Colossians Chapter 1 Verses 21 – 22

•That’s some strong language! Don’t think so? Check this out…This word for alienated comes from the same Greek root word where we get our word “appalling” from. And so Paul explains that those saved by grace, having placed their hope and faith in Jesus…given their life and their every day to Him, what we used to be because of sin…appalling to God! And the terrible implication is that if you are still in your sin…well you can do the math.

•And the next word he uses…he pulls no punches…uses the word “enemy.” This is a funny one because it can also mean “odious.” Sin stinks, man! Literally it means hateful and hostile…in our minds by wicked works and the idea behind that is our enterprise. The sum of it all. Not a wicked work but the aggregation, the summation the enterprise of mankind. The whole of our lives…Does that make sense? This point is why “my good outweighs my bad” doesn’t work…

•Last week we talked about the mystery and the secret of life. That all creation, all we know, see, sense…was all created somehow mysteriously by and through Jesus. The image and fullness of God. And our design, our spec sheet, our purpose since we were made by Him and through Him is to live for Him (verse 16). And yet sin has deformed us!

•Do you know that? That anger, that laziness, that apathy, that pride, that lust, that insatiable thirst of your flesh to get for you and to do for you…being so very hateful, hostile and appalling…just the way we are when we are...this is what has happened to us…and yet at the same time, He remembers us…He remembers what we were…

•You ever just feel the Lord grieved as you see the loss and the hurt and the want and the thirst and the stubborn stiffness of neck all around? Do you ever just feel the Lord grieved?? I really do! Indy, downtown Indianapolis, where I was this past week, was filled…literally so so many people block after block in desperate need. Hurting and messed up and the Spirit within me grieved as God spoke into my ear, “look at what has happened!”

•Why talk about this? Why go into this? Because we have got to understand that within us is a spark. A design. A remnant of the first of our kind. The kind of man that communed with the Father. Perfect and pure, right and strong…and yet sin has surged and hate in our hearts has caused us to be alienated from the Father and because of that mankind as an enterprise has become appalling.

•99% of people who have lived without ever turning their lives over to the Lord believe that they are a good person. And that belief wastes their lives, hurts those around them and sends them to hell. I had this conversation with a homeless man just this past week…who said he was going to heaven because he is a good person…why does he feel that way? Think that way? Talk that way? Because deep down within him, that spark remains and somehow he can sense it…what he can’t sense, what he must be told, is that spark or not…any sin, one sin, is as good as the lot of sin in his life…and that no good people go to heaven. Only perfect people go…

•We must know and understand what sin has done to us so that we can learn to HATE it! Sin must be identified and cornered in our own hearts because all you can do, what you MUST do is repent, reverse, reset because truth is, He has provided the reconcile! I love that word so very much at the end of verse 21. One of the most complex words I’ve ever seen in the Greek. It literally means, “To bring back a former state of harmony!” That is so very clear!

•Why am I filled with hate, aggression, straight up wrath, impatience, envy, strife, lust, selfish ambition and offense? Because I am not as I was intended to be. And yet when I yield my day, my life, my situation to Jesus and HUNGER to do His Word in my life…HUNGER for Him to be Lord not just for me to call Him that or play like He is…but NEEDING Him to continually, without compromise, direct my path….then I am again, a glimmer of that spark, man.

•Impossible without Jesus and impossible without Him dying on the cross to overcome sin. Because no power was within man before then…but Jesus, when He ascended to the Father sent the power in the Person of the Holy Spirit! And now through Him indwelling us, I love this, while we take up our cross daily and live to honor Him…not because we have to in order to maintain our salvation but because we understand sin, we understand love and we know our King so our daily heart’s desire is to honor Him…through Him in us alone, we are holy, blameless and above reproach in the eyes and opinion of the Father. And get this…that is the entrance criteria for heaven!!

Colossians Chapter 1 Verse 23

•Truly truly truly. Man truly….in Christ, continuance is the test of reality. Continuing in the faith and notice this wonderful nugget Paul leaves for us here as he says, “grounded and steadfast in the gospel!” Yes he means anchored. Yes he means standing upon the truth of Jesus but check this out…think of this in terms of power. Direct current from the Father. If you and I are not grounded, if a circuit is not grounded, what happens? Nothing! No power!

•We must be grounded in the Word of God….in correct doctrine, in truth, in humility, in love, in understanding and opposition of sin, and then…the power flows…just like a DC circuit. And just like a circuit, you know what limits the current? Resistance. What does resistance look like in our lives? Flesh…

Colossians Chapter 1 Verses 24 – 27

•Paul is writing in chains. Remember that little fact? He is himself suffering but notice his reason, his purpose…it’s not him! It’s others…his stewardship that he has received from Christ and check this out…in chains…destitute, taken advantage of, accused, abused, short-end-of-the-sticked…and he rejoices! This is how the church operates. How you and I should continually operate. To love God and to love others…(Why do we fall so short with that? Why don’t folks see that?)

•I believe it is because we resist the Spirit of God and we make decisions and never ask ourselves, “HOW does this honor God? How does this align with His word?” No matter your intentions! Hell is filled with souls who had good intentions! No matter what you think you are doing!? Show me in the Word of God how what you are doing, the decision you are making, is righteous! Not right! RIGHTEOUS!

•Paul lived the mystery man…he thrived in the secret! The riches of the glory of this mystery…Christ in you, the hope of glory…and look at what that kind of life leads to…

Colossians Chapter 1 Verses 28 – 29

•His aim is not only to be right with God Himself but to make disciples! Not decisions and converts…they’ll be weak…but to teach them truth, to warn in wisdom, such that each of us, you and I, can be…huge word here…perfect in Christ Jesus. The idea…to be complete…as we ought to be. No more strife within the body. No more division. Just people serving others in humility. Loving the Lord…laser beam locking on sin in their own heart and deploying the Word of God in their own minds and lives in true repentance…this Paul said, even in chains, is worth it…and man > I agree…watch my life prove it through the power of Him in me!