Rooted in Community
In our sermon, we explore the importance of being rooted in community, drawing from Colossians 3:12-15. We begin by recognizing our identity in Christ, which serves as the foundation for our relationships within the church. As God's chosen, holy, and dearly loved people, we are called to embody compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. This identity not only motivates us to act but also protects us as we navigate the complexities of community life. We discover that our love for one another is essential for maintaining unity and harmony, as it encourages forgiveness and understanding, reflecting the forgiveness we have received from Christ.
Furthermore, we see that the peace of Christ should guide our interactions. Just as an umpire makes calls in a game, the peace of Christ should rule our hearts, helping us to avoid division and conflict. By allowing this peace to govern our relationships, we can foster a healthy church community where we support and uplift one another. Ultimately, we are reminded that being part of a church is not merely about attendance; it’s about actively engaging in the life of the community, growing together in faith, and serving one another in love.
Key Takeaways
- Our identity in Christ as chosen, holy, and dearly loved motivates us to build a healthy church community.
- Our love for one another acts as a protective barrier, fostering forgiveness and unity within the church.
- The peace of Christ should guide our interactions, helping us to avoid conflict and division.
- Being part of a church community means actively engaging and supporting one another in our spiritual journeys.
- Forgiveness is essential in maintaining harmony, reflecting the grace we have received from God.
Scripture References
Discussion Questions
- How does understanding our identity in Christ affect our relationships with others in the church?
- In what ways can we actively demonstrate love and forgiveness within our community?
- What are some practical steps we can take to allow the peace of Christ to guide our interactions?
- How can we support one another in times of conflict or misunderstanding?
- What does it mean to be rooted in community, and how can we encourage others to engage more deeply?
Colossians 3:12-15
Rooted and Ready: Rooted in Community
Colossians 3:12-15
Building Healthy Church Community:
Our identity in Christ motivatesus. (12a)
Our love for each other protects us. (12b-14)
Our peace with Christ guidesus. (15)
Transcript
· [music] Well, good morning Cross Church Phoenix.
· How are you?
· Good. Good. Welcome in. I'm Pastor D.J.
· I'm the pastor here at Cross Church Phoenix. If I haven't met you yet, welcome in and come say hi afterwards.
· I'd love to get to know you more. And at this time, let's open our Bibles to Colossians chapter 3.
· And if you don't have a Bible, there should be one in the seat back in front of or around you and you can use that Bible. And if you don't have one, make it your own. That is our gift to you.
· Highlight it. You can underline it. Make notes. Mark it up. It's your Bible. And then bring it back next week.
· I also, while you're heading over to Colossians 3, we're going to be getting in verse 12 there once you're there.
· But as you turn there, I want to remind us all of the Bible group survey we have in the back. It is a QR code and I've been asked a few questions like I can't those things frustrate me. Why can't You can just text me or or we can call me or you just tell me and I'll take note as well. Um but we're just doing this to see how we can best serve the church. We won't be able to meet every need obviously or do a Bible group 24/7 all week. But if there are certain trends, we want to make it do it and schedule a Bible groups as best we possibly can.
· So if you haven't taken that survey yet, you can with the QR code or just by talking to me.
· Uh some of you may already know, but I wanted to inform the church as well. Um I am going to the Philippines August 31st through September 10th. This is not the trip that we've been advertised the the mission trip. This is kind of like the pre-trip of the mission trip.
· Uh and Pastor Chad and I are going to the Philippines August 31st through September 10th. And so, that obviously includes a Sunday, September 6th, I will be gone. And our brother Ken will be preaching again. And so we look forward to that. Yes, I know you do, too.
· Yeah, I'm excited. And as he's pointed out, every time I ask him to preach, I leave.
· Um and that's not intentional.
· Uh so I'm going to put him on a calendar and when I'm here, so I get to be part of it cuz he did such a great job. And I ask that you would pray for me, my family, and for safe travels for uh myself and and Pastor Chad.
· Um I also want to share this quick story with you. We didn't have a picture last service, but it Do we have that picture?
· Iglesia de la Cruz was a church plant that just started a few months ago, and they had their first baptism uh last Sunday. Yeah. Isn't that great?
· Uh Pastor Javi uh he's behind her. Pastor Javi is uh the pastoring over there, and they just kicked off, like I said, a few months ago, and they're doing great. There he is with um I don't know her name, but the first baptism of Iglesia de la Cruz uh meeting out in El Mirage. So we praise God for that.
· Well, we are in week two of our five-week series rooted and ready.
· And last week we looked at what it means to be rooted in worship both privately and corporately.
· And what first unites us as a church is that we love the Lord Jesus Christ.
· And we'll see this in our text this morning, as well, but the first step into Christ-centered community is to be a worshiper of the Lord Jesus Christ.
· That's entrance into what we could call the capital C church, right? Everyone who knows Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior is united with the church worldwide and throughout church history.
· We are united with those who have gone before us, our brothers and sisters from the first century to the 21st and around the world who are in Christ.
· As believers in Jesus, we are called to be in community with one another. In fact, we are commanded to gather together. The book of Hebrews talks about not neglecting the gathering of yourselves as is the habit of some. So, the writer of Hebrews, which I believe to be Paul, but I know that it's a little controversial there, but the writer of Hebrews is calling out in a way the habits of some to not gather together with the church. And he says, "Don't do that." So, we are commanded to gather together.
· And the scriptures call the body of Christ call the church the body of Christ.
· The church in scripture is never described as the brick-and-mortar building. Yes, we gather here today in a building. The first-century church gathered in homes, of course, of those who could host many people gathering.
· But the church, the body of Christ, always describes people.
· It is the people of God, the ones we'll see here in verse 12 once we get into it, that are chosen by God, holy and beloved.
· And as God's people, we are his body. As 1 Corinthians 12 reminds us, we are one body but have what? Many members.
· Different members, different roles, different gifts, but we all function together in community as one united body.
· I've given this illustration before, and I want to again, but as it scripture teaches that Christ is the head of the body, right? And just like your own body, um you receive your head, right?
· Your body receives direction from your head. Your head you tells you what your body to do, and your body does that.
· Christ is the head of the church, and we are his body. We receive commands, directions from him, and go out. Now, imagine different members, right? So, hands and feet of Jesus, maybe you've heard of the mouth and the ears of Imagine, let's say a hand decides it no longer wants to be part of the body. So, we cut it off and put it here.
· What is going to eventually happen to a severed hand that has no blood circulation, that is not a part of the human body? What's going to happen?
· I know it's a little gross, right? But it's going to stink, first of all.
· Um and then it's going to decay. I don't know if you've ever seen uh what what that looks like after a few days or weeks. Um I have. It's not a pretty picture, okay?
· It needs to be attached, and and a Christian spiritually can become the same way. If you say, "I'm doing lone wolf Christianity. It's me, myself, and I at home doing church."
· You're in disobedience to the scriptures, not meeting, and eventually you will also your spiritual life will also suffer as a result of not being plugged in to the body of Christ.
· One of Satan's greatest attacks against the church is sowing division within it.
· The degree to which we allow Satan to divide will be the degree to which our health deteriorates as a church.
· The healthiest Cross Church Phoenix will ever be will be determined by how well we function as one body, united.
· And so, how do we build healthy church community? That's what we're going to look at this morning. And if you don't have a handout, there are some handouts in the back tables on the back there. Um or you can follow along here, but building healthy church community.
· Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for this morning.
· Pray that as we sit under the authority of your word, God, that we would uh uh be quickened and compelled to obey it, God.
· Pray that you would give us eyes to see, ears to hear Lord, what the Spirit has to say to the church at Cross Church Phoenix. May we be a united body, one functioning in a healthy way to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
· In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
· Well, let's stand as we read God's word together. Of course, if you're unable to stand, uh just stand with us in spirit, so to speak, as we honor God's word um with our lives. And we can do that in whatever position we are, but we stand as a representation of our reverence for the word of God.
· But stand with us in spirit if you are unable to. I'm going to read Colossians 3:12-15 this morning. So, Paul is writing and he says this, "Therefore, as God's chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another.
· If anyone has a grievance against another, just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.
· And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts.
· And be thankful."
· This is the word of God. You can be seated. Thank you.
· Amen.
· There are three commands in these three verses. We miss a lot in English, but in Greek things start the the text the way that the language this was written in Greek, things start to pop out more. So, for example, in Greek the way that the word ends tells you what kind of word it is.
· So, we sometimes miss that in English, but in Greek there are three commands specifically given. There's one in verse 12 and two in verse 15. The word put in verse 12 is a command. So, this is not like, you really should try. I highly suggest putting on these things. No, this is Paul, imagine your little military or paramilitary whatever, knife handing like this is put on these things. This is a command.
· So, that's in verse 12, the word put is a command and the words rule in verse 15 and be in verse 15 with the be thankful.
· That would be the verb the command. It we are commanded to let the peace of Christ rule and then we are commanded to be thankful along with putting on all of those things. These are commands. But, before we're commanded to put on compassion, kindness and the like or before we're commanded to let the peace of God rule or before we're commanded to even be thankful, Paul first focuses on our identity in Christ.
· That's what I want us to see. Point number one, our identity in Christ motivates us. Paul describes the church in three ways as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved or dearly loved. Each of those descriptions are full of wonderful, beautiful truth.
· Let's start with being chosen. We are God's chosen ones and I don't want to get overly academic this morning, but I am going to share some Greek words with you because it helps with application and understanding. The word in Greek for chosen is eklektos. Eklektos or eklektos meaning to be picked out. You've been picked out, called out. You may know this already, but the Greek word for church, right, is ekklesia.
· We are literally the ekklesia and all that means is the called out ones, but it gets translated as church, but we are the called out ones, ekklesia. The preposition ek as you're hearing eklektos ekklesia the preposition ek simply means from or out of something.
· So, what this means is you've been called out, picked out of darkness, out of sin, out of the waves of the world and what? What would be the implication if you're brought out of something you are brought into something else, which is what we read and learn in the New Testament. Out of darkness into his marvelous light for example or out from sin and into a life of righteousness and holiness in the pursuit of those things.
· You have been brought out of the ways of this world and into the family of God, into the kingdom of heaven. And not only are we chosen, we are holy. And these words go together. Basically, holiness just simply speaks of being set apart.
· We are set apart from the world. And if you think about the word picture here, chosen, picked out. If you are picked out of something, you are also separated from that thing and brought into something else. And holiness, being holy, means that we are set apart to God, unto God for his purposes.
· We are set apart from the world, brought into fellowship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. And then Paul says we are dearly loved. Now, this is where it gets fun, man. Uh who is great. I have to share this with you. So, dearly loved. The word for dearly is a word in Greek that speaks of the inward parts, and quite [snorts] literally your bowels, or your intestines.
· That's the literal meaning of the word dearly in in Greek. And for you who enjoy these things, I do, um the same word, interestingly, for dearly here in Colossians 3 is the same word that Luke uses in Acts 1:18 to describe the death of Judas. You remember Judas Iscariot, after he betrayed Christ for 30 pieces of silver and all that stuff, he went out and hanged himself. And in Acts 1:18, it says this, "Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness."
· Talking about Judas. And it says this, "And falling headlong, he hanged himself." Eventually, these things break. "Falling headlong, he burst open in the middle, and all his bowels gushed out. That word bowels is the same word used to describe us being dearly loved.
· It literally means in the bowels or in the intestines. But when we translate it according to what Paul is saying, he's saying this. I say all that to say this, that God loves us, you and I, from the depths of who he is.
· His innermost being. It's like what we would call the heart, right? If we say, "I love you with all my heart." You don't mean like the literal heart that's beating in your chest. You mean that you love this person or this family member with all of who you are, right? All of my being, I love you. And we so we say, "I love you with all my heart."
· It's It's like that, but for the ancients back in the day, the bowels were the seats of emotion.
· So, when you felt something deep, intensely inside, it was described as you feeling that within your bowels. And so here what we're learning is that we are deeply, intensely, from deep within God himself loved. Isn't that wonderful?
· Amen.
· And what Paul is saying here is because God loves us that much, it ought to motivate us to do the things he's about to say in the next few verses. So, building a healthy church community starts with recognizing who we are in Christ, chosen, holy, dearly, from the depths of God loved. And then that leads us to do something about it. He loves and cares for us so much, it leads us to point number two.
· Our our love for each other protects us. So, building healthy church community, right? Our identity in Christ motivates us, and now our love for each other protects us. He says, "Therefore, right? Therefore, as God's chosen, holy and dearly loved, do this." So, because we are chosen, holy, and dearly loved, we put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
· Because we are chosen, holy, and dearly loved, we bear with one another, and we forgive each other if anyone has a grievance against another. And how are we supposed to forgive each other?
· Just as the Lord has forgiven you, right?
· Now, you ask yourself, "Well, how has the Lord forgiven you, or me, or any of us?"
· And we can start using words like completely, unconditionally, motivated by motivated by his grace and mercy. He has forgiven us in the the way reflect on how God has forgiven you. That is the example what you are to look to in terms of our relationship with each other and how we're supposed to love and forgive each other.
· Christ's love for you is the example, not a example, it's the example of how we are to love and forgive each other. I was read in some of my study, I was reading um one theologian on on just forgiveness.
· And and we preached through a parable that had to do with it, too. And he said, "You know, I I a lot of Christians ought to be warned about when they pray the Lord's Prayer, right?" And it's called the Lord's Prayer. I like to call it the way Jesus taught his disciples to pray because um it says and forgive us our debts and he wouldn't have none, right? No sin, no debts, no trespasses, but um he's teaching his disciples to pray and he says this, "Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be your name." Yes and amen, right?
· "And thy kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Yes. "Give us this day our daily bread." Yes. "And forgive us our debts." That's the literal term or sin and uh trespasses. You may have heard it uh translated that way. "Forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors or those who trespass or sin against us." So, we pray that prayer, but are we If we pray that, be careful.
· If you're holding a grudge or unforgiveness towards somebody, you're saying, "God God, forgive me as I forgive them."
· And if you're not forgiving them, be like Do you really want God to forgive you the way that you forgive others?
· If we are withholding forgiveness or if we're harboring bitterness in our heart, um I I like what he said. He's like, "It ought to be a warning, right?"
· "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." And then he says, "And lead us not into temptation, right? But deliver us from evil, for yours is the kingdom, the power and glory forever." But when we pray that prayer, let's pray it with a heart of forgiveness and love towards others cuz we want God to forgive us the way that we forgive others. And this is all over scripture.
· Ephesians 4:32, right? Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another just as God in Christ forgave you.
· Now, I'm not saying we won't struggle and I'm not saying that God will withhold his forgiveness uh from you if you are struggling with someone or forgiving someone. That's not what I'm saying, but what I am saying is that when we pray that prayer, um this this theologian was like, "Some Some of us are praying condemnation upon ourselves because we're not obedient to what it's saying."
· And thankfully, God doesn't forgive us the way that we forgive others when we're not forgiving of others.
· Thankfully.
· But it ought to be true of us.
· [snorts] I love how Paul basically assumes there will be problems in the church. God saves all kinds of people. People you get along with and people you don't.
· People you like and people you don't like. We don't get to pick and choose who God forgives based on whether or not we vibe with them, right?
· But in Christ, we're one. We're united in him. There will be times when we rub each other the wrong way, get on each other's nerves, or frustrate each other. And sometimes it won't even be over sin. Right? It might be over a personality clash or a disagreement in Bible group or even a misunderstanding. But imagine if all of us here at Cross Church Phoenix always had compassion for each other.
· Always kind to each other. Always humble towards each other. Always gentle and always patient. Paul's not naive. He knows there'll be tension in church because we still battle our flesh and sin and Satan loves to sow division. The whole letter for Corinthians is like, "Just stop, right? And be reunited together." They're all bickering over each other. And that's why he says bearing with one another. Another translation could be enduring with one another.
· It assumes a little bit of tension, but hey, uh bear with each other. A more loose translation would be we put up with one another. And notice he couples bearing one another with forgiving one another. If someone has a grievance, an issue, a complaint against a brother, we forgive. We must be a forgiving church. The antidote to church division or strife is obedience to Colossians 3.
· The antidote is obedience to the command to put all these on. Now, there are of course times when the truth hurts or biblical counsel um confronts our sin and we get upset. And people have been upset with me, of course, um over what I've said. Um but if it's over what the scripture says, I can't I'm not going to capitulate on that. It's usually never personal. It's just something that comes from the Bible.
· If If someone's upset with me or us over truth, we won't capitulate, but there's also no need to be unkind, though. Right? Paul says in Ephesians 4, "Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way in into him who is the head, Jesus Christ." We still lovingly stand on truth, but we don't need to be rude or harsh as we do.
· Right? Knowing what the Bible says is not an excuse to also be a jerk. Right?
· Look at verse 14. It says this, "Above all, put on love, because that's the perfect bond of unity." Now, if you were reading this in Greek, [clears throat] it would just say, "Above all, love." We put in In English, we put in the put because it's helps with understanding, but it's just a verse 14.
· Above all, love, which is the perfect bond of unity. So, what is he saying?
· He's saying, in all of these things, mix love into all of those. That's what he's saying. Another way to say uh to to say this is to say just simply on or upon all these, love.
· It means that love is the foundation for all the rest. It means love permeates all the others. It means putting on loving compassion or compassion that's full of love. It's talking about loving kindness or a loving humility or a loving gentleness or a loving patience, a loving forbearance because if I say loving bearing one another, it sounds funky, right? A loving forbearance or a loving kind of forgiveness.
· Everything we put on in this text is undergirded with love. Why?
· Because Christ loves you. That's why. You are dearly loved by God, so then put on love for others yourself.
· It all goes back to the beginning of verse 12. Because we're dearly loved, put on love for each other. And this is why I say in the point, our love for each other protects us because an attitude or heart of love is the foundation for all the other things that we put on. So, for example, you have love as the foundation here that you have, and you're a building the picture is that we're putting compassion on top of our love, which we're putting then we're putting on kindness and humility. All these things are being built upon the foundation of love.
· That's the picture that's going on here. And that love will protect our unity, this perfect bond of unity that we have if we do it this way.
· So, if or should I say when, right? There's disagreements or complaints against each other, we step back and we say, "How can I put on all these things in verse 12 and 13 before I deal with something?"
· All of which are supported by and driven by my foundational love for that person.
· Even if I disagree with him, right?
· Remember, we're talking about believers here, people who are brothers and sisters in Christ. He's talking to those who the church at Colossae and all this stuff. These are believers.
· There must be a heart of love for each other just because we're brothers and sisters in Christ, if for no other reason, right? Regardless of the other issues, that man or that woman is a brother or sister in Christ. I'm going to choose love and unity with him even if they're not my favorite kind of person.
· Even if we may not go out to lunch or or coffee together and love them as a brother and sister in Christ. After all, right? When you get to heaven, you're not going to look at that person be like, "Nah, I ain't hanging out with them, Lord."
· Like, I love being in heaven with you, God, but I don't want to worship with that guy. So, I know we're going to worship you for all of eternity. It's going to be glorious, but I don't want to worship next to that guy. So, or around the great throne of God where everyone's worshipping, can that guy be on the other side of your throne and me over here?
· You think that's happening in heaven?
· Like, no. No. Now, I get it. In heaven, we are free from not only sin, but the presence of sin. Oh, glorious day, right?
· But but Paul, interestingly, is saying that there's no reason that our church can't have that similar kind of unity now in the church if we'll love each other in this way. We will all be together in perfect unity in heaven. Yes and amen. But Paul is essentially saying we can do this here if we'll do it this way. Our love will protect us if we'll put it on.
· Now leads me to a third point. Look at verse 15. Our peace with Christ guides us. Our peace with Christ guides us. Now that word rule, which is a command, is a similar word as basically describes being an umpire. Yes, like an umpire like in baseball is ruling. He's calling balls and strikes and saves and outs. He's in charge of decision-making.
· What call to make here or what call to make there. Verse 15 is saying let the peace of Christ be the umpire of your heart. mine. As we fellowship together in community, one of us each one of us is to have this kind of heart. Perhaps you've heard of or remember the Pax Romana. The Pax Romana it just means like the Roman peace.
· Uh basically it was an extended time of peace in Rome that lasted roughly 200 years. But obviously if you give humans long enough they'll fight against each other and that's what happened to Rome, right?
· [snorts] But the Pax Romana was a time of peace for Rome and N.T. Wright, who was somebody I was reading I read a comment said this, the Pax Christiana, which means the Christian peace, the Pax Christiana is to prevail in the church as the Pax Romana did in the world of Paul's day. And he said this, allowing its inhabitants to pursue their respective callings without constant threat of war.
· And I thought that was really good and interesting, allowing its inhabitants to pursue their callings without constant threat of war. You know, some churches are always on edge with each other. I'm so glad when I came here almost 2 years ago. Now we have no carpet.
· Yes, because now we don't get to fight over it, right? There's going to be the person who's like, "The carpet needs to be red because that's the blood of Christ, right?" And then the other guy comes over and says, "No, no, no, the carpet needs to be purple cuz that is the color of kingship and authority." And then they fight like this and eventually go their separate ways and the church is no better for it.
· Right? Like the first-century church had carpet to begin with, guys? Like chill, right? And so we don't even have that problem here, right? But some churches are on edge with each other all the time waiting for that next little war to break out and no one has any peace, right? There's a lack of stability in a church that's always bickering.
· But when the peace of Christ rules in church, when our unity as one body is strong in church, when people are thankful, right? Be thankful. Thankful to God for his work in their own lives and they have a desire to serve other people, then the church is strong. Then the church gets to function in a wonderful state of peace, not worrying about the next little war over the carpet or whatever it might be.
· The peace that we have with God that comes through the Lord Jesus Christ ought to be a guiding factor for how we interact with each other.
· Instead of letting the anger of man rule your heart, let the peace of Christ rule it, right?
· A Christian going to church looking for trouble, sowing division is not only unhelpful but ungodly. For our family devotions in my home, we're going through a catechism. Part of going through a catechism is we're going through the 10 Commandments. And you spend 3 weeks in each commandment, you talk about what it is, what it means, what it doesn't mean.
· And so, we are spending the next 3 weeks on the ninth commandment, "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." So, we talk about what that means, what it doesn't mean, everything. But the catechism, this week it obviously marries up scripture with all of it, took us to Proverbs 6:16-19. And I want to read this to you.
· And the proverb says in ver- chapter 6:16, "There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him." That's a Hebrew way of saying like six things the Lord hates, yay, seven. It's emphasizing that there's seven things that are an abomination to God that he hates. And he says this, here's the list, you ready?
· "Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil." They love evil and can't wait to get there. "A false witness who breathes out lies, and number seven, get this, one who sows discord among brothers." You say, "Wait a minute, God hates things?" Yes, he does.
· If God has perfect love for righteousness and holiness because it's in his character, it's who he is by nature, his character would mean that he would have a perfect hatred for unrighteousness and sin. And so, that's what this is saying, the Lord hates these things. And one of those things is someone who dis- who sows discord among brothers. That would be indicative that the peace of Christ is not ruling that person's heart.
· Their anger or frustration might be ruling their heart, calling the shots, umpiring their lives, but certainly not the peace of Christ. But when we are motivated by our identity in Christ, protected by the love we have for each other, and guided by the peace of Christ, that's when we have a healthy church rooted in community. And we all need community.
· Last week our emphasis, this is a church life series, we talk about going from just attending Cross Church to becoming a disciple and a productive member of Cross Church Phoenix, and we talked about last time being rooted in worship and coming to Pizza with the Pastor is the next step in that. If you haven't been to Pizza with the Pastor, that is where we get to talk and know each other more. We go over our mission, vision, and values, and then we go over our statement of faith. Say, "What does this church stand for? What are our tier one doctrines that we will not capitulate on?" Come, and I'm an open book.
· I will tell you where our church stands, where I stand on any issue that you bring up. That's That's who I am.
· Um so, if you're new and have never been to Pizza with the Pastor, please come. But also, our the emphasis this morning, I want to challenge you, join a Bible group. Now, we have the survey still going, and if you want to take it and give me some feedback, that's great. But eventually, uh we will be starting up all of our Bible groups, and they meet on different nights, and so I'm encouraging you, uh a challenging you, everyone to be in a Bible group, to be in community with each other.
· And so, as you know, some of us here have these got groups shirts. Um all of our current Bible groups do, and if we have uh the need, we'll open more Bible groups. But you can talk to Come find us. We're kind of dispersed around, and after service, we will be, too. You can talk to anyone who has this shirt about Bible groups and what they're about, what we do, when when we're planning on meeting and stuff like that. But I want to encourage everyone to sign up and be plugged into community.
· We talk through the scriptures that we speak through on Sunday, but it's not just Bible study. We encourage I want our Bible groups to also just be um doing life together. If someone in a Bible group is in the hospital, Go visit.
· Let me know and go visit, right? I want to know what's going on. Um or when when we're suffering, we suffer together. When we rejoice, we rejoice together.
· When great things are going on in the life of people in a Bible group, we rejoice, say yes and amen, but we do life together. But so many Christians are unplugged from the church and then call me and say, "I feel distant." And I feel And I say, "Well, when was the last time you were in church?" Cuz I know this person has Certain people have never been haven't been to church in a long time. No wonder you feel distant, right? It'd be like if you're married, but you didn't see your spouse for 6 months. You're going to feel distant from your spouse. Of course you are, right?
· Be together.
· And come gather.
· And we get to celebrate um community right now in baptism, which I'm super excited for. So I want to invite uh the worship team to come up here and be prepared. And then Cindy, uh TT, and Derek to come down and meet me down here by the the baptistry. And I'm going to meet everyone down here. Let me take this.
· All right.
· And then I've got some help coming. But here, come over here, Cindy. Let me hold your hand here. This is Cindy. Everyone say hi Cindy.
· Hi Cindy.
· Hey Cindy, what's up? Cindy, so you've been coming to church for like a month or two now? Ish. So fairly new.
· Uh from Boston.
· And um she has quite the story. I encourage you to talk to her cuz I can't share all of it, but you know honestly just lived a life of sin and rebellion against God for us for a long time.
· Uh but came to Christ and she showed up here and she was already like serious about her walk with the Lord. I didn't really have to uh do much. I was like I meet with everyone we baptize. We go over the gospel. She's like, "Yep, that's me. Yes and amen. But I've never been baptized as a believer in Christ and I want to do that as soon as I can."
· So we put that on the calendar. So we are going to help Cindy uh get in. Let's see here. Um I'm going to hand I'm going to give that hand to Ken.
· Okay.
· Yeah.
· All right.
· It's freezing cold by the way. I'm just kidding.
· [laughter] Okay. Now we will have you come as far over to this end as possible and then as safely as you can just sit sit down.
· Yeah.
· Okay.
· Whoop.
· I'm in.
· You're in. We're in. We're locked and loaded. Okay.
· Yeah. All right.
· So Cindy, is Jesus Christ your personal Lord and savior?
· Yes.
· Do you believe that he died on the cross for your sins personally and that he rose again on the third day showing his power over sin and death and that he has authority over your life?
· Yes.
· Well then upon your profession of faith it is my honor and privilege to baptize you my sister. If you want to cross your arms you can. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of of the Holy Spirit. For we are buried with him by baptism unto death. Nice and slow. And raised to walk in newness of life.
· Yeah.
· [applause and cheering] We have a towel for you right here from Kenu.
· Thank you, Jesus.
· Amen. Amen. Okay, slowly here.
· Wow.
· All right. Now, and then TT, I want you to get ready. We'll do our next one here.
· Absolutely. Praise God. And then All right. Where is TT?
· This is TT Rheinberg and her husband Derek is right over here. We got their children here, Ellis and Shiloh. Thank you.
· Um and TT, you did want to share a few words, right?
· Yeah.
· I want to give you that opportunity right now. And here, I'll kind of put this towards you.
· Hello, my name is TT Rheinberg. I wanted to share a verse that really resonated with me.
· Psalm 71:20-21.
· Though you have made me see troubles and many and bitter, you will restore my life again from the depths of the earth. You will again bring me up. You will increase my honor and comfort me once more. I will continue to lean on the Lord through every phase of my life.
· Amen.
· Amen.
· [applause] All right. If you want to just thank as as TT and and Derek and I were were talking through the gospel and through baptism. I just want to kick your your out. Okay, you're Yeah, you're fine. Um she she mentioned uh when Pastor Brian preached a couple weeks ago, God was just like impress on her heart, "Okay, I need to take my walk seriously and I need to get baptized." And she came up to me uh that service and and said, "We need to talk."
· And so uh we did and and here we are. She uh knows Christ as a personal Lord and Savior and now we're just working on on living for him. Amen? All right, you can sit down if you like. Um there you go. So you're not holding yourself up there.
· All right, TT, is Jesus Christ your personal Lord and Savior?
· Yes.
· Do you believe that he died on the cross for your sins personally and that he rose again on the third day showing his power over sin and death and that he has authority over your life?
· Yes, I do.
· Amen. Well, then it is my privilege and honor to baptize you, my sister, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. You can cross your arms. For we are buried with him by baptism unto death and raised to walk in newness of life.
· [applause] Need help?
· And and then here's you can get your sandals on.
· Thank you.
· And this is TT's uh husband, Derek.
· Uh yeah, absolutely. Mhm. And Derek also wanted to share a few uh written words that he has uh for the church. So, go ahead, brother. Here, let me put this over.
· Hello, my name is Derek and my wife and I and my two boys have been attending Cross Church for just under a year. Uh around 2 and 1/2 years ago, after my family experienced a traumatic event, I felt the weight of the world on my shoulders. I asked God to come into my life and save me.
· Looking back from that point, I can see all the ways that God has impacted my life and provided guidance along the way. I'm excited to see how much further I will go with my continuing faith in God.
· Amen.
· Amen. Amen.
· [applause] All right, brother, if you want to step in.
· [applause] And you'll hug this side and you can kick your feet out so that you're not going back on your knees yet. All right, Derek.
· Is Jesus Christ your personal Lord and Savior?
· Yes.
· Let me take your glasses. As a fellow glasses wearer, I know.
· [snorts] So, Jesus Christ your personal Lord and Savior?
· Yes.
· Do you believe that he died on the cross for your sins personally and that he rose again on the third day showing his power over sin and death and that he has authority over your life?
· Yes.
· Well, it's my privilege and honor to baptize you, my brother, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Cross. For we are buried with him by baptism unto death and raised to walk in newness of life.
· [applause] Amen.
· All right. Well, let's stand together as we finish our our time of worship in singing and and praise God. Thank you.
Part of Series
Rooted and Ready
View all episodesTranscript
· [music] Well, good morning Cross Church Phoenix.
· How are you?
· Good. Good. Welcome in. I'm Pastor D.J.
· I'm the pastor here at Cross Church Phoenix. If I haven't met you yet, welcome in and come say hi afterwards.
· I'd love to get to know you more. And at this time, let's open our Bibles to Colossians chapter 3.
· And if you don't have a Bible, there should be one in the seat back in front of or around you and you can use that Bible. And if you don't have one, make it your own. That is our gift to you.
· Highlight it. You can underline it. Make notes. Mark it up. It's your Bible. And then bring it back next week.
· I also, while you're heading over to Colossians 3, we're going to be getting in verse 12 there once you're there.
· But as you turn there, I want to remind us all of the Bible group survey we have in the back. It is a QR code and I've been asked a few questions like I can't those things frustrate me. Why can't You can just text me or or we can call me or you just tell me and I'll take note as well. Um but we're just doing this to see how we can best serve the church. We won't be able to meet every need obviously or do a Bible group 24/7 all week. But if there are certain trends, we want to make it do it and schedule a Bible groups as best we possibly can.
· So if you haven't taken that survey yet, you can with the QR code or just by talking to me.
· Uh some of you may already know, but I wanted to inform the church as well. Um I am going to the Philippines August 31st through September 10th. This is not the trip that we've been advertised the the mission trip. This is kind of like the pre-trip of the mission trip.
· Uh and Pastor Chad and I are going to the Philippines August 31st through September 10th. And so, that obviously includes a Sunday, September 6th, I will be gone. And our brother Ken will be preaching again. And so we look forward to that. Yes, I know you do, too.
· Yeah, I'm excited. And as he's pointed out, every time I ask him to preach, I leave.
· Um and that's not intentional.
· Uh so I'm going to put him on a calendar and when I'm here, so I get to be part of it cuz he did such a great job. And I ask that you would pray for me, my family, and for safe travels for uh myself and and Pastor Chad.
· Um I also want to share this quick story with you. We didn't have a picture last service, but it Do we have that picture?
· Iglesia de la Cruz was a church plant that just started a few months ago, and they had their first baptism uh last Sunday. Yeah. Isn't that great?
· Uh Pastor Javi uh he's behind her. Pastor Javi is uh the pastoring over there, and they just kicked off, like I said, a few months ago, and they're doing great. There he is with um I don't know her name, but the first baptism of Iglesia de la Cruz uh meeting out in El Mirage. So we praise God for that.
· Well, we are in week two of our five-week series rooted and ready.
· And last week we looked at what it means to be rooted in worship both privately and corporately.
· And what first unites us as a church is that we love the Lord Jesus Christ.
· And we'll see this in our text this morning, as well, but the first step into Christ-centered community is to be a worshiper of the Lord Jesus Christ.
· That's entrance into what we could call the capital C church, right? Everyone who knows Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior is united with the church worldwide and throughout church history.
· We are united with those who have gone before us, our brothers and sisters from the first century to the 21st and around the world who are in Christ.
· As believers in Jesus, we are called to be in community with one another. In fact, we are commanded to gather together. The book of Hebrews talks about not neglecting the gathering of yourselves as is the habit of some. So, the writer of Hebrews, which I believe to be Paul, but I know that it's a little controversial there, but the writer of Hebrews is calling out in a way the habits of some to not gather together with the church. And he says, "Don't do that." So, we are commanded to gather together.
· And the scriptures call the body of Christ call the church the body of Christ.
· The church in scripture is never described as the brick-and-mortar building. Yes, we gather here today in a building. The first-century church gathered in homes, of course, of those who could host many people gathering.
· But the church, the body of Christ, always describes people.
· It is the people of God, the ones we'll see here in verse 12 once we get into it, that are chosen by God, holy and beloved.
· And as God's people, we are his body. As 1 Corinthians 12 reminds us, we are one body but have what? Many members.
· Different members, different roles, different gifts, but we all function together in community as one united body.
· I've given this illustration before, and I want to again, but as it scripture teaches that Christ is the head of the body, right? And just like your own body, um you receive your head, right?
· Your body receives direction from your head. Your head you tells you what your body to do, and your body does that.
· Christ is the head of the church, and we are his body. We receive commands, directions from him, and go out. Now, imagine different members, right? So, hands and feet of Jesus, maybe you've heard of the mouth and the ears of Imagine, let's say a hand decides it no longer wants to be part of the body. So, we cut it off and put it here.
· What is going to eventually happen to a severed hand that has no blood circulation, that is not a part of the human body? What's going to happen?
· I know it's a little gross, right? But it's going to stink, first of all.
· Um and then it's going to decay. I don't know if you've ever seen uh what what that looks like after a few days or weeks. Um I have. It's not a pretty picture, okay?
· It needs to be attached, and and a Christian spiritually can become the same way. If you say, "I'm doing lone wolf Christianity. It's me, myself, and I at home doing church."
· You're in disobedience to the scriptures, not meeting, and eventually you will also your spiritual life will also suffer as a result of not being plugged in to the body of Christ.
· One of Satan's greatest attacks against the church is sowing division within it.
· The degree to which we allow Satan to divide will be the degree to which our health deteriorates as a church.
· The healthiest Cross Church Phoenix will ever be will be determined by how well we function as one body, united.
· And so, how do we build healthy church community? That's what we're going to look at this morning. And if you don't have a handout, there are some handouts in the back tables on the back there. Um or you can follow along here, but building healthy church community.
· Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for this morning.
· Pray that as we sit under the authority of your word, God, that we would uh uh be quickened and compelled to obey it, God.
· Pray that you would give us eyes to see, ears to hear Lord, what the Spirit has to say to the church at Cross Church Phoenix. May we be a united body, one functioning in a healthy way to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
· In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
· Well, let's stand as we read God's word together. Of course, if you're unable to stand, uh just stand with us in spirit, so to speak, as we honor God's word um with our lives. And we can do that in whatever position we are, but we stand as a representation of our reverence for the word of God.
· But stand with us in spirit if you are unable to. I'm going to read Colossians 3:12-15 this morning. So, Paul is writing and he says this, "Therefore, as God's chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another.
· If anyone has a grievance against another, just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.
· And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts.
· And be thankful."
· This is the word of God. You can be seated. Thank you.
· Amen.
· There are three commands in these three verses. We miss a lot in English, but in Greek things start the the text the way that the language this was written in Greek, things start to pop out more. So, for example, in Greek the way that the word ends tells you what kind of word it is.
· So, we sometimes miss that in English, but in Greek there are three commands specifically given. There's one in verse 12 and two in verse 15. The word put in verse 12 is a command. So, this is not like, you really should try. I highly suggest putting on these things. No, this is Paul, imagine your little military or paramilitary whatever, knife handing like this is put on these things. This is a command.
· So, that's in verse 12, the word put is a command and the words rule in verse 15 and be in verse 15 with the be thankful.
· That would be the verb the command. It we are commanded to let the peace of Christ rule and then we are commanded to be thankful along with putting on all of those things. These are commands. But, before we're commanded to put on compassion, kindness and the like or before we're commanded to let the peace of God rule or before we're commanded to even be thankful, Paul first focuses on our identity in Christ.
· That's what I want us to see. Point number one, our identity in Christ motivates us. Paul describes the church in three ways as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved or dearly loved. Each of those descriptions are full of wonderful, beautiful truth.
· Let's start with being chosen. We are God's chosen ones and I don't want to get overly academic this morning, but I am going to share some Greek words with you because it helps with application and understanding. The word in Greek for chosen is eklektos. Eklektos or eklektos meaning to be picked out. You've been picked out, called out. You may know this already, but the Greek word for church, right, is ekklesia.
· We are literally the ekklesia and all that means is the called out ones, but it gets translated as church, but we are the called out ones, ekklesia. The preposition ek as you're hearing eklektos ekklesia the preposition ek simply means from or out of something.
· So, what this means is you've been called out, picked out of darkness, out of sin, out of the waves of the world and what? What would be the implication if you're brought out of something you are brought into something else, which is what we read and learn in the New Testament. Out of darkness into his marvelous light for example or out from sin and into a life of righteousness and holiness in the pursuit of those things.
· You have been brought out of the ways of this world and into the family of God, into the kingdom of heaven. And not only are we chosen, we are holy. And these words go together. Basically, holiness just simply speaks of being set apart.
· We are set apart from the world. And if you think about the word picture here, chosen, picked out. If you are picked out of something, you are also separated from that thing and brought into something else. And holiness, being holy, means that we are set apart to God, unto God for his purposes.
· We are set apart from the world, brought into fellowship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. And then Paul says we are dearly loved. Now, this is where it gets fun, man. Uh who is great. I have to share this with you. So, dearly loved. The word for dearly is a word in Greek that speaks of the inward parts, and quite [snorts] literally your bowels, or your intestines.
· That's the literal meaning of the word dearly in in Greek. And for you who enjoy these things, I do, um the same word, interestingly, for dearly here in Colossians 3 is the same word that Luke uses in Acts 1:18 to describe the death of Judas. You remember Judas Iscariot, after he betrayed Christ for 30 pieces of silver and all that stuff, he went out and hanged himself. And in Acts 1:18, it says this, "Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness."
· Talking about Judas. And it says this, "And falling headlong, he hanged himself." Eventually, these things break. "Falling headlong, he burst open in the middle, and all his bowels gushed out. That word bowels is the same word used to describe us being dearly loved.
· It literally means in the bowels or in the intestines. But when we translate it according to what Paul is saying, he's saying this. I say all that to say this, that God loves us, you and I, from the depths of who he is.
· His innermost being. It's like what we would call the heart, right? If we say, "I love you with all my heart." You don't mean like the literal heart that's beating in your chest. You mean that you love this person or this family member with all of who you are, right? All of my being, I love you. And we so we say, "I love you with all my heart."
· It's It's like that, but for the ancients back in the day, the bowels were the seats of emotion.
· So, when you felt something deep, intensely inside, it was described as you feeling that within your bowels. And so here what we're learning is that we are deeply, intensely, from deep within God himself loved. Isn't that wonderful?
· Amen.
· And what Paul is saying here is because God loves us that much, it ought to motivate us to do the things he's about to say in the next few verses. So, building a healthy church community starts with recognizing who we are in Christ, chosen, holy, dearly, from the depths of God loved. And then that leads us to do something about it. He loves and cares for us so much, it leads us to point number two.
· Our our love for each other protects us. So, building healthy church community, right? Our identity in Christ motivates us, and now our love for each other protects us. He says, "Therefore, right? Therefore, as God's chosen, holy and dearly loved, do this." So, because we are chosen, holy, and dearly loved, we put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
· Because we are chosen, holy, and dearly loved, we bear with one another, and we forgive each other if anyone has a grievance against another. And how are we supposed to forgive each other?
· Just as the Lord has forgiven you, right?
· Now, you ask yourself, "Well, how has the Lord forgiven you, or me, or any of us?"
· And we can start using words like completely, unconditionally, motivated by motivated by his grace and mercy. He has forgiven us in the the way reflect on how God has forgiven you. That is the example what you are to look to in terms of our relationship with each other and how we're supposed to love and forgive each other.
· Christ's love for you is the example, not a example, it's the example of how we are to love and forgive each other. I was read in some of my study, I was reading um one theologian on on just forgiveness.
· And and we preached through a parable that had to do with it, too. And he said, "You know, I I a lot of Christians ought to be warned about when they pray the Lord's Prayer, right?" And it's called the Lord's Prayer. I like to call it the way Jesus taught his disciples to pray because um it says and forgive us our debts and he wouldn't have none, right? No sin, no debts, no trespasses, but um he's teaching his disciples to pray and he says this, "Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be your name." Yes and amen, right?
· "And thy kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Yes. "Give us this day our daily bread." Yes. "And forgive us our debts." That's the literal term or sin and uh trespasses. You may have heard it uh translated that way. "Forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors or those who trespass or sin against us." So, we pray that prayer, but are we If we pray that, be careful.
· If you're holding a grudge or unforgiveness towards somebody, you're saying, "God God, forgive me as I forgive them."
· And if you're not forgiving them, be like Do you really want God to forgive you the way that you forgive others?
· If we are withholding forgiveness or if we're harboring bitterness in our heart, um I I like what he said. He's like, "It ought to be a warning, right?"
· "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." And then he says, "And lead us not into temptation, right? But deliver us from evil, for yours is the kingdom, the power and glory forever." But when we pray that prayer, let's pray it with a heart of forgiveness and love towards others cuz we want God to forgive us the way that we forgive others. And this is all over scripture.
· Ephesians 4:32, right? Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another just as God in Christ forgave you.
· Now, I'm not saying we won't struggle and I'm not saying that God will withhold his forgiveness uh from you if you are struggling with someone or forgiving someone. That's not what I'm saying, but what I am saying is that when we pray that prayer, um this this theologian was like, "Some Some of us are praying condemnation upon ourselves because we're not obedient to what it's saying."
· And thankfully, God doesn't forgive us the way that we forgive others when we're not forgiving of others.
· Thankfully.
· But it ought to be true of us.
· [snorts] I love how Paul basically assumes there will be problems in the church. God saves all kinds of people. People you get along with and people you don't.
· People you like and people you don't like. We don't get to pick and choose who God forgives based on whether or not we vibe with them, right?
· But in Christ, we're one. We're united in him. There will be times when we rub each other the wrong way, get on each other's nerves, or frustrate each other. And sometimes it won't even be over sin. Right? It might be over a personality clash or a disagreement in Bible group or even a misunderstanding. But imagine if all of us here at Cross Church Phoenix always had compassion for each other.
· Always kind to each other. Always humble towards each other. Always gentle and always patient. Paul's not naive. He knows there'll be tension in church because we still battle our flesh and sin and Satan loves to sow division. The whole letter for Corinthians is like, "Just stop, right? And be reunited together." They're all bickering over each other. And that's why he says bearing with one another. Another translation could be enduring with one another.
· It assumes a little bit of tension, but hey, uh bear with each other. A more loose translation would be we put up with one another. And notice he couples bearing one another with forgiving one another. If someone has a grievance, an issue, a complaint against a brother, we forgive. We must be a forgiving church. The antidote to church division or strife is obedience to Colossians 3.
· The antidote is obedience to the command to put all these on. Now, there are of course times when the truth hurts or biblical counsel um confronts our sin and we get upset. And people have been upset with me, of course, um over what I've said. Um but if it's over what the scripture says, I can't I'm not going to capitulate on that. It's usually never personal. It's just something that comes from the Bible.
· If If someone's upset with me or us over truth, we won't capitulate, but there's also no need to be unkind, though. Right? Paul says in Ephesians 4, "Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way in into him who is the head, Jesus Christ." We still lovingly stand on truth, but we don't need to be rude or harsh as we do.
· Right? Knowing what the Bible says is not an excuse to also be a jerk. Right?
· Look at verse 14. It says this, "Above all, put on love, because that's the perfect bond of unity." Now, if you were reading this in Greek, [clears throat] it would just say, "Above all, love." We put in In English, we put in the put because it's helps with understanding, but it's just a verse 14.
· Above all, love, which is the perfect bond of unity. So, what is he saying?
· He's saying, in all of these things, mix love into all of those. That's what he's saying. Another way to say uh to to say this is to say just simply on or upon all these, love.
· It means that love is the foundation for all the rest. It means love permeates all the others. It means putting on loving compassion or compassion that's full of love. It's talking about loving kindness or a loving humility or a loving gentleness or a loving patience, a loving forbearance because if I say loving bearing one another, it sounds funky, right? A loving forbearance or a loving kind of forgiveness.
· Everything we put on in this text is undergirded with love. Why?
· Because Christ loves you. That's why. You are dearly loved by God, so then put on love for others yourself.
· It all goes back to the beginning of verse 12. Because we're dearly loved, put on love for each other. And this is why I say in the point, our love for each other protects us because an attitude or heart of love is the foundation for all the other things that we put on. So, for example, you have love as the foundation here that you have, and you're a building the picture is that we're putting compassion on top of our love, which we're putting then we're putting on kindness and humility. All these things are being built upon the foundation of love.
· That's the picture that's going on here. And that love will protect our unity, this perfect bond of unity that we have if we do it this way.
· So, if or should I say when, right? There's disagreements or complaints against each other, we step back and we say, "How can I put on all these things in verse 12 and 13 before I deal with something?"
· All of which are supported by and driven by my foundational love for that person.
· Even if I disagree with him, right?
· Remember, we're talking about believers here, people who are brothers and sisters in Christ. He's talking to those who the church at Colossae and all this stuff. These are believers.
· There must be a heart of love for each other just because we're brothers and sisters in Christ, if for no other reason, right? Regardless of the other issues, that man or that woman is a brother or sister in Christ. I'm going to choose love and unity with him even if they're not my favorite kind of person.
· Even if we may not go out to lunch or or coffee together and love them as a brother and sister in Christ. After all, right? When you get to heaven, you're not going to look at that person be like, "Nah, I ain't hanging out with them, Lord."
· Like, I love being in heaven with you, God, but I don't want to worship with that guy. So, I know we're going to worship you for all of eternity. It's going to be glorious, but I don't want to worship next to that guy. So, or around the great throne of God where everyone's worshipping, can that guy be on the other side of your throne and me over here?
· You think that's happening in heaven?
· Like, no. No. Now, I get it. In heaven, we are free from not only sin, but the presence of sin. Oh, glorious day, right?
· But but Paul, interestingly, is saying that there's no reason that our church can't have that similar kind of unity now in the church if we'll love each other in this way. We will all be together in perfect unity in heaven. Yes and amen. But Paul is essentially saying we can do this here if we'll do it this way. Our love will protect us if we'll put it on.
· Now leads me to a third point. Look at verse 15. Our peace with Christ guides us. Our peace with Christ guides us. Now that word rule, which is a command, is a similar word as basically describes being an umpire. Yes, like an umpire like in baseball is ruling. He's calling balls and strikes and saves and outs. He's in charge of decision-making.
· What call to make here or what call to make there. Verse 15 is saying let the peace of Christ be the umpire of your heart. mine. As we fellowship together in community, one of us each one of us is to have this kind of heart. Perhaps you've heard of or remember the Pax Romana. The Pax Romana it just means like the Roman peace.
· Uh basically it was an extended time of peace in Rome that lasted roughly 200 years. But obviously if you give humans long enough they'll fight against each other and that's what happened to Rome, right?
· [snorts] But the Pax Romana was a time of peace for Rome and N.T. Wright, who was somebody I was reading I read a comment said this, the Pax Christiana, which means the Christian peace, the Pax Christiana is to prevail in the church as the Pax Romana did in the world of Paul's day. And he said this, allowing its inhabitants to pursue their respective callings without constant threat of war.
· And I thought that was really good and interesting, allowing its inhabitants to pursue their callings without constant threat of war. You know, some churches are always on edge with each other. I'm so glad when I came here almost 2 years ago. Now we have no carpet.
· Yes, because now we don't get to fight over it, right? There's going to be the person who's like, "The carpet needs to be red because that's the blood of Christ, right?" And then the other guy comes over and says, "No, no, no, the carpet needs to be purple cuz that is the color of kingship and authority." And then they fight like this and eventually go their separate ways and the church is no better for it.
· Right? Like the first-century church had carpet to begin with, guys? Like chill, right? And so we don't even have that problem here, right? But some churches are on edge with each other all the time waiting for that next little war to break out and no one has any peace, right? There's a lack of stability in a church that's always bickering.
· But when the peace of Christ rules in church, when our unity as one body is strong in church, when people are thankful, right? Be thankful. Thankful to God for his work in their own lives and they have a desire to serve other people, then the church is strong. Then the church gets to function in a wonderful state of peace, not worrying about the next little war over the carpet or whatever it might be.
· The peace that we have with God that comes through the Lord Jesus Christ ought to be a guiding factor for how we interact with each other.
· Instead of letting the anger of man rule your heart, let the peace of Christ rule it, right?
· A Christian going to church looking for trouble, sowing division is not only unhelpful but ungodly. For our family devotions in my home, we're going through a catechism. Part of going through a catechism is we're going through the 10 Commandments. And you spend 3 weeks in each commandment, you talk about what it is, what it means, what it doesn't mean.
· And so, we are spending the next 3 weeks on the ninth commandment, "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." So, we talk about what that means, what it doesn't mean, everything. But the catechism, this week it obviously marries up scripture with all of it, took us to Proverbs 6:16-19. And I want to read this to you.
· And the proverb says in ver- chapter 6:16, "There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him." That's a Hebrew way of saying like six things the Lord hates, yay, seven. It's emphasizing that there's seven things that are an abomination to God that he hates. And he says this, here's the list, you ready?
· "Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil." They love evil and can't wait to get there. "A false witness who breathes out lies, and number seven, get this, one who sows discord among brothers." You say, "Wait a minute, God hates things?" Yes, he does.
· If God has perfect love for righteousness and holiness because it's in his character, it's who he is by nature, his character would mean that he would have a perfect hatred for unrighteousness and sin. And so, that's what this is saying, the Lord hates these things. And one of those things is someone who dis- who sows discord among brothers. That would be indicative that the peace of Christ is not ruling that person's heart.
· Their anger or frustration might be ruling their heart, calling the shots, umpiring their lives, but certainly not the peace of Christ. But when we are motivated by our identity in Christ, protected by the love we have for each other, and guided by the peace of Christ, that's when we have a healthy church rooted in community. And we all need community.
· Last week our emphasis, this is a church life series, we talk about going from just attending Cross Church to becoming a disciple and a productive member of Cross Church Phoenix, and we talked about last time being rooted in worship and coming to Pizza with the Pastor is the next step in that. If you haven't been to Pizza with the Pastor, that is where we get to talk and know each other more. We go over our mission, vision, and values, and then we go over our statement of faith. Say, "What does this church stand for? What are our tier one doctrines that we will not capitulate on?" Come, and I'm an open book.
· I will tell you where our church stands, where I stand on any issue that you bring up. That's That's who I am.
· Um so, if you're new and have never been to Pizza with the Pastor, please come. But also, our the emphasis this morning, I want to challenge you, join a Bible group. Now, we have the survey still going, and if you want to take it and give me some feedback, that's great. But eventually, uh we will be starting up all of our Bible groups, and they meet on different nights, and so I'm encouraging you, uh a challenging you, everyone to be in a Bible group, to be in community with each other.
· And so, as you know, some of us here have these got groups shirts. Um all of our current Bible groups do, and if we have uh the need, we'll open more Bible groups. But you can talk to Come find us. We're kind of dispersed around, and after service, we will be, too. You can talk to anyone who has this shirt about Bible groups and what they're about, what we do, when when we're planning on meeting and stuff like that. But I want to encourage everyone to sign up and be plugged into community.
· We talk through the scriptures that we speak through on Sunday, but it's not just Bible study. We encourage I want our Bible groups to also just be um doing life together. If someone in a Bible group is in the hospital, Go visit.
· Let me know and go visit, right? I want to know what's going on. Um or when when we're suffering, we suffer together. When we rejoice, we rejoice together.
· When great things are going on in the life of people in a Bible group, we rejoice, say yes and amen, but we do life together. But so many Christians are unplugged from the church and then call me and say, "I feel distant." And I feel And I say, "Well, when was the last time you were in church?" Cuz I know this person has Certain people have never been haven't been to church in a long time. No wonder you feel distant, right? It'd be like if you're married, but you didn't see your spouse for 6 months. You're going to feel distant from your spouse. Of course you are, right?
· Be together.
· And come gather.
· And we get to celebrate um community right now in baptism, which I'm super excited for. So I want to invite uh the worship team to come up here and be prepared. And then Cindy, uh TT, and Derek to come down and meet me down here by the the baptistry. And I'm going to meet everyone down here. Let me take this.
· All right.
· And then I've got some help coming. But here, come over here, Cindy. Let me hold your hand here. This is Cindy. Everyone say hi Cindy.
· Hi Cindy.
· Hey Cindy, what's up? Cindy, so you've been coming to church for like a month or two now? Ish. So fairly new.
· Uh from Boston.
· And um she has quite the story. I encourage you to talk to her cuz I can't share all of it, but you know honestly just lived a life of sin and rebellion against God for us for a long time.
· Uh but came to Christ and she showed up here and she was already like serious about her walk with the Lord. I didn't really have to uh do much. I was like I meet with everyone we baptize. We go over the gospel. She's like, "Yep, that's me. Yes and amen. But I've never been baptized as a believer in Christ and I want to do that as soon as I can."
· So we put that on the calendar. So we are going to help Cindy uh get in. Let's see here. Um I'm going to hand I'm going to give that hand to Ken.
· Okay.
· Yeah.
· All right.
· It's freezing cold by the way. I'm just kidding.
· [laughter] Okay. Now we will have you come as far over to this end as possible and then as safely as you can just sit sit down.
· Yeah.
· Okay.
· Whoop.
· I'm in.
· You're in. We're in. We're locked and loaded. Okay.
· Yeah. All right.
· So Cindy, is Jesus Christ your personal Lord and savior?
· Yes.
· Do you believe that he died on the cross for your sins personally and that he rose again on the third day showing his power over sin and death and that he has authority over your life?
· Yes.
· Well then upon your profession of faith it is my honor and privilege to baptize you my sister. If you want to cross your arms you can. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of of the Holy Spirit. For we are buried with him by baptism unto death. Nice and slow. And raised to walk in newness of life.
· Yeah.
· [applause and cheering] We have a towel for you right here from Kenu.
· Thank you, Jesus.
· Amen. Amen. Okay, slowly here.
· Wow.
· All right. Now, and then TT, I want you to get ready. We'll do our next one here.
· Absolutely. Praise God. And then All right. Where is TT?
· This is TT Rheinberg and her husband Derek is right over here. We got their children here, Ellis and Shiloh. Thank you.
· Um and TT, you did want to share a few words, right?
· Yeah.
· I want to give you that opportunity right now. And here, I'll kind of put this towards you.
· Hello, my name is TT Rheinberg. I wanted to share a verse that really resonated with me.
· Psalm 71:20-21.
· Though you have made me see troubles and many and bitter, you will restore my life again from the depths of the earth. You will again bring me up. You will increase my honor and comfort me once more. I will continue to lean on the Lord through every phase of my life.
· Amen.
· Amen.
· [applause] All right. If you want to just thank as as TT and and Derek and I were were talking through the gospel and through baptism. I just want to kick your your out. Okay, you're Yeah, you're fine. Um she she mentioned uh when Pastor Brian preached a couple weeks ago, God was just like impress on her heart, "Okay, I need to take my walk seriously and I need to get baptized." And she came up to me uh that service and and said, "We need to talk."
· And so uh we did and and here we are. She uh knows Christ as a personal Lord and Savior and now we're just working on on living for him. Amen? All right, you can sit down if you like. Um there you go. So you're not holding yourself up there.
· All right, TT, is Jesus Christ your personal Lord and Savior?
· Yes.
· Do you believe that he died on the cross for your sins personally and that he rose again on the third day showing his power over sin and death and that he has authority over your life?
· Yes, I do.
· Amen. Well, then it is my privilege and honor to baptize you, my sister, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. You can cross your arms. For we are buried with him by baptism unto death and raised to walk in newness of life.
· [applause] Need help?
· And and then here's you can get your sandals on.
· Thank you.
· And this is TT's uh husband, Derek.
· Uh yeah, absolutely. Mhm. And Derek also wanted to share a few uh written words that he has uh for the church. So, go ahead, brother. Here, let me put this over.
· Hello, my name is Derek and my wife and I and my two boys have been attending Cross Church for just under a year. Uh around 2 and 1/2 years ago, after my family experienced a traumatic event, I felt the weight of the world on my shoulders. I asked God to come into my life and save me.
· Looking back from that point, I can see all the ways that God has impacted my life and provided guidance along the way. I'm excited to see how much further I will go with my continuing faith in God.
· Amen.
· Amen. Amen.
· [applause] All right, brother, if you want to step in.
· [applause] And you'll hug this side and you can kick your feet out so that you're not going back on your knees yet. All right, Derek.
· Is Jesus Christ your personal Lord and Savior?
· Yes.
· Let me take your glasses. As a fellow glasses wearer, I know.
· [snorts] So, Jesus Christ your personal Lord and Savior?
· Yes.
· Do you believe that he died on the cross for your sins personally and that he rose again on the third day showing his power over sin and death and that he has authority over your life?
· Yes.
· Well, it's my privilege and honor to baptize you, my brother, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Cross. For we are buried with him by baptism unto death and raised to walk in newness of life.
· [applause] Amen.
· All right. Well, let's stand together as we finish our our time of worship in singing and and praise God. Thank you.
More from this series
Rooted and Ready