Okay guys, don't stop talking to each other. We're gonna keep the music going wherever you are right now. I want you guys to talk to each other. Uh, how's your summer? What were the highlights for you this summer? We've been through a lot, right? Uh, tell some people around you. School's starting. For a lot of students, it's summer's almost over. Talk to each other a little bit. Love to hear how your summer was. Okay? Alright. So, uh, just here in Chesterfield. Somebody shout at me. What was the highlight of your summer? Got baptized. I got my license. You got baptized. Hey, awesome. Way to go, man. That's huge. Somebody of your here said you got your driver's license. Did somebody say that? Congratulations. That's exciting. That's exciting. Everybody watch out. No, I'm just kidding. That's good. That's good. Um, awesome. Anything else? Anybody go anywhere? Cool. You got to go see your great grandson. Did I say that right? Wow. Congratulations. Wow, that's awesome. That's awesome. Uh, let's go back to this baptism thing. 'cause uh, how many of you got a chance to be a part of that celebration with us back at the end of June? It was amazing to see. Yeah. Hundreds of people step into the water of baptism and it was just such a moment for us as a church. And that was kinda like, that was way back in June. And before that, do you remember what kicked off our summer? The Cicada invasion? You forgot, didn't you? Thank goodness. I don't know about you guys. Some of you like barely got hit with it. Our backyard was like an Alfred Hitchcock movie. It was terrifying. Uh, it was awful. But we've had a great summary. Hopefully you've been a chance, whether you're joining us now online or at Mid Rivers or Grants Trail, Fenton, good morning. It's so good to be with all of you. But hopefully you've gotten a chance to join us for this, uh, series. We've been in the last several weeks, this here and now series, because man, we've heard from some of our pastors, uh, Chris and Judy and Ben and Angela all brought these amazing messages. Uh, to help us unpack some things. We've heard some great guest speakers. Jeff Henderson, Kyra Montz. Last weekend we had David Hawkins. This has been amazing. Now here's the thing. It seems like every year I end up having to follow David Hawkins. Why is that funny? It's not fair. Is it? It's not fair. I'm gonna make sure in the contract to next year it says that that's not happening. But, uh, it was awesome. Uh, listen, if we haven't had a chance to meet my name's Tim Bounds, I get to be one of our teaching pastors and I'm just so excited for the next couple of weeks, what we're gonna do together is have a conversation, uh, that's going to, uh, kinda wrap up this series that we've been in for the last several weeks and turn our heads towards the fall because, uh, if you're new to the crossing, September is kind of where we kick off our ministry year here. And so there's a lot of big stuff coming just around the corner. We can't wait to tell you about it. We'll talk about that a little bit before we're done today. But, um, but we've been in this conversation now, uh, that we've called here and now. And really throughout all of the messages, if you've been paying attention, there's a, there's a through line to the whole thing. And it's this, whatever it is that you're going through, whether you're looking at God for wisdom, you're going through something difficult, uh, whatever it might be, God is here and he's here now. He's here in the present. He is with us now. Um, here's the thing. Uh, we often say this around here, but God is as close as your next breath. And if you really understand what that means, it should take our breath away because maybe you came into church today and that truth is like you really aren't thinking about God much at all these days. I mean, maybe you're just kind of going through the motions, maybe showing up to church. It's just something that you do. It's part of your routine. Maybe, uh, it's something your family has done for a long time and you're just along for the ride. Uh, but there's some of you who are here because you got drug here by a friend and maybe you've been coming for a few weeks and you're, every time you walk in, you go, I can't, I still can't believe that I'm going to a church if my friends could see me now. Right? But some of you, there's a specific reason you started showing up and I don't know what it is, uh, but maybe you are going through something in your life that started to stir up some questions for you that you've never asked before. Maybe it's a difficult season in your life where you're all of a sudden going through just bad news, something with your physical health or maybe the health of a friend or a family. Maybe it's a, a bad breakup or some kind of a relational thing that's happening. Or, or maybe it's like a financial crisis in your life. Maybe for some of you it's just that you are overwhelmed these days with everything that's going on in our world. And you're like, you're starting to look for answers. Is there anyone who's in charge? Is there anyone who knows what they're doing? I I, is there a God who is uh, behind all of this? And is he good? Does he have a plan for how we're gonna get out of this mess? Whatever it might be. You've started showing up. Some of you, maybe you just honestly, uh, what whatever brings you here to today, however much you think about God, uh, in, in your thought life. I'm telling you, I wanna start with this basic truth. That God is present. He is close. He's only as far away as your next prayer. And you may not believe that's true. You may have questions about that, but I'm just telling you it's true. Whether or not you're aware of it, uh, there's many of us who will just believe that it is true on your behalf. So the, uh, really famous king in the Old Testament, the King of Israel, king David, maybe you've heard of him. He was also a really great songwriter. And one of the songs he wrote, we call it Psalm one thirty nine. He says this, he, he's talking to God and he says, where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you're there. If I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me. Your right hand will hold me fast. Man, David had a way with words, but lemme tell you what I think he's saying. He is saying that, uh, if you are looking for God, you don't have to travel far to find him. He's saying that if you have questions or doubts or struggles or things that you need from God, you only have to ask him. And he hears our prayers. And part of what David is saying is that you can't run and hide from God no matter how hard you try. He's always gonna be there. And for some of us that might be a less comforting thought. But let me just say this, the king of the universe, the creator of all things, the one who holds the planets in orbit and who keeps track of the number of hares you have on your head, he is not all up in your business and chasing you down just so that he can get you. He's not trying to move in so close so that he can cause you harm or, or, or, or anything like that. In fact, Jesus says in John chapter 10, that's what the enemy does. Jesus says, the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy. But me, Jesus says, I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. Now you need to know that the life that Jesus is talking about there, it's the life you want. It's the life you long for. I would say it's the life that you are made for. It's the life we long for. And, uh, living this life with Jesus is really honestly what we are going to be talking about, uh, for the next couple of weeks. So whatever caused you to show up here today, I'm inviting you to join us. 'cause we're gonna talk about what this looks like to live life with Jesus. And I don't know about you, but I'm ready. So can we pray and then we'll dive in. Okay? Let's pray. Father, sometimes we just need to acknowledge that you are with us. We, we thank you for being with us. We don't have to ask you to come to join, to enter into our presence because you're already here. And so we now ask that you Holy Spirit would move, that you would speak to us through your word, that you would change us from the inside out. God, would you get our attention where we need it? I am so grateful that your word says that your power is made, your strength is made perfect in our weakness. So God, I just pray personally that you would move, that you would speak to us through your word, that you would show us what this life with you is supposed to look like. We're asking you now in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Well, it, it turns out if you want to talk about life with Jesus, uh, there's all kinds of places in the Bible where you can go like cover to cover. But we're gonna focus in on one particular passage that shows us some specific things that I want us to talk about. And it's Colossians chapter three. So if you wanna flip there now in your Bibles to Colossians chapter three, you can follow along. You can also pull it up on your phone, on an app. We'll put it up on the screens. We'll try to make this really easy for you. But can I just make a quick pitch for bringing your Bible to church when we have these conversations? Because some of you, like you, you look through our lobbies when people are showing up to church and you see people like, you know, walking around carrying their bibles through our lobbies and you're like, man, what is up with that? That's kind of a weird flex, isn't it? Like, what are they trying to say? Listen, if you see somebody doing this, they're not trying to show off. They're not trying to show you how spiritual they are. You know why they're carrying their Bible to church. 'cause they're trying to understand this book. They're trying to learn from it. They're trying to seek truth in it, and they just, they've got a Bible to help them. Because here's the thing to date, there is still no substitute for having a physical paper bible that you can call your own. You can write in the margins, you can underline things. You start to memorize where different passages are located in your Bible and on the page. And it just starts to become familiar to you. And over the years you get to look back and you get to see passages that you've underlined or you've written in, and you get to go, oh, that's what was going on in my life at that time. Sometimes we even get to hand that Bible down to our children and, and, and to other generations. And then we get to see, like, we get to learn from people who've gone before us. So it's just a good thing to have a Bible that you can take notes in and stuff like that. So bring it. And if you don't, no one's gonna single you out or make you feel bad or anything like that. We're still gonna put the scripture up on the screen, I promise we'll take care of you. Okay? But we're gonna jump into Colossians chapter three. Now, if you look for Colossians in your Bible, what you'll see is that it comes, uh, towards the end of a collection of Paul's letters. In fact, there are four of them that are kind of smooshed in together in the middle of your New Testament. And there's four short letters that Paul wrote, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and then Colossians. And if you grew up in church, somebody taught you go eat popcorn. And that's how you remember Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. But here's the thing, if you're new to the Christian faith, if you got questions about life with Jesus, if you're trying to jump into scripture, or if you just wanna learn a little bit more about Paul, I love these four letters. They are short, they're digestible, but they are rich and they teach us all kinds of important things about life with Jesus. So this is a great place to start, but we're gonna go now to Colossians and specifically chapter three. And let me just call this out right here at the beginning. Uh, we are going to slow down and soak this scripture in. We're gonna, I really want us to like chew on this and digest it. Does that make sense? Like, I want us to savor God's word because it's rich and there is so much there. And sometimes when you come across something that's so important, you gotta slow down. You know what I'm saying? Years ago, several years ago, my brother and I, uh, decided to take a trip together to Chicago and have like a little bro trip. So we found out that our, um, our, one of our favorite comedians growing up was doing a concert in Chicago. It was Steve Martin. He hadn't toured in a really long time. So we were gonna go see him together and we were really excited and we said, you know what? We never get to do this kind of thing just for fun. Let's take the train. So we decided we would, we'd get a couple Amtrak tickets and we took the train up to Chicago and we had dinner together. We went to this concert and then we had to get up really early in the morning to catch the train back home. So we went, we saw the show, it was great. We had a great time. We stayed out, we were hanging out 'cause we just don't get to spend a lot of time together. And then we went to bed and we slept in just a little bit too late. So we woke up and we were like, oh, we have got like precious little time to make our train. And so we're in walking distance from Union Station, but we weren't walking, we were running, have you ever done this before? We're like got our little roller luggage and our backpacks on it. We're running through Chicago trying to make it to Union Station. And eventually we get to this flight of stairs when we make it down the stairs. But it wasn't just any flight of stairs at Union Station, it was this flight of stairs. Anybody know what that flight of stairs is? Somebody tell me. Untouchables, yes. The rest of you're like, that's not, that doesn't help. I don't know what you're talking about. The movie The Untouchables, Kevin Costner and Sean Connery. And this is the famous baby carriage scene where all of these gangsters have got their Tommy guns in slow motion and they're, uh, uh, right, that's happening. And the baby carriage is slowly making its way down the stairs. And mom is screaming my baby. And it gets to the end and Kevin Costner saves the baby. It's the most amazing scene. You guys are looking at me like I'm crazy. This is like, this is a big scene in a, in a in movie. In fact, some of you who are like real movie bluffs, you know that it's an homage to, uh, a 1925 Russian film where they're repeating this moment with the baby carriage. It's just, this is a big moment. So my brother and I are in Chicago and we're running late and we're trying to make it to our train. We get to a news station and we run down and we see that we're in these stairs. And without making eye contact and without saying a word to each other, both of us go, whoa, is this? Yeah. Oh, well man, get my picture here. Come back. Like, oh my gosh, we're like posing. We had to slow down and kind of take it in because sometimes when you come across something really important, you've got to slow down. So we took our pictures, we had our moment. We were like, we didn't know we were gonna see this today. And then we started grabbed our luggage and we started running again. And we almost made the train. We made the train. It's just a better story if I say that we didn't. But, um, here's the thing. Uh, it's a silly little story, but I hope you understand my point. We're gonna slow down today and we're gonna dig through this scripture together and we're gonna unpack this because it's just so good. So here we go. Colossians, it's a little letter that Paul wrote to a, a, a church that was in the town of Cosey. Now if you wanna look, you can see on a map, this is in Asia. It's just west of the Galacia region. Um, these three little towns, OPIS, la de, and Cosey are all bunched up right next to each other. Really interesting story about them in Revelation. We may come back to that one of these days. But, um, but uh, in Calley, the interesting thing is Paul never actually visited this town. He'd never actually been there. And at the time he's writing this letter, he's actually in prison in Rome. And some of the leaders of this church have made their way to Paul and they've found him in prison in Rome. He's awaiting trial. He will eventually die there. But they come to Paul and they go, Hey, we think there's this bad teaching that's going on in our church in Cosy, and we, we need your help to kind of straighten this up. And so Paul says, I'm gonna write them a letter and kind of try to set the record straight. And you need to know all of that context because it makes the point that Paul's making all that much more important. So what's Paul's point through the whole letter? What's he trying to tell these people? Here it is, Jesus is everything. He's the most important thing. Look to Jesus and everything else will fall into place. You guys are hearing all this false teaching. You gotta understand who Jesus is over and over. Paul says, it's all about Jesus. Make him the center of your lives. Make him the center of your church. He says, Jesus is, uh, he's the head of the church. No one else gets to claim authority in the church over Jesus. He's in charge. He's the head. He says He's the image of the invisible God. You wanna know what God is like? You wanna know what he looks like. Look at Jesus because he's the image of the invisible God. In fact, he goes on to say he is God in Jesus. The fullness of the deity dwells. Jesus is God and he's in charge. Paul says he's the head over every authority and power in the world. He says He's the message we proclaim all of the good news we have to share. It's all about Jesus. Jesus is king. Jesus is in charge. He is Lord. He is God. Look to him. This is Paul's message. Now, I hope that for at least some of us here, that sounds a little bit familiar because it's what we try to say here. Every time we gather, it's all about Jesus. Jesus is everything. Jesus is the one you wanna follow. Jesus is the answer to your questions. Jesus is the person that we should pursue. It's all about Jesus. So now you get to chapter three, and Paul has spent all this time pointing them to Jesus. And he says, now let me tell you what this means for you. It's like the readers are saying, okay, Paul, we get it. It's all about Jesus. What does that have to do with me? And Paul says, well, everything. And that gets us to chapter three. We're gonna start in verse one. I'm gonna read four verses and then we're gonna stop and we're gonna talk about these four verses. I'm gonna have you guys talk to each other. So pay attention. Okay? Are you ready? Here we go. Paul says, since then, you have been raised with Christ. Set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. He can't help it. He keeps coming back. Jesus is in charge. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Four short verses. And I'm telling you, they are packed. There's so much in here. So take a minute, talk to each other. What did you notice about this passage? And maybe answer this question when Paul says, you've been raised with Christ, you died and your life is hidden in Christ. What do you think he's talking about there? All right, have a conversation. Just discuss this a little bit. What'd you notice? And we'll keep going here in a minute. Yeah. So, um, so much to unpack here. Let's just start with the very first line there. Since then you have been raised with Christ. What what does Paul mean by that? What's he talking about here? Well, for one thing, I think it's, I think it's helpful to point out that, um, it kind of shows us who Paul's writing to. It gives us his audience. He's writing to the church, he's writing to people who have already chosen to do life with Jesus. They've stepped across that line of faith. And so he says, so since you've been raised with Christ, now why is that helpful? Well, because if, if you are someone who is not yet chosen to do life with Jesus, if you're still exploring the Christian faith and you're still trying to figure all of this out, first of all, welcome. We're so glad we get to have this conversation with you. We're glad you're here. But you're gonna read this passage a little bit differently because you can read this now as, as a a, a letter that Paul's writing. Some of this isn't quite for you yet. It's a, a preview of, of of things to come. It's a picture of what life with Jesus looks like. It's, it's, it's descriptive for those of us who do follow Jesus. Uh, Paul is trying to tell us this is how then you should live. Now, I I wanna be really clear why I think that's important. Because there are definitely some ethical principles here, uh, in this, what follows that are good for us to wrestle with and talk about and unpack what Paul means and all of that. But I don't want us to read what Paul writes here as a list of rights and wrongs. See, so many times we get to a patches like this and just kind of to make it simple. That's how we read this. Do this, don't do this. If you want to get to heaven, this is what you have to do. But you gotta understand that's not what Paul's saying at all. 'cause he starts with what, since you have been raised with Christ, the job is already done. Jesus did all the work for you. This isn't a list of right and wrongs. This is, this is what life with Christ in Christ looks like. In fact, part of what Paul is saying is, is essentially listen, if Jesus is Lord of your life, if your life is hidden in him, then this ought to be stuff that everyone just kind of naturally sees coming out of you because you follow Jesus now and your, your life should look different. Does that make sense? So, uh, this is what Paul's gonna kind of help us with. And so, uh, what he gets to is he says, listen in, in verse two, he says, your, you died with Christ and your life is now hidden in him. Now, what's that mean? Because that sounds kind of harsh, doesn't it? We died. Did anybody read that and go, wait, I died. What are we talking about? Well, sometimes this is language that scripture will use to describe what it looks like to surrender ourselves to Jesus and it's heavy stuff, but it kind of makes sense. And part of what he's talking about is he's saying, listen, the life that you've lived, uh, it hasn't worked out so well for you. There have been times in your life where you have harmed other people unintentionally, but sometimes intentionally, all of us, all of us, most of us can relate. And we can say, yeah, I mean, I, I've even set certain standards for myself and I've failed to live up to my own standards, let alone the standard that God has for me. I've gone down roads that have led me to a place of shame and regret and guilt. And I can tell you that, that there are ways in which my life is a mess and I don't know how to put the pieces back together. I kind of need like a reset, like a restart. And Paul says, yeah, sometimes you just gotta climb up on that cross with Jesus and go through that death with him so that you can experience a kind of rebirth so that you can experience new life on the other side. Uh, Paul talks about this all the time. In fact, in one of these other short letters in Galatians chapter two, he says this, he says, I have been crucified with Christ and it's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. Now again, that might sound like really tough language and a really hard thing to live out. You're saying, in order to step into, into the Christian faith, I've gotta die. It's humbling, it's hard. But at some point, you gotta take an honest look at yourself and realize this, these, these things now that Paul lists, he talks about in like verses five through seven, um, of Colossians three, all of these things have found their way into our lives. Anger, malice, rage. He talks about, uh, immorality, impurity, lustful passions, evil desires, uh, greed, idolatry, all of this. All of this finds its way into all of our lives. And in verse six, Paul says, that's exactly the kind of stuff that brings about the wrath of God. Now, the wrath of God is a really fun subject, isn't it? We love talking about it. Bring it up at a party sometime as a conversation starter and just see how that goes. It'll be great. I love, like I can imagine like a church doing an invite campaign where they're like, Hey, come to church. We're gonna talk about God's enormous anger towards sinners like you. It it's a tough subject. But here's the thing, it doesn't have to be, I actually, I I think we can get our minds around the wrath of God. I don't think it's that hard because you know what makes God so angry? Some of the same things that make us angry, injustice, brokenness, times where people are hurt by other people and life doesn't seem fair when evil creeps in and sin and death. These are the things that bring about God's wrath. His justice is perfect. We all have a sense of justice. We could never meet God's standard for justice. And when his standard isn't met, it makes him angry. You know why? 'cause he says, that's not the life I intended for you. That's not how creation was supposed to work. We were supposed to live together in harmony and peace, and we were supposed to have joy and be in relationship with one another. And all this stuff breaks that down. And that's why God says, you will see my wrath in some of these things. And so what we have to do is what Jesus invites us to do, which is to join him with all of our sin and all of our mistakes and all of the ways that we fall short. We join Jesus in his death. We die to these things and we put them to death. And again, some of you're going, Tim, that still sounds hard. Like I, that still sounds like really, really tough. And I get it. I'm with you. But to be honest, I want that, don't you? I want that stuff to be put to death in my life. You know what I wanna look like? I wanna look more like Jesus. I I want people to, I, I want, like, I wanna remind people of him. This is what I long for. And so that's why this, uh, this promise that Paul gives in this passage is so important that we can miss it. When he says your life is hidden in Christ. He says that, uh, that, that this life that you've been given, this resurrection life is now hidden in Christ. And there's a day coming where Jesus will reappear. He will appear in all his glory. And when he does, Paul says, you will appear with him also, which is the good news of the gospel. It's simply this, our story doesn't have to end with the wrath of God. It ends with hope and resurrection and victorious life. The promise of the gospel is that there is coming a day where we will be resurrected just like Jesus, and we will be perfected and we will be given, resurrected, made for eternity bodies where we get to dwell in heaven on earth with Jesus. This is the good news. It's something worth considering. But let's keep going. 'cause Paul says, if that's true, well then there's, it begs a question there. There's a question that we have to ask. And I I want us to wrestle with this a little bit. So, um, I need a couple of people to help me. Can I get, can I just have Randall and Ben, will you guys just come up here and help me with this real quick? Uh, come up here on the stage. I'm gonna go grab something real quick. Be right back. Talk amongst yourselves. Alright, here we go. Uh, let's see. So Ben, I'm gonna have you hold that into the rope. And if you would just go down and Randall, make sure I don't have a knot here. You can just stretch that out. And this is gonna be like a timeline. So if you guys can just kind of stretch it tight, um, so we can see it. It's a timeline, not a time curve. This isn't the Marvel comic Universe or something like that. It's not a tug of war, alright? Don't hurt yourselves, guys, so you can relax. Um, but here's, here's what this is. This is a timeline that represents your life, okay? So, uh, Ben, you're, this is when you were born right here. And then where Randall is, this is when Christ appears in glory, okay? Don't let it go to your head. But that's, that's where you are. Now let me just, lemme just call out the obvious here. This timeline is not to scale, okay? I don't have a rope that long. We would need one that's like, goes off into eternity. We can't do that. So the, the, the math is not gonna add up here, just it's an illustration. Go with me on it. All right? But this little red spot here, do you guys see this Here we're gonna say that this is the moment that you choose to enter into life with Jesus. And so you die with Christ and you are resurrected with him. This is the beginning of the resurrection life for you. This is it right here, okay? And so the question then becomes, if that's true, and if Jesus is returning in glory, and I'm gonna appear with him in glory, what do I do between now and then? What do I, how do I live in the InBetween time? That's the question. So Paul tries to answer this in this passage, and if you guys would just hang here for just a couple more minutes, but, but Paul says, uh, in, in verse two, he says, therefore set your mind on things above, not on earthly things. Now what's Paul talking about there? This is really good wisdom, but what sometimes we get really messed up with this. And so I wanna just clarify what he's not saying. See, sometimes people read this and they take this to mean, okay, so my future is in heaven, therefore I'm gonna live today. Like I'm just holding on until I get there. I'm just setting my mind on future hope. And in the meantime, I'm stuck here in this dirty old earth and I need to keep myself away from it as clean as possible until Jesus returns. So I'm not messing around with this earthly stuff anymore, which means I don't listen to certain music. It's just Christian music for me. I, I don't want any of the devil's rock and roll. I'm only gonna watch certain movies. In fact, I'm only gonna hang out with certain kinds of people. I'm, I'm not even gonna go to certain parts of town because what I think is that eventually God's gonna burn all this stuff up anyway, he's gonna destroy all of that. And I'm meant for heaven. And so I'm just holding on for dear life until I get to say the big I told you. So. Now, uh, I don't remember when I first heard this phrase, but someone around here at the crossing said, uh, that sometimes people are so heavenly minded that they're no earthly good. You know, anybody like that don't name names. Truth is, I'm not trying to be condemning here at all. I believe God's grace is big and I believe it's big enough for those who maybe don't get this part of it necessarily right? If they're trusting in Jesus, I believe his grace is big enough. I would even go so far as to say there's a kernel of wisdom in what's being said there. Because what we put into our heads, the thoughts that we put in our minds, it does matter. It does matter what we fill our brains with, right? It's that old trash in trash out kind of thing. I mean, I wanna make sure that I'm like watching things, listening to things, reading things that are edifying, that are helping me grow and understand God and the world that I live in. So all of that there, there's some truth in that. But this idea that God is gonna destroy everything, uh, that's that we don't even see that in scripture. You'll see another passage in John 17 that kind of comes into this conversation where Jesus, uh, is praying this beautiful prayer, uh, on the night that he's gonna be arrested and eventually end up on the cross. This is a beautiful prayer in John 17 that we come back to you all the time here because it's so important to us. But I want you to see another thing that Jesus prays in his prayer. He says, my prayer is not that you take them, he's talking about us. Not that you take them out of the world, they're not of the world, even as I am not of it. But as you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. What's Jesus saying here? Maybe you've heard people describe, uh, the Christian life as we are to be in the world and not of it. You ever hear anybody say that before? Now again, we gotta be really careful what that means. 'cause some people have taken that to mean, if I'm in the world but I'm not of it, then that means I need to remove myself from it as much as possible. Like I need to start drawing lines on who's in and who's out. And I need to create this sacred space where everything on the inside is sacred and everything on the outside is secular. Like that's a dirty word. And again, I'm just holding on until Jesus returns. But is that what Jesus prayed for us? Look again at the prayer, what do he say? God, just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them, which means our job is not to just hold on till glory. It means that there's a job for us to do. We've been sent, there's a mission. Our lives have purpose. There is a reason that we are here and we have work to do. So what does that look like? Well, part of it is, this is why, uh, this is why Paul says this, is that because there's work to do when Paul says we should set our minds on things above and not on earthly things. Uh, when, when Jesus says, I pray that they would be in the world sent, but not of the world. Well, lemme just ask you guys, what are the implications of that? What does it look like to live that way? This is the last time I want you guys to talk to each other. And if you haven't already, invite in some of the people around you and just have a conversation. What do you guys think that looks like? How do we live, as Jesus said, sent into the world, but not of it? Take a stab at kind of trying to answer that question a little bit and then we're gonna kind of head for home, but just talk to each other one more time. Thank you. So as you guys are talking about this, are you starting to see there's a tension in there that we have to live in, right? Right. I'm not of the world, which means I I want to be different. I don't wanna look like the rest of the world looks. I don't want to, uh, to end up buying into the values and the idolatry of this world. I want to be different. And yet Jesus has sent me here, which means I want to be in a, I want to be different in a way that's like winsome that expresses who Jesus is to the world around me. But there's a tension and we gotta constantly live in that tension. So what does that look like? Well, when I first met my wife Kim, she had transferred to a new college. Uh, she, it was in the beginning of her junior year and she came to Truman State University where I already was. And we became friends in the first week of class. And, uh, at that time, Kim would tell you now there were two things that were true about her. Uh, she would say this one is she grew up going to church for the most part, but she really didn't understand who Jesus was. She had not come to that place yet. And the other thing she would tell you is that, um, all her life up to that point, she had struggled to find meaningful community and relationships. Now, part of the reason for that was because she grew up in a really rural, small area. She was on a remote street that did not have a lot of kids. She went to a really small high school. Maybe some of you guys have that similar background and you can kind of relate to what that's like. So she struggled to make friends up through high school and by the time she gets to college, she's really looking for these meaningful relationships. She, so she comes to this new school, she's joins a service organization. She's a part of, uh, trying to get to know people on her dorm room floor. And in the middle of all of this, she breaks her foot. In fact, I remember that my first nickname for my wife was, I called her tripod because she was always walking around on crutches. And so now she's hobbling around campus trying to make friends, trying to make it to class, all of these things. And life just got really, really hard for her. And she, I, she started telling me this story about how some of the friends that she had made in her dorm on, on, on her floor would like argue with each other over who had to help her in the dining hall. Like, oh, I carried her tray last time. You have to carry it this time. Yeah. So she was telling me that and I was like, oh man, I, I need to introduce you to my friends. 'cause see, I had been involved in this campus ministry on that campus where there were a bunch of students who were really exploring earnestly what it looked like to follow Jesus, even as college students. And I'd experienced community there. And so I said, well, we'll come meet my friends. And I'll never forget the first time she met Aaron. Aaron was the first girl that I introduced her to. And Erin immediately went, oh, what happened? And Kim tells her the story and Erin says, how are you doing laundry? Because see, in this dorm there was an elevator that went to all the floors except the basement and the laundry room was in the basement. So you had to go down two flights of stairs to get to the laundry room. So Aaron said, what if I just start coming over on Saturday mornings and I'll do your laundry for you? Would that be okay? And then other friends came along and started saying, Hey, let me carry your dining room tray for you and I got you. What do you want? Other kids said, Hey, why don't we meet at this spot? 'cause we have the same class together and I'll carry your books in your bag while we go to class. 'cause I don't know how else you're gonna get around. And slowly but surely, Kim started to become friends with some of these people who were trying to be in the world, even though they were not of it. And over time, Kim started to learn about Jesus. And it was only a matter of a, a month or two that she ends up coming into her own relationship with Jesus. And she's baptized this fall, that fall. And I'll tell you what, um, Kim's been following Jesus now for 25 years. But one of my favorite things, uh, about this beautiful, quiet faith of hers is the way that she's always looking for opportunities to serve other people. And she's always looking for ways to invite the outsider in to be a part of what God's doing here. See, ultimately, I think when we set our minds on things above and not on earthly things, one of the inevitable outcomes of that is that we start to find ourselves in loving relationship with others. We start moving into relationship where we belong to each other and we start to form this community that is so different than anything else. And that is what Paul is talking about when you get down to verse 11. And he says, here, there is no gentile or Jew or circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, cian, slave free. But Christ is all and is in all. Now that might sound familiar to you 'cause he says something really similar over in Galatians chapter three, but let me just sum it up for you. Here's what Paul's saying. He's saying that when we do this, uh, all of these lines, we draw about who is in and who is out and how we're different all start to go away when we, when we realize that well, Christ is in us, we're doing life together, he's over us. We're all declaring that Christ is all, we're living life with him, leading us. We're setting our mind on, on things above. And in this, it makes us one. Now, we'll talk next weekend about some of the practical ways we can live that out. Paul gives us some really clear tools and some ways to think about how we can be in community with one another in this way. But before we get to all of that next weekend, here's what I wanna say. Wherever you're coming from when it comes to the Bible or God or any of this stuff, I just have one question for you. And then we're, we're pretty much done. I wanna tell you about something we're gonna worship together. But, um, here's the question. A life that is colored by hope and not dread, A life that is full of grace and forgiveness where you can forgive people who have hurt you and where you can be forgiven for the sins of your past. A life where you get to experience a life-giving relationship with others, where you get to learn about different people and you get to come together in community and be a part of something that's happening in this world where God is renewing and restoring and redeeming and making all things new. A life where you get to be in a relationship with the God of the universe who is good and who wants a relationship with each of us. Lemme just ask you, isn't that the life we want? I think it's the life that all of us will want. I will tell you it's the life that you were made for. It's the life that we are called to and you're invited. So let me tell you some practical ways we can do this in the next couple of weeks. And as I said, we'll uh, do some prayer and worship and reflection together at the end and then we'll be done. But really, really quickly next weekend we'll have part two of this conversation on Colossians three. Weekend after that is Labor Day weekend. We've saved one special guest speaker for you here at the end. Uh, my friend Will Coleman is a pastor here in the St. Louis area, and he's awesome. I can't wait for you to meet him. So come and hear what he has to say. But the weekend after that, September 7th and eighth, we are actually asking all of you to mark your calendars for that weekend plan to be in church at any one of our locations, at any of our service times. Come and be a part of this conversation because we are going to kick off this year in a really big way. Our lead pastor Greg Holder, will be back. He's gonna lead us through a conversation about this church, about who God has called us to be, who we've been for these last several decades, and who he's calling us. You know, he's leading us into the future, how we're going to strive more and more to be a blessing to the community around us here in St. Louis, but also how God is calling us to have an influence and an impact on churches and people, groups, and communities all around the world. It's going to be big, it's going, we're gonna dream big dreams together and we're gonna invite all of us to be a part of it and we'll tell you how you can do that. So September 7th and eighth, come be a part of this with us. Mark your calendars. Be here. Got it? All right, good. 'cause the weekend after that, you guys were with me. That was great. The weekend after that, September 14th and 15th, we're kicking off a a, a series and we're gonna do something together that honestly we haven't done together as a church in a decade. Youth crossing, kids, crossing all of our small groups across all of our ministries. We're all going to go through the same study together for eight weeks. We are gonna learn as a church what it looks like to pray as Jesus prayed. We're gonna study the Lord's Prayer and we're gonna take it line by line for eight weeks and we're gonna let it get down deep into the inner parts of ourselves. And we're gonna do this in community together, and we're gonna learn from each other. Signups for small groups will be online later this week. We'll have all kinds of other resources that we'll share with you. But we're gonna do this and it's gonna, I'm gonna tell you, studying the Lord's Prayer together is a church for eight weeks. It is going to prepare us for what God has for us. Next, I'm telling you what, there's some of you who you're like thinking about taking steps into your spiritual journey. You're in a place where you're like, I, I know I need to prioritize this. I've been feeling that for a long time and I just, I'm on the fence and I know I need to get off and I know I need to take a step and I need to start moving into this thing and making, studying Jesus a priority. Listen, now's the time. I can't think of a better opportunity for you to be invited into something and to take steps with us. So join us. We're gonna do this together. It's going to be amazing to see how God moves in this community in the weeks and months ahead. I can't wait. But ultimately, it all starts with what Paul said, since you have been raised with Christ, that's the promise of the good news of the gospel of Jesus, is that you are invited to a new life with him. So here's how we want to end things today. We wanna give you an opportunity to do some business with God right now. Uh, our our mu musicians are gonna come in into each of our rooms and we're just gonna kind of quiet this space. And for those of you who are trying to figure out, uh, who Jesus is, you have questions, you need to commit to taking steps in the weeks to come, well, right now is an opportunity for you to reflect and to pray. Take a risk, pray to God and ask him to reveal himself to you. He will. For those of us who are followers of Jesus, this is a time for us to be reminded of this life that he's given us this, this thing that he has done for us on the cross, which is why we come to the table of communion. So hopefully you got your elements when you came in. Uh, if you didn't, they're still set up around each of our rooms. You can get those, you can take 'em back to your seats. You can get into little groups of people if you want. You can take communion. You can do this on your own and be reminded that Jesus gave his body and blood for you so that you could have new life with him. This is a time for us to do this, but while all of this is going on, we're just gonna cover these rooms with some music. And our musicians are gonna sing a really beautiful older song that I think points to the truth that we've been talking about this weekend. If you know it, you can sing it with us, but if not, just let it wash over you. Pray. If you wanna pray with a pastor, come get us in the bullpen. It be our honor to pray with you. If you need to leave, we understand. We just ask that you be respectful of the room and leave quietly so people can keep praying and doing what they're doing. But I'm telling you, I I, I need to be reminded sometimes that this life that I have in Jesus is a gift That He's inviting me into something and even when I feel like he's a long way away, I cannot flee from his presence. He's only far as far away as my next prayer. I need that. So Father, I'm asking that you would meet us where we are. I'm asking that right now. In this moment. You would help each one of us hear your voice and take the next step, whether that's Committing To being here for the next several weeks, whether it's praying and asking for you to continue to guide us. Or maybe it's celebrating communion with someone and just being reminded of what Jesus did for us on the cross. But You meet us now here. We thank you that you're with us.