Sower Church

Thank you Faith. Well, happy new year, good morning to everyone. Um, so glad you’re here. If this is your first new year service with us, I just want to state from the beginning today, we’re gonna lay out 23 principles for how you can have a successful year 2023. Amen you guys are laughing because you know, as in the words of that fictional king from Wakanda, we don’t do that here. You know, we get into the word. Here we are returning to the gospel of luke as we kidded on our podcast. We will be in the gospel of luke until jesus returns. But no, we we are thankful for this word. We’re thankful for what God is doing. We’re thankful for this new Year and I’m excited for what God is going to do in and through our church. But the past is just born in that faith. Read to you, it made me think of a song. It was written by the late Sam Cooke. He wrote this song, a change is gonna come. That’s the title for today’s sermon. He wrote this song in 1964, right in the thick of the civil rights movement. It’s one of the most iconic, soulful songs that I think exists. I mean, it’s just amazing in terms of the soulful sound, you can kind of sense his his bewilderment in the lyrics in the song, he expresses a bit of a, of of a doubt that change was possible. But then he returns to the chorus to almost reassure himself that change is gonna come. In fact, the first verse of that song, he says that he was born by a river and just like that river he’s been running ever since echoing a sense of being unsettled, unsure of the future, unsure where he’s headed, hoping to to maybe reach a place of of of being at a state of Peacefulness and tranquility. I thought about that song because in this passage, here We have the Jews recounting to events that took place during their times. They were very turbulent times. Verse one says that there were some Galilean who went to offer a sacrifice and as they were offering their sacrifice to God Pilate killed them and it was so horrendous that their blood spilled over into the place where the blood of the sacrifices would flow. It says that they ming he mingled their blood with the blood of the sacrifice. That was totally horrendous. And then the second event that is counted here by luke says that a tower fell on some innocent bystanders. These were very rough times. And if you were a jew during this particular time, you have some questions, how is it that a man like pilot, a roman oppressor, how could he get away with what he’s doing to the covenant people of God. And then you look at what happened to the people of whom the Tower fell upon your You’re asking yourself a question again, man, what kind of a sinner were they that God would allow that to happen to them. So in the midst of all of that, you may be scratching your head wondering if change is gonna come, What kind of change? What needs to change? What needs to happen for this place to be different? And every new year for each and every one of us, it’s an opportunity to think about growth and change. Some of us do it naturally because you are high capacity, you like to get things done, you you like to accomplish things and so you think about the next thing to accomplish and so the new year for you, what do I need to change to accomplish? The next thing that I want to get done in life? Others of you, life is hard, really hard, really frustrating. Maybe this past year wasn’t the best year for you. And so the new year is a reminder to you that maybe there’s some hope, maybe there’s a change that you might enjoy that you might benefit from. And so you look at the new year with a sense of hope, but yet maybe still uncertain because I’m the same person, it’s a new year, but I’m still the same person, Could I change? Is it possible for me to change? Is it possible fo…

Good morning everyone merry christmas, we’re so excited to have you all here to get to worship. Um and just praise um our God together. Um on this christmas morning we’re gonna do something a little bit different this morning. I’m going to read through our passage for the day. So if everyone would please stand if you are able to um as we read um our christmas passage will be in Isaiah 53. So if you would open there with me and read along Isaiah 53 starting in verse one, who has believed what he has heard from us and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed for he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and as one from whom men hid their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we esteemed him stricken smitten by God and afflicted, but he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his wounds we are healed all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has lain on him, the iniquity of us all, he was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before it shears is silent. So he opened not his mouth by oppression and judgment. He was taken away. And as for his generation who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people. And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death. Although he had done no violence and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He had to, he has put him to grief when his soul makes an offering for guilt. He shall see his offspring. He shall prolong his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand, out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied by his knowledge, shall the righteous one. My servant make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he bore the sins of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors, and that is the word of God y’all may be seated. Thank you Chloe Amen merry christmas church. Good morning, merry christmas show of hands! Did anyone spouse buy them a car this morning of a bow carbo, anyone no one, my car didn’t start this morning, had to jump it. I was, I was like, come on Annie, let’s see what happens, frozen, frozen battery. So it was great parents, don’t mind your kids this morning. Uh, we’re not worried about them. Uh, christmas is about kids and babies and noise and family and commotion. So it’s, it’s, it’s not a problem. Don’t worry about it. I, I appreciate kids, I appreciate your kids. Um, let me pray for our time. Is that okay Lord, I thank you for this morning. Thank you for the word of God in Isaiah 53 that we’re gonna look at today. I thank you for the power of the Word of God. I ask that the power of God would go out through the word of God Lord and convict and instruct and encourage the people of God this morning. Uh, this cold morning outside I prayed the word of God would be warm in our hearts. We have an affection for our brothers and sisters beside us and you’d use today in a mighty way in our lives. We just thank you for christmas, Thank you for today. Thank you for this church. Thank you for this passage. We can look at today. We just commit t…

I’m gonna read the passage, pray and then we’re gonna get into the teaching. So well you stand your feet, I’m gonna read this passage for us this morning again. This is closing out paul’s letter to the colossians Church, It’ll be verses 10 through 18 I’m sorry. Um yeah 10 through 18 to close out this letter um by the way, if you’re uh young and married and thinking about having kids here are some great names that you can consider, we’re gonna read them. Um they’re biblical names right there in the bible. So um looking for some names for your kids, some strong, you know, greek names here. Um anyway let’s read the passage Again, beginning in verse 10 Aris star kiss my fellow prisoner greets you and mark the cousin of Barnabas concerning whom you have received instructions If he comes to you, welcome him and jesus who is called justice. These are the only men of the circumcision among my fellow workers for the kingdom of God. And they have been a comfort to me who is one of you. A servant of christ, jesus greets you always struggling on your behalf in his prayers that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God for I bear him witness that he has worked hard for you and for those in and here ah polis luke. The beloved physician greets you as does dimas give my greetings to the brothers at leo antonym fa and the church in her house and when this letter has been read among you have it also read in the church of the And see that you also read the letter from Leo decia and say to our capisce, see that you fulfill the ministry that you have received in the Lord. I paul write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my chains, grace be with you church, that is the word of the Lord. Let us pray father, thank you for this letter. Thank you for the wisdom of christ that comes to us and this written form and thank you for this opportunity to come and gather in the name of christ to be strengthened in christ for the purpose of showing this world christ. And I pray father that you would help me um to teach your word faithfully this morning and I pray God, you would give us ears to hear what the spirit wishes to encourage us with, to equip us with and to speak to us pray this in jesus name, Amen, Amen church, you may be seated. The end of the letter is typically the time when we as christians take the liberty to jump forward to skip forward in our reading plans, we check that off saying I finished this book even though we didn’t quite read all of the names and what seems insignificant towards the end. Right. Some of you do that, some of you are like. No, that’s not me, man, I’m faithful to the Lord to read every word, even the ones I can’t pronounce right. But in this, this conclusion of the letter, paul highlights his team, He introduces his team and he lists more names here in colossians than in almost any other letter that he writes. Except for his letter to the roman church. He says, essentially, meet the team. And so the title for this morning’s teaching is meet the team, meet the team. And the goal for this morning is to help you to see that Christianity is a team sport. Christianity is a team sport for those of you who follow sports and you follow basketball, professional basketball in particular. Some of you you don’t have to follow professional sports or professional basketball to be a member here at sore. We still love you, right? We still recognize you as being a member of the team. But bear with me for a few moments, for those of you who do follow you probably are. That there is a debate about who is the greatest basketball player to play the game up until this point in history, right? And everyone knows that Michael Jordan is the goat, right? Not Lebron James, not anybody else, right? It is Michael Jordan. We all kn…

now that ties into our teaching this morning in colossians chapter four verses two through nine. You can go ahead and open your bible there, but this Sam being one of our community group leaders. We gather monthly with our community group leaders and we do some teaching there. It’s a little bit of iron sharpening iron. We want to help equip those guys to be more effective leaders within their community groups. But we’re also looking for guys who might aspire someday to to be an elder, someday to be a church planter or someday just someone who wants to be a part of a new plant that God may do in this area or in the surrounding area. And so we’re thankful for men like Sam who have have answered that call to want to go since the call and want to answer that call to go and see God do a new work. And so this whole church in colossians began because of the path, he was a man that paul reached in Ephesus, he was probably from colossi, but he was reaching the Ephesus and he went back to Colossi and planted a church gospel centered church and the church had come under attack. The church had come under the influence of some false teaching over time. And so paul then writes this letter to help win the hearts of the people back to christ in the absence of a path for those who probably rejoin paul or another missionary group to plant more churches. And so this whole letter is centered around this very idea of what we’re hoping to see become a reality through the Larson family, through the relationship with country bible there uh in the Hickman area. So be praying for that God is so good. And we just trust that God whatever happens there, that God will be glorified through this whole process of pursuing this gospel opportunity. Amen man. Now, I wanna invite you to stand with me. I want to read the passage that I wanna read it in your standing in your hearing. If you’re able to stand, please stand with us as we read the Word of the Lord again, this is colossians. Chapter four verses two through nine continue steadfastly in prayer. Being watchful in it with thanksgiving at the same time pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of christ, on account of which I am in prison, that I may make it clear. Which is how I ought to speak. Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt so that you may know how you ought to answer. Each person will tell you all about my activities. He is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. I’ve sent him to you for this very purpose that you may know how we are, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts and with him, our faithful and beloved brother who is one of you. They will tell you of everything that has taken place here. Church as the word of the Lord. Let’s pray father, thank you for your word. Thank you God that you are still planting churches, raising up disciples. You’re still in the process, God of sending out your people to be salt and light in the world and this world desperately needs the truth of christ to be proclaimed in it and for your people to adequately represent him faithfully. Stand for him and speak for him as the body of christ here on this earth and God, we aspire to be such a people. But we need your help. We need your word to be clear to us. We need your spirit to work mightily in us. And so would you help me this morning to teach it with clarity as I ought to speak. And would you help us as a people to embrace your word and to walk in it as we ought to walk in it and pray this in christ’s name. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. But if you’d like to stand, you’re welcome to do that as well because I was contemplating a title…

Good morning. So our church merry christmas, you guys awake this morning? Good, good. You’re awake, You’re awake. Glad you’re here. Name’s dan, if I haven’t met you, um we’re gonna continue looking at Paul’s letter to the colossians Church. So go ahead and open your bible, your bibles to colossians. Chapter three, We’re gonna finish the whole rest of chapter three, verses 12 through 25 then we’re going to read the first verse of chapter four. You might be thinking that’s strange that you would read just one verse in the first chapter as a portion of the passage that you’re teaching from. But I’ll have, you know that paul did not write this letter with chapters and verses described to them. He wrote it with ideas, thoughts And he wanted to convey those thoughts. And as we look at the out laying of the passage, the thought continues on into verse one of Chapter four. So that’s why we’re beginning there while you’re turning there. Let me give you a little bit of context for where we’re going this morning. Um It has been said that when the Gospel came to the Greeks, they turned it into a philosophy, Paul addresses that a little bit here in this letter to the colossians, there’s also been said that when the Gospel came to the Europeans, they turned it into a culture and it has been said that when the Gospel took root in America, we turned it into a business. But what we will read this morning is Paul reminding us that the Gospel shows the seeds of the new creation in christ, that it is about proclaiming a new creation, a new humanity in christ, it is about his kingdom being revealed in a people who have been born again, made a new in christ. And so he’s gonna talk repeatedly in this passage about putting on last week, Pastor mike covered verses one through 11 of chapter three and he talked about putting on christ and so this morning I’ve entitled this teaching, dressed to impress not in a superficial way, not in an attempt to impress this world but with a heavenly mindset. What christ on your mind in christ? That’s so important because In Chapter 3: verse one the verse begins with paul saying that if you have been raised with christ, this is speaking to his resurrection, this is the hope that Christianity offers the world that you will die someday. We will all die, but we will not all remain dead in that way, we shall be, we shall be raised to life again in christ and made like him, the new creation being seen in and through our faith here and now. If you have been raised with christ and then he goes on to say that you are to set your minds on the things above, meaning that you have this new creation in mind that you’re thinking about the rule and reign of christ and what he has done for you for giving your sin, bringing you back to the father and establishing this new creation, this new order, That is no longer under the Dominion of sin and satan, but is under the righteousness of our God and the peace and love of our God thrives within the context of this new creation. So he says put on this mindset and then he goes on to say that you if you have died with him, that your life is hidden in Christ. In verse three notice, he says that you were to have this mindset, this heavenly mindset, but then he says from heaven’s mindset, you you look like christ to God that you look like christ to heaven, that on this planet and all of the Brokenness and all of the sin around us. You look like christ. If you are in christ, if you have been raised with christ, you are to be dressed to impress your heavenly father, that’s what your faith in christ looks like to him. It’s impressive. It is the righteousness of christ, it is his beloved son that he sees, and then he says, when christ returns that you will also be with him in glory, in verse four, He …

Welcome, thank you for coming. My name is Mike one of the pastors here on staff at our church were in that wall between Thanksgiving and the Christmas season. So next week there’s gonna be uh christmas stuff around here, christmas songs are rolling. I don’t think we’re doing mistletoe this year due to budget cuts, but there’s, there’s a lot of christmas festivities about to start cooking at our church. So thank you for coming. It’s an honor to be here this morning. I was thinking over this passage and a few questions that help kind of set the stage for us as we look together at the word of God and I was wondering about what our, why does it seem like Christianity works for some people and not others, you probably know people, I’d say. Yeah, I was christian, I did that when I was younger. Um, it seems like there’s people that Christianity just seemed to click for them and others, it doesn’t click for them. Other people that do do Christianity, it seems like some people experience like life change. They overcome bad habits, they just grow and they adjust and they’re different people and other people that do Christianity, They don’t change, no habits change. They’re the same person with a christian trappings seasonally times they become christian, but why is christian work for someone on others and why do some christians change and grow and others don’t, but it seems like regardless of what you’ve thought or contemplate on this topic because I’m bringing up for us this morning at some point, your christian walk needs to become real real real fast some point in life. Your christian walk when push comes to shove needs to be doing the pushing and the shoving or your christian walk won’t continue on. I’ve entitled this message a winning walk. And I think we can really see that in this passage of first Corinthians one verses one through 11. If you’re following along in our house bible, you’ll see that on page 33 75 72 page 5 72. In our house bibles, let me read the passage to us and let’s then I’ll pray colossians three verse one If then you have been raised with christ seek the things that are above. Where christ is seated seated at the right hand of God, set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth for you have died. And your life is hidden with christ and God, when christ, who is your life appears, then you will also will appear with him in glory, put to death. Therefore, what is earthly in you. Sexual morality and purity, passions, evil desires, and covetousness and nous, which is adultery on account of these. The Wrath of God is coming in these Youtube once walked when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander and obscene. Talk to your mouth. C do not lie to one another, see that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of the creator here there is not greek and jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, Barbarian scythian slave free for all, for christ is all. And in all. Let’s pray God, thank you for today. Thank you for the word of the Lord. Thank you that the word of God is alive and active. It can take care of itself. We just need to let it out into our lives, into our congregations, into our personal walk Lord into our public walk. God I said the word of God will do the work of God and the people of God uh change us, transform us grow us. Lord help us understand what it means to walk with you as a christian Lord and we just need you desperately today and all the days of our lives. I ask that you just instruct us with the word of God. We just wanna humbly put our lives under the word of God today and see what it is that you where you’re calling us to change and grow in…

is that better? Yeah. All right. So again, quote from john Calvin, the pastor must have two voices, one for gathering the sheet and another for warding off and driving away wolves and thieves and the scripture supplies him with the means of doing both. Uh, in this letter to the colossians, we see paul doing just that. He’s using scripture to comfort the believers in colossi while simultaneously exposing the wolves and the thieves who seek to destroy this young church. In fact, um, in chapter two verse eight, we see the chief concern that paul wants to address in this letter. We see him warning the colossians against coming under the influence of these false teachers, who prided themselves on being wise philosophers and being deeply spiritual. And yet in all of their spiritual endeavors, they were departing from christ, which makes them wolves and thieves. And so paul comforts the sheep, he calls them to christ. And in chapter two verse 16, he begins the passage with the conjunctivitis adverb therefore, and you have to ask the question, what is it there for? Well, it’s there to show a cause and effect. And the cause and effect. Is this true gospel teaching and preaching faithfulness to the word of God keeps us in christ and false teaching will lead us away from christ. So he goes through all the chapter to unpacking very, very clearly, drawing attention to these false teachers. Their approach, their strategy to help the colossians to develop the discernment, to know what is true, who to believe, Who to trust. So. Chapter two is a very important chapter and verse 23 of this chapter, he tosses out a phrase self made religion and by that he simply means any form of spirituality or religion that did not originate with God. It is man made, it is of the devil, it is not of christ, it is self made religion. And so the title this morning is say no to self made religion. We just came off a midterm election. There are all these different things you have to vote on people trying to get your vote to say yes to this no to that. Well here paul is saying to the colossians, you need to say no to self made religion. And we’ll see here from this passage that paul, his argument against these false teachers and how to discern who these false teachers were and who the true representatives of the faith are. We see him making his argument come clear into the light in this chapter, but I wanna kinda, before we read the passage, I want to show you how he’s been building this argument. He’s been building this case against these false teachers. He’s been building a case to show that the reason why he’s writing this letter is to help them to see the truth to know who to trust. And he’s been building a very strong and compelling case, beginning in verse three and four, when he celebrates the colossians chapter one, verse three and four, he celebrates their faith in christ and that just may seem like ball is being nice, that kind of occurred, so to speak. But no, he wants them to understand the false teaching is taking them away from christ. He wants to celebrate faith in christ, not the departure from christ. And then in chapter one verse seven, he reminds them that they learned this faith, that they heard the gospel preached through a path chris who was beloved a faithful minister of christ again, in contrast to the false teachers. and then in Chapter 1: verse 23, he talks about the the suffering, the affliction that he was experiencing and what the Gospel Ministers experience as the world pours out its hatred on these faithful ministers who are who are preaching christ, right! These false teachers, pulling out hatred on these guys, preaching christ. And then in verse 28 of chapter one, he reminds them that it’s christ that we proclaim its christ, that we wa…

the check there, make sure sometimes I forget sometimes they, they just mute my mic for me cause I’ll just sing loudly during worship and stuff. So I think that’s probably to the benefit of the whole church that they mute my mic. But my name is dan, I’m glad you’re here this morning. Um one of the pastors here and we’re gonna continue studying paul’s letter to the colossians. So if you have a bible, go ahead and open it to colossians, chapter two, I’m gonna tell you um On the front end, we are going to read verses one through 15 and uh, the title of today’s teaching is the value of wisdom, the value of wisdom. And as I was thinking about today’s teaching, I was reminded of something that happened that took place was a true event. Um, I know sometimes I may tell you a story, an illustration of here that isn’t true, but if you know my motto, don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story, right? That’s a joke. First service, They were willing to laugh at that you guys, I know man, you, you thanks for that, ha ha. Um, but so this, uh, this event that took place, it’s um, it really is a little funny, believe it or not. So Payless shoe store decided to run a prank on some fashion influencers in Los Angeles, they opened up what they call the designer shoe store and they stocked it with all Payless shoes, but they removed the payless branding from the shoes and from the store and by the way, I have nothing against Payless and Payless shoes, I’ve worn payless shoes in the past. I’m sure I wear some in the future, but this is quite comfortable. So they opened up this store, remove all of the branding, pretend that it is a designer shoe store. Very expensive. That’s what that means. Right? Every time you see designer, right? That means you’re gonna pay a lot of money. And they invited in all of these fashion influencers to come in, get a first peep or a first look, a first opportunity to purchase from this new designer shoe store that opened And these fashion influences were so blown away by the shoes on the shelves and they were willing to pay more than 1800% of the sticker price of the, of the shoe, the value of the shoe. I mean it’s the shoes that were, that would cost normally at payless, about $30. They were willing to pay 646 $150 700 dollars for a pair of shoes. And so Payless is set all this up. They have no idea that this is Payless, right? And then they began to interview these fashion influencers about the shoe and what they liked about and what was, you know great about it and they just, they just gushed at how awesome how cool how, how chick, how sleek, how you know, all of the fashion terminology, these shoes were fine quality. They were amazing. The comfort is amazing, It is so stylish. And then at the end of it pay less would kind of drop the bomb on them and say did you know that these are payless shoes? They said no, no way these can be payless shoes. These are the top of the line. And I said no, these are payless shoes, by the way, here’s your money back. We wanna we wanna give you the shoes. Now you can write about how cool, how comfortable, how stylish, how quality these shoes are and and help us out. Right? And so that’s what Payless did as I was thinking about that, right? These fashion influences influencing the culture, the trendsetters, right, telling people what looks good, what’s fashionable, what is desirable? These people were duped and had no idea why because their whole system, their whole metric system of valuing things is a bit superficial, right? A little bit superficial. So they could get the cover pulled over their eyes a little bit. And so today when we think about what we’re about to read in chapter Two of colossians paul is saying to the colosseum Church, don’t let anyone pull the cover over your…

Good morning. So a church. Good morning. So good to be with you guys. If you’re new here, my name is dan, I’m one of the elders, so glad you’re here. Hopefully we get to connect with you at some point. Um while you guys are here, we are going to continue in colossians. So go ahead and open your bibles to the letter to the colossians Church, we’re gonna be looking at chapter one, verses 24 through 29. While you’re turning there, I just kinda wanna help set up this morning’s teaching a bit. So, As you will see in a moment in verse 24, Paul will begin this passage. Speaking of his suffering for the Gospel and then he’s gonna end in verse 29 talking about his struggle to make mature disciples of Christ and in between that, we’re gonna see paul talking about what God is doing in the church, in the church like the colossians and what God is expecting of that church. And so through all of that, from beginning to end, paul suffering to take the Gospel to the unreached regions of the world, and paul suffering to make mature gospels, through all of that, paul is warning the Colossians Church to understand that God is after something in their lives through their church. And he wants to show them this through his own suffering through his own toiling for the gospel and all of this reminds me of an author named Nassim to lead. He is a Lebanese american author who wrote the book anti fragile. He wrote this book in 2012. His main point of the book is that in order for something to be considered anti fragile, it must not only be able to endure hardship and resistance, but it must benefit from all hardship and resistance. This idea of being anti fragile sounds a lot like what paul is describing in terms of his own life and what he is after in the life of the colosseum church. And so he uses his experience to talk about how the Gospel has produced this in his life. So today the title of the sermon is anti fragile. Again, that’s not just a resilience, that’s not just not breaking, but it’s improving and becoming stronger when faced with adversity. And my goal this morning is to help you see that suffering comes from True Gospel Ministry and True Gospel Ministry produces anti fragile christians. That’s my goal this morning. So let me pray for us and then we’ll read the passage Father in Heaven, thank you, thank you for your good promises. Thank you for your faithfulness. That reminds us that those promises are indeed going to be fulfilled in christ for us. Thank you Lord, thank you for the time this morning where we got to sing your praises. Thank you Lord for turning your gaze towards us right here in Lincoln Nebraska. And so our church, I thank you that this time is not insignificant to you. And so Father, would you during this time, would you exalt your son jesus christ through the ministry of this word, would you through this time by the power of your Holy Spirit? Help us to grasp what you want us to glean from this teaching. And would you use me a lowly servant? And most importantly, would you be pleased to have this worship gathering be associated with your name this morning? I pray this in jesus name amen beginning in verse 24. Or read the passage because now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body. That is the church of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you to make the Word of God fully known the mystery hidden for ages and generations. But now revealed to his saints to them, God chose to make known how great among the gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery which is christ in you the hope of glory him. We proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we …

you ever in your life, come to the point yet where you feel like you just you just hit that wall mentally, emotionally, physically relational e you’re just out of gas, you hit that wall and you want to sit down because that last hit took it out of you and you’ve not stood up yet in your walk of God, you your christian walk of God has gone from a sprint, a mad sprint to a walk to a stroll, to a crawl, to a sit down show and you’re sitting down, you ever had that moment in your life where you’re where you took that hit that friendship, hit, that hurt from friendships, you took that hit from the world’s calling, You took that that that hit from your previous vices lingering in your life longer than you thought they would. And you’re left wondering about Christianity and jesus and this whole thing that start off so great and beautiful at the beginning and now it’s at a little little putter along the, along the walk of your life of God, anyone relate to that as people I know for me, a couple of years ago, probably three, some years ago I was there, I was all those different places and I was I was done. I’m like what about the joy? What about the passion? What about the what about that clear and compelling picture of christ that I first saw when I first became a follower of christ that that picture of the gospel of jesus christ did for me, that that image blurred and got faded and I had a friend who came along and who shared this, this massive recording of this seminary class going through all these different aspects of how you see christ in all of scripture and I was like, see christ in all scripture is something I’ve heard about, something I poorly attempted at that time as a pastor was kind of like, you know, I’ve heard that game, you know, 65 degree separation of kevin bacon, raise your hand, let’s listen anyone the rest of you, you’re not missing out much. But there’s this thing where like, you know, this movie has, you know, so and so and that movie has so and so that movie has so and so that movie has kevin bacon I think is the way the game goes right, right. And it felt like pastors would do that with their sermons. We’re rolling along, rolling along. But then one day you’re like, where did that come from? And they go to jesus, you know, on a cross, it’s like, wow, how is he gonna get there this week? And so I heard this and I listen to this podcast, it went from genesis exodus, leviticus numbers, Deuteronomy to the wisdom literature, to the song of songs, to the minor prophets. The major profits went through the apocalyptic literature in the old testament through all the old testament and pointing how all the bible points to christ, it’s like crisis like water, he gets out and he gets everywhere and he gets down the lowest points he gets the highest points he gets everywhere in your bible is dripping with christ. But I feel like those pastors not only unlocked this concept of what it means to be christ centered on your bible reading, christ centered on your understanding, but even christ centered on the old testament, I found it incredibly powerful. I think that is what I was reminded of when I was looking at this passage just last week. So let me pray for us. I’d like to drop a simple diagram I’ve held on my ipad for the last two years. Uh, and that helps a visual picture for what we’re talking about and let’s jump in God, thank you for today. Thank you for we’re at a variety of places as people. Lord read a variety of places as men and women and we need you Lord to get into every nook and cranny of our souls into every nook and cranny of our bibles. Help us to see you clearly christ see who you are in the bible or the gospel is sufficient. We need to see you clearly and not lose the love not lose the vision of you and I walk…