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Remember Who(se) You Are (Part One) "Staying Positive in a Pessimistic World" Colossians 1:1-8 |
January 8, 2006 Pastor Tom Marcum |
Each Saturday, The Press Democrat includes a section called, “Religion and Ethics.” On December 31 the article titled in that section was titled, “Spirited Attempt to Save Churches.” The article described The Church of England’s response to plummeting church attendance. To keep their grand cathedrals from closing completely, church officials are renting them out as offices, stores, spas and more…
…For instance, training circus acts. The Press Democrat article begins like this: “In front of the altar at St. Paul’s Church, two young acrobats balanced upside down with their toes pointed heavenward. Unicycles leaned against 200-year-old pews and trapezes hung from 40-foot-high scaffolding alongside stained-glass images of Moses, David and Elijah.”
…With their high ceilings and open interiors, other churches are being used for indoor rock-climbing. Julian Walker, who runs Bristol Climbing Center in a converted 15th century church said, “This…building…(is) still open to the public, and I think that’s what churches are for.”
…Winsome Lawson operates her nail salon in another church and says that many people who were married or baptized in the church often come into her nail salon to reminisce. She said, “It’s lovely that the church…(has become)... something so welcoming...”
David Self, Vicar of the Church of England said, “I love to see the church used like this. We haven’t abandoned (the) church. We’re just (using) it a little differently now.”
From “house of worship” to “house of nails” and the vicar’s delighted. I confess that it raises a couple of questions for me, namely--
--“Have you forgotten who you are?”
--“Have you forgotten whose you are?”
I’ve got nothing against circuses, rock-climbing or nail salons. But, folks, when those things or any other things for that matter, are embraced as substitutes for the biblically defined identity of the church…something is wrong. And what’s wrong is that that church has forgotten who and whose it is.
And that brings me to the issue that I want us to consider for the next several weeks, namely, making sure that we are very clear in our understanding of who and whose we are. More specifically, I want us to be absolutely certain that we are defining ourselves both individually and as a church family not by what the culture says that we are, what our friends say that we are or even what our own human nature says that we are but rather according to what the word of God says that we are. And, folks, what the word of God says about our identity as the children of God individually and the church of God collectively is incredibly empowering and thoroughly transforming. Consequently, it is critically important for us to refuse to accept any self-identity other than the one given us by us by our Heavenly Father.
So, what does God’s word tell us about our identity? That’s the question that we’re going to be answering over the next several weeks as we walk together through the New Testament book of Colossians. I hope you’ll be with us for every one of those weeks. This morning, our journey begins with the first 8 verses of the book. And what we’re going to discover in these verses is that one of the wonderful things that happens to us when we allow God to define who and whose we are is that His vision of our identity gives us the power to remain positive even when we are surrounded by pessimism.
Now, let’s read our text. Beginning in verses 1-2 Paul writes,
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and Timothy our brother, to the holy and faithful brothers in Christ in Colosse: Grace and peace to you from God our Father.
Paul begins his letter with the standard kind of greeting that we see in his other New Testament letters.
--First, he introduces himself saying, “Hi, I’m Paul and I’m an apostle of Jesus.”
--Next, we learn that this letter is being co-written with his young associate, Timothy, though it’s going to become clear later that Paul is the primary writer of the letter.
--Then, he identifies the people to whom he is writing—in this case, the believers in the church at Colosse whom he praises for their holiness and faithfulness.
Finally, he extends his customary greeting reminding them of the blessing that all believers share in the grace and peace of God.
Now, let’s move ahead and look at verses 3-5 where Paul says,
We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints—the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven…
Folks, focus on that word, “hope,” for the moment. Here’s what Paul is saying. He says, “Every time I pray for you I always thank God for you because of the faith that you have in Jesus and because of the love that you have for your brothers and sisters in Christ. And it’s so exciting for me to hear about that because that kind of faith and that kind of love is only found in people who realize that their hope is not rooted in this world, but in heaven.”
Folks, there’s a great lesson here. If your sense of hope and optimism is determined by what you see happening in the world around you, what you experience in the day to day living of your life and what you think is likely to happen tomorrow based upon the things that have happened to you in the past…guess what? You just became a lifetime member of Pessimists Anonymous. And if I were you, I’d keep my dues current.
I did a little research this week and guess what I discovered? It’s a tough world out there.
--It turns out that a lot of the people out there could not care less about you, your family, your feelings, your future…they could not care less. It doesn’t bother them in the least to take advantage of you if it’s helpful to them. What’s more, it’s always been like that and it always will be.
--And it turns out that even if you’re one of the good guys you’re still going to get sick, you’re still going to suffer financial set backs, your kids are still going to get in trouble…and, yes, they’re going to blame you for it and, eventually, you’re still going to die.
All together now, “Happy New Year!”
Folks, here’s the point—if your ability to remain positive and optimistic is determined solely by what you see, experience or anticipate experiencing in this world, you may as well settle in and get real comfortable with your fellow pessimists. To do anything else would be irrational.
But, folks, if, as Paul says here in verse 4, your life is built upon the foundation of “faith in Christ Jesus,” you have been set free from pessimism by hope!
And the “hope” that we’re talking about here is not self-delusion. I’m talking about Christ-centered hope! Hope that is not in any way diminished by the temporary hardships that we all experience in this life, because our hope is not rooted in this life. Our hope is rooted in the eternal reality of heaven. Our hope is founded on the sure and certain confidence, as Paul says in Romans 8: 28, that, “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
We used to sing a great old hymn about the transforming power of this kind of heaven-focused hope.
I’m pressing on the upward way,
New heights I’m gaining every day.
Still praying as I’m onward bound,
“Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”
Lord, lift me up and let me stand
By faith on heaven’s table-land;
A higher plane than I have found--
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.
Brothers and sister in Christ, that is our hope. That is our confidence. That is the ground of our optimism.
Now, let’s go back to our text as Paul reveals another reason that every child of God can remain positive even though we oftentimes feel like we are swimming in a sea of pessimism. In verses 5-6 Paul says, “…the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel that has come to you.
All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth.”
Here’s the point, folks—the world is full of pessimism because the world is full of people who don’t know the whole truth. Their attitude about life is being shaped by part of the story rather than the whole story and the part of the story that they’re getting is awfully depressing. No wonder they’re pessimistic.
Did you pay attention to the news this week?
--In West Virginia a mine collapsed killing 12 miners and their families were put through a horrific emotional trauma hearing, first, that they were all likely dead, then that they were all alive, and then that they were dead.
-- In southern Germany an ice skating rink is filled with happy families enjoying a few hours of skating together when the roof suddenly collapses and kills at least 14 people.
--Terrorism, war, disease, floods and on and on it goes.
We are constantly inundated with stories of tragedy and calamity. These are real stories of real human sadness and they need to be told. But, folks, there’s another story unfolding that is just as real, but the vast majority of people never hear about it because it never makes the news. And here’s the story—“All over the world (the) gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth.”
All over the world the good news of salvation through Jesus is spreading. All over the world people are responding in faith to the gospel and they are being saved. And here’s another part of the story this is especially exciting--God is using you and your faithfulness to spread the good news of the gospel as you participate in and support the ministries of Petaluma Valley.
One of those ministries that you support is our church website and most of you probably hardly even know about it. How many of you have visited our church website at www.petalumabaptist.org? I want to encourage you to do so. It’s filled with all kinds of useful information. Among the things we post there are manuscripts of all my sermons. The sermon I preach on Sunday is posted on the website a few days later. My original thought in posting those sermon manuscripts was to make them available to our church members who missed a Sunday or wanted to study a sermon topic more deeply. Well, folks, it turns out that I vastly underestimated the power of the Internet.
I get emails on a regular basis from people all across the country and around the world telling me that they found their way to our website and that God is blessing them as they read those sermons each week. What’s more, about a third of those emails come from other pastors who thank me for posting complete manuscripts free of charge because they are preaching those sermons in their churches.
The latest of those emails came to me this past week from Pastor Luciano Bariquit Jr., pastor of the Goodnews Baptist Church in Davao City in the Philippines. Here’s what he wrote me--
Dear Pastor Tom, I thank the Lord for…your excellent website and your great sermons that (have) great learning. It’s indeed a great blessing for our ministry here in the Philippines. God uses your sermons to bring more souls to God and encourage our people in the Church. Thank you so much for being a blessing in our work here in the Philippines.
I wrote back to Pastor Bariquit and told him that I was delighted to see the way that God had drawn us together for the greater glory of the Kingdom of God.
On Wednesday, he wrote back saying, “Dear Pastor Tom, I am so blessed to get in touch with you. You (are) already known to our people because your great sermons (have become) a blessing to our ministry (and) a part of our endeavor in bringing souls to God here in the Philippines. We are praying to (have you as a) guest sometime in our radio broadcast ministry, preaching live via telephone. I firmly believe you will be a blessing to our great number of listeners here in Davoa City, Philippines.
So what’s the point in sharing that story with you? It’s this: there are a lot of people in the world who are doomed to pessimism because they cannot see beyond the sorrow and sadness that they are experiencing in their own lives and that they see in the world around them.
But, brothers and sisters in Christ—don’t forget who you are and don’t forget whose you are. Be encouraged because we know the rest of the story. And the rest of the story is this—while our hearts ache over the brokenness that we see in the world, our spirits soar with hope and optimism because, even in the midst of all this brokenness God is working in and through us to spread the gospel and the gospel is bearing fruit and growing all over the world!
And all God’s people said, Amen! Amen!
© Copyright 2006 Pastor Tom Marcum