Colossians 1:6 Philippians 1:9-10

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It's just me trying to spend time with you and if you have any questions you want to talk about a verse in the

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We'll pray at the end and I'm going to try to share this real quick.

I'd love to be able to pray for you at the end. Here we go.

Alright, there we go. Now, hopefully this hopefully this topic won't take too long once maybe some folks get on.

Maybe somebody wants to to chat this morning. The the floor is is yours.

Like I said, we can talk about scripture, talk about the church, talk about things going on in the community, what your thoughts are and and maybe have a dialogue about it.

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Oh, before I do that, I forgot to remind you that of course, this is the truth in the love video ministry and we get that from Ephesians 415 and let me read that for you but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head even

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So, thank you guys for watching. I was given a book week before last and it's a book that we're going through in a in a men's small group and it's about the gospel.

The the title is called the Gospel Center Life and it's about Thune and and Walker and as I was looking at chapter one which we were going to look at this week in the small group, he of course, he's talking about the gospel and he's he's given a chart.

He's given an explanation. To start off, the the gospel is the gospel is the good news that that is not just to give you life.

The gospel is the good news for the rest of your life and and in theological or or Christian or biblical terms, well, words that that we use to describe the things that are going on in scripture.

When we say that the gospel or the good news is to give you life, that's justification.

When when God saves us, when God causes us to be born again, that's justification. When the the gospel, the good news gives us life and then when

I say the gospel is the good news is for the rest of your life, that's the the big theological word that we use called sanctification where where God to the

Holy Spirit is growing us to be more like Christ to to to conform to the image of Christ through his word, through scripture, through the truths of scripture.

So, it's it's good not just to give us life but it's good for the rest of our life and that's kind of my interpretation of of this gospel centered life idea and and where he was going and and what got me so excited about where he was going in in this first chapter was that it it meshed so heavily with the video that I did on Tuesday night and the verses that I used

Tuesday night and the verses that I used Tuesday night. The the topic that we talked about was was how to pray for each other, how you can pray for me and how

I can pray for you. But there's so many more implications just like with any other verse or chapter in scripture.

There's so many more implications with within those texts. That we want to look at another one of those implications today.

The the one we looked at Tuesday, of course, was prayer and this one is about the gospel and the gospel for the rest of your life.

He starts out by quoting Colossians which Colossians one which we were in last last

Tuesday night and this is the point that he makes and you have to start. I'm in the

New American Standard Bible and so I'm not sure how the wording is maybe in in yours if you have a different version, but if you're in Colossians chapter one, the very very very last two words of verse five gives you what verse six is talking about.

So the very end of verse five says the gospel and then verse six says, which has come to you just as in all the world.

Also, it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing even even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth.

So this gospel wasn't just for the beginning of life for them, but is the good.

It was a good news for the rest of their life. He says that the gospel is constantly bearing fruit and increasing.

So that's why we that's why we have a gospel centered life because it it it moves beyond just the time that we're saved our justification.

The gospel is for our sanctification. It's for the rest of our life and he he goes on to explain how that works and he and he gives a drawing.

It gives a chart of how that works and I've I really thought that his his chart was very insightful and it meshed so well with what we were talking about in these verses in Colossians and Philippians and I wanted to share it with you because I thought it was

I got really excited about it. I thought it was really really wonderful. So.

So yeah, let me let me just go over the chart real quick. So you have a line.

I don't know if I can keep let me try to keep it open so I can see it. There we go. Alright.

so you have a line and this line represents your your timeline your your life and then there's a moment if if you have surrender to the

Lord Jesus Christ, if you repent of your sins, put your trust in Jesus Christ, there there's a moment in that timeline where God has saved you.

God has caused you to be born again and that's that separates that makes the timeline in this chart look different from the rest of your life.

The rest of your life was in this chart was just a straight line the timeline of your life and then there's that moment of justification where God saved you.

And then something happens and that's when we go to Philippians chapter one verses nine and ten.

And and I wanna reiterate what I said on Tuesday night because it's so important Philippians chapter one verses nine and ten and and this is how he's praying for them.

I and this I pray that your love may abound still more and more in what he this is mind blowing in a in a culture in a society in in in a church culture in society that that tells us that we can keep our

Bibles on the shelf. That everybody has their own opinion and everybody's opinion you know is right and we can't we can't have a disagreement.

We can't have a discussion about our our opinions and try to get to the real true interpretation of scripture.

That our decisions are based on our feelings, how I feel about this, how

I you know how this makes me feel. We're drowning in a culture that is helping us to make decisions in a completely wrong and unbiblical way.

Paul is telling them in Philippians one verse nine, he's saying I'm praying that your your love.

Your love for that may abound still more and more that it that it keeps growing for what for real knowledge and discernment so that you may approve the things that are excellent in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ.

So their love he wants to grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, keep growing. Not not for this that and other specifically he is specific here for real knowledge and all discernment and we get that information from scripture from God's word so that you may approve what is excellent.

So he he wants their love to grow in in knowing God's word and studying scripture so that they can have real knowledge and real discernment so they can approve what is excellent and when you approve what is excellent, you are abandoning and you are departing from that which is evil.

There's a separation. There's a growing and continuing separation from that which is excellent from that which is good, godly, biblical and then from that which is evil, a continuous separation when your love grows more and more for real knowledge and all discernment so that you can approve what is excellent.

You're gonna continue to move towards God and toward and and abide and remain in those things that are excellent approved of God worthy and abandoned and separate from those things that are evil and that was the picture that I saw in this book.

Excuse me. I apologize. So going back to the picture that's in this book, how we have a gospel centered life.

The gospel is is the good news that is not just to give you life but it's the good news for the rest of your life.

You're justified. You have your timeline of your life. It's a straight line and then there's a moment when

God saves you when you're justified, when you're converted and then that timeline changes and then begins your sanctification and so what he does is he has that straight line and then he has conversion and then he has two other lines at the moment of conversion that begin to split and separate as time goes on and I'm sure you've heard this explained before.

And maybe you've seen the the picture on Facebook. I haven't seen it recently for a long time actually but maybe you've seen the the picture or heard the description how how

Jesus and Jesus is always represented with a cross, right? So Jesus is is the bridge and there's this great chasm between us and God and so you have the cross as the bridge between us and God who who bridges that chasm so that we can we can come to God which that analogy kind of has its flaws because you know

Jesus you know Jesus is is the way to God but you know it kind of implies that we still have to make an effort to cross the bridge.

Jesus come down. Jesus did everything and God is the one who saves us. So I apologize for trying to untangle that that picture that analogy, but I just wanted you to remember that that that idea of Jesus and the cross representing

Jesus and and Jesus being the bridge that that brings us to God.

Okay and so he he kind of uses that picture of the cross in in this in this analogy in this chart.

So what is the what is the from the time of conversion?

What is the line that that's going up and going this way? He says it is the growing awareness of God's Holiness.

So at from the before we were converted, you know we didn't have that much knowledge of of who

God is and as as someone explained the gospel to us, you know scripture says faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God.

So at the time of conversion, we have some knowledge of who

God is right. We have we have some knowledge, but at after conversion.

During the process of sanctification, our our awareness of God's Holiness and who he is is is a constant growing thing.

Alright now there's another line that goes this way and the two lines are continuously separating.

So the line that is going this way is our growing awareness of our flesh and our sinfulness during our straight timeline before conversion.

Probably weren't aware or didn't care about our sin against God, but at the moment of conversion, when someone gave us the gospel preached to us the gospel, we heard the gospel.

We heard the truth of God's word. We were we had to be aware the Holy Spirit had to open our eyes open up our eyes and make us aware of our flesh and our sinfulness in order to repent of our sinfulness and our sins.

So we became somewhat aware at the time of conversion when when we apologize, repent and turn from sin.

Has anyone ever specifically repented of every single sin that they ever committed or committed up until that time or will ever commit?

No, we we don't we don't have all knowledge and and remembrance of every single sin.

So we have we had somewhat of a knowledge of how truly sinful we we are before God, but after conversion because the gospel is for the rest of our life, which is sanctification.

That line keeps going down this way because as a part of our sanctification, our knowledge, our awareness of our sinfulness continues to grow.

Now, let me say this and he makes this comment in the book. Just because our awareness of God's holiness grows and just because our awareness of our sinfulness grows does not mean that we become or we we are more sinful or that God becomes more holy just because we're aware of it.

No, we are he is completely perfectly holy and we are utterly depraved.

We just become more aware of it. Our awareness of it doesn't make it so it's just who we already were and who he already was and we just become aware of it.

So he wanted to make that distinction before we move forward. Now, as we continue with the analogy, so it it reminded me of a

Philippians chapter one verse nine where he prayed that their love for for real knowledge, which is what he's calling awareness.

Real knowledge is awareness and discernment. So you have awareness of God's holiness and awareness of our sinfulness and that discernment separates so that you may approve that that which is excellent or things that are excellent and that's all discernment.

So real knowledge is awareness of God's holiness and our sinfulness and discernment is that approval of those things that are excellent.

Those things we we learn more and more about God and who he is and his holiness and like I said before when we learn more and more about God, his holiness and who he is and and the things that he loves the things that he wants us to do his will we we approve those things that are excellent and pure and worthy.

When we do that, we are moving away from those things that that are evil and impure and undesirable, which is the other line that's going this way away from God, which is which is us and our our sinful heart and our sinfulness.

So this chart really represents Philippians chapter one verse nine. Now here's the good part of the even better part.

Excuse me. I apologize. So at the time of conversion, our sanctification, our gospel for the rest of our life.

Continuously makes us aware of God's holiness and it continuously makes us aware of our sinfulness, but that bridge that Jesus is which is represented by the cross is not just a bridge for conversion for justification for that one moment in our life where God calls us to be born again where he saved us where he granted us repentance and faith the cross the the bridge, which is

Jesus Christ is continuous too. So at the time of conversion, it's because the gospel of Jesus Christ and what he did on the cross and it touches between us and God and so as that line,

I don't know how to do my fingers here as that line continues to grow further and further apart.

We become more aware of God's holiness and we become more aware of our sinfulness. The cross of Christ is still our bridge that touches both ends and so you have a cross that touches this line and this line and as it grows farther away, the cross touches this line and this line and it moves farther away and the cross touches this line and this line.

What does that mean as we grow in sanctification? The cross of Jesus Christ gets bigger and bigger and bigger.

The gospel gets bigger. Jesus gets bigger. The more we are aware of God's holiness and the more we are aware of our own sinfulness, the more the bigger the more glorious the gospel of Jesus Christ becomes to us the bigger the cross becomes and the more we more we learn about the gospel of Jesus Christ when we are converted.

We we have very very very little knowledge of who

God is our own sinfulness and the gospel of Jesus Christ. But that process of sanctification makes the cross get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and the bigger the cross is the more glorious and wonderful and Jesus is to us the more precious he is to us.

So that's the process of sanctification. That is the gospel for the rest of our life that Jesus keeps getting bigger and more precious to us.

So I hope that was I hope that was edifying to you. I hope that was helpful. If it was and and I of course

I hate doing this but if that was helpful to you if you would like like the video share the video.

We we just want this this truth of God's word to to go out into our community.

We we want our community to grow in in Jesus Christ. We want the kingdom of God to grow.

We want more brothers and sisters in Christ. We want reconciliation to happen in our community and in our world and so we we want to be a part of that and so we truly truly covet your your participation your support through through likes through comments and through shares and so if I can if I can pray for anybody,

I'd love to be able to do that and because of the delay, I'm going to give just a just a minute here to see if anybody requests prayer.

If if you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, remember that we have all sinned.

None of us are perfect. Some people may act like it and and people use that as a crutch.

You know, you're you're a Christian. You know, I see you doing this. Nobody really ever wants to reflect on their own life, but if we're truly truly concerned with this life and what's to come in this world and our family,

God is the only answer and his son is the only answer and we've we've all sinned and we've all missed the mark.

And I have completely blown it myself. I'm nowhere near the mark.

I was nowhere near the mark. I will never ever be near the mark in my own efforts because of what

Jesus did on the cross. God sees Jesus when he looks at me because the the righteousness that Jesus earned here on this earth was credited to my account.

And that's because the Holy Spirit opened my eyes through the word of God. And so I encourage you listen to the words of scripture.

Listen to the words of God that that we all need Jesus. We all need a savior because we're all sinful.

We've all broken God's laws and we we need someone to rescue us and his name is

Jesus. He was born of a virgin. Virgin lived as a sinful life. He was he was killed hung on a cross by sinful man that his own creation.

He died. He was buried. Then he rose from the grave by the power of God accepting his sacrifice.

And then he ascended into heaven where he sits now as king of kings and lord of lords until his enemies are made his footstool and his he is interceding for us today and he he is commissioned us to go preach this gospel so that you and I may repent of our sins.

This is his message. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel. Put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

Turn from your sins and put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. So and that's the only way to to peace.

That's the only way to life and reconciliation is through Jesus Christ. And so I encourage you if you've never done that if you've never surrendered to Jesus Christ, please do that today.

I do not see anyone as requested prayer. So I'm going to go ahead and pray and if you're still with me,

I hope that you will join me if you watch the video later and and you would like for someone to pray for you.

All you have to do is just type me and I'll see that at some point see the notification and I'd love to be able to pray for you.

So if you're still with me, let's pray together. Father, we thank you for giving us a new a new wonderful day to serve in your kingdom.

Thank you for your mercy, your kindness and your grace. Thank you for Jesus who who willingly came down to rescue us.

To give his life. On behalf of those who believe to take upon himself our sins.

Father, thank you for the time that you've given us in in your word. Father, may it be glorifying to you.

Father, we use it to edify those that that watch and listen. We love you and we thank you.

Father, I pray for all those who who watch this morning that you will bless them, encourage them, and help them as as they walk through this life.

Father, may they walk it with you. And I pray all these things in Jesus name. Amen. Alright, thank you guys for watching.

Remember that Jesus is king. Go live in that victory and continue to go out and proclaim this gospel that is that gives us life and the gospel that's for the rest of our life.