Feeding Our Souls
CCCAG, March 26th, 2022
Scripture: Colossians 2:6-8, 16-23
If you are one of the people who listen to us by podcast and never actually seen the person speaking, I have more than a few extra pounds. I started gaining weight after I left the military and started jobs that were less physically active, but carried the Army appetite.
Since the late 90’s, I’ve been on virtually every diet plan you can think of to lose weight. All of them helped get a little weight off, but I’d bounce back.
The best one I had was called the Omni plan, which used HcG to increase metabolism and curve cravings. I lost 80 pounds on that one, and was at my lowest weight in almost 20 years when I moved up here.
Then nursing school….stress eating, not sleeping, trying to keep up with working full time and being your pastor had its toll. A few weeks ago, I was the heaviest I’ve ever been, but I have lost about 12 pounds now by cutting out most snacking so we will see how this goes.
But, I didn’t prepare a message this morning around my chubbiness.
I wanted to open this way to get you thinking about an old saying-
“You are what you eat!”
What is true in the physical, is also true in the spiritual.
You are what you eat also applies to us spiritually.
What we consume comes out in how we live our lives, and in particular our spiritual lives. As we continue in our study on the book of Colossians, I want you to see this in relation to how we think about Jesus, how we can sometimes put things in his place that are not of him, and learn to recognize and discard things that are counterfeits to the Gospel.
Prayer
We are going to break up this section of Colossians into 3 parts.
In the first of the three sections, I want to talk about focus.
Since your focus determines your reality, it’s important that we have our focus on the right things.
In this case, our life focus should be on Thanksgiving-
I. Life focus- thanksgiving
Col 2:6-8
6 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.
When I was in Kenosha I was a volunteer chaplain at all three of the hospitals. Oftentimes the chaplains were not called in by the patient but often by the family members of the patient because they thought a pastor could help with their family member who was going through either an end of life crisis or a serious diagnosis.
So most of the time I got called I went in cold meaning I had no prior relationship with this person and they were not the one who called me there.
I would sit down and have an opening conversation with them to kind of judge their needs and where they were spiritually. One of the questions I would ask is- “Apart from what is going on right now what do you have to be thankful for?”
Two reasons (and great ways to start off conversations with people you meet) to ask that- one I could judge their spiritual life by their answer. Two, I could judge there fear level or state of mind by their answer. It gave me a starting point to start having the serious conversations.
You can tell a lot about a person and their mental and spiritual condition by how they answer that question- “what are you most thankful for in life?”
I don't want you to answer out loud but I want you to answer that in your own mind
What are you most thankful for right now?
Some people might say their spouse.
Some people might say they're kids
Some people may say their house or property
Some people might even say their job.
Those aren't bad things to be thankful for. We should be thankful for all the blessings that God has given us in this life.
But, what happens when those things are taken away?
I don’t want to be a bummer on Sunday morning, but sooner or later, they will be.
Fortunately the Bible gives us an example of how to react when everything in your life is taken away.
Around the time of Abraham, there was a man named Job. Job was one of the richest men in the world at that time. He had flocks, servants, possessions, and HE was a Godly man.
So Godly in fact, The Father started bragging on him in heaven. Satan heard that, and stated that Job only followed God because of the blessings, not because of who God was.
So God told satan, you can take it all away, but do not harm him.
Satan is unleashed into Job’s life, and he is about to have a very bad day. I’m going to quick paraphrase Job 1, and read the last part.
As Job is going about his day a messenger comes and said that a warring tribe had come and had killed all the servants in that area and stolen all of the livestock.
Just as that messenger finishes another one comes to say that fire from the sky burned up all the sheep and servants in another area.
Just then another servant comes I said another warring tribe came and put the rest of the servants to death and stole the remaining of the livestock.
The bible doesn’t record Job reacting to any of this yet- in fact, it seems like Job is taking this all in stride until the next servant comes.
That servant comes and says your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking and a mighty wind came in and collapsed the house on top of them and they are all dead.
Imagine that. In the course of less than 2 minutes you go from the top to less than the bottom.
Now I’m going to read Job’s response-
Job 1:20-22
At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship 21 and said:
"Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart.
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised."
In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.
Sometimes when we read something, it’s easy to not really grasp the depth of what had just happened.
Job has lost everything he spent a lifetime building- his flocks, his business, many beloved servants. He is now left with nothing- but no response from him.
But then he lost all his children.
Put yourself in his shoes for a moment. Wouldn’t you be crazy with grief?
That’s when Job falls to the ground, weeping…but look at what he says-
“May the name of the LORD be praised”
He worshipped, he worshipped
The key to worship is giving thanks, and the ability to give thanks during the worst moments in your life comes from a life focus of being thankful for all God has done in your life.
You see, Job had it decided before he had thousands of camels, goats, or sheep that they were only blessings that God gave.
Job knew that the servants who served him so closely and faithfully were a treasure from the Father who loved him.
Even his children, who the scripture seems to indicate he loved more that the servants or property….they were seen as gifts from God.
That is why Job could have this reaction- worship- giving thanks.
It doesn’t take away from the love he had for his children, his servants, or his business. It simply put them in the proper place- as gifts to be stewarded and cherished.
But the giver of the gifts….God was recognized as the source of everything, and therefore he deserved the worship.
God deserved to be thanked.
Thanksgiving is the key to living an abundant life.
An overcoming life
A life that isn’t affected by every negative breeze that you might feel.
The thankful life is set upon a foundation whose cornerstone is Jesus the Christ.
That rock will never be moved, shaken, or fail.
That’s how you live in this world- thankful for everything God has given you through Jesus and living for that.
As a young Christian, it took a long time for me to get this right. I lived in a constant state of anxiety about messing up, making God angry, or losing my salvation if I even thought something bad.
I really didn’t have a good grasp of the gospel, and my beliefs more closely reflected karma than Christ. That is- I had to do more good than bad to get the scales to even out.
I was just starting bible school when our church’s senior pastor resigned. I was on the pastoral search committee, and after several months we found a couple of pastoral candidates. One came to interview, and we were driving a candidate around Kenosha showing him around.
The pastoral candidate asked about the spiritual climate of the city. I gave a really depressing answer based on my bad theology, “We have at least 5 bars for every church, people are proud, don’t want told they are living wrong, and definitely don’t want to hear the Gospel.”
He sat silent for a moment, and then said something that forever changed me- “People don’t want to be told how to live- not even church people. As church leaders, our job is get them in proper relationship with the Savior, all of that takes care of itself. If you try to change their behavior, you’ll burn out in under a year as a pastor and destroy lives. But, if you hold up Jesus to them, stress the baptism in the Holy Spirit and teach them to live in HIS power, and show them love- you’ll have a completely reformed, on fire congregation.”
It totally changed the way I think about ministry.
Jesus is the answer to every question.
I mentioned a moment ago as a young Christian, I had a bad understanding of what our faith taught, and I want to explore that a bit more for all of us and look at the next section of Colossians that deals with-
II. Distractions from thanksgiving
Col 2:16-23
16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. 18 Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. 19 He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.
There are two things that I want to talk about from this scripture we just read-
#1- Legalism- meaning trusting in observances, acts, ceremonies, giving, or anything other than the Gospel of Jesus Christ to make you pleasing to God.
#2- Comparison- using any of the above to make yourself feel superior to someone else.
We will start with legalism.
Interesting fact in the New Testament. Who was Jesus the hardest on?
Was it the prostitute who sold themselves for money or worked in temples leading God's people astray to worship idols?
Was it the tax collector who greedily took more than required, keeping the difference for themselves
Maybe it was the terrorist group called the zealots who carried out assassinations in the name of God. Today, we’d be sending special forces after these guys or dropping bombs on them from drones. Yet, Jesus had one of those guys as his disciple.
The scripture doesn't record Jesus throwing rebukes at those people.
Do you know who Jesus did use the strongest language to condemn- when I say strongest language- I mean when you look at it in the Greek language and what some commentators say about it, it wasn’t profane, but it was salty!
Jesus definitely wasn’t smiling when He says these words-
Matt 23:23-28
23 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices — mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law — justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24 You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
25 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
27 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
That’s some pretty strong stuff there.
Listen, please listen.
You can’t learn to develop a heart filled with thankfulness if you trust in anything other than the work of Jesus on the cross to make you right with God.
That’s not to say obedience isn’t important to your salvation- it is.
Hear me- obedience is important for us to grow as Christians and receive His blessing and rewards. Obedience leads to maturity in Christ, and just like when you were growing up- the more mature you got in life, the more freedoms or rewards you could be trusted with.
But obedience is the result of salvation, not the cause of salvation.
It’s a fruit of salvation, not the tree which bore the fruit- that tree is Jesus.
Whether you are here right now or listening on the podcast- if you think there is no way you can go to heaven because of what you’ve have done or what are doing…
Listen closely-
It’s Jesus. Your salvation I completely dependent upon HIM. We call it the finished work on the cross because that is what it is- finished. He even said so from the cross- it is finished.
Rom 8:1-3 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death (<The law of sin and death means trusting in works for your salvation).
If you are here or on the podcast, and you struggle with this- voices or feelings telling you that you will never be good enough, that God can never love you, that you are beyond his forgiveness.
I rebuke that in the Name of Jesus.
Receive the true Gospel into your heart, mind, soul and spirit,
If you do that- living a life of thankfulness will not be a problem for you!
You know what else is destroyed when we get rid of legalism?
Comparison. They go hand in hand.
The root of legalism is the desire not to please God, but to make yourself look better to everyone else.
And this pandemic of comparison we are living with today is killing more people than COVID ever dreamed of.
Especially in our young people with social media.
Kids killing themselves because their social media persona was found out to be a false front, and the internet bullies and trolls descended, destroying their self-image that was based on the flimsy foundation of popularity and not on the rock that is Jesus.
You know when something about spirituality comes up at work, I always get this kind of response-
“Well, I know I’m going to hell” They say things like that because they are comparing themselves with someone they know who goes to church.
My response is- “Only because you are choosing to.”
Your eternal destiny if your choice.
Heaven is a choice, hell is also a choice.
Choose wisely. Choose wisely.
I’m going to close with a prayer today based on the last few verses of Colossians chapter 2.
III. Throw Away legalism- chose thankfulness!
All rise
Father, help us all to die to the basic principles of this world which would choke out living a life of thanksgiving and instead trade that in for legalism. Your word says that heaven and earth will pass away someday, but you and your word will never pass away so help us to put all of our energy, focus, and thanksgiving into you and you alone.
Strip away all of those bad ideas, horrible doctrine, and lies of the enemy that have existed in our brains for far too long. Let us hear only your voice in our spirits, and keep the enemy far from us.
Altar Call
