Sunday Morning, May 26, 2019 AM Part 2

Assyria had not plundered Jerusalem. Assyria had not taken away

King Hezekiah into captivity and raided the holy artifacts from the temple.

Assyria had done a lot of damage but they had weathered the storm and perhaps for some of them they had gained a false confidence that the city would never fall.

No matter how bad it got the city would never fall because they had the temple of the Lord. They would chant that the temple of the

Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. They were so focused on the architecture, so focused on the artifacts, so focused on the geography that they thought they would never fall.

And yet Nebuchadnezzar had come in 597 and had surrounded the city and Jeconiah had surrendered after three months of reigning and he had gone out with all the nobles of the city, their best craftsmen, their best metalsmiths, all the nobility had gone out and bought a bit of freedom for Jerusalem by allowing

Nebuchadnezzar to come in and take whatever he wanted. And he took the best of the best which of course was in the temple.

This was a devastating blow to Jerusalem, a devastating blow to Judah, and they're trying to figure out what now?

What do we do now? What's the plan? What does this all mean? What's going to happen next? What's the plan?

And God is merciful, God is merciful to give them the plan. He tells them to surrender.

And what about those in exile? What about the Jews who are living in exile? What are they going to do living out there in Babylon?

Well, they need a plan as well and God is merciful and he gives them the plan. And that's what we're looking at when catastrophe strikes.

Political, social, religious catastrophe has struck. Now what?

And that's what we're looking at in Jeremiah 29 verses 1 to 4.

I invite you to stand with me as I read the passage for us. These are the words of Christ through his prophets to his people.

Now these are the words of the letter which Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders of the exile, the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom

Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. This was after King Jeconiah and the

Queen Mother, the court officials, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen and the smiths had departed from Jerusalem.

The letter was sent by the hand of Elisha the son of Shaphon and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah whom

Zedekiah, king of Judah, sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, saying,

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom

I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, build houses and live in them and plant gardens and eat their produce.

Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to your two husbands that they may bear sons and daughters and multiply there and do not decrease.

Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the

Lord on its behalf for in its welfare you will have welfare. For thus says the

Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, do not let your prophets who are in your midst and your diviners deceive you and do not listen to the dreams which they dream for they prophesy falsely to you in my name.

I have not sent them, declares the Lord. For thus says the Lord, when 70 years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill my good word to you to bring you back to this place for I know the plans that I have for you, declares the

Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you.

You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the

Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and that will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, declares the

Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.

This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Catastrophe strikes.

Now what's the plan? We looked at verses 1 through 4 and we talked about step one of the plan, the

P in the acronym PLAN, plan is this, proper assessment, right thinking about what occurred.

And to do that we have to make a particular assessment, the details need to be right, not only that but they need to be peculiar, they need to be seen from God's point of view, not just the basic data that historian may gather, but how does

God see what just happened? Make a peculiar assessment.

And we have to make a prophetic assessment that we need to know what is going on, the way things ought to be, but also what is yet to come.

We need to know what highway we're on but also what lies on the horizon. And when it comes to anything that happens, how is it that we're going to really know what we have?

We have to have some sort of objective measurement to know what just happened.

We talked about how you hang a picture, you can use a tape measure, you can use a level, you can use someone back across the room, and all three methods will come together and you can put the picture in the right spot, perfect placement.

And that's what we have to do with when something happens, we've got to take up the Word of God, take up the law of God, take up the promises of God, take up the gospel of Jesus Christ, and take a look at what just happened, and then we'll know what we have.

So make a prophetic assessment. And after we have figured out what it is biblically that just occurred, whatever kind of catastrophe it is, well, then we need to make a programmatic assessment.

In other words, we're not just hearers of the Word, but also doers. We have to leverage our assessment into action.

We must be like the sons of Issachar, who knew the times, and then who knew what to do. There's a follow -through on our understanding.

And now sometimes when we have come to grips with what has actually happened, even if we can all agree on what actually happened, what do we do?

That question sometimes goes in multiple directions. We can all agree on what actually happened, but now what do we do?

Gary Larson, the artist for Farside, says there's four personality types. So a glass of water on a table right at the mid -level, the water's up midway on the glass.

First guy comes in and says, the glass is half full. Next guy comes in says, glass is half empty.

Third guy comes in and says, the glass is half full. No, it's half empty. No, wait, wait, what's the question?

And the fourth guy comes in and grumps, hey, I ordered a cheeseburger. And that's the four personality types.

There's the optimist, the pessimist, the relativist, and the antagonist. We get the details, but then what do we do?

What's the response? And we seem to go in different directions sometimes. There's four options for a wounded soldier who gets shot in the leg.

Well, catastrophe has struck. Now what? This is what happens in war.

Soldiers get shot. Well, what are your options? Well, it could be time to bleed out and die as the noble hero.

It could be time to surrender to the enemy. I mean, better a patched -up POW than a dead hero.

It might be time to carefully retreat to a better, safer position and receive medical help.

Or could it be the time to pull the tourniquet, stop the blood flow, advance on the enemy position they gave themselves away by shooting at you, finish the mission and secure a landing zone for the next stage?

What's the answer? What does God tell the Israelites to do? Give up and die?

Roll over? Become one with Babylon? We need to know what to do.

Make the proper assessment, but then what does that look like in terms of our obedience? What does that look like in terms of our action?

Catastrophe will strike. A loved one may die. There may be a breach of trust.

There may be a financial crisis. There may be a religious scandal. There may be a theological compromise.

There might be a political firestorm. There might be a bad omen. When you get shot in the leg, now what?

What's the plan? What do we do? But whatever happens, stick to the plan, which begins with proper assessment, and the next thing, the

L in plan, is long -term obedience. And that's what we're going to begin talking about this morning, verses 5 through 7.

Let me read those verses for you again, verses 5 through 7. And we're going to hear the kind of long -term obedience that God commands of the

Israelites. This is what the

Lord says, "'Build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat their produce.

Take wives, become the fathers of sons and daughters. And take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters and multiply there, and do not decrease.

Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will have welfare.'"

So there's long -term obedience that God calls for the Israelites, and it demands that they live in reality, that they deal with reality the way things really are.

Not to live in an imaginary dream world of how they wish it would be, but to deal with the facts as they are, unwelcome though they might be.

To handle the factors that are there, unhelpful as they may be, but with undaunted faith to follow through in long -term obedience.

But they have to live in reality, and reality is hugely unpopular just now.

Even reality TV is all about escaping from reality. In our matter -magic paganism, everyone does their best to craft their own versions of reality for themselves.

People use magic today, magic words, and then he's become she's, and sin becomes choice, and brainwashing becomes education, and finding the square root of four becomes an investigation into the repressive tyranny of white patriarchal structures which emit greenhouse gases.

We used to designate those who had lost touch with reality as a special class of ignoramus I, and yet now, advertisements encourage us to defy reality, change reality, choose your reality, reminding us that the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is still hanging within reach.

Long -term obedience demands living in reality, dealing with what is actually the case, because God is a

God of truth. God is a God of truth. Well, let's look at the reality of the

Jews. Long -term obedience is commanded of the Jews in exile, and they have some unwelcome facts that they're dealing with.

Fact number one that's unwelcome, they're gonna be there a while. They're gonna be there a while.

We've already looked at a false prophet, Hananiah, who said, no, it's just two years, just two years, and everything will be fine again.

Jeconiah, the exiles, all the holy artifacts coming back in two years. It's only gonna be two years long. And Jeremiah says,

God says, it's gonna be 70 years. And as we look very carefully in Jeremiah, the clock for those 70 years hasn't even started yet.

The temple is still standing. So they're going to have to wait for 70 plus years before they can come back.

The exile is going to be long. They're not going to avoid it. That's unwelcome fact number one. They're not gonna avoid the exile.

It's gonna be a long time. Unwelcome fact number two is that they are responsible for that exile.

Now, that's kind of hard to hear. The reason why they're in exile, the reason why they're in the Babylon rather than in the promised land, is because of their own sin.

And we've been looking at that over and over again throughout Jeremiah. But generation after generation turned away from the

Lord and turned to idolatry and immorality and injustice. And God sent his prophets again and again and again, but they would not listen.

They would not hear. And God kept his promise. He's told them, if you break my covenant,

I will break you. And I will send you to a foreign nation with a language you do not know and worship gods that you have never known before, to live in that nation under their idolatrous paganism.

He promised that. He said he would do it, and he has done it. So that's unwelcome fact number two, that they're responsible for their circumstances.

Number one, they're gonna be there a long time. Number two, they're responsible for it. Here's unwelcome fact number three.

They're starting from scratch. They're starting from scratch. That's an interesting expression.

It first crops up in relation to bare -knuckle boxing in England, where you scratch a line in the dirt.

Two fighters do, and they have to start from behind their respective lines so that it'll be a fair fight.

It's used also for racing. Scratch a line in the dirt and go back to start so that you will be where you're supposed to be to start racing.

It's used also in cricket, but nobody understands that, so I won't talk much about that. Starting from scratch.

How are they starting from scratch? Once upon a time, there was an elderly man, 75 years old.

His wife was 65. They had no children, and he was told to move, to leave his family, to leave his land and go travel to a new land.

He'd given a promise by God, actually, to go to a promised land where he would become a great nation.

And he made great efforts to make sure that his descendants would never ever go back to the land where he was from.

And this man's name was Abram, and he was later called Abraham. And the land that he was from, after the city he was from, was

Ur of the Chaldeans. Chaldeans are the

Babylonians. Guess where Israel is now? They went all the way back to start.

All the way back to scratch. That's an unwelcome fact. You are the generation that has been brought back to the beginning of where Abram was.

That's an unwelcome fact. You're having to start over from scratch. You're responsible for the situation, and you're gonna be there a long time.

Unwelcome fact, but they have to live in reality. They also have unhelpful factors. There's no temple for them to pray at, no priests offering sacrifices on the altar.

They have no king to direct all the people in obedience to the law. I mean, who's really in charge here?

The rest of chapter 29 is about people trying to give commands, and who's really in charge and giving instructions to the people.

It's confusion. They live in a pagan land. They don't understand the language or the culture.

Those are all the unhelpful factors. Yet, in spite of all of those things, they are called to disobedience.

To build houses and live in them. To plant gardens and harvest them. To get married, have children, make sure that they get married, that they have children, and they are required, they are required to put the white flag away.

To fold it up, put it in their pocket. They are not allowed to wave it. They are to take the towel and put it in their satchel, and they are not going to throw it.

They are required to multiply and to not decrease. Because in 70 years, they are coming back, and they need to live in light of the promise.

Despite all the unwelcome facts, despite all of the unhelpful factors, they must live in this way.

They must not give up and diminish in their defeatist attitude. They must carve out a new life, investing for the next generation.

How many unwelcome facts and unhelpful factors did the pilgrims face?

Why did they cross the Atlantic in an old rickety wine ship, half of them die, and they wave goodbye to the

Mayflower and stick it out? Why in the world? All the unwelcome facts, all the unhelpful factors, because they were carving out a new life for their next generation.

Carving out a new life for the next generation, because they believe in the promises of God. And look, this is especially a call to faith.

They must live as intercessors in the midst of their oppressors. Babylon had more soldiers, more cavalry, more spears, more arrows, more swords.

Thus, they won. And they have taken captive the best of the best from Judah, and they have made them slaves.

They have made them third, fourth class citizens in the Empire of Babylon.

They have oppressed them greatly. They have stolen the most precious articles of their culture for their own pleasure.

And later on, we'll see Babylonian kings having a party and getting drunk using the holy artifacts of the temple, giving no respect to their culture, no respect to their religion.

These are the most oppressed people in the Babylonian Empire just now. And these oppressed people are now called to pray for the welfare, for the success, for the peace and prosperity of their oppressors.

Now, it takes a bit of faith to follow through on that instruction. But why?

Why would they do so? God commanded it of them and reminded them that in the welfare of the city of Babylon, they would know their welfare.

And after all, they're in it for the long haul. They've got a promise coming.

Seventy years and they're coming back. God will restore them to their land. So, unwelcome facts, unhelpful factors, but undaunted faith.

This is helpful for us. It's helpful for us in terms of our plan. No matter what the catastrophe is, no matter what it is that has occurred, when we make a proper assessment of what has occurred, we must then turn our attention to some long -term obedience, which means that we're going to take account of the unwelcome facts and unhelpful factors.

To be honest about those things, what is it going to take for us to succeed in obeying God despite all of these things that we don't want to think about or deal with?

I encourage you, if you could make a list of all the unwelcome facts and unhelpful factors in front of you that keep you and challenge you in obeying

God and obeying the commandments of God, obeying Christ. If you will look at those in light of the larger assessment,

I trust that we would then come into agreement with Paul and call these momentary light afflictions in light of the weight of glory that is ahead of us.

So, put them in their proper perspective. That's part of the proper assessment, but we have to live in reality what they actually are.

And then listen, obedience may mean starting from scratch. Obedience may mean that after we make the proper assessment about the catastrophe that has occurred, that we don't like the idea of starting over.

I don't like the idea of starting over. My fourth born was busily making a castle full of plastic pieces and it was getting up pretty tall, so tall that he had to get up on a chair to try to finish it, and unfortunately the chair was not stable and over he goes.

The whole thing just comes falling apart. That's a hard thing for a young man to face.

I had the castle almost done and now I got to start over from scratch. And I thought about this sermon.

Yeah, yeah, the Jews sat down by the

River Euphrates and wept, hung up their harps. It is a hard thing to face when you have to start over from scratch, and yet here is an opportunity.

Here's an opportunity for true repentance when we start over from scratch. Also, please notice this obedience.

Our obedience, our long -term obedience, just may be a response to the consequences of our disobedience. Our obedience may be a response to the consequences of disobedience.

The fact that we're starting over from scratch, the fact that we have so many unwelcome facts and unwelcome factors in our lives, may just very well be because we have been disobedient to God.

We have been disobedient to the Scriptures. We have sought our own wisdom and gone our own way, and we have all these problems now in our life, which is no surprise as we've been reading through the book of Proverbs.

Do things your way, bad things happen. Do things God's way, generally good things come about. Now, it's hard for us to think about long -term obedience as a response to our own failures, our own sins.

But true repentance will manifest in obediently rowing upstream, if that's what it means. If that's what it means, then we will row upstream and we will look to the long -term for obedience.

Quick fixes, quick fixes are where false prophets and Jiffy Lube make their money. We don't need quick fixes, we need long -term obedience.

Now, this long -term obedience for the Jews is a good example for us, but we also need to recognize that the long -term obedience that they are called to is not just dealing with a factor of 70 years.

This kind of obedience does not stretch ahead of them for 70 years, it actually stretches back behind them for thousands of years.

Because what God calls them to do is nothing new, it is nothing unique.

This is long -term obedience that originates in Genesis. It originates in Genesis.

Again, what God says is, build houses, live in them, plant gardens, eat their produce, take wives, become fathers of sons and daughters, take wives for your sons and your daughters, give your daughters to husbands, they may bear sons and daughters, and multiply there and do not decrease.

Multiply there and do not decrease. Those instructions are not novel, they're not specially crafted instructions unique to Judah in exile, in Babylonian exile, it only applies to them.

These are instructions that have been given since the beginning of time, and to remind us of that we have to go back to Genesis chapter 1 and begin reading in verse 26.

Notice what God says concerning his special creature, mankind. Then God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness and let them rule over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them,

God blessed them. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, over every living thing that moves on the earth.

Then God said, behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed, it shall be food for you.

It sounds somewhat familiar about multiply, do not decrease, plant gardens, eat the produce of them.

See, this is nothing, this is nothing new. God is repeating for his wayward people the basic instructions about how to live in the image of God.

That was what their problem was all along, that they refused to live as those who were called to be his people, to live in his image, and exemplify that to the world.

They decided to go their own way, and now God is calling them back to his way to live in his image.

Genesis 2, selected readings here, verses 8 and 9, the

Lord God planted a garden toward the east. So God planted a garden and he commanded his people to plant gardens, and so, you know, it's a good idea to do, plant a garden.

The Lord God planted a garden towards the east in Eden, and there he placed the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the

Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Verse 15, then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.

And verse 18, and the Lord God said, it is not good for the man to be alone, I will make him a helper suitable to him.

And then verses 21 through 24, so the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man and he slept, and he took one of his ribs and closed with the flesh at that place.

The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which he had taken from the man and brought it to the man, and the man said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh, she shall be called woman for she was taken out of man.

For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife and they shall become one flesh.

These instructions, plant gardens, eat their produce, cultivate these gardens, build these houses, live in them, keep what you are constructing and building, get married, have children, make sure they get married, that they have children.

These are not amazingly new instructions. These are all coming right out of Genesis 1 and 2.

Because after all, what God called Israel to do was to live in his image, and after all that's what he called Adam and Eve to do.

Well, this is part of the plan. The plan has not changed for us.

The instructions to Israel in exile are not new or exclusive. We are made in the image of God and that does not cease to define our nature when something bad happens.

When something bad happens, we do not cease to then be made in the image of God. We are still in the image of God and what that means is still active for us.

Exile happens, we're still living in the image of God. The fall happens, we're still living in the image of God.

No matter how many unwelcome facts there are and unhelpful factors, and there are many because of the fall, we are still called to live in the image of God.

Well, what does all that mean? Well, let me give you a very quick summary. When we think about God making

Adam and Eve, we recognize some special roles and special relationships.

Specifically looking at the way that the scriptures talk about Adam, Adam had royal, priestly, and prophetic roles, duties, that he was to perform in special relationship to God and to humanity, starting with his wife

Eve, and then to the land and the creatures whom God had given to him. Royal, priestly, and prophetic roles.

And all the requirements to do that, all the requirements to exercise authority, to set things apart as sacred, like a day or a place, all that he needed to do to speak the truth to Eve and teach her the ways of God, all the royal, priestly, prophetic roles, all that he needed to do that were a part of his nature.

He was made, we are made, the image of God is soul and body, manifested as a whole.

We are rational and moral, expressed in our language. We are male and female, consummated in marriage.

This is what it means to be, this is the basic nature of what it means to be in the image of God, and what are we to do? We are to mediate the authority of God, we are to mediate the holiness of God, we are to mediate the truth of God.

Royal, priestly, prophetic duties as we love God supremely, as we love each other rightly, and as we steward the creation responsibly.

Well, these same roles and special relationships were present with Noah. Noah was called to do all the same things that Adam was, so also was

Abraham, so also was Israel, so also was David. God made the covenant concerning the creation with Noah on Mount Ararat.

God made the covenant with Abraham at the Oaks of Mamre, but it was confirmed at Mount Moriah. God made the covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai in the wilderness, and God makes the covenant with David in Jerusalem on Mount Zion.

And every single one of these moments in the redemptive history, we find that Noah, Abraham, Israel, and David all had these roles, royal, priestly, prophetic roles.

They were all called to love God supremely, they were all called to love each other rightly, they were all called to steward their creation or the land that God had entrusted to them in a particular way every single time.

And so what is Israel to think? Here they are in exile. Is it over? No, they're still made in the image of God.

They may not have a functioning royal or priestly dimension in exile in terms of they don't have a king on the throne that they can follow, they don't have a priest offering sacrifices in the temple, but they are still made in God's image to live according to God's Word, and this is something that would be hard for them to understand.

If you grew up in Judah, if you grew up in Israel, everything's centered around Jerusalem, everything's centered around the temple, and once you're moved away from the land of promise, moved out of the land of Canaan, now what?

What does it even mean to be a Jew? What does it even mean to be a follower of God in a pagan land?

How do you even think through those things? Well, God is helping them by bringing them back to the basics.

He's saying, you can still worship me, you can still love me, you can still follow me, here's how.

We're going back to the basics, what I first said in Genesis. And by this we're talking about what does it mean to cultivate?

What does it mean to cultivate? See, the second point, the first point is the imago dei, the image of God.

The second thing is God told them to cultivate. Cultivate the ground, plant gardens, cultivate families, cultivate society.

Don't give up, don't roll over, start doing what I have called you to do.

This is called the cultural mandate. The cultural mandate, what God commanded back in Genesis 1. The cultural mandate does not cease to bind our consciences when change occurs.

Okay, something bad happened, do we stop? Do we stop trying to do what God has called us to do?

Not at all. Listen, God's goal is to fill the earth with his glory.

That's his goal, to fill the earth with his glory. The plan began with the man and his wife,

Adam and Eve, cultivating, propagating, being fruitful and multiplying.

That's how it began. That plan is still in effect when Israel was exiled to Babylon.

They were still to build, still to plant, still to marry, still to bear children. Right, that was still the plan.

And everything begins with cultivation, the garden. You ever heard of the words cult and culture?

We think of cult, we think of some kind of strange group that drinks Kool -Aid, but that's the way the term is used.

But the actual term speaks to the religion, speaks to how the people worship

God. And then of course we have culture, which is a term we use a lot more.

But the cult and the culture comes from the idea of cultivation. How we do our work is to be in submission to the

God who has made us and what he wants the whole world to be about. So if I'm going to labor,

I'm going to not labor for myself or a false God, I'm going to labor for the God who made me.

And his goal is to fill the earth with his glory, so that's my goal in whatever labor

I perform, to whatever small degree that is, I will be laboring toward that end. And I know how he's going to fill the world with his glory is going to be through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I'm going to labor towards that end. And in this we see that culture, culture is actually religion externalized.

Whatever the religion is, whatever the religion is behind the culture, that's what defines the culture.

Culture is just religion externalized. So what kind of culture do we have in America?

Well, trace it back and you'll find what religion is actually at the core of it. So whatever we look around and say, well this is our

American culture, well trace that back, walk it back, and you will discover what religion is running it, which is some kind of, right now, some kind of matter -magic paganism where you can speak words and things change around and you can create your own realities with words and practice witchcraft.

Why is it so important, why is it so important that the exiles focus on the basics of these

God -glorifying human ways of living? They had 70 years ahead of them, not two.

They needed to build houses so they could live in them, they needed to have families. Why? Well, the lineage of the

Messiah was at stake, was it not? What happens if they roll over and die?

What if they just say, well we're done? What if they just say we're going to diminish? What if they say we'll just become

Babylonians? What happens? The lineage of the Messiah is at stake, even as it was multiple times in Genesis with the continuation of the family.

We need a husband and a wife, have children, do it again. Ezekiel lived in exile and he lived in just such a house with his wife, lived in exile in a house that they had built obeying

God's instructions. Now what's the connection between gospel advance and cultural mandate in the image of God?

That's a really astute question, I'm glad that you asked it. And here it is.

Our renewal into the image of God, which is, we can say sanctification, becoming ever more like Christ, our growth and maturity in Christ who is the image of God, our renewal into the image of God manifests, shows up, looks like our pursuit of the cultural mandate, not to our own advancement, not to the glory of a kingdom that is not

Christ's, but actually our pursuit of the cultural mandate to the advancement of Christ's kingdom.

So our renewal into the image of God manifests, appears like, our pursuit of the cultural mandate to the advancement of Christ's kingdom.

Okay, we looked at Colossians 3 last week and we're going to come back there again, so you can go ahead and turn over to Colossians 3. I want us to see this connection because it's very important for us before we get to,

I think, you know, sub sub point three on long -term obedience. We're gonna talk about the

Great Commission next week, so come back. Before we get there, we need to talk about this.

Our renewal into the image of God manifests in our pursuit of the cultural mandate to the advancement of Christ's kingdom.

Now let's take a look at Colossians. Remember at the beginning of Colossians 3, we have this very clear focus that we've been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is, be heavenly minded, be so heavenly minded that you'll be of some earthly good.

Now notice this renewal in Colossians 3 in verse 10. He writes to those,

Paul writes to those who have put on the new self, who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of God who created him.

You see that? Okay, you're born again, you're saved, you're a Christian, that means you have put on a new self who's being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the one who created him.

A renewal in which there was no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, skiffian, slave, and free man, but Christ is all and in all.

So as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, and I think that specifies everybody here who is born again

Christian, right? Born again follower of Christ. This is all of us. Now, with all that in mind, what are we supposed to do?

What difference does it make that we're being renewed into the image of God? It makes a world of difference.

Being renewed into the image of God changes the culture.

Notice verses 12 through 14 tell us how to relate to one another in Christ, in the church.

Verse 15 tells us how to have the right mindset. Verses 16 through 17 tells us how all we think, express, and do should be

Scripture -saturated and Christ -honoring. Why? Because he's at the right hand of God. Verse 17, whatever you do in word or deed, however you pursue the cultural mandate, whatever you do in life, do all in the name of the

Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. So you're being renewed into the image of God.

Jesus Christ himself is at the right hand of the Father. As you're being renewed into the image of God, who is

Christ, your renewal to the image of God changes how you pursue the cultural mandate, how you do life as a human being.

So that whatever you do in word or deed, you do it all to the glory of the King of the universe, Jesus Christ.

See, it impacts also, verses 18 to 21, how to live as a family. Being renewed in the image of God impacts the cultural mandate because it changes how husbands and wives relate to each other and how parents and children relate to one another.

And then verses 22 through the beginning of chapter 4, verse 1, talk about slaves and masters, which was the common way that work got done.

Masters provided the capital, slaves provided the labor, and they went and got stuff done. They planted fields, they build houses, they go around and they do shipping all throughout the

Mediterranean, and there's a bunch of slaves, and that's how they got work done. And you know what?

Being renewed in the image of God changes how you go get your work done. Look at all these instructions right here.

And I really like verses 23 and 24. Whatever you do, do your work heartily as for the

Lord. Why? He's at the right hand of the Father. It's into his image that you are being renewed. Do you work heartily as for the

Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. We get a lot to look forward to.

It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. See, being renewed in the image of God manifests in our pursuit of the cultural mandate advancing whose kingdom, whose

Lord? Christ is Lord. And we are told how to advance the gospel, chapter 4, verses 2 through 4.

We're told how to engage those who oppose, verses 5 through 6. We're told how to organize the ministers of the church for effective action, verses 7 through 15.

We're told how to strengthen local churches and pastors through the scripture, verses 16 through 17, and how to have hope in persecution, verse 18.

Man, so everything then is changed. So that's what you call long -term obedience.

That's what you call long -term obedience. When you go back and you say in Genesis 1 and 2, we find out what it means to be made in the image of God.

And what God wants to do is fill the whole world with his glory. He's going to do so through his image as we pursue the cultural mandate.

And lo and behold, in Christ, to his glory, that's what we're doing right now.

And we need to be aware of that and purposeful in that. Purposeful in that.

I want to read for us and then we will close. Isaiah 45, verses 11 through 13, verses 18 through 22.

I just want you to hear the perspective. Thus says the

Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his maker, maker of Israel, ask me about the things to come concerning my sons.

And you shall commit to me the work of my hands. It is I who made the earth and created man upon it.

This is Genesis 1, 2. I stretched out the heavens with my hands and I ordained all their hosts. I have aroused him in righteousness.

I will make all his ways smooth. He will build my city and will let my exiles go free without any payment or reward, says the

Lord of hosts. All of a sudden he's talking about the Messiah. Verses 18 through 21.

But thus says the Lord who created the heavens. He is the God who formed the earth and made it. He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited.

Remember? Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth. I am the Lord and there is none else. I have not spoken in secret in some dark land.

I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, seek me in a waste place. I, the Lord, speak righteousness, declaring things that are upright.

Gather yourselves and come. Draw near together, you fugitives of the nations. They have no knowledge, who carry about their wooden idol and pray to a

God who cannot save. Declare and set forth your case. Indeed, let them consult together. Who has announced this from of old?

Who has long since declared it? Is it not I, the Lord? And there was no other God besides me, a righteous

God and a Savior. There was none except me. Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth.

For I am God and there is no... Well, that will set us up to talk about the

Great Commission next week. Let's close in prayer. Father, I thank you for our time and your word.

I pray that you would help us to have the right perspective about obedience, that we would embrace long -term obedience, that we would recognize that many of the unwelcome factors and unhelpful, or the unwelcome facts and the unhelpful factors that we face in obedience has to do with much of our own disobedience.

But Father, I pray that you would lead us in real repentance and real faith in Jesus Christ, that we would take up the call to be your people for your own possession, who proclaim your glories to this world.