Lessons for the Living | Colossians 2:6-15

Watermark, good morning. How are we doing? Are we doing okay? It's me again. If we've not had the chance to meet, my name is Kylen, young adults director here at Watermark Community Church. I have the joy of serving alongside The Porch team here every single Tuesday night. If you're a young adult in the house, come join us on a Tuesday. We think God is doing something pretty awesome, and we would love for you to be there with us.

Over the course of this year, my wife and I have found ourselves facing several new firsts as a family. If you didn't know, we made the move at the beginning of the year from Houston to Dallas, and with that has come so many new experiences…a new city to explore, new restaurants to try, new people to meet, new jobs we have to figure out, new teams we get to work alongside, new responsibilities we get to shoulder…all sorts of new things…an apartment to move into, a new house we recently found…so much new that has all been really wonderful.

But at the top of the list of everything new we've experienced, that which takes the cake above them all is the most recent development for our family, because in just a couple of months, my wife and I are excited to announce that we will be welcoming the newest addition to the Perry family, a beautiful baby boy (beautiful not because he takes after me but because he takes after my wife).

This is footage of us making this announcement on a Tuesday night to The Porch, which was a blast to do, and it's representative of 90 percent of my overall responses when people ask me that inevitable question, "So how do you feel about it?" Excited. Super pumped. I'm amped. I can't wait to make a boy into a man, to try to raise him to do all of the manly things we love to do, guys. I can't wait for that. I'm so excited.

But that's 90 percent of me. I'll just be honest, cards on the table. There's this 10 percent part of me that looks like this. I don't know if you've ever seen the face of ignorance, but that's what it looks like. That is the face of "I don't know, man. We're going to get into this thing, and we're going to see how it goes. We're just going to try to take our shot and do the best we can."

Ten percent of me is like, "I can hardly feed myself. Now you're expecting me to feed another human being? I'm a mess as it is, and now you want me to clean up his messes? This is going to be nuts. I don't know what I'm getting into. I feel so out of my depth." If you want to email me at kylen.perry@watermark.org, I will take all the fatherly advice you have to offer…unsolicited, solicited…just give it to me, because I am trying to figure out how to do this, because this is a new chapter of life.

When you step into a new way of life, with it come new lessons for that life. New lessons in fatherhood, things like all toddlers can be bought off with Band-Aids and Goldfish. That's one I'm definitely putting in my back pocket. Or the idea that babies are really all like bosses. They call all the shots, and they dictate your every move.

You should cherish the day when you buy a minivan, because that's the only day it's ever actually going to be clean. Or just the thought of whenever he gets a little bit older, if ever I lose him in the house somewhere and can't find him, I just need to turn off the Wi-Fi and he'll magically reappear.

There are lessons I need to learn. This is a new way of life, and there are new lessons that should correspond with this new chapter. Not just for me as a father, but the case is still the same for us, as followers of Jesus. As we step into a new way of life in following Christ, there are new lessons we should learn that correspond with that life, and that's what we're going to talk about this morning.

If you have a Bible, you can turn with me to Colossians, chapter 2. We are journeying through our A Maturing Church series where we've been walking through the book of Colossians. This book is teaching us what it looks like to not only behold the beauty of Christ but become like Jesus.

Just to give you some context, in the book of Colossians, the apostle Paul is writing to a group of young believers, a group of people who have seen what Jesus is offering and are like, "Yes. I'll have some of that. That looks awesome. The life you're calling me into… I want to be a part of it. You'll forgive my sins? Thank you very much. That sounds amazing. I want a part."

They've made the decision to follow him, and now they're sitting where many of you are sitting. You're asking the question, "What's next? What do I do now? I've placed my faith in Jesus, yet I don't want to stay like I am. I want to move forward. I want to grow up. I want to take new ground. I want to advance in my spirituality. I want to become like him."

Into the context of Colossae, Paul is going to be interacting with a cultural argument confronting these young believers that's simply saying, "Hey, you can have Jesus. That's okay. But you need more than Jesus. If you want the heights of human existence and the great depths of supernatural spirituality, then you need to look to other things than Jesus himself. You need to look to spiritual mysticism or a new moral ethic or some new religious code or philosophy to follow that'll help you to unlock all of the desire and potential you want to mature in Christlikeness. You need more than Jesus."

Paul is simply saying, "You don't need more than Jesus; you need more of Jesus. If you want greater maturity in life, you need greater clarity of Christ. As you see him, you'll begin to see yourself, not just as you are but as you should, can, and will be as you walk with him." That's the setting we're finding ourselves jumping into here in Colossians, chapter 2.

I want to read verses 6-15 with you. We're going to work them verse by verse by verse, and over the course of our time, we're going to see what Paul is trying to explain to us. So, we'll pick it up in verses 6 and 7, and here's what you need to know. Verses 6 and 7 are the theme verses for the book of Colossians, so if you're going to underline any part of this book, you should underline these verses, because this is what it's all about right here. This is where we got the title of our series.

It says, "Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving." How does Paul choose to teach these young believers the way of walking in Jesus? He teaches them the way we would teach one another something new. He references something they've already done. "Hey, the way you did X over there? Do Y the exact same way."

It's replication through observation. "Look over here and replicate that over here. Do what you did then, and do it again now." That's what he's saying. "Walk in Jesus just as you received Jesus." So, how did they receive Jesus? They received Jesus with extreme care. Paul uses a term here that's really interesting. When he uses the word received, he's using a technical term in Judaism that talks about the transference of information from one person or generation to another person or generation.

The same way (just to bring it into our modern reality) you have that secret family recipe that has been handed down from one generation to the next generation to the next, and now you've been entrusted with that great recipe, that secret sauce that you have to carry forth into the coming generations of your family. You're going to pass that information along…how? With extreme care, with meticulous detail. You want to make sure it goes undiluted, undistorted, and the way that happens is through your careful attention.

That's what Paul is talking about here. They had received the good news of Christ in a way that was extremely not casual but careful. It says they were taught these things. They had received with such meticulous care the report of his teachings and the news of his works and the testimony of the life he lived and the life he gave and the life he took up for their sake and the sake of the world.

You see, their lives were transformed because their hearts were transfixed on the person of Jesus. If you're here, and you want to feel a transformation of the heart, then you need to think about "Are my eyes transfixed on the one who transforms my heart? I need to get my gaze fixed fully on him. Clarity of him leads to maturity of myself." It's not enough to believe in Jesus because you grew up in the church and this is all you've ever known.

Or, "Everyone in my family believes in Jesus, and I'm going to believe in him as a result." Or, "I want to have good, moral, responsible children. I want them to contribute to society, so we're going to get involved in the church. They should be Christians because that's the ultimate outcome." Or, "There's some social advantage to being a Christian here in the South, so I guess I'll just put this on like my badge of honor. I need to be a part of this society because it helps me in the wider, greater cultural context."

None of those are good reasons to follow Jesus. Contrary to popular belief, there actually is such a thing as a bad testimony. I know not many people would say that's true, yet there is. What makes a bad testimony? Not the absence of divine intervention. You don't have to have a burning bush moment or a pillar of fire descend from the clouds above and light up your world to lead you to Christ. That doesn't make a good testimony, nor does it leave you with a bad one if it's absent from your life.

What makes a bad testimony is not the absence of divine intervention but the presence of personal indifference. You see all who Jesus is, you know all he did, you consider what that means for you, and you're like, "Oh, that's nice. Cool. Where are we going for lunch?" That would be an indifferent response, and that's an inappropriate testimony when you consider just how great he is and how much he has done.

You see, the response of a believer is we look at Jesus' life, and we're not just conveniently going to associate with it. No, we're going to be convincingly associated to it because we have seen the beauty of his character, the wonder of his nature, and his goodness on display. We've encountered firsthand the way he changes an individual's life when he dispenses radical grace into their reality.

Once you've had those things, it changes who you are. The way you believe and, consequently, the way you behave shifts. That's what Paul is saying. "Hey, the way you've received him should inform the way you walk in him. Just as you've received, so now walk." You see, believers are known by their behavior. We're known by our behavior. The world is far less impressed with what you have to say and far more with what you have to do.

It's kind of like here in Texas. Around here, we forget just how distinct we are to the watching world. If you go north, you're reminded very quickly just how distinct we are here in the great state of Texas. You make your way north, and you start speaking, and you stand out immediately because you say things like, "Howdy" or "Y'all" or "Well, I'll be" or "Bless your heart." We say things that inform everyone, "We're not from around here." We look distinctly different. So should that be the case with the way we walk with Jesus.

Paul is saying, "The way you received him as undeniably true should inform the way you walk in him as undeniably true." He moves from the indicative form stating a fact, "Just as you received him," to the imperative form, "So now walk in him," making a command to tell us, "Hey, believers are known by their behavior."

When you say, "I believe in Jesus," there's no hiatus between believing and behaving. Why? Because the real Jesus, once you see him, once you meet him, once you experience him… He's not just a nice guy, a household god, a mythological hero. Paul says he is Lord. What does that mean? We say that. Like, "Thank you, Lord, for this food." What are we saying when we call Jesus Christ Lord?

Well, we need to answer what a lord naturally does. Gentlemen, you can relate to this well, because no one in your house is allowed to touch the thermostat but you. Why? Because you are the lord of this domain. "This house will feel as I want it to feel, morning, afternoon, and especially in the evenings." You're the lord of the thermostat. You guard that thing with your life. You have a right, a title over the climate in which you live. You're the ruler of that kingdom.

Jesus is saying, "Yeah. Do you see everything? That's my thermostat. I'm the Lord over all. I rule, I reign, and I govern the entirety of every domain. There's nothing outside the realm of my rule. I'm Lord." Philippians 2:9-11: "Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

Jesus is Lord over every name, every knee, and every tongue. He is over all things, which means he is the Lord over all of your life, which brings us to our first point. If we say Jesus is Lord, then we treat Jesus as Lord. We are governed by the entirety of his lordship. He's Lord over all of your life. He is Lord in the sense that you walk with him.

Not in front of him, because, "I've kind of outgrown him at this point, and he needs to catch up and figure some things out." You don't walk behind him because he's that friend you don't really want to be associated with, nor do you walk around him because he's a problem to avoid. No. Jesus is Lord; therefore, just as you received him as such, you walk in him as such. He has lordship over all of your life, and it should influence and inform everything you do.

He is saying, "Hey, I love you so much that I can lay down my life to save you from your sins, and I am strong enough to take up my life and lead you into everlasting life alongside me. That's who I am. Do you want to walk with me?" That's the kind of guy I want to walk with, someone who's that loving and that strong who cares that deeply and has that much power at his disposal. I want to be associated with someone like that. That's someone who can make the difference, and that's someone who has made the difference for me.

If you know Jesus, he has made the difference for you, so we walk with him as a result. We live like him as a result. That's what Paul gets into as he goes to verse 7. He says, "So walk in him," and then he qualifies what that looks like. "…rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving." He gives four descriptors for how we should walk in Jesus. We should walk in a way that's rooted, built up, established, and abounding in thanksgiving.

I don't know about you, but when I read that, it feels really overwhelming. It feels like another one of those spiritual to-do lists I have to cross off or check. It's one of those spiritual punch lists I have to accomplish. "Okay, Paul. So, you're telling me I have to make sure I'm going deep and being built and I'm staying strong and I'm grateful." "Be grateful!" Is that what Paul is saying? That's not what Paul is saying. It's actually much simpler than that.

If this list stresses you out, and if it feels like all Paul is asking you to do is activate… Like, "Okay. Here it is. This is the life. Now it's time to go." No. What Paul is saying is because you're in Christ, that changes things about you. He says we're to be rooted. The grammar there says we're completely rooted. You don't have to try to work it out and root yourself deeper. You don't have to work to go even farther down. He has already rooted you securely. You're completely rooted.

As he goes on, he talks about being built up and established. The grammar there would say we are continually being built up and established. If you think about any good construction project, it never stays on schedule. It always takes more time than you want. It is a continual process of improvement. That's what he's saying here. He actually uses industrial language…to be built up, to be established…because he knows your sanctification, your becoming like Christ, is a continual movement. We keep going that way.

So we're completely rooted. We're continually built up, continually established, and then the one thing we activate on, the one thing we're consciously doing is giving thanks, extending praise, which is a reaction. Why are you thankful for the things you're thankful for? Because you realize how good they are.

So, when you consider what Jesus has done, it's not like, "Hey, you'd better figure it out. You've got to be thankful." No, it's "Man, look at what he did. Look at who he is. Look at where I was. Look at where I now am." The natural response is, "I'm going to sing. I'm going to praise. I'm going to lift hands. I'm going to dance. I'm going to be glad in the fact that God is as good as he said he is, and now I have good reason, having received his grace, to rejoice in response." Amen? Yes! We have great reason to be thankful.

You see, all of these things, the ways in which we walk… We do not do them in response to a subjective faith experience that oscillates depending upon how good a day we're having with Jesus and not. No, we walk this way based upon the objective truth of the gospel that Jesus has already done all this and we are now found in him, and the product of our identity in Christ is we walk different. Uncommon people make uncommon moves, and that's exactly what Jesus is inviting us into.

So, that's the first lesson Paul gives, but it's not the only one. Look at verse 8. "See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily…"

The second thing Paul wants us to know is the world will offer what only Jesus can give. When Paul says, "See to it that no one takes you captive," we're meant to read that as a really strong warning that dangers are nearby. It's like the warning flags you see whenever you go to the beach. Do you know what I'm talking about? You get your recliner on the beach, get your toes in the sand, and you start looking out over the coast, and you see different colored flags raised over the shoreline to signal to those sitting alongside what the conditions of the water are.

If you see a red flag, it means the current is strong, which people like me who are weak swimmers need to take notice of. I don't want to go out in a strong current. I might get swept away. Or if it's a purple flag, then I know dangerous marine wildlife is nearby, and it's worth me considering what that might be representing. Otherwise, I'll find myself face-to-face with an apex predator in nothing but my swim trunks. It's good for me to consider the dangers the lifeguards are signaling to me.

Your lifeguard is trying to signal you something. He's trying to let you know, "Hey, there are nearby dangers." That word captive in the Greek is a compound word that literally means to carry off prey or victims. It's predatory language. It's supposed to elicit some alarm, shake you loose from being asleep to the fact that the world is not as safe as you may think it is, that you might need to come alive to the fact that not everyone has your best interests at heart.

It's similar to what advertisers do in fast food commercials. I don't know if you've ever been frustrated by what you see on the billboard and then what you find in the delivery box. They don't often match. Why do those pancakes stack up so high and are so fluffy? And that maple syrup, man, the way it cascades over those flapjacks… I want that. Then you get it, and it's like, "This is not what that looks like. These things do not match."

The reason is they've wedged cardboard between every single pancake, and they have poured not maple syrup but motor oil over your advertisement. Some of you see that perfect slice of pie and the dollop of whipped cream they put on top. Yeah, that's shaving cream. Meaning, it's pretty inedible, not healthy for you.

Have you ever gotten a box of pizza and opened it up and it looked nothing like the commercials you see? It's not nearly as cheesy and gooey or delicious. That's because it's not cheese; it's glue that you're seeing pull apart when they lift one slice. They are falsely advertising to you, and the world is doing the same thing. The world wants you to buy what it's selling. It does not have your well-being at heart. It only thinks of itself. We should be on guard.

Here's what's interesting. None of the things the world is selling you are glaringly obvious. Heretical ideas, false teachings… They don't stand out as immediately bad. "Stay away." They look appetizing. They look appealing. They look approvable. It's interesting. Paul says to these Colossians, "Some of these false ideas are going to come to you through human tradition and elemental spirits."

That can sound really spooky, but what he's saying is if they're coming to you through human tradition or elemental spirits, that means the arguments will have some sense of veracity, because in their culture, the older the teaching or the more ancient the tradition the more legitimized it actually was. You should consider it more. Which is fascinatingly opposite of our day and age. Here in our world, we believe the newest developments are always the best.

But listen. New does not always mean improved, and we need to know that. The world wants you to think, "Hey, you don't need Jesus. You need this. Lay your eyes upon this. Set your gaze toward this, and then your feet will follow," yet your feet will follow in a direction they were never meant to go. It'll lead you someplace God never intended you to be.

That's why Jesus says in Matthew, chapter 10, we should be discerning. He says in Matthew 10:16, "Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves…" More predatory language. "…so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves." We're meant to be discerning as we move through the world, knowing full well the world will overpromise yet underdeliver again and again and again.

The world will look at you and say, "Hey, if you want fulfillment, just focus on your job. Not the job you're in but the job you're going to be in. Yes, you may have to sell your soul. You may have to burn the midnight oil, light the candle from both ends, but you're going to arrive someplace that's going to be so much better. Your life is going to be so much richer. You're going to be so much more rewarded." Until you get there and realize it never actually satisfied.

Or the world will look at you and say, "Hey, think about your relationships or your lack thereof. If you find that guy, if you find that girl, if you have kids at some point, if you have grandkids at some point, then it's going to be so much better." "Think about your influence. You just don't have enough influence yet. You need more people to listen to you, more people to look at you, more people to follow you, because once more people are tracking with you, then you'll feel more gratified."

"Hey, just think about your reputation. No, no. You don't need to confess your sin. You don't need to out yourself. That would make you look bad. No, you want people to think as well of you as possible. So conceal things in darkness, act like you're something you're not, and you'll find life therein exists." None of these things are true, yet the world is deviously telling it to us every single day.

Jesus is looking and saying, "No. The world will promise you what only I can deliver. It'll tell you that these things will satisfy, but only I can satisfy." It's fascinating. I spend time talking to young adults frequently, and what I find by way of my ministry as I am in conversations with young adults is so often they'll come up and say, "Hey, man. This job is not giving me life. These friends are not giving me life. That commitment I have is actually taking life. It's not giving me life."

I just want to look at them and scream, "It was never supposed to!" Nothing else in this world is meant to give you life but Christ. He's the only one who does it. So, if you're looking somewhere else, then listen. You have fallen prey to a false teaching. You're being held captive by a heretical idea. This happens not just in the world. It can happen in the church. We have to be careful. We follow him. We find fulfillment in him.

That's why Paul says in verses 9-10, "For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him…" If you want fullness, look to Jesus. Don't look somewhere else. This idea of fullness of deity is loaded with meaning, because in the Old Testament, fullness most often refers to God's presence and deity most often refers to God's essence. God's presence and God's essence are found in Jesus.

Think about it like this. If you have a friend or know of someone who, anytime they're around, always reminds you of that guy or that girl… They bear an uncanny resemblance. Does anybody have a person like that? Do you know what I'm talking about? Whenever you come around someone, it's like, "Man! They're just like that person. They're just like that guy."

The one who reminds me most frequently of someone else is Robert Irwin. Robert Irwin is son of the late, great Steve Irwin, The Crocodile Hunter, if you know who I'm talking about. The reason Robert reminds me of Steve is he looks like Steve. He has the same sort of presence about himself, and he acts like Steve. "Crikey, mate! That's a beaut right there." He's that guy who acts just like his dad. He's jumping on the crocodile, and you're like, "That's Steve." And it's not. It's Robert. It's his son.

In Robert is all the presence and all the essence of his dad. They're cut from the same cloth. In Christ is all the presence and all the essence of God because they're cut from the same cloth. Jesus is just like his Dad. They are one and the same, Father, Son, and Spirit. He's saying, "All the fullness of the deity is right here. All the fullness you want… You're not going to find it somewhere else. It's found with me and me alone."

As we keep going, verses 11 and 12 tell us, "In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead."

Fair question: Why is Paul talking about circumcision? Well, there are a couple of different things he's communicating here. He's trying to engage the Colossians and communicate a few different ideas, but the main thing he wants to communicate to them is a dispute to the fact that they feel they don't meet the criteria to be a part of God's family, bottom line. You see, in the Old Testament, circumcision was a physical sign that distinguished the people of God from the rest of the world.

So, Paul is writing to these young believers in Colossae and saying, "Hey, you're actually not distinguished from the rest of the world by way of anything your hands can do. You're distinguished from the rest of the world by way of what Christ himself has done. You can't do it, but he has done it. You may not feel like you have claim to the things of God, yet if you lay claim to Jesus Christ, then everything and more that is his becomes yours. That's why you're in him."

We talked in week one of this series about what it meant to be in Christ. Over and over and over again in this passage Paul says, "You're in Christ." He says that six times and, "You're with Christ" three times. He wants it to be clear. "Hey, you're in Jesus. Your identity is changed. Everything is now shifted, and with him you not only find some things; you find everything." Just to give you the main idea of this little section, Jesus is God unbelievable become God perceivable, and he's God perceivable become God receivable. He is transcendent become immanent become intimate. He's mine. I can know him if I place my faith in him.

If this is the case, it means the family of God is open for anybody. Romans 2 tells us, "But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God." Which is important, because some of us are in here, and we feel like we do not meet the criteria to be a part of God's family. We don't. We know the things we've done, the things we've said, the places we've gone, the failures we've faced, and the mistakes we've built up.

We think about everything in our story, and we feel disqualified. "There's no way God would want me in his family." Yet Jesus is sitting here saying through the apostle Paul, "No, I made way for you to be in my family. It's not by anything you do. In fact, it's despite everything you've done. All of your righteous works are filthy rags before a just and holy God, yet I have come forward, and I have become righteous on your behalf that you might be righteous before my Father." That's what Jesus is offering.

So, if you're here and you don't feel like you have claim to this thing, you don't, but Jesus does, and Jesus is inviting you to place your faith in him and lay claim to it yourself. That's the invitation. As Paul keeps going, he tells us in verses 13-15:

"And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him."

Paul turns the corner to teach us our final lesson in this passage of what it means to live in Christ. He calls to mind what Jesus has overcome on our behalf, because he wants us to know those fully forgiven should live fully free. This is not a "got to." ("I've got to live fully free.") This is a "get to." It's an awesome thing. This is what it means. You get to live fully free.

So, what's the best motivation for living free? It's being reminded of what you've been freed from. That's why Paul spends these last three verses reminding us of the three problems we've been delivered from. He wants to add fuel to your freedom. He wants to pour gas on your gladness. So he says this in verses 13-15.

In verse 13, he wants you to know you've been freed from regret from your past. In verse 14, he wants you to know you've been freed from debt of your sin. In verse 15, he wants you to know you've been freed from threat of the Enemy. You've been freed from regrets, debts, and threats. If it bothers you that it rhymes, take it up with the Bible, because this is just the way Paul is unpacking the lesson.

We've been freed from regret from our past. These are those things which result from our trespasses, in verse 13, which raises the question…What does it mean to trespass? Well, in the Greek, it literally means to take a false step. It's to go someplace you're not welcome, which always reminds me of when I was a student in our student ministry growing up.

Every single year, my peers and I looked forward to our annual mission trip. It was the trip we looked forward to most of all. It was a chance for us to get away and bond together and spend time and do something meaningful. It was an amazing trip. We so looked forward to what we were going to get to do on that trip, but it wasn't just that we looked forward to the mission work itself. The boys and I always looked forward to the opportunity it gave us to annually prank the girls.

We were in student ministry. It was just the way it went. We naturally always had plans to make sure we could show the girls just how well we were thinking of them, so we came up with these carefully crafted, meticulous thoughts. We would fill shower heads with red Kool-Aid, and we would hide alarm clocks in their bedrooms at night and set them to go off at different intervals over the course of the entire evening. I know. This was before Christ, man. I was figuring it out.

We would put cling wrap over their toilets. We would bag up cheese puffs and hang them over the door so when they pulled the door a drawstring would let loose and cheese puffs would rain down on them. All very devious exploits. How did we accomplish it? We would go someplace we were not supposed to go. We were not allowed into the girls' bedrooms. So we would wait until the cover of dark, and in the midst of nightfall, when our chaperones had gone to sleep and we had already skillfully prepared all of our plans, we'd rise forth and take hold of our destines as men.

Put a different way, we would trespass. We'd go someplace we shouldn't go to do things we shouldn't do. I'm not encouraging this in the slightest for any student guys in the room. Don't go do these things. It's not recommended. But what we did there on those mission trips is what we've all done in this life. We have trespassed, not just against one another but against God.

The Bible tells us we have lived our lives selfishly, hating God and hurting one another, and the consequence of that trespass is we will stand before a holy God and answer for all of our wrongs. Yet, for those who are in Christ, we know that though we were dead in our trespasses, we've been made alive together with him. We know that we no longer have to regret the things we did but can rejoice in what he has done. This is the first thing we've been freed from.

The second thing we've been freed from is debt of our sin. Verse 14 says God made us alive "…by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross." What does that mean? It means our sin had racked up a tab so massive no one could pay it. It didn't matter how good you were or how hard you tried. You could not pay it. Not a single soul could do it, yet Jesus walked forward, considered the cost, and closed the tab. He paid your debt on his own cross.

That's why Romans 8 says, "Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?" Or whatever sin you may be holding concealed. "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."

So, we are no longer indebted to sin. We've been freed from it. We've also been freed from the threat of the Enemy, that one which enslaved us in sin, confined us in condemnation, and ultimately deceived us to death. He has been overcome. That's what Paul is getting at. He says in verse 15, "He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame…" Open shame. He humiliated our enemy. "…by triumphing over them in him."

Paul uses an image that would have been really familiar to his readers. When he uses the word triumph, he's eliciting this picture of what a people would expect should their king go out against a foreign opposition and conquer that enemy. As their king returned home and the gates swung wide and he rode through town with a train of vanquished foes in his wake, the people would line the streets, and they would celebrate. They would lose their minds. They would rejoice. They would be glad because their king had overcome the one who overcame them.

They would look and see, "The one who meant us harm is now rendered harmless, and the reason is not because we pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps, got out there, and got it done. It's because we have a king who loves us so much who rode into the fray on our behalf, stood in the gap when we could not, and ultimately overcame that which had overcome us." This is what Jesus has done. We have every cause to feel freed from the threat of an enemy.

So, last story. Brooke and I, at a church we worked with previously, met a young lady who had what is likely the hardest personal story I've ever heard. When we met her we learned that she came from a broken family, she was abused as a child, and she had been sold into trafficking at a very early age. Yet, by the time we met her she had been rescued out of trafficking and had been invited into relationship with Jesus. She had accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior, and she was journeying with him on the same walk many of us are on with Jesus today.

I remember, after meeting with her and journeying through the ups and downs of all of the repercussions of a life she did not choose for herself nor do anything to deserve, a heinous, horrible lifestyle that was committed to her against her own will… I remember, a couple of years later, standing in the baptismal waters with her, ready to stand next to her as she proclaimed to her friends and her family, her church, just what Jesus had done.

As I celebrated with everybody what she had been rescued out of and we talked about the goodness of God, I remember she stepped forward and said, "Hey, I just want to make it really clear. I did nothing to deserve my trafficking, but I also did nothing to deserve his triumph. I should never have been left in that set of circumstances, yet he should never have lived into the consequence of my circumstances himself. Yes, I have been saved from my sin, but I've also been set free to a whole new way of life. I'm redeemed. I'm different. I've received him, and that changes the way I walk now."

This story is the story for any person who places their faith in Jesus. For any of us who have looked at Christ and beheld his beauty, now there is an invitation for us to become like him, to walk with him just as we've received him. We have good cause because our foe is vanquished. The Enemy has been laid asunder. He who held us down has been rendered harmless. That which enslaved us has been left aside because Christ bore all of it in his death upon the cross, and rising forth from the grave, he declared to each of us, "Your story can change."

He's the Lord, so we should treat him as Lord, the Lord who left heaven and came to earth, chasing after you. Jesus came to give life, even life when we did not deserve it and even at the cost of his own self, and he came to fully forgive that we might be fully free. If you're in Christ, the opportunity ahead of you is not just forgiveness from the past; it's total freedom in the days ahead. It's a life like you wouldn't believe. Do you want to live it? Because that's what he's offering. Let me pray for us.

Father, I'm so grateful for today, for your Word, and for the chance to just sit under it. God, I pray we would know just how radically changed everything is because now we're in you. Everything is shifted. Everything is changed. You, God, have made the difference. We couldn't do anything. The only thing we brought to the table, the only contribution we came to give was our sin.

Yet you, Jesus, stepped forward and said, "I can take that. I'll incur the cost. I'll take the hit. I'll fight the fight. I'll do what you can't, because I want you for myself, and I want you as myself. I want you to become like me. Not by trying to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps or doing so by your own effort. I want you to do so because you live in me. You're found in me, and the product of being found in me is now you become like me. You live fully as I myself have lived."

I pray, God, we would receive that today, that we would look inside and know there's some response for us in this moment. For some of us, it's to consider what you've rooted down, that we are saved in Christ and you are fully sufficient, fully supreme. For others of us, it's to be established and built up. It's to continue leaning into the work which you are masterfully working within us. For others, it's just to, in this moment right now, stand to our feet and raise our hands and sing in celebration of the King who came to save.

For others of us, it's to know, "You're the Lord, and that means you get every part of my life. The 2 percent I'm holding back I'm not holding back any longer." For others of us, it's to live free. It's to go forward in light of the freedom you've given. Jesus, you change everything, and we pray you would change everything in us. It's in Christ's name, amen.