Sermons of Faith with Dr. Michael Madaris
Understanding Our Past, Present, and Future in Christ
make your mibles in turn with me to Colossians chapter two. Colossians chapter two, last week we looked at verses nine through 12 and we looked at this reality that because he is first, that's the central message of the book of Colossians, the preeminence of Jesus Christ above all things, that God's in control, that God's got this and that because of who he is and because of what he's done, we can trust him. And I want us to look today at what God specifically has done for us that only he could do because of who he is. So the message title this morning is past, present, and future and I wanna invite you to stand with me in honor of the reading of God's word. We're gonna read verses nine through 15 this morning. This is what the Bible says. For in him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form and in him you have been made complete and he is the head over all rule and authority. And in him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised up with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead. When we were dead in our transgressions and the circumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him having forgiven us, all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us which was hostile to us. And he has taken it out of the way having nailed it to the cross. When he had disarmed the rulers and authorities he made a public display of them having triumphed over them through him and may God add a blessing to the reading and hearing of his word. Father, I pray in Jesus' name that you would speak in a way that we can hear you today. God, through the songs that we have sung, we have worshiped you and you have spoken truth to us as we sit and even already have heard the reading of your word. God, you have spoken and I pray that we would tune in to you and that we would open up our hearts, the center of the core of who we are and that we would open up our minds to receive the truth and that we would never, ever be the same. I'm gonna pray this in Jesus' name. Amen, thank you and you can be seated. When we look at verses 13, 14 and 15 we see some amazing truths about what God has done for us. That only he could do because of who he is. And so I want us to talk first this morning about the past reality. Paul says this, you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He's talking about your heart. And here's the reality is that we were all born alive and yet dead. Every one of us in the room, every person that's ever been born, every person that is alive today that will ever be born in time as we know it, born alive and yet dead. On the outside everything looks alive and yet the Bible says that on the inside, because of sin, because of the inherent nature of sin, because of the reality that we are born sinners, we are separated from God and spiritually dead by birth. We are that way and then as we get older, we begin to choose to sin. It's not that anyone holds a gun to our heads and says you've got to do, we just choose. By nature, to sin, if you have children, you know that this is true, that you didn't have to teach them to be greedy. And to want what somebody else has. They just, by instinct, take what they want from someone else and they don't care what conflict it causes 'cause it's not about that person that had it, it's just about me and the self gratification that I get from having it now. You don't have to teach your kids to lie. Anybody in here had to teach your kid to lie. No, why? 'Cause they knew how to do that from the moment they could talk. How did they learn that? They didn't learn it. It just comes natural. There's something about us that just wants to lie. You ever run across somebody that lies, even when the truth is better than the lie, but they lie just cause they're gonna lie. (congregation laughing) But they do that. The truth is far better. The truth would be a better story, but they don't want to tell, just because they would rather lie. They would rather tell the lie than just to tell the truth. It's just natural. So we have to teach our kids to share. Y'all gonna talk to me this morning whether you want to or not. We have to teach our children to tell the truth. We have to teach our children to do what's right. That's why the Bible says, train up a child in the way they should go. It does not say train up in the child in the way they want to go. Some of y'all need to learn that. It's easier to say amen to that than to live it. Now, you have to train and that's work, which is why most people that bring children into this world aren't really parents. Cause parenting is work, it's hard work. It's never ending work. It's exhausting work. It's exasperating work. It's frustrating. (congregation laughing) I was waiting on Jack. I could say he was just bubbling over there. But he said it cause Crystal ain't in the room. (congregation laughing) We're thankful she's at home, but she's not here. And so he's not on a short leash as he normally is. (congregation laughing) Amen. But this reality of our nature and the Bible says that we are dead, that movie "The Green Mile," there was just some bad characters in that movie that, one, he starts out and you just think that he is, he's just rude and obnoxious. Percy, but as the movie goes on, you see who he really is and the evil. But in that first thing, they're bringing John in and he steps off the truck and it just springs back up. This is a big, big man. They bring him into that death row and he says this over and over and over again. We got a dead man walking. We got a dead man walking. We got a dead man walking here. And what's he saying? Well, John wasn't dead, but he was gonna be. The synapse that had been handed down was going to be carried out and it was as sure as it was gonna happen as if it already had. And that's how it is spiritually. The synapse of death and separation has already been handed and down and for those who were apart from Christ, the execution of that synapse, that condemnation is as guaranteed as if it's already been done. We are dead. But it's amazing what the Apostle Paul says 'cause he doesn't use a present tense. He says you were dead. For those that he is writing to something amazing has happened. But there's this past reality for all of us that we are dead in our transgressions. In our scene, I looked up the word transgressions and the definition is this, an infringement or violation of a law, commandment or duty. An infringement or a violation of a law, command or duty. We didn't just violate a law. We violated the law of God. And we are guilty of all, we've broken them all. I went back this morning and just reminded myself of this reality. I went back and I read Exodus 20 verses one through 17 and then those verses of scripture in the Old Testament, God gives Moses what we know as the 10 commandments. And it starts out, I am God. God says, there's none like me. Have no other gods before me. And the second says and don't create images of other things and worship them in my place. That's the first two, we're guilty because we don't always love God. As a matter of fact, when we're born, we don't love him at all, but he loved us anyway. When anything in our life takes the place that God deserves to be in, then we are guilty of breaking the second commandment because we put and we worship something else rather than him, we worship something that was created rather than worshiping the Creator. So we're guilty and then you go and you got the parent commandment and you've got that don't kill and don't commit adultery and all of those things. And we're guilty of those things 'cause Jesus said if you have lust in your heart, you're guilty of adultery, if you have hatred in your heart, you're guilty of murder. Guilty, guilty, that's a courtroom setting with the judge slamming the gavel down. Guilty, guilty, we're all guilty. We've broken it all, not just some, not just one, not even just the most. We are guilty of them all. We were dead in our trespasses, in our transgressions. And the uncircumcision of our flesh, he goes on and I was thinking about this reality of uncircumcision and how it says it's not one done with hands. We understand physically what that's talking about. We understand what circumcision is and that process. We know that not everybody in the world has done that and he's talking about this spiritual concept of God removing in us what separates us from him. And I was thinking about the circumcision and the first thing that God said was that circumcision is a mark of identity. That's what it was. Now, it wasn't that the Jews were the first and the only to practice even in that day the practice of circumcision, but even in the community, not everyone would do it. But God said, if you're going to be my people, this is something that you will do. And so before they left the promised land, that the circumcision began to take place for that people. Abraham had done, Isaac had done it, Jacob had done all of them leading up to it. But in the mix they had lost sight of the practice of identifying with God in that way. And so before God set them free from Egypt, everyone was circumcised. And then in the midst of the wilderness wanderings, that practice fell away. And before they were able to enter into the promised land under the leadership of Joshua, every male had to be circumcised. Why? Because that was an identification. If you're going to be mine and you're going to identify with me and I'm going to be able to identify with you, then you're going to have to do this. So it wasn't just an act or a mark of identity. It was a mark of surrender. They were to circumcised on the eighth day after birth. And that little baby doesn't have any choice in that matter. It's just a moment. But in that moment in time, all of those soldiers that were fixing to go fight in the promised land, they had to surrender to that. They were grown men. It took days to recover from that. And so you have this mark of identity. You have this mark of surrender to Christ. But then it was this mark of acceptance and belonging because when you identify with God and when you surrender to God, then he brings you in has his own and you belong to him. And so God wants to do a work with a scalpel, not on your flesh, but on your heart, on your life. And he wants to remove something and set you apart for himself. And that's what the Bible says that we can have access to because of Christ. But that's the past reality of these things and what he says, when he says, you were dead in your transgressions. You violated the law of God and you did it because of the condition of your heart, the past reality. And we all have a past. When I think about the past, I remember, and I use this not all the time, but I use it pretty frequently because I remember my grandparents who grew up, they were born before the Great Depression and they grew up as children in it. And as 70, 80, 90 year olds before they died, they talked, they reflected on those good days and on those days they told stories about the good old days. And I know in essence, what they were talking about, but I'm kind of practical in nature. And if you look at those days in the past as the good old days, you're nuts. (congregation laughs) I look back on it, when I look at today versus then, I'll take today over then almost every time. I am so thankful. Y'all ever used a portage on? (congregation laughs) Only when it's absolutely necessary, right? It was an outhouse, it's a modern day outhouse. I'm thankful for indoor plumbing. (congregation laughs) That makes today a whole lot better than what it used to be, right? I'm thankful that before I came to church this morning, that I didn't have to go out and start a fire and get a pot of water so that I could take a shower. Now I just got up and I went in there and I just took my finger and just turned it in. I walked away and was doing some other stuff. Man, the water just flowed and it got warm and then I got in it and took a shower. Y'all know where the phrase don't throw the baby out with the bathwalk, that's real, right? That's historical. Back in the day when they had limited water and they didn't bathe very often, the men got the first bath, they got the clean water. They may have been the dirtiest because of working in the farms with the livestock and that kind of stuff. They got the hot water and they got the clean water. The mamas got in next, use the same water and bathe. And then the kids got in and the babies were the last to bathe and so can you imagine what the water might look like? And so they literally said don't drop the baby in the water and then throw it out. 'Cause you can't see 'cause it's that nasty. I'm glad I didn't have anybody competing for a bath with me this morning. I'm glad the water was clean. The good old days, right? The air condition, the power, I'm kind of thankful for what we have. We've all got a past and it's real. And so often what the enemy tries to do is to use our past to keep us from knowing what we have today. The past is real, it is a reality. And the truth is that we can't even change the past. But Jesus has overcome our past. And we also have a present reality because in verse 13 in the second part, he tells us where we were, he tells us how we were. And then he says, but he, Jesus made you alive together with him, he raised us from the dead. And because of that spiritual resurrection, those of us who have experienced it are more alive today than we ever been. Because of the life that Christ has given us, because of what Christ has done in us, what Christ has done for us because of what Christ is doing through us. We're not dead anymore. Our present reality is not death, it's life. And some of us, because of the circumstances, we go through and in Christ, we go through this life where we were intended and created and called to live and thrive and serve and bless and enjoy. We live defeated, dejected, despondent. That's our vision. That's our outlook on the life that we have. And it's all consumed with the past. Now I'm thankful for the past 'cause somebody got tired of taking dirty baths. And they got tired of using the outhouse and they figured out how to make something else work that was far better. So there are things that we can learn from our past that can make us better today than we've ever been. We can do more today than we ever thought about doing. I'm thankful that we can learn and develop and grow. It's that way in our lives with Christ. Christ has raised us and we are no longer dead, but we are alive. He says, "Man, you're forgiven." And make sure that you see what Paul writes. You're not just some forgiven. That's not what the text says, right? Nobody looked down. (congregation laughing) What's it say? Oh, it's not some. It's not most. In Christ, you have been forgiven. Oh, oh, think about for a moment in your life, what that means. What all have you been forgiven of? What has Jesus forgiven you of? He's forgiven you of it all. He's raised you to walk according to Romans in the newness of life. According to 2 Corinthians, you're a new creation if you're in Christ, if you're saved, if you surrendered your life to Him, you're new. Nothing may have changed on the outside, but what's important did change and that's the condition of your soul. It's dead and now it's alive because you've been forgiven of it all. And so as the enemy works and your own nature works to try to keep you bound to the past so that you're not productive for the future, you have to remember that everything that was anchoring you down and holding you back is gone. Why would I say that it's been gone? Because he says next after you have been forgiven of all, he says in verse 14 that Jesus canceled out the certificate of debt. He canceled it out. I remember one of the highlights of the ministry that I had in Florida as I pastored. My secret grow by this church down there was when I went to the church, they had about $350,000 remaining in debt on a family life and worship center that they had built. And after I've been there a while, I really began to notice how financially bound we were because of that debt and I just began to pray and ask God, show me a way for me to lead out of this and God put on my heart the story of Nehemiah and the rebuilding of the wall in Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity. And there's a whole lot of stuff that was going on but Nehemiah shows up, he investigates what's going on. He sees the destruction, he sees how vulnerable the city of Jerusalem is and Ezra's there and he's rebuilding the temple. There's some amazing things that are going on with that. You got Esther and all of this stuff that's going on in the same time period and he comes up with a plan and he begins to call people and they respond well and they begin to rebuild the wall and in 52 days. They didn't complete all as much as they wanted but in 52 days that the city of Jerusalem, the wall was completely surrounding it again and they were safe. There was still more work that was gonna go on but they were safe, they didn't have to worry about someone just being able to slip in undetected. The walls were built back, the gates were put back in place, they were guarded, they were protected. And so I went to my church and I was like, I don't think that we can rid ourselves of this debt in 52 days but maybe we could in 52 weeks. And so we began to work and it took us a little longer than 52 weeks, it took us about 18 months but we paid that debt off and it was an amazing thing and on the day that we were gonna have the note burning celebration I invited the pastor who had the vision for that building to come back and in the part of that service I just interviewed him. What was going on in the church when you came up with this idea? What was the vision? What were the dreams that you had? And he shared a lot of those things and then together in that sanctuary surrounded by the church we lit fire to that note 'cause it had been paid in full, it was canceled, it no longer carried the weight that it once had. The Bible says that Christ has canceled, it's bigger than just forgiven, it's canceled. It has no more power over you. It's not only been forgiven and canceled but then he goes on in verse 14 and he says this and it's been removed. He has taken it out of the way having nailed it to the cross. And that's our present reality in Christ if you're here and you don't know Christ as your savior you're still bound, you're not forgiven, you still owe the debt and it's a debt that you cannot pay. And Jesus came and he lived and he died and he died so that you could be forgiven so that you could be made right with him so that the debt would be removed from you. How could it be removed? 'Cause here's the reality, debt doesn't get canceled without some, remember this in the future. Debt doesn't get canceled unless somebody else agrees to pay it for them. Well, you know, so and so owed me this and I just forgave it and they never had to pay me back. Yeah, but it cost you. When you chose to forgive, when you chose to say you don't owe me anymore, you assumed the responsibility of the debt of whatever was borrowed that was promised to be repaid. And the Bible says that Jesus canceled your debt and he removed it, but it shows also in this text the price that you owed, how great the debt was that you owed because the only way that you could be forgiven, the only way that the debt could be canceled, the only way that it could be removed from you, what you and I owed God was for it to be nailed to the cross. So the Bible tells us two very important things that happened to Jesus at his discretion on the cross. It says that God put our sin on him. The Bible tells us that God placed our sin on him, but it says that in that transaction something even greater than that happened. As great as that is, the Bible says that Jesus became sin and that's why Paul writes that he nailed it to the cross because in Christ Christ becoming your sin. In Christ becoming my sin, it was nailed to the cross. And when he died and God accepted his sacrifice on your account and my account, it was marked paid in full. Jesus paid it all. And all to him, I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, but he washed it wide as snow. And so that's our present reality if we are in Christ. Now, here's what also is going on in the struggle between the then and the now. Is that as we get in a place in our lives where God is working and we are hearing his voice, maybe it's because you're spending time in God's word and you're reading it on a consistent basis and in that God's working in your life. And maybe it's through answered prayer and maybe it's through a relationship that you have and someone influential in your life is speaking life. They're speaking Jesus into your life and your circumstances. They're giving you godly advice. Maybe it's because of a life group teacher and a life group class in the discussion that maybe you even participated in this morning that God is working and doing something amazing. You're hearing God speak to you. Maybe it's through a song that we sing. Maybe it's through what we read as God speaks to us from his word and in this message. But God is working. And here's one of the things, and I'm not even sure that it's the enemy that's doing it. I think more than anything in my own life, it's just the old me. And there's this, hey, I want to do this for God. I want to surrender to this. I want to make this, I want to respond to God in some type of positive affirming way. Anyhow, over here, this voice in your, wait a minute, remember, win. And automatically, we move back. We slow up. We hesitate, we pause, why? Because what's happening? Something in us that's not of God is wanting to keep us bound by what used to be, by the past reality. And I'm not denying the reality of the past. But we have to remember that Jesus Christ has overcome our past and we are no longer slaves to it. You're no longer a slave to what used to be. And there's no better news for those who are saved than that reality than that news. That's as much a part of the gospel as anything else is that God has sent you free from what used to be about you. And he's presented this today moment, this present reality. 'Cause I'm not even talking about the condition that you might have walked into this sanctuary with 50 minutes ago, 'cause that's the past. It may be the close past, but it's the past. I'm talking about what God is doing in your life right now because in the present God also sees the future. He knows the past, right? But we know what he loved us enough that even knowing our past, when it was still our future, he knew our past when it was still to come. And while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And that's the way God demonstrated his love for you today is that before you ever were even close to being here, Jesus knew you as if you had already lived. And he loved you knowing all of your sin, and he died to save you so that you would live. So that we would live, so that we would have the opportunity to share with people who are dead and don't know it, that Jesus can make them alive. So that all that they are grasping and searching for from this world in life, but they will never find in anything that this world has to offer is found. It really is there in Jesus. It really is our staff. We were supposed to go away on a retreat this past week, but because of the storm we didn't, because where we were supposed to stay was down close to Myrtle Beach. And that I really didn't feel like that was where we wanted to be on Wednesday and Thursday and Friday. So we worked it out to be able to do it here. And one of the guys that was speaking on leadership, he was talking about how much we really live when our focus is on ourselves. And he said this, no one is ever happy. When they're focusing on themselves. Oh my you, I know some people that are absolutely miserable. And this is the reason why you sit in a conversation with them and it's I, I, me, me, me, I, I, poor pitiful, me, I, I, I, I, I, and they think that they can do something for themselves that's going to take all of that away and make them happy. And they just get worse and worse and worse. And he said, but people that will stop focusing on themselves and start focusing on other people, get happy. What, wait, how can I get happy? How can I find what I'm looking for if I'm not focused on me because I know what I want, I know what I need, I, I, I, I, and it's never, it's not about you. The greatest person that ever lived when he was on this earth said stuff like this, I know that I'm God. But I didn't come here to be served, although you should serve me because I'm God. I didn't come here in this life at this time to be worshiped, although you should worship me because I'm God. He said this, I, I came to serve you, not be served by you because what you need for me to do, only I can do. And so that's why I came to do it. And here I'm here to serve you. So be like me. That's Mark chapter 10 verse 45. That's what the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. And I don't know that there was a more joyful person ever than Jesus. Some of us have this bad idea of who Jesus was. I think Jesus was not only a master storyteller. I believe he was the best prankster that there ever was. I bet he told the best jokes that's ever been heard. Pastor Mark, that's sacrilege. Now they wanted Jesus at parties. You don't ask the stick in the mud to go to the party. Do you? No, if you're married to them, you got to. Can't help that. But I mean, they wanted Jesus at parties. So that speaks about who he was and how he related to people. And that person is living in us. He's living in us if we're saved. If you know Christ, you have a reason to rejoice. The Bible commands us to rejoice, but I think it's a shame that God has to tell his people who have been set free to celebrate what he's done for them. 'Cause he's forgiven you of all. And he canceled the dead and he removed it from you. He paid it in full, he nailed it to the cross. That's our present reality. And some of you, God's got to, you need to let him do a work because that's not the reality that you live in. It's the reality, but it's not your reality. But the reason it's not your reality is because of your choices. (audience laughing) That hurt, but it's still true. Amen. You're in the, if you're not where God wants you to be, it's not God's fault. Amen. It's yours. It's your choices. God would choose something, if you're not where God wants you to be, God would choose something different from you than you have. And that's what he died, is to give you something different than you have. And if you don't have it, it's not because God is holding it back from you. And he wants to change you so that you can experience in real time all of his goodness and his mercy. The life that he has for you, he wants you to experience it. He wants you to be lavish with it in real time. (audience laughing) And all that he's doing now is pointing us and preparing us to the future that he has for us. And in my notes, I left this blank and I left it blank for a purpose 'cause we don't know. We don't know. We can speculate. We can talk and we can dream, but we just don't know. In 1 Corinthians chapter two, verses seven, eight and nine, Paul is writing to the church at Corinth and he says this thing that God is saying and this thing that God is doing is a mystery. And that's his mystery. But it's a mystery and we had the opportunity to walk with him and try to put pieces of the puzzle together, but we won't ever get it all together until we're with him. And then that verse that we all recognize from this passage, you probably just didn't know that it was there. I has not seen and ear has not heard and the hearts of man can't even comprehend all that God has for those who love him. It's glorious. It is wonderful. What God has for you and for me today in this moment and in the moment that is to come that just got here. Man, what God has is amazing. The only thing that will keep you from it is you. It's the only thing. God's not going to keep you from it. Why would God keep you from something He died to give you? It makes absolutely no sense. It makes absolutely no sense for people to think that God will withhold from, God doesn't withhold anything. You just say, you put yourself in a place, put yourself in a position or I can give you what I want to give you but can't because of the position that you're in. (breathing heavily) Well, they're heads bowed in with our eyes closed. That's what I want you to wrestle with in this moment. What? What about your past? It's keeping you. It's been keeping you. It's not something that just happened. It's something that's been dragging you down and holding you back for a while. But there's things in your past that you're using as an excuse that the world is using, that the enemy is using to keep you from the present moment that God has for you. Maybe it's seeing your loss. It's what the Bible says is that if you're not, if you haven't trusted Christ, you're lost but you can be found. You owe a great debt, greater than you could pay in a thousand lifetimes if you've made every moment about paying it back. You just never could. It's great God that loves you is here today and He came to set you free, to save you, to remove that burden from you if you will trust Him. And some of you as Christians today, I mean, you just came and you just feel like the weight of the world is on you and that. Maybe the case, but it's not a wake that God wanted you to wait to carry. And you can choose today to give that to Jesus. Jesus said, "Coming to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest." Peter said, "Cast all your cares, cast all your worry and your anxiety, all your fear upon Him because He cares for you." In Christian church, maybe there's just something the ships of weighing you down has been slowing you down and Jesus again is just inviting you in this moment in time to give it to Him, to lay it, to throw it on Him. Because He cares for you. I'm gonna pray and we're gonna stay and begin to sing and this altar is gonna be open. I'll be down here at the front. How will you respond to God's invitation in Christ to live today? Father, I pray we have the courage, the boldness right now to trust you enough to lay it at your feet. And that we would believe that today that now is the best time, is the easiest time that it'll ever be to give these things to you. That we would do that because of how much you love us. I'm gonna ask this for myself and for everyone here, for everyone watching. Give us the desire and the boldness to do that now in Jesus' name.