Seeing Jesus | Colossians 1:15-20

Good morning, Watermark. How are we doing today? Good to see you. I hope all is well. If this is your first time ever with us on a Sunday, thanks for trusting us with your time. I want us to take a moment and pray. We're about to jump into God's Word. When we open up the Bible, we believe we can hear from God, that he wants to speak straight to our hearts today.

So, I want to invite you right now to take a moment and pray. Say, "God, would you speak to me clearly this morning?" Then would you pray for the people around you, your brothers and sisters in the faith, and ask God to speak clearly to them? Then would you pray for me and ask God to use me in your life today, that he would speak clearly through me to you?

Lord, give us eyes to see you, give us ears to hear you, and give us soft hearts to receive all that you want to say to us today. We need you. We love you. We give this time to you. In Jesus' name, amen.

My wife's name is Kat, and we love to travel together. Kat is a lot of fun to travel with. If you travel with Kat, you're going to laugh a lot. You're going to have really good, meaningful conversation. But one thing I've realized when Kat and I travel is there's something that makes us laugh each time we travel. I've cleared this with Kat. She knows I'm going to share it, so I'm not surprising her right now.

One of the things we'll laugh about is the fact that Kat loves to capture pictures of the two of us with backgrounds that really do not do justice to where we are. Let me give you an example. We'll be standing there, and she will see in her line of sight… She's like, "That's what we need a picture of." So she'll grab my arm and turn me around. She'll hand me the phone and be like, "Okay. Take a picture."

For example, we went to New England a few years ago to see foliage. We've reached that age in our lives where we travel just for scenery. We drive for hours to look at trees. In the midst of all this beautiful scenery, this is the picture Kat wanted to capture. You look at that, and you're like, "That's like a dying tree with two dying people in front of it." It was so much prettier than that. It was so much better than that.

So that's one. Another one was we went to Florida this past summer, and we were at this restaurant that was on this beautiful bay, yet we're sitting there at dinner, and Kat was like, "I want a picture of us right here." So this is the picture we got, me with this weird plant coming out of my head. That's what she wanted. This is the tendency. Those are just two of them, but as I was looking through pictures, I realized it's not just when we travel. There's just something that isn't completely connecting.

Another example was Kat got in her mind… There was a picture she wanted of the two of us that she wanted to frame and put in our house that would kind of capture the love we have for one another. This is the picture we got. You're not going to be able to unsee that for forever. The reason I show you that is to say those pictures don't do justice to reality.

When you look at the scenery… If you saw what we saw when we were in New England or Florida, and then you look at the picture with the view in that picture, you would say, "This picture does not do justice to the beauty of what you were experiencing." I promise you that the love Kat and I have for one another is not nearly as forced or awkward as that picture let on to. The views of those pictures don't do justice to reality.

The reason I show you those is to ask the question…Is your view of the gospel a lot like the views presented in those pictures? Does the view you have of the gospel not do justice to the beauty of all that Christ has accomplished for you? Is the view you consistently have, the picture of the gospel you consistently look to to fuel your appreciation and worship for Jesus…? Does the view you have or the picture of the gospel you look to not really do justice to the beauty of the gospel?

As we step back into the book of Colossians, what we're going to see the apostle Paul do with the Christians in Colossae is he's basically inviting them to zoom out on the gospel. He's inviting them to change their vantage point. He's kind of grabbing them by the wrist and turning them around, saying, "Hey, let's capture the picture this way."

"Look at Jesus fully this way. You have to zoom out. You have to change your vantage point, because if you don't, you're going to be in danger of buying into this false teaching that's circulating around that if you want to truly grow spiritually, you have to look beyond Jesus; you need more than Jesus; you've outgrown Jesus."

Paul's point is you don't look beyond Jesus; you look to Jesus. You don't outgrow Jesus; you grow in Jesus. You don't need more than Jesus; you need more of Jesus. So, my point to you this morning is…Is your gospel too small? When we talk about the gospel, is it simply not that beautiful? Do you need to zoom out? That's what we're going to do today.

As we look at the text, I'm just going to invite you to see the basics. Some of you are going to hear these three points and be like, "I already know that." If you already know it, the question is…Does it lead you to worship? If it doesn't lead you to worship and an overwhelming appreciation on a daily basis, then it doesn't matter if you know it. If you're not living it, what it makes you is just a really educated sinner.

Paul is going to invite us to see three things today. First, we're going to see who we were before Jesus; secondly, we're going to see what our salvation cost; and thirdly, we're going to see why Jesus did it. That's it. Very simple. Let me encourage you. We never outgrow our need for the gospel, so listen to what Paul says. If you have a Bible, turn with me to Colossians, chapter 1. We're only going to be looking at verses 21-23, three verses this morning. In the original Greek, this was just one long sentence. We're technically only looking at one sentence today, but it's so rich.

"And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister."

If you remember last week, we looked at the most important passage in the entire book, verses 15-20, and one of the repeated phrases were the two words he is. Four different times we saw he is, because the passage last week right before this was all about who Jesus is. Then Paul switches from the third person to the second person, and now we see him use the word you four different times. Paul's point is in light of who Christ is, have you personalized him completely? Have you taken the beautiful realities of Jesus Christ, and has it become personal to you?

1. See who we were before Jesus. Paul starts by reminding his friends to see who they were before Jesus. I'm inviting you right now to zoom out on your picture of the gospel to see just how extravagant the beauty of Christ is in light of who we were before we met him. That's why, in verse 21, he starts out and says, "And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death…"

Paul is inviting the Christians in Colossae, and inviting us, to think back on our lives before Christ. Do you remember your life before Christ? Some of you are like, "Absolutely." Here's what we have to understand. Until we fully grasp who we were before Christ, we cannot appreciate who we have become because of Christ. Do you hear what I'm saying? Until you grasp who you were before Christ, you cannot appreciate who you've become because of Christ.

Just think back. Do you remember who you were before Christ? For some of you, it comes back very quickly. Some of you were hard-core atheists who mocked Christianity at one point. Others of you went hard toward the things of this world, whether it was alcohol or drugs or hookup after hookup. Others of you belonged to a different religion or different belief system or you gave into an alternative lifestyle in the LGBTQ community, yet Christ has interrupted your life. He has intervened, and he has radically changed your life.

Your life is kind of like a "before and after" weight loss ad. The transformation is so incredibly obvious. You go to your high school reunion, and people are like, "What has happened to you?" because the transformation of Christ in your life has been radical. Yet there are other people in the room who came to Christ at a young age. You lean toward being more of a rule follower. You find your identity and security in performance through fulfilling the rules.

So, it might be harder for you to think about what your life was like before Christ because you've known Christ from a young age. Because you knew him from a young age and because you've been kind of a rule follower, it's hard for you to look and see a time in your life where you were outwardly, obviously opposed to Christ.

If that's you, you're the person I'm most concerned for in this room. That's me. That's my story. My story is that I found security and identity in performance through following the rules. That can be very dangerous when it comes to understanding and applying the grace of God in your life. So, I'm worried for us who have known Jesus for the majority of our lives, because in knowing Jesus for the majority of our lives, it's hard for us to remember our reality before Christ.

Some of us in here might believe, "I've just been a Christian all of my life." I would say that's not true. At some point, your status was the same as everyone else's in the room. What we have to understand is no matter what age we came to Christ, every single one of us, at one point, had the same exact status, and we have to come to grips with it.

Malcolm Muggeridge, who was a famous English journalist, put it this way. "The depravity of man is at once the most empirically verifiable reality but at the same time the most intellectually resisted fact." Isn't that interesting? We have to come to a place where we remember our status before Christ. If you don't have a relationship with Jesus yet, this is currently your status.

Look back at verse 21. Paul says, "[You] were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds…" That word alienated means that you and I, before knowing Jesus Christ… Whether you were not a Christian only until the age of 6 or until the age of 60, whether it was 6 years or 60 years, there was a period of your life where you were permanently estranged from God. You were far from God. You were alienated from him, separated from him.

He says you were hostile in mind. That word hostile means you were God's enemy. Not just in the thoughts you think, but Paul is referring here to the fact that your mindset or your disposition or your natural tendencies were opposed to God and his character, and your mindset, which was hostile toward God, led to evil deeds, whether you viewed them as evil or not.

What we have to understand is no one was born a Christian. No one became a Christian due to your parents choosing to baptize you as an infant. We were all born with an internal GPS with hell as its destination. That's where we all have to start. That's where we have to zoom out on the picture of the gospel and remember who we were before Christ. Every single one of us was born with an internal GPS with hell typed in as the destination. That is where we were pointed toward. That's where we were driving to until Christ intervened.

What I'm trying to remind you of this morning is sometimes we don't fully grasp who we were because we don't fully grasp who God is. So, when I invite you to think about who you were before Christ, we really have to think about who God has always been, and you have to see yourself in light of who God has always been. So, I want to step out of Colossians 1 really quickly and take you to Isaiah, chapter 6, where Isaiah gets a vision of God.

Isaiah would become one of the greatest prophets in the Old Testament. He gets a vision of God in his throne room, and look at what it shows us about who God is. In verse 1, it says, "In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne…" That means he's King. It means he rules. "…high and lifted up…" Which means he's the Sovereign King over all the earth. He is higher than any king. "…and the train of his robe filled the temple." That shows dominance. This is the picture Isaiah is getting of God.

Verse 2: "Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew." I want you to grasp what's happening here. Isaiah gets a picture of God seated on his throne. He is King. He's high and lifted up. He's higher than any other king.

Then there are these mighty angelic beings who perfectly obey God, yet these mighty angelic beings have six wings, and two of them are covering their eyes. Why? Because God is so high, so lifted up, they feel unworthy to look directly at him. Isn't that interesting? These angelic beings, who perfectly obey God, don't feel worthy to look at him. Then they cover their feet. Why? Because how inappropriate would it be for their feet to be exposed in the presence of the God of the universe. It would be shameful.

Verse 3: "And one called to another…" So, these mighty, perfectly obedient angelic beings are calling out to one another, saying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!" When a word is repeated three times in the Hebrew, it's like writing everything in capital, bold letters, putting an exclamation point after each one. It's saying, "If you want to know what is most true about God, he is holy. If you missed it, let me say it again. He's holy. You might have missed it the first two times, so let me just say it three times. He's holy."

When you hear that God is holy, when we sing about God being holy… If I were to ask you, "What does it mean that God is holy?" you might say, "Well, it means he's perfect. He's pure." I'd say you're not wrong, but you're not fully correct. The holiness of God refers to the otherness of who God is. What I'm talking about is God is so much more, so much higher, so much other than we could ever know him to be. There are rooms of his character we don't have keys to unlock.

Our finite minds hit the ceiling of God's character, and what we can truly fathom about God is laughable in comparison to who he truly is. That's why in verses 4 and 5 it says, "And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: 'Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!'"

This is amazing. Isaiah sees God for who he is, and his response is "Woe is me." That's a cry of distress. He says, "I am lost." That's him saying, "Look. I don't belong here. Now that I see who God truly is, I don't belong with him. I don't belong in his presence. I'm unworthy to be here. It's shameful for me to look at who I am in light of who he is."

He goes on and says, "I'm a man of unclean lips." Now here's the thing. There's no record in the Old Testament that Isaiah loved to cuss. There's nothing in there that makes you believe Isaiah was a foul-mouth or loved to tell dirty jokes. No. He was one of the greatest prophets. He was most likely one of the most godly people in the land of his time. Yet when he beholds God, he sees his words in light of a completely different standard, and he's like, "I don't belong here."

I was trying to put this on the ground floor to help you understand. I might need to ask for forgiveness for this illustration on the front end, but just go with me on it. I ran cross-country in high school, and now I have a high school kid running cross-country, so there's this tendency in me to go to the races, like I did yesterday, and picture myself there or to jump back to the high school days or to listen to the times and wonder where I would have stacked up in the race or to think, "What would I be doing in the race now?"

Yesterday, my son Noah was asking me, "Hey, what were your times?" and something in me got prideful. I'm 43 years old, people. I told him a couple of my times. I said it kind of confidently, a little bit arrogantly, and I started thinking, "Yeah, I was pretty fast." This is where in the illustration I'm going to ask you to go with me.

I want you to imagine me standing in my kitchen, thinking about how fast I was. (I was about to say am, then I said was.) I want you to imagine, in the midst of that pride and arrogance, if I were instantly teleported to the starting line of the 100-meter dash at the Paris Olympics. Without realizing it, I'm already in the starting blocks, but I'm dressed like this. I'm wearing a Henley and some Red Wings.

I look to my left, and Noah Lyles is there, and then Usain Bolt has come out of retirement and is back in tip-top shape. These two guys are on either side of me, and the gun is about to be fired. I'm in front of tens of thousands of people, and I am acclimating to the reality, "I'm about to run the 100-meter dash in the Olympics, and I think I'm fast." Can you imagine what I would be feeling in that moment as I acclimate to my reality, as I look at Noah Lyles and Usain Bolt, and here I am, and I'm about to run the 100-meter dash?

The gun goes off, and before I've even gone from here to here, they're already 10 meters ahead of me. Can you imagine what the view would be from your TV at home? Think about what the cameramen would have to do, how far they would have to zoom out just to make sure I'm in the frame with them as well. See, when you think about it like that, you'd better use the word fast very loosely.

What a small example of what Isaiah must have felt when he stepped into the throne room of God and began to acclimate to all that God is. What it produced in him was a sobriety and a humility. See, Paul's point, when he is inviting us to remember who we were, is "If you put yourself in the throne room of God prior to Jesus, it doesn't matter if you're 6 years old or 60. The way you thought, the things you desired, the feelings you felt, the way you talked, and the things you did were nothing short of evil in light of who God is."

We didn't belong with God. In fact, in the throne room of God, you and I would appear as nothing less than enemies of God. So, this is where I'm inviting especially you who put your trust in Jesus at a young age… Can you shift there in your mind? Can you really believe there was a time in your life when the GPS of your life was set on hell and you were truly an enemy of God? Author Randy Alcorn puts it this way: "Grace never ignores the awful truth of our depravity; in fact, it emphasizes it. The worse we realize we are the greater we realize God's grace."

We were enemies of God, and while we were enemies, we were alienated, stranded apart from him. When we could never get to him, he came to us and reconciled us. He made us right with God. He brought peace with God. And how did he do it? He made us friends with God through death. So, first, I'm just asking you to zoom out on the picture of your gospel.

If you hear me say to remember who you were before Christ and you hear me say you were an enemy and something in you is like, "Yeah, I know that. Let's move on. What else do you have for me?" that's where I want to stop and be like, "Dude, you don't need to hear anything else today." Until you can allow that to move from your head to your heart, and until something overwhelms you in gratitude, that there was a time when God's wrath was destined for you and, instead, it was poured out on Christ on behalf of you, then your view of the gospel is too small.

2. See what our salvation cost. Look at what he goes on to say. "And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death…" He's saying, at the beginning of verse 22, "He has now reconciled us in his body of flesh." Who's he? Jesus. We're like, "Of course. Yeah." It's an elementary aspect of the gospel. It is Christ who reconciled us to God.

But I want you to see that word he in light of the six verses we studied last week. Who is he? The agent of all creation, the sustainer of the universe, the head of the church, the point of everything, the one who is before all things and in whom all things hold together. He is the one who took on flesh and died.

I just want you to think about what this is saying. This is inviting us to zoom out, change our vantage point, and remember how extravagant God's goodness toward us is. The Creator of the cosmos and sustainer of the universe had to die in order for you and me to be at peace with God. Does it hit you that that's what it cost, what it took? It took the Creator of the cosmos and the glue of the universe dying for you.

Several years ago, I was kind of doing that game with my kids of "Hey, if you could go anywhere…?" Like, "What do you want our next trip to be?" They were all like, "We want to go back to Disney World and Universal Studios." I was like, "Dang it. That is the most expensive option you could have chosen."

As they said that that's what they would want, I shared with them, "Hey, guys, that is super expensive, so we're going to need to start saving up for that if we're going to go." One of my kids went to his piggy bank and got what was in his piggy bank out, and he brought it to me and said, "That should do the trick." That was cute, but it wasn't helpful, and it's not going to get us there.

See, he didn't understand just how much it cost. What you need to make sure of is that the same isn't true for you, that when it comes to your salvation, you're not found in a place where you just don't realize how much it cost for you to truly be saved. There is a chasm between you and God that cannot be crossed apart from the saving work of Jesus Christ. Period.

Charles Spurgeon said, "The greatest enemy to human souls is the self-righteous spirit which makes men look to themselves for salvation." For some of you, because you came to Christ at a young age, it's hard for you to shift into the gear that the glue of the universe truly had to die in order to save you.

Others of you are here today, and you're going to leave here and still believe the way to eternal life with God is just to be a more spiritual person, to love yourself more, to love other people better, to be kind to yourself, to cultivate healthy spiritual habits, like meditating or praying or reading a self-help book that has a spiritual component to it. We live in a time of boosting self-esteem. In fear of people walking through life insecure with self-hatred, we try to convince them, "Hey, you just need to accept the fact that you are enough."

That's the biggest lie we can feed people, because the truth of the gospel starts with God wanting a relationship with us, yet we are not enough. So, we have to acclimate to the fact that we're not enough to cross the chasm between us and God. The chasm between us and God was so significant only God himself could cross it. Only God himself could reconcile us back to himself.

So, this is where we have to come to with an appreciation for the gospel. The chasm of sin was ours. The cross that closed it was his. Without the creator of the cosmos and the glue of the universe dying for us, our destiny would be hell. Period. So, I'm just inviting you to rediscover what your salvation cost.

John Newton, the man who penned the words of "Amazing Grace," who was a slave trader turned minister and abolitionist… He whispered these words on his deathbed at the age of 82. He said, "Although my memory is fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior." Are you in tune with that? You are a great sinner, I am a great sinner, and our sin comes with a chasm between us and God that only God himself can cross to us. The chasm of sin was ours. The cross that closed it was his. Jesus Christ is a great Savior.

3. See why Jesus did it. If you're tuned out, this is where I want to invite you back. This is so beautiful. Answer that question in your heart right now. Why did Jesus close the chasm of sin in your life? Why did Jesus die on the cross? Why was it? You might be like, "Well, to save us from our sins." Yeah, that's true, but I think Paul puts it even better than that. It's even richer than that. Look at what he says in verses 21 and 22. I want to read it all together.

"And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death…" That right there tells us why he did it. He did it to reconcile us to God, to bring peace between us and God, to take those who were enemies of God… You and I were enemies of God, and he has made us friends and children of God.

But that's not the only reason Jesus did it. Watch this. This is beautiful. "…he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to…" Here's the reason Jesus Christ died. "…in order to present you [and me] holy and blameless and above reproach before him…" This is so great. Think about it. The reason Jesus died was so that on the final day of judgment (that's what Paul is referencing here), when we stand before God, we would stand before him holy.

Remember, we just looked in Isaiah 6 where the seraphim are crying out, "Holy, holy, holy!" and in the presence of a holy, holy, holy God, Isaiah is like, "Woe is me. I am lost." Paul is like, "There is going to be a day where you stand before a holy, holy, holy God and you won't say, 'I'm lost'; you'll say, 'I'm found. I belong.'" And it's not because of who you are by yourself; it's because of who Christ is through you before God. This is amazing.

You'll stand before God holy. Holy means to be set apart. So, we will appear before God as only belonging to God, and we will appear to have no share in the world. But not just that. It says Jesus died so we would appear blameless, meaning, without defect or blemish. But not just that. That we would appear before God above reproach, meaning, free from guilt or accusation in the sight of God. Do you grasp that? At the final judgment, a holy, holy, holy God will see us as holy, pure, and blameless. We will actually be seen like God. Why? Because Jesus Christ, who is God, has died for us so we could be in him now and for all of eternity.

Don't miss what I'm telling you right now. I'm telling you that this is talking about the final judgment, and at the final judgment we will appear before God holy and blameless and above reproach, but here is such beautiful news. I'm inviting you to zoom out right now. This isn't just who we will be one day; this is actually who we already are, positionally, in God's eyes. God already sees us as holy, blameless, and above reproach. This is our position before God right now.

The reason that's so important is it comes down to how you think God views you right now. Answer that question. Right now, where you are, if you know Jesus Christ, how does God view you right now? What does he think about you right now? Put a word with it. Does he see you as a failure? Does he see you as a disappointment? Does he see you as wasted potential? If any of that comes to mind, here's the problem with it.

The problem is it makes Christ's sacrifice so insignificant. It diminishes his work. The reason the eternal Son of God left heaven, came to earth, took on flesh, went to the cross, died, and rose from the dead is so he could, right now, declare over our lives, "You are holy. You are blameless. You are above reproach," and we're like, "But I'm a failure. I'm insignificant. I'm a disappointment."

Here's what we have to understand. Satan agrees with God about us. Satan agrees that we are holy, blameless, and above reproach. He agrees with God about that, which means his greatest attack in our lives will be in the form of lies regarding who we are. He knows we're holy, so what's his lie? "You're unholy." He knows we're blameless, but what's his lie? "You're filthy." What does he know to be true? We're above reproach. Yet what does he do so successfully? "You're worthless. You are a waste of Christ's sacrifice."

See, one thing I've experienced in my life as a rule follower is this belief… It's not like I would ever say this. If I'm at Community Group, I would never say this. I can just look at the way I operate and draw the conclusion from the way I operate that sometimes I live with the belief that God will love me more the more I do for him.

But the sign of spiritual maturity is when you understand why God can't love you any more than he already does. A sign of spiritual maturity is when you truly come to grasp that God can't love you any more than he already does because of all he has done for you. That's how significant Christ's work is. It's so substantial, so significant, it has already currently, presently, maximized God's love for us, because God loves himself in us.

God loves us through Christ. All the love God has for Christ he now has for us because we are in Christ. This is who we already are, yet at the same time, this is who God is making us to be. While we are holy, blameless, and above reproach positionally, we aren't holy, blameless, and above reproach practically.

Yet God in his kindness doesn't want to wait until the final judgment for you to finally be practically holy, blameless, and above reproach. We won't be finally to that point until then, yet God hasn't left us one day on our own. When you put your faith and trust in Christ, God actually comes and lives inside of you by the Holy Spirit. And what is the Spirit's goal in your life? To conform you to the image and likeness of Christ.

So, if we were to sit down with God and say, "God, I just want to be clear. Let's just map it out. Who's ultimately responsible for us being holy, blameless, and above reproach?" Jesus Christ would be like, "That's on me. Put that ball in my court. I'll take that one. That's why I went to the cross: so you currently could be positionally holy, blameless, and above reproach, but I'm going to ask the Father to send the Spirit."

So the Spirit has come, and what's the Spirit saying? He's like, "That's the only reason I'm here. That's the only reason I'm in you: to get you to eternity." And all along the way, you are becoming more holy, more blameless, and more above reproach practically so that when you get to that final day you'll be like, "Yeah, I've kind of been on a journey to this point." You won't show up and be like, "Man! That was a lot different. I was going that way, and now in heaven I'm going this way."

But what's our responsibility? Our responsibility is to stay out of the way of the work of the Spirit. Does that mean we're passive? No, it means we are actively in step with him, so when he convicts us of sin, we respond. When we read his Word and he calls us to do something, we do it. When he invites us to share our faith, we share our faith. When he invites us to be vulnerable in our Community Group, we engage. This is who God is making us to be.

So, Paul is inviting us to zoom out. He's inviting us to see who we were before Christ, to see what our salvation cost, and to see why Jesus even did it. Then I want you to see how Paul closes the passage. Since day one of this Colossians series, this is the verse I've gotten at least a couple of questions about.

Verse 23. It's a conditional statement. Paul says all that he did, and then he says, "…if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister."

Let me clarify for you what Paul is doing here. Paul is simply saying, "Hey, check the picture." It would be like me coming to you and being like, "Hey, I want to show you a picture of Kat and me on the beach in WaterColor, Florida," and then I put up a picture of me and an alley cat on the beach of Lake Lewisville. Paul is just saying, "Hey, check the picture to make sure you have the right Jesus."

Paul is saying, "I think you do, but it's always good, especially when there's false teaching circulating around, to just check the picture. Make sure you're even working with the right picture." So he says, "If…" When I was at Texas A&M, I pledged a Greek fraternity, and the way they instilled fear in the pledges was with the one word if. They'd make us do all this stuff, and they'd be like, "You know what? Being an active member in this organization is great, and you're going to love it. That's if you get initiated." So the whole semester we were like, "If. Only if."

That's not what Paul is doing here. He's not stating a conditional clause to provoke fear. He's actually trying to bolster confidence. Think about what's happening. There's false teaching floating around where these false teachers are like, "Look. If you want to attain to the highest levels of spiritual maturity, you have to look beyond Jesus. You need more than Jesus."

Paul is like, "Guys, okay." He started off the book and was like, "Guys, I'm so proud of you. Your faith? People are talking about it. Your love for each other? That word is spreading. But just be careful." Paul is like, "Just make sure that when you look to the picture you have the right Jesus." Think about it. If you look at all Paul has said in the book…

If you know Jesus is the supreme one over all creation, and if you know Jesus is, in fact, God who took on flesh and died in order to make peace between you and God, and if you know Jesus died so you could so thoroughly be transformed in a way that you become holy, blameless, and above reproach, and if he isn't just doing that in you but in people throughout the world, like he just said, even in the lives of people like Paul, who at one point hated Jesus, yet you know all of that and still think you need more than Jesus to attain to the highest levels of spirituality…

Paul is just saying, "Guys, check the picture," because if you know all of that and still think you outgrow Jesus, you have the wrong Jesus. You haven't truly understood the gospel. If there's something else better out there than Jesus, then you haven't understood Jesus. So, let me encourage you. Can you lose your salvation? According to this book, the answer is no. Just go read John 10:27-29 on your own.

As Christians, will we still battle sin and have spiritually dry seasons? According to the Word, it's very possible. Just go read what was happening with the believers in Corinth in 1 Corinthians 3:1-3. Am I saying your loved one who prayed to receive Jesus but didn't finish well didn't go to heaven? That's not what I'm saying. Here's where we have to rest. Only God truly knows.

Here's what we do know. If your loved one is in heaven right now and had the opportunity to come back for five minutes, they would come back to say, "I've seen Jesus. He's worth it. Don't waver. Give your life completely to him." Where I want to land today is that some of you need a clarifying conversation. The worst thing I could do for you is give you confidence when you have the wrong Jesus.

Jesus came to bring you to God, yet you don't want God. Jesus came to set you apart from the world, yet you want to soak up everything the world is offering. Jesus came to remove the stain of sin, yet you love sin. If that's you, it's worth exploring whether you have understood the right Jesus. Check the picture. At best, you have spiritual amnesia and have forgotten who he is. At worst, you've never truly understood him. The good news is you can today. Would you put your trust in him?

For everyone else here today, look. The greatest testimony to an unbelieving world is Christians who live like everything we've talked about today is true, that we are enemies turned friends and children, that the glue of the universe died for us and he did it so we could be holy, blameless, and above reproach, not just one day but today.

I'll end with the words of Blaise Pascal. This is such a great quote. He said, "When everyone is moving toward depravity, no one seems to be moving, but if someone stops, he shows up the others who are rushing on by acting as a fixed point." That's what our world needs. That's what our neighborhoods, our workplaces, and our gyms need: people who will live like this is true. In order for us to live like this is true, we have to zoom out on the picture. We have to change our vantage point so we can behold the full beauty of the gospel. I hope you will this week. Let's pray together.

Lord Jesus, if there's anyone here today who doesn't have a relationship with you, I pray that right now they would invite you into their lives.

Friends, I would invite you to do that right now, to say yes to Jesus, to give your life to him in this moment, to say, "Jesus, I want you to be the Lord and Savior of my life." If you're here today, and you've been a Christian for a long time, and you're sitting there, thinking, "Man, TA didn't tell me anything new," and if this message feels like it's falling flat to you, I would ask you to do business with the Lord and ask him why that is. Just ask him, "Why am I unmoved by the truth of who I once was or what my salvation cost or why you did it?" Just ask him. Say, "Lord Jesus, would you renew me? Would you renew the joy of my salvation?"

Lord Jesus, we need you. We love you. We praise you and thank you that you took enemies and made them children. We thank you that you, the head of the body, the church, the one who's before all things and in whom all things hold together…you, Jesus, gave your life for us. Thank you that because of what you've done we are holy, we are blameless, we are above reproach positionally today, and one day we will be practically so we can stand before a holy, holy, holy God. We love you and thank you. In Jesus' name, amen.