We're going to continue in the sermon series that we
started at, in the beginning of November called Thank God For.
And so we've thanked God for his word.
We have thanked God for his Spirit.
We have thanked God for his church.
And last week we talked about thanking God for the life of Jesus.
And so now as we're in the Christmas season, a time where we reflect, remember,
Jesus is coming and those who are selling Advent, we, we wait in anticipation
for his second coming of Jesus.
And so we're going to talk about thanking God today for the sacrifice of Jesus.
And we know Jesus lived a life of sacrifice, so we can really study out
his life again, but we want to talk about and study out and again reflect
and really marvel at the sacrifice that Jesus made for you and me.
Let's go to God in prayer.
Father, thank you so much for this chance to worship, for this chance
to look into your scriptures.
I know for the last week or so just studying things out and even
this morning just being a hit.
And impacted by the blessing we have through your son, Jesus and his sacrifice.
God, there's nothing we can do to repay you, but we can thank you with our lives.
And God, I pray today that we are inspired to thank you more and more
and to thank you with faithfulness.
In Jesus name, Amen.
In Philippians 2, we won't turn there.
The Apostle Paul, he writes how Jesus Jesus was in heaven, but
chose to come to earth, live as a human being, and die upon the cross.
And not only just die, but die a criminal's death, so that
you and I can have salvation.
Now that's a sacrifice, isn't it?
I know many of us, it's hard for us to sacrifice things, especially if
we feel like we're the head honcho or we feel like we've arrived.
We have a certain status, so to lower ourselves would be a sacrifice.
And so for Jesus, God in the flesh, for him to go ahead and sacrifice his
position and lower himself so that he can taste and feel and live like us.
Showing us how to live, but then not only that, but giving us salvation
through a criminal's execution.
And then raising from the dead.
That's a sacrifice.
And so we're going to look at this sacrifice some more.
So here's what I want us to do.
We're going to go over to the book of Colossians, and Colossians is a letter
written by the Apostle Paul, and he writes to the church that met in this city, and
what's incredible about the Apostle Paul, most of us in the audience know this,
but some of us don't, Paul was actually an, uh, really an enemy of Christianity.
He was opposing Christianity and then he became a Christian.
Then he became a leader in the Christian church and then he
ultimately died for his faith in Jesus.
And so that alone right there can testify to the power of Christianity.
The sacrifice of Jesus, but he writes this letter and we're going to study
out just a portion of it because we won't have time to go through it all.
But as we read, here's what I want you to do, whether you're using physical paper,
which is very few of us, or you have in technology, I want you to write down as
we walk through this passage, what stands out to you about the sacrifice of Jesus.
You guys with me here.
And so online as well, uh, you'll have an opportunity to go ahead
and type in the little chat what observations you have about the
sacrifice of Jesus from this passage.
You guys all with me?
Alright, let's get into the word here.
Alright, Colossians chapter 1.
Again, we're taking it up in the middle, uh, uh, of the chapter here in verse 13.
It says, For he, talking about God, has rescued us.
From the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom
of the sun he loves in home.
Now, that's really big I'll give you a little teaser right there.
We're going to come back to that idea of in whom.
In whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
The sun is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
For in him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible
and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things have
been created through him and for him.
He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
And He is the head of the body, the church.
He is the beginning, and the firstborn from among the dead.
So that in everything, He might have the supremacy.
For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him.
And through Him, To reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth
or things in heaven by making peace through his blood shed on the cross.
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds
because of your evil behavior.
But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to
present you holy in his sight without blemish and free from accusation.
If you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move
from the hope held out in the gospel.
This is the gospel you heard and that has been proclaimed to every
creature under heaven and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.
Let's stop right there.
Anything stand out to you about the cross and the crucifixion
and the sacrifice of Jesus?
Did you take down, did you note down anything that stood out to you?
Let's do this.
Go ahead and share with those right next to you.
What are some things that stood out to you about the sacrifice of
Jesus from Colossians chapter one?
And those online again, go ahead and type in the chat what things stood out to you
from this passage about the blessings or the the results of Jesus sacrifice for us.
I'll go ahead and give you guys a couple minutes.
Right.
Let's go ahead.
Let's get a couple of people.
Let's have a couple of people share what stood out to you about
the sacrifice of Jesus here from Colossians one 13 through 23.
That he presents you wholly without blemish.
Okay.
Awesome.
I saw another hand over here.
Yes.
Okay.
That Jesus made everything.
Everything we see and do is through him and by him and he can see everything.
Okay, great.
All right.
Joan, you, you, you also said something.
Okay, same thing, the same thing that makes us holy there.
All right.
Who is that?
Yes.
John.
Okay.
So Jesus's sacrifice also means you have to continue in your faith there.
Okay.
Awesome.
Anybody on this side here?
We were talking about the young folks over here.
All right.
Let's get one of the young folks, uh, to share something there.
Yes.
The pressure is on.
The light is on you.
Yes.
Okay.
All right.
Devin, let's go.
Devin.
Okay, so the sun is the invisible image of God that, that helps us in our faith here.
Okay, awesome.
There's a number of things that are in this passage that we're
gonna walk through a little bit.
Some things were already mentioned.
One of the things that stands out to me is Jesus sacrifice means our salvation.
That's clearly stated in the passage.
It's our salvation meaning a right relationship with God for all eternity.
To have a right relationship, no longer at odds or there's
no insecurity, uncertainty.
We have a right relationship, not just for the moments, but for all eternity.
That's through the sacrifice of Jesus.
But let's walk through this and let's go back over to verse 14.
It says that in whom again in whom in Christ we have redemption.
Redemption to redeem someone means to buy them back and set them free.
So if you are a prisoner, if you were a slave, if you were redeemed, the
price was paid and you were set free.
So Jesus threw the cross, paid the price and bought us back and set us free.
From the dominion of darkness, the power of sin, the chains of darkness and evil.
He redeemed us from that and set us free and allowed us to
now be in His glorious kingdom.
And because of Christ's death on our behalf, we are set free from
the prison and the darkness of sin.
It also says that we have the forgiveness of sins.
through the cross of Jesus.
You know, redemption releases us from the power of sin, while forgiveness
releases us from the penalty of sin.
It releases us from the guilt of sin.
To be forgiven.
That means to have mercy and to, in Romans 8 verse 1, to have
no condemnation, no judgments.
Now you know what it's like to be forgiven.
I know you've been forgiven.
Maybe from your parents or the police or maybe you haven't
been forgiven from the police.
But to be forgiven to not suffer the time, even though you did the crime.
That's what the scriptures reveal about Jesus's death for us.
Our salvation means we are forgiven.
It is wiped clean before the eyes of God.
He has canceled the debts.
From our sin, a debt that you and I couldn't pay back.
There's no righteous deed.
There's no amount of deeds, no amount of time that can go and
measure up and equal out the sin.
That we have before a righteous and holy God.
It was only through Jesus because that debt be canceled.
And it means we have grace.
We have a second chance, an opportunity in our relationship with God.
We continue in verse 20 and 22, it talks about reconciliation
being reconciled to himself.
But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body
through death to present you.
You know, it talks about reconciliation.
What's reconciliation?
Reconciliation means that two parties have been at war.
They've been at odds.
There is hostility between the two.
And when you reconcile those, instead of them being at odds, they
are now at a friendly relationship.
They have now been reconciled.
And so through Christ's sacrifice, those who are in and out of That Christ
have now been reconciled with God.
We have now been redeemed.
We've been forgiven the hostility.
The war between us has been removed.
It says now once you were alienated, we're enemies in your minds
because of your evil behavior.
Some of us might look and say, well, that was just the church in Colossae.
That's not me.
Really?
That's not me.
All of us, whether we grew up in a church or not, all of us had a mindset
and had attitudes or behavior that was contrary to God's righteous ways.
And so therefore we were alienated from God.
Therefore we were at odds with God.
Whether it was our stinking thinking or our stinking behavior.
But we were at odds with our faithful Creator.
But yet, through Christ, we have been reconciled.
We have been brought back to a right relationship.
You know, Jesus death allows God's enemy to become God's friend.
And so we are not just on his team, but we are now a child of the living God.
We continue.
And it says, making peace through his blood, making peace.
There is now harmony between us and the living God.
There is peace between us.
There is harmony.
The purpose of Christ's death on the cross was to bring not just you and I, but it
says all things created by Christ and for Christ into a harmonious relationship.
And so all of creation through the cross has the opportunity to have a
harmonious relationship with the Father.
You know, me and Karina almost got into it a little bit this morning.
Somebody said, yeah, maybe you did too.
And I had an opportunity to think through this and the Holy Spirit
was ministering to me and I came back and we were able to talk in.
And, and have a harmonious relationship this morning.
We were able to make some peace this morning.
And you know, that just does something to, I'm firing up, I'm like, whoo, amen.
I don't have to act weird or it don't have to get strange and then I'm have to pray
before I get to praying and preaching.
You know what I'm saying?
It just gets a little crazy for me.
But I thank God for the peace of there, but I thank God for the peace that we
have in Christ through Christ's sacrifice.
And here's an incredible thing, it stood out to me, I was reading something.
You know, it wasn't, it says by his blood, did you see that?
Through his blood.
And you think, it wasn't the blood of a victorious physical fight.
It wasn't like Jesus was one of the Roman soldiers and he was fighting and
he, and he got cut and he came away victorious, like I shed blood for this.
It wasn't that type of blood that was shed.
It was actually blood from an animal.
innocent person being executed.
It was innocent blood that was executed.
A criminal's death that allowed for us to have peace with our
father, our maker and creator.
This is incredible.
And then it goes on and somebody mentioned this earlier, it says, to make us holy
in his sight without blemish and free from accusation, to be holy, to be
sacred, to be set apart for God's divine purpose, to be righteous, to be of him.
That's what it means to be holy.
And then it says not only holy, but without blemish, there's no stain,
there's no wrinkle, there's no issue.
It's pure.
And that says to be free from accusation, free from accusation, blameless,
justified before the eyes of God.
All of this is through the Word of God.
The sacrifice of Jesus.
And so if we look at this, we see redemption, we see forgiveness of sins,
reconciliation, peace with God, holy without blemish and free from accusation.
This is incredible, isn't it?
You're probably wondering what's going on on the stage.
I want to do a little demonstration.
I'm in my demonstration season.
I have these seasons where I'm all about demonstrations and seasons
where I'm just not as creative.
And I saw this online and so I said, you know, this is really good.
And so I want to do this demonstration here to help us
understand the magnitude of what we have for those who are in Christ.
The blessings we have from Jesus's sacrifice, the reconciliation,
the forgiveness of sins.
I have some now this right here represents Us.
It represents us.
This is our lives.
This is our body.
Now, unfortunately, you and I, we were alienated from God because of what?
Because of sin.
I have a little iodine right here.
And so you pour that in there, and this is what happens when we sin.
Oh, let me listen to a little white lie to my mom and my dad.
Oh, let me just go ahead and steal, or let me just be, uh,
immoral or sexually impure.
Whatever the case may be, go down the list of lines, my pride,
my arrogance, all that stuff.
Here's what happens to our very souls.
We went from this pure soul, we went from being clear and clean before
the eyes of God, to now we are what?
Dark and tainted.
No longer righteous, no longer sacred, no longer without blemish.
Definitely not free of accusation.
No, there's a whole lot of truth in the accusations, isn't there?
And this is what happens when you and I sin.
And this is what happens.
This is our standing before the eyes of God until the cross comes into play.
And so we have, oh, let me see here.
We have here the cross.
This is where the cross comes in.
And this is where Jesus comes in.
And when Jesus, when we decide that Jesus, we want Jesus to be Lord of our lives.
And we have saving faith.
We believe he's the Messiah, the son of the living King, the God almighty.
And we decided to repent and get baptized.
What happens to us then is that we go ahead and we see something
incredible take place in our lives.
The cross deals with all that sin.
And now what we see is what we are free from accusation.
We are no longer polluted but without blemish.
We are holy before the eyes of the living God.
We have been redeemed and all that sin is what?
Wiped away.
Does this look like this has ever sinned?
No, it doesn't.
And this is our standing before the eyes of God.
For those who have received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
Now, I don't know about you, but I say thank God for the sacrifice of Jesus,
because I don't know about you, but I don't want to stay in this position.
I want this to be me, and hallelujah, for this is my status before the living God.
Now, here's the thing.
If we don't have the cross, This is where we're at.
This is our standing before the eyes of God.
Because again, it said in whom, in whom talking about in Jesus, all
of the blessings are in Christ.
If we are outside of Christ, this is where we're at spiritually.
And this is where some of us in this room are at spiritually.
And so you say, well, maybe I grew up in a church where you can be as
close to the cross as you want to be.
But if cross.
If the sacrifice of Jesus hasn't entered your life, then this
is your standing before God.
I say this not to make you feel bad.
I say this so that you can understand the opportunity that waits for you
to make Jesus Lord of your life.
The opportunity to be wiped clean of all guilt and all sin and be able
to stand before the eyes of God, not with head down, but with confidence
and a welcoming of his spirits.
And so this is what we have.
Through the blessings of Christ.
And you say, well, man, I've sinned a little bit.
Well, here's how powerful the cross is.
You go, OK, well, you sinned a little bit.
OK, well, we understand your situation.
But guess what happens when the cross is still working in your life?
You say, well, OK, Marcel, I sinned some more.
OK, well, if you persevere in the faith, guess what happens?
Now, does this mean, let me go ahead and continue to sit?
No, of course not.
But we see the power of Jesus's sacrifice.
Now, I don't know about you, but I say, thank God for his sacrifice.
Turn to the person to your right.
Let's say, thank God for Jesus's sacrifice.
I don't know about you, but if this doesn't get fired up and I don't know
what will, that means you're asleep and I don't know how you fall asleep on me.
You know, this is important that we remember that what I'm saying
is anything new, but we're getting a chance to have a fresh look and
maybe a deeper perspective and appreciation for what we have in Christ.
And it's important that we do this.
And in fact, this is partly why we take communion every Sunday so that we can have
a time to reflect and meditate and realize what we have through Jesus's sacrifice.
Because if we do not stay in connection with the cross of Jesus,
what will happen to our faith?
One of the things that will happen is it will become a distant memory.
It won't be something that impacts us.
And when that happens, what happens is we start to separate from the
cross and we become less appreciative and thankful for the cross.
Which leads to our heart getting harder and can lead to leaving God
All of us have seen those who have been around if you've been around for
probably three or six months You've seen somebody leave the faith Did you
ever hear them talk about how great Jesus sacrifice was as they left God?
of course not and In fact, that's one of the things that's omitted
from the conversation, isn't it?
You It's everything else except for the sacrifice of Jesus.
So this is why it's so important, brothers and sisters, that we
recognize, we remember, and here's what Paul is doing for the church.
He wants them to get it.
Please get what you have from the sacrifice of Jesus so that you will
remain in your standing with God.
And you will have an inheritance of his kingdom for all eternity.
And this is why we need one another.
This is why we encourage one another with the scriptures and
the truth and the promises of God through Jesus and his sacrifice.
This is why we show up and worship God.
And we can say how he loves us, how he show us love through the cross.
This is why we dig into his word.
So we can remember who it is that we serve and that He is
forever present in our lives.
This is why you and I are here.
This is why you and I need to stay here in the faith.
And it says to me, and it was mentioned earlier, what's the response to that?
To such a great treasure we have through the sacrifice of Jesus.
I believe is this is to be faithful to Jesus is to be faithful to Jesus, to thank
God with faithfulness, to thank him, not just with words, not just with the song,
not just what the moment of appreciation, but to thank him with faithfulness.
And Jesus, you know, it says this in the scripture, it was alluded to earlier.
If you continue in your faith, established and firm, it's not
shaking, it's not swayed back and forth like, like a tree blown by the wind.
It says, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel.
This is a call to keep going.
This is a call to never quit.
This is a call to be firm and established in our faith, meaning
I'm gonna be as faithful to him, his laws, and his ways as I can.
Like a faithful soldier in his service.
Like a faithful friend, I am there for you through thick and thin.
Like a faithful child to a family.
Like a faithful spouse.
There is fidelity.
I will be faithful to you.
That's the call for you in being Christ.
Why?
Because of all that we have through the cross.
Because of all that it means for our lives.
It's a call for you and I to be faithful.
Not to quit, not to give the least, or to give less, but to give all
that we can to Jesus and his will.
You know, he was faithful to us.
We should be faithful in return.
Giving our best until the day that we pass.
Amen.
You know, as mentioned earlier, Brian Craig's funeral.
We also have one coming up, uh, uh, uh, uh, for Maria Hertzberg here in January.
And I just appreciate when, you know, it's sad, it's, it's a bittersweet thing.
It's bitter because we, we, we miss, we, we lose, we grieve, we mourn the
loss of our brother and sister in the faith and we want to be able to
physically talk and be with them.
But yet we celebrate because they've already achieved the goal of our faith.
And so we actually want to mimic their faith.
And I just love going to faithful disciples funerals in
the sense of being inspired.
They made it.
I was so inspired yesterday.
Brian and I didn't get a chance to talk to him in the last couple
weeks, but I talked to him a couple months prior to his passing.
And I was so in awe, like, that man is worthy of imitation
the way he's facing death.
He was inspiring, still teaching, still preaching.
And wasn't mad at God, he wrestled with God.
But he wasn't mad at God.
And he said he got closer to God through the experience.
Going through brain cancer, you get closer to God?
Shouldn't that lead you to faithlessness and despair and discouragement?
And let him closer to God.
And say that's, that's what Paul's talking about.
Continuing in the faith.
Established and firm.
Not moving from the hope of the gospel.
You know, this is the proper response to such a great love and sacrifice.
What other response could we have than to be faithful with all of
our hearts for all of our lives?
I want to give us some action steps here.
Church, are you still with me?
Are you still tripping like, hey, how did he do that?
Alright, we can talk later.
I want to give you some action steps this week here in, so pillow, pillow,
pillow, whatever it is, pull out, pull out your phone or write down
because it's going to be something each day I want to give you here.
It's going to allow us to remember to recognize every day this week what we
have through the sacrifice of Jesus.
And I believe it will allow us then to swell up not only with generosity
but with faithfulness each day.
Are you guys ready here?
All right, get ready here.
All right, so here's what the call here is.
To thank God for the blessings of salvation through Jesus sacrifice.
So here we go.
So today you can start.
Sunday, thank God for the grace that we receive through the sacrifice of Jesus.
Tomorrow, for the rescue.
Through this sacrifice, Tuesday, the inheritance.
We didn't get a chance to talk too much about it, but go ahead and read
Colossians one again on your own Wednesday, the redemption being redeemed.
Thursday, the forgiveness Friday, the reconciliation and Saturday, the hope.
It's been a couple of moments in your prayer, maybe the beginning of the day.
I would encourage you because that'll help you throughout the
day and thank God for these things.
Meditate upon them.
Each day, this particular area, and who knows, God may open up more ideas
and areas in which you can thank him for through the sacrifice of Jesus.
But do this and allow this to swell up to, to not only gratitude,
but to influence your daily life.
And so that's my encouragement and my charge for every one of us.
We're going to come to a close here, we're going to take communion.
This is a time where we recognize, we thank God.
reflect upon, we meditate, we remember, and in many ways we
celebrate the sacrifice of Jesus.
And we take the emblems that represent his body and his blood that was
broken and shed so that you and I can have all these things and more.
And we close out in Colossians 1, verses 19 through 22, we'll read again.
For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through
him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or
things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross.
Once you were alienated from God.
And we're enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.
But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to
present you wholly in his sight without blemish and free from accusation.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for the sacrifice of Jesus.
God, we could go through each element.
We could go through each category.
We, that could be its own sermon.
That can, we can reflect upon that all day, but God, we are reminded
of all that we have through your son, Jesus and his sacrifice.
God, I'm humbled.
I'm not deserving.
I didn't earn a thing.
In fact, what I did earn was judgment.
But you out of love extended grace and mercy and God, you did that
through the sacrifice of your son.
We thank you.
We praise you.
We love you and pray that you help us to remember and to respond with faithfulness.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for deciding to come.
For living the life you lived for staying upon the cross and for resurrecting.
And as you know, you hit me several days ago, thinking in John 10, where
Lord, you are recorded as saying it was your life to lay down, then no one took
it from you that you chose to lay your life down and God, it was your choice.
And I'm so grateful that you made that choice.
Thank you that you showed your desire for us and your desire to
father, to follow the father's will.
All we can do is thank you with our hearts, our minds,
our souls, and our strength.
We pray that this may be acceptable in the name of Jesus, amen.