assignment. Now what I'm talking about is you're living your life in such a way that the people look at you and say, I don't like what you're saying.

[30:11] I don't like the way you live. I disagree and I'm going to push back hard. Expect it. It's going to happen. Paul experienced that but as Paul was faithfully carrying the message into the world as he was suffering, as he was attacked by the Jews, as he was attacked by the Gentiles, you can see that in the book of Acts, he knew it was for a purpose.

[30:35] It was to fulfill his call and it was to bless the people who were ready to receive the message he was bringing because not only does persecution come, but also there's some who listen and respond and say, tell me more and we endure the suffering to get to those people and you should have those people in your life too who are curious.

[31:00] You're kind of weird in a good way. Could you tell me more about that? Why are you so peaceful in the times of turmoil? Why are you unfazed by the hardships of life?

[31:14] Why do you not care who's in office? Trump is the devil. No, Biden's the devil. No, they're both the devil. Why are you even, you don't even seem to care. And then you can share your face with them because I know who's in charge.

[31:30] That's what Paul is talking about. Now, Paul made an interesting statement. He also says it in Corinthians that I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions. Is this to mean that Jesus' death on the cross wasn't sufficient for us?

[31:43] No, not at all. That's not what Paul is saying. There's an example in Philippians. Paul was in jail in Rome. Word got back to the Philippian church.

[31:53] They loved him. And they sent one of their people, a man in Epaphroditus, with an offering to Paul to help cover his costs while he was in prison.

[32:05] And the journey was very taxing. Epaphroditus almost died. And Paul wrote to the Philippian church to tell them that Epaphroditus was doing better, he was healing, and expressed gratitude to the Philippian church because Epaphroditus made up what was lacking in your service to me.

[32:32] it's the same idea. The Philippians were all the way in Philippi. Paul was in Rome. And so, in sending Epaphroditus, the Philippians were extending their reach.

[32:47] We are, we, not just Paul, are making up for what's lacking in Jesus' service by his design, because he's central, he's sending us.

[32:59] We are the means that God has chosen to reach the world. And let me bring it down to very specific things, because it's easy to think, well, the world is way out there.

[33:12] I was watching a travel documentary about Nepal, because I'm fascinated by Nepal. God keeps putting people in my path who are missionaries there. And so, I was watching this, and it seems to me to think, well, okay, the world is Nepal, which is way far away, and I'm off the hook.

[33:32] No, no, no, sorry. The world is across the street. The world is your next-door neighbor, or your family member. The world is the person who's next to you at work, your boss, or the person who reports to you.

[33:52] That's the world. The world is anybody you cross paths with that needs to hear the gospel. That's who you're sent to. And, by God's design, you are there to make up what's lacking in his death, in his work, for them, because he's sending you in his place.

[34:12] Take that to heart. We're being sent as a herald of the truth. But persecution will come. Now, he also talks about stewardship.

[34:25] This is verse 25. Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit. A steward, another definition or part of the idea of being a diakonos, a deacon, a steward is a manager.

[34:40] So, I've had roles as a manager of a business where the owner of the business is delegated to me responsibility to oversee a certain part of the business. I'm responsible.

[34:50] I'm accountable. Paul saw part of his calling as to be a steward of the body of Christ, the church. My calling is to be a steward of this body along with John and Tim.

[35:05] That's my call. Paul, you are called to steward that which is within your sphere of influence, your family, your friends, the people you work with.

[35:18] You are a steward to care for those in the way that God has gifted you. Now, for me, I read this passage in Colossians 1, I think, wow, that's me. I very much resonate with Paul.

[35:31] You may read and go, I'd rather be set on fire than stand up front and preach the gospel. That's because gifts are different, but you're a servant. You've got a heart of compassion.

[35:43] You're great with mercy. You come alongside behind the scenes and serve or you're an evangelist. Whatever your gift is, that's your arena of stewardship where God has equipped you and is sending you out to be a steward.

[36:00] constant contact with him, asking him how it's to be done, but you are sent to be a steward. And it's God's plan that you serve in that function.

[36:14] And then what is the goal? Verse 27 and 28. First, it's to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

[36:28] I want to take just a second to talk about what is hope. I found this definition years ago and it just seared itself into my memory.

[36:40] Hope is the confident expectation of the righteous. That idea so captivated me that my youth group heard a sermon or a Sunday school lesson on hope every single week for a year.

[36:58] I managed to make hope the theme of every passage I opened up for those kids because I was just captivated. It's not wishful thinking. It's not, I hope it doesn't rain on July 3rd so we can enjoy the fireworks.

[37:12] Don't forget to talk to Mary. No, it's, I know. I know who I have believed and am confident that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him.

[37:27] Paul wrote those words and we can echo them. So that's the first one. Christ in us. Jesus came to dwell in you when you accepted him as your savior.

[37:39] He's not alongside of you. He's not hovering over you. He is inside of you. The Holy Spirit came and lived inside of you to teach you what you need to know to shape you into the image of Christ which by the way as you become more like Christ you become you that God intended you to be.

[38:02] You don't join the army to be all that you can be. You accept Jesus as your savior and the spirit living in you shapes you. And what is the object of that hope?

[38:13] It's glory. It's God's glory. It's our glory. That's kind of a hard one to fathom. We get glory? Yeah. It's okay if it reflects back up to God to rejoice in how he's gifted you to rejoice in the fun that comes from obeying him.

[38:34] It's truly fun. If you haven't experienced that you need to step out more because following Jesus is really fun. Yeah, they're suffering but it's worth it in the end. And glory is the ultimate glory of standing in the presence of God in heaven worshiping him serving with him experiencing with him.

[38:57] Remember we've talked about this so many times the theme of heaven is but wait there's more. God revealing himself to us for all of eternity. So that's one goal is to reveal the ministry to people.

[39:08] We're sharing the gospel with those who haven't heard it to invite them in and we're preaching the gospel to each other to remind ourselves that's what we did this morning in the breaking of bread to remind ourselves of what we have in Christ.

[39:21] It's the confident expectation of the righteous. Well you might say well you don't know me I'm not righteous. Oh you're wrong. I don't need to know you. I know your Savior. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5.21 that we have the righteousness of God in him.

[39:39] In him. Jesus who knew no sin became the righteous Jesus who knew no boy I'm just messing this up aren't I? That's okay I'm running short on time so look it up.

[39:50] 2 Corinthians 5.21 the paraphrase is that Jesus took our sin and gave us his righteousness. You can have hope. It's a confident expectation of the righteous.

[40:01] And then verse 25 so that we may present every person complete in Christ. Remember our mission statement? We exist to glorify God walking closely with him striving together to become more like Jesus every day.

[40:18] That was Paul's mission. That's our mission. As we interact with each other as we talk with each other as we get shoulder to shoulder to work as we correct each other that's what it means to admonish.

[40:30] As we do those things what's chipped away is everything that doesn't look like Jesus and we become more like him. That's the goal. And when we look like Jesus the world is changed.

[40:44] And remember the world isn't out there. The world is the person who waits on you today at lunch. How are you displaying Christ to that person?

[40:54] Jesus is at the center. Jesus is working in you and through you to prepare us to be in his presence fully.

[41:17] Take the time this week to think about that. Talk with somebody about it. Explore that idea. Own it. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, I pray that we would actually Lord Jesus, I pray through your Holy Spirit that you would unveil to every person here so much that's in this passage I just couldn't get to today.

[41:49] what we have in Christ, what we have because of our calling, the life that we have in you, the way it plays out.

[42:01] God, you are you are awesome. And we want to live our lives in light of our relationship with our awesome Father.

[42:12] God, we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.