Embark with me on a soul-stirring journey as we tackle what it truly means to live with Christ at the center of our every move. Weaving through Colossians chapter 3, I, Pastor Brandon, delve into the Apostle Paul's profound insights on the transformative power of Christ's lordship over our lives. As we unpack these truths, we'll discover the freedom that comes with full surrender, not just in private spirituality but in the way we interact with family, handle personal struggles, and conduct ourselves daily.
This heartfelt exploration doesn't shy away from the tough questions about grace, sin, and the Christian walk. We understand that grace isn't a ticket to live without boundaries but a call to live above the bondage of sin. By examining the delicate dance between forgiveness and conviction, and recognizing the powerful role of parental encouragement in shaping a faith-filled family life, we'll conclude with a prayerful commitment to embracing Christ's lordship. Listen in and prepare for an enriching experience that goes beyond mere inspiration, moving you to action and a deeper connection with God.
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The More You Dig. The More You Find.
Embark with me on a soul-stirring journey as we tackle what it truly means to live with Christ at the center of our every move. Weaving through Colossians chapter 3, I, Pastor Brandon, delve into the Apostle Paul's profound insights on the transformative power of Christ's lordship over our lives. As we unpack these truths, we'll discover the freedom that comes with full surrender, not just in private spirituality but in the way we interact with family, handle personal struggles, and conduct ourselves daily.
This heartfelt exploration doesn't shy away from the tough questions about grace, sin, and the Christian walk. We understand that grace isn't a ticket to live without boundaries but a call to live above the bondage of sin. By examining the delicate dance between forgiveness and conviction, and recognizing the powerful role of parental encouragement in shaping a faith-filled family life, we'll conclude with a prayerful commitment to embracing Christ's lordship. Listen in and prepare for an enriching experience that goes beyond mere inspiration, moving you to action and a deeper connection with God.
SOAP Bible Study Method- https://www.brandoncannon.com/soap/
Bible reading plan- http://www.experiencerlc.com/the-bible/
Free weekly newsletter- https://www.brandoncannon.com/
Social:
Facebook: https://facebook.com/thebrandoncannon
Instagram: https://instagram.com/brandoncannon
Twitter: https://twitter.com/brandoncannon
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theBrandonCannon
The More You Dig. The More You Find.
Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, pastor Brandon, today. Colossians, chapter 3, and today's title is All of Christ for All of Life. That is definitely how it should be, but, if we're honest, sometimes we have a tendency to compartmentalize Jesus to certain aspects of our life. But that's not what God's Word teaches. As a matter of fact, the more of our life we turn over to the Lord, the more freedom we can live in, and that's exactly what the Apostle Paul is going to be teaching the Colossians church and for all of us. So we're going to get into that in just a moment. But, as always, if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel. Make sure you're leaving us comments on the YouTube channel, letting us know how you are getting engaged with God's Word and all the things that God's Word is speaking to you. Also on the podcast Forever and Always my favorites. Thank you so much. Please remember to leave us a five star review, letting us know how you're engaging with this as well, and also letting other people know what they can come to expect from this podcast if they subscribe.
Speaker 1:Also, where we all gather together at the Bible breakdown discussion over on Facebook and, as I say every day but I can't help it one of my favorite things that we do because, man, the more we dig, the more we find, and I love. Now I think there's well over 400 people that are going there, that are subscribed, that are reading those devotions every day, and they do just an amazing job. And also, you're going to see something slowly growing. And here's the thing this is going to take years to do, but we have started a website called thebiblebreakdowncom and I have some really big ideas for this. It's going to take a long time to do, but I want to create a commentary, kind of our own personal Bible breakdown study Bible that we are going to add resources to, and because we're reading through the Bible together, one chapter at a time, we're going to eventually cover every chapter in the Bible and my hope is is to eventually go back to those chapters and just add things as we learn. So I would love for you to go ahead and go there and you can subscribe to an email list there as well, and it will send you every chapter we read every day. So, yeah, we're just trying to create as many resources as possible, and the more we dig, the more we find, and we're never going to stop digging because man, god's Word, is just inexhaustible and it is amazing to continue to dig into God's Word together.
Speaker 1:And speaking of that, if you have your Bibles, when it opened up with me to Colossians, chapter 3, I really love this chapter because what we see in this is a lot of really interesting stuff. So, first of all, remember what we've been saying over the past few chapters is the goal of Colossians is Paul is writing to this small church in the middle of nowhere because he has heard from Epaphorus, the guy who planted, which, by the way, in chapter one I said his name was Epaphroditus, I don't know. I got really excited. I extended his name longer than it is. It's Epaphorus and he is the one who started the church and he's come to see Paul while he's in prison and he tells Paul we're dealing with some heresy where there are some people who are saying Jesus is awesome, but he's not God, and so he sent in you to help us.
Speaker 1:And so the highest explanation of God, of Jesus in particular, you're going to find in the entire New Testament is the book of Colossians, when Paul says that Jesus is the visible representation of the invisible God. I mean, it's just amazing what he has to say about Jesus. What's also amazing is how he helps us to understand because that's the overall theme of Colossians is Jesus is Lord of all. But what's also amazing is that he says once you get ahold of that, jesus can transform your entire life. And we're going to see that today. And I also love the fact that while he's writing Colossians, he also writes a letter to the church at Ephesus.
Speaker 1:And so in Ephesus chapter or, excuse me, ephesians, chapter five, you see where Paul talks about how we should be a mutual submission to one another and he talks about what that looks like in a family dynamic where we have these different dynamics of how husbands can serve their wives and how wives can serve their husbands and all of that. Well, that's still going on in the mind of Paul as he's inspired of the Holy Spirit. And so we see some of that today in chapter three, because the goal of the apostle Paul, inspired of the Holy Spirit, as he writes Colossians 3, is to talk about how Jesus doesn't want to be part of your life. He wants to be over your whole life, all of Christ for all of life, and every area of our life that we submit to the Lordship of Jesus is every area of life where we can find freedom in who he is. So we're going to dive into this together. Read God's word as always. Stop along the way and see how God's word will challenge us and encourage us as we read it together. You ready? Here we go.
Speaker 1:Colossians 3, verse 1 says this Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God's right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth, for you died to this life and your real life is hidden with Christ in God, and when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory. So put to death the sinful earthly things lurking within you have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust and evil desires. Don't be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater worshiping the things of this world. Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming, for you used to do these things when your life was still part of this world, but now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander and dirty language. Don't lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. Put on your new nature and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like Him In this new life. It doesn't matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave or free. Christ is all that matters and he lives in all of us.
Speaker 1:Now pause for a moment. This is a really important text because there is this interesting dynamic happening in the church world today and it makes me I kind of wish that I could just kind of sit back, cross my legs, fold my arms and we just have an hour long conversation about this. But we're going to kind of just skim over the top and say that there are many varieties but really two schools of thought when it comes to living for God. You have on one side, this ultra legalistic and you have another side that's ultra liberal, if we can say it that way, and I don't mean by that political party thing, it's just anything goes. There's an old kind of crass phrase that's called slope agape Just free love, whatever God is, love all that stuff. So you have the two extremes right and a lot of gray area in between.
Speaker 1:And this scripture helps us find the middle of the road because if you remember yesterday, paul's talking to the church at Colossae and he's saying hey, listen, don't be wrapped up in these people that say don't touch, don't taste, don't eat, other words, think that God loves you because of how perfect you are. You know, god's love for you has nothing to do with your perfection. He loves you because he created you and because he wants to redeem you from your sin. That seems to lean toward the quote unquote sloppy agape, easy grace people that says, ah, do whatever you want, you know, eat whatever you want, sleep with whoever you want, all that kind of good stuff, it's all under grace. You know that was a.
Speaker 1:I heard a thing. There's a rumor. I don't know if it's true or not, but a gentleman was telling me that he went to a church one time and basically the preacher up on stage was saying hey, listen, you need to do whatever you want to do because it's all under grace. I can't imagine dying tonight and going to heaven, going man, I could have had one more and he listed this horrible thing you shouldn't do. I could have done this one more time before I went to heaven, and he was just grieved in his heart because he and I both agree when we're saved from our sin.
Speaker 1:We're not saved so that we can sin. We're saved from having to sin because most of the sins that we commit in our life are basically ways that we try to indulge our sinful nature or to medicate broken places in our life. You think about some of the things that we do. When we first sin is because of a broken place, a hurting place, a longing inside of us to fulfill a void, and we fill it with these sins in our life. And now that we have Christ, he sets us free from the bondage, the addiction, the need to sin in our life. So on one end, that ultra-legalistic part is put to put to death because we don't, we don't try to be perfect so that God will love us. God already loves us.
Speaker 1:But then on the other side, we just read Paul saying so, since you have got your mindset on the things of God, we no longer live to indulge our flesh, indulge our desires, so don't do these things. So then you go wait, a minute is my, my sin is washed away, but yet I'm not supposed to do these things. Is that not a contradiction? No, absolutely not. I can't wait till we get to the book of James, because the book of James says my faith without works is dead. And People go wait a minute.
Speaker 1:I thought I was saved by grace through faith, like I can't boast about, like it's a free free, get the grace. And the answer is absolutely. I don't serve God so that I can get saved. I am saved now I can serve God. And so we have it all around backwards. It reminds me of a scripture of Jesus said he said if you love me, you'll obey my commands. I used to think that meant that it was passive, aggressive. Or Jesus is saying well, if you love me, prove it. But rather, if you think about it from the nature and character of God, it's the other way around. He says hey, man, you focus on loving me, you'll obey what I command, because it's about I get to honor God. So the answer is we do not focus on committing sins in our life because of our love for God.
Speaker 1:And one of the ways that you can tell if your relationship with God is strong is does it bother you to sin? If you sin, if you lie, if you cheat, if you steal, if you do the? Let's focus on the big ten. You know the big ten commandments. If you do those things, does it prick your heart? Do you feel conviction? If you don't feel conviction, then maybe you've wandered far from the Lord and it's time to come back close to him. But when we sin and we are convicted, is the Holy Spirit saying hey, you're better than that. Hey, let's not do that. Let's stay free and stay clear, because sin creates broken places in our life. And that's what that's all about. Okay, let's continue to go.
Speaker 1:Verse 12 since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourself with tender hearted, mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Make allowances for each other's faults and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourself with love, which binds us all together, and perfect harmony, and let the peace that comes from Christ Rule in your hearts, for as members of one body, you are called to live in peace and always be thankful. In other words, what Paul is saying there is he's saying just like you're on a journey toward growth and, you know, getting free more every day. Realize everybody else is on that journey as well, and can I tell you that is one of the things that I struggle with sometimes, because I forget that Everybody is on a different growth journey in the relationship with God. And so when I'm going through a growing season in my life, I think everybody else is supposed to be going through a growing season, and some like man. Why aren't you growing? Well, because, just like them, I also go through seasons when I'm not growing very fast, and so I have to give people the grace I want to receive. And that's what Paul is saying is, just like you are growing, make allowances for other people, because that's what it's all about is to have harmony with one another.
Speaker 1:Verse 16,. Let the message about Christ in all its richness fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all wisdom that he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts, and whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God, the Father. Now the last part is what we also read in Ephesians, chapter five.
Speaker 1:So here we go Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting for those who belong to the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and never treat them harshly. Children, always obey your parents, for this, pleases the Lord, fathers, do not aggravate your children or they will become discouraged. Now pause real fast. I know a lot of a lot of dads and we thrive on aggravating our children, and by that what that means is we tease and we pick and we do these kinds of stuff. That's not what it's talking about. It's talking about where you were constantly only pointing out the failures and the faults and you're consistently running down your children. That's what he's saying. Don't do that, because if you're always doing that, what does the Bible say? Then they will become discouraged.
Speaker 1:Now it's important that we correct our children, right, of course, but what Paul is saying, once again, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is make sure that you're using balance, living in that tension, because too far will then break their spirit and we don't want that right. And above that, if you want to go even deeper into that, look up the previous episode we did in Ephesians, chapter five, and we go much deeper into what that looks like as we work in mutual submission with one another Verse 22,. Slaves obey your earthly masters and everything you do. Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. Serve them sincerely because of your reverent fear of the Lord. Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you're working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward and that the master you are serving is Christ. But if you do what is wrong, you will be paid back for all the wrong you have done, for God has no favorites. Now once again, you can go back to Ephesians, chapter five, where we talk about what that slave-master relationship is, and it looks very different in the first century as opposed to the memory most of us have when we think about the Antebellum South of the United States back in the 1800s. That's not the same environment. This is more of a work and kind of a boss slash worker environment Environment in that culture. So what do we say as we get ready to end our time together here? It is All of Christ for all of life.
Speaker 1:One of the things we have to be really careful with and I'm talking to myself as much as anybody else we have to be very careful that we don't try to compartmentalize God. Now, compartmentalization is something that most of us do naturally. For instance, we've been taught a long time ago we don't want to bring work home if we can help it. We don't try to take home to work if we can help it. We have certain environments, we have certain friends in this environment, certain things in that environment. If you're in school, you try to leave school at school unless you have homework, all these kinds of things. And without realizing it, most of our life we have compartmentalized, and that's okay, except when it comes to our relationship with God. Whatever we want to thrive in our life, we should turn over to the Lord, because God wants what's best for you in every single environment, and so you only give to God what you want to thrive.
Speaker 1:Now there's a balance with that, because many times what God will do is he will first go to war with all the broken places, all of the rebellious places, all the places that are breaking and wounding you. And sometimes what's breaking and wounded you is what you have become addicted to, because that's how you have medicated those broken places. And so at first it's harder, because when we submit ourselves to the Lordship of Christ, we have to rearrange stuff. It's almost like when you, if you've ever known anybody who's broken a bone and it wasn't set properly, it heals improperly and because of that, these people a lot of times will have just an ongoing pain, an ongoing issue, and the only way to fix it is a surgeon has to go in and they have to re-break that bone so then they can set it properly. And so at first you're like, okay, that sounds like a bad thing and it is, but it's the only way for it to heal properly.
Speaker 1:And many times when we do things like in this, we turn our work relationships over to the Lord. We turn our family relationships, our marriages, our parent-child relationships, our relationship with other people in the body of Christ all these different things. When we first turn them over to the Lord. It can be an adjustment period because we're having to trust Him rather than go on our own way. But if we're willing to do that, god always heals things. He brings things back to where they need to be and we thrive.
Speaker 1:And so my question for you today is get ready to end our time together? Is there any area of your life that is not submitted to the Lordship of Christ and if so what next step do you need to take to give that over to the Lord? Now, it's one thing if it's something that is just you, right, there's just an area. But if you have something where it's a marriage, a parent-child relationship, a work relationship or whatever, that other people are involved, it may take multiple steps and multiple conversations, but what is the first next step you can take to whatever relationship you would say is not submitted to the Lordship of Christ? What next step do you need to take so that it will be Because? Only give God what you want to thrive, but trust Him and let Him do it His way.
Speaker 1:Let's pray together, god. Thank you so much for today. Thank you, lord, that you love us more than we can imagine. My prayer today, god, is that we will come to know you more and to realize we have nothing to fear by letting you lead and run and rule our lives, because you want what's best for us. So we trust you in all things. In Jesus' name we pray amen and don't forget. God's word says in Colossians 3, verse 1-2,. Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God's right hand. Think about the things of heaven and not the things of earth. As we let God become Lord of all, he encourages and riches and just makes our life more than we could ever imagine on our own. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for the finale of Colossians. Colossians, chapter four.