All right, if you would turn with me to Colossians chapter three, we'll actually be going through a good chunk of Colossians tonight, as we have time for. So respectable sin tonight is pride. And my question for us tonight is, am I being clothed with humility? Am I being clothed with humility? So Colossians 3.12, we'll start there and then We'll continue on. So Colossians 3.12, I'm gonna be reading from the NLT. Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. As I've studied the book of Colossians, as I came across this verse, I just had the question, Has Paul really prepared his readers for this verse? Has he shown them what clothing one another, clothing each other with humility looks like? And I think he has. So we're gonna actually start at the very beginning of Colossians. If we go to Colossians chapter one, and tonight, There's six parts that I have to helping us answer this question. Am I being clothed with humility? So Paul starts off, I'm going to read just a couple of verses in each section here and talk about each part of each question. So Paul starts in verse six, he says, the same good news that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God's wonderful grace. So the first question that comes to my mind is, is God's grace wonderful to me? That's what he says, right? Just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God's wonderful grace. So am I marveling at the grace of God in the gospel tonight? We just heard lots of testimonies of that, didn't we? Did you marvel at God's grace? God's grace in other people's lives. And this is grace that none of us can take credit for. God deserves all the glory for the grace that he works in other people's hearts. And yet, as Paul continues on, he says, you learned about the good news from Epaphras, our beloved coworker. He is Christ's faithful servant, and he is helping us on your behalf. He has told us about the love for others that the Holy Spirit has given you. And what strikes me as really as humbling is this man, Epaphras. He clearly has to communicate back to Paul about these people's lives. He has to be close enough to them to do that though, right? Like he can't just observe from a distance, he has to really know God's people in this church. And he has to be able to communicate it well enough so that Paul understands what's really going on. Are we aware of God's grace in other people's lives? Are we looking at their lives close enough to marvel? Or are we trying to trust in our own efforts? A personal example from my life is I was meeting with a friend and they were talking about just a particularly challenging situation involving other people. And they said they had tried everything. everything within their tool set, right, to try to counsel and help and, but they said, Ryan, they said, this is just a good reminder of the fact that it's God who changes people. I mean, Paul even gives us that sense in this chapter when he says, we always pray for you, right? Verse three, we always pray for you and we give thanks to God. Paul himself even doesn't trust in his own efforts. He trusts in God's efforts. And I was hearing these words, right? And yet, in the back of my mind, I was thinking of someone that I was burdened for. And after this person was done talking, clearly wasn't listening, because I said, so I have this particular situation that I need help with. What tactics do you recommend to address the situation? And I left off this phrase, this person has no idea that I was about to say this, but I was like, except for praying for them. And it was clear that God had prepared this person's heart and mind and had given much patience because I'm sure they recognized that I wasn't listening to them. But they said, Ryan, it's, you need to be praying for them. You know, in 1 Peter 5, 5, it says, all of you dress yourselves in humility as you relate to one another, for God opposes the proud. but gives grace to the humble. In that moment, I felt God's opposition. You don't really trust me. You really think you know what's best for these people. You think you can do it. Am I quick to pray or am I quick to trust in my own efforts? Am I quick to make assumptions? I was challenged by that this last year. I was talking with my wife actually about some people I was concerned about and she's like, Ryan, you're really quick to assume the worst about people. Whoa. Have you even prayed? This person, have you, we were reminded this morning about the need to pray for one another as we serve one another. Like that's how we actually get to know one another. That's how we actually see one another as we should see one another. Or how about this, am I quick to dismiss the attempts of others to help me? Now we were admonished this morning to serve others but because you have been so greatly served by Christ. There was a time this last year when I was feverishly trying to help someone, and I ended up getting sick, as I often do around this time of year. And I was so sick that my throat was just completely closed up. It was so painful. I could hardly swallow any food or anything. A friend of mine asked me, can I do anything to help you? Can I serve you in any way? And I was about to dismiss them and say, no. Cuz they were like, I could bring you some soup. And I was like, I can go down to the store and get soup. I don't need that. But something they said that I will never forget was, At the very end, they said, even if it's something small, if it's so small that you don't even think it's significant. And I was like, the Lord really used that to just show me that I was so focused on what I could do that I was unwilling to be helped. And I just remember that person, Yielding going. Okay. Yeah, you can bring me some soup. I ended up getting more than I could consume and or should consume and I Just read that person's saying We just enjoyed so much making that soup First Corinthians 4.7, Paul tells the Corinthians and asks them, what do you have that God hasn't given you? And if everything you have is from God, why boast as though it were not a gift? I mean, that's really what we have to think about when we're asking ourselves, am I marveling at the grace of God in the gospel? Am I really seeing God's grace for what it's supposed to be? Everything is from God. The relationships that I have, the people in my life, those are all God's gifts. If you go down in chapter one, just a couple more verses, Paul says, verse nine, again, prayer. So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better. Notice Paul's point here. The point of what he wants these people to do. He wants them to grow, he wants them to grow as they learn to know God better and better. That's the whole point. So, what's the question from this? Well, am I seeking, am I really seeking to know God better and better? Or am I trying to know something else better and better? I mean, our world, one of the modern Diseases, I think, in our world is this disease of knowledge that is just all around us. It's at our fingertips, right? We can claim to know stuff in an instant. We're tempted to know all the answers. We're supposed to know just how much it's supposed to snow. Which model was correct, right? We're so just consumed with this desire to know all things. When people ask us a question, are you okay with saying, I don't know? Or how about the things that God hasn't clearly revealed in his word? The things that we so desperately want answers to, but do we really need those answers? I mean, our culture is obsessed. with knowledge, with everybody being able to experience everything. I heard about a, as those super scooper firefighting airplanes were passing over the fires in California, one of them actually collided with a drone of someone who was trying to just virally share stuff on social media. Right? I mean, that's our culture, this gluttony of everybody has to know everything. There are things we are not to know. But what Paul says here is we are to get to know our God better and better. Can you truly say that you are doing that? As we move on to later in chapter one, starting in verse 15, Paul brings us before the greatness of Jesus Christ. So he says, Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation. For through him, God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can't see, such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together. Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead, so he is first in everything. For God, in all his fullness, was pleased to live in Christ. And through him, God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ's blood on the cross. The something I recommend you do is actually go through the book of Colossians and actually see how many times Paul brings up the gospel again and again and again. He's never going to stop with this need for the gospel. But notice here, he capitalizes on Christ's supremacy. So am I recognizing the supremacy of Christ? Am I recognizing his control over my life? even the very people that he's brought me into day-to-day living with. I was, a while ago I met with a friend and I just remember sitting down and talking with him and really just struggling with things in my life and questioning the state of our church at Suba Road. And I even made the statement, the very clear statement, if our church were more like this, this would never have happened, this situation in my life that I felt like I could have control over. My church was like this. And that person, that friend, had such courage in that moment. Because you know what they told me? They said, Ryan, I think your problem is idolatry. What? Your problem is idolatry. You think you know better than Christ does about his church. I needed to hear that. I needed to be confronted by that. I mean, that was arrogance, right? That God would allow this, that Jesus really doesn't know what he's doing, but I do. And this is how things should have gone. Am I recognizing the supremacy of Christ in my life? We continue on in chapter two. Paul says, I love these first couple verses in chapter 2, starting with verse 2, actually, I want them to be encouraged. He's talking about these people in the Colossian church, but also in other churches in Laodicea. and those he doesn't even know. I want them to be encouraged and knit together by strong ties of love. I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God's mysterious plan, which is Christ himself. In him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And then he continues on in verse six and he says, and now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught and you will overflow with thankfulness." Notice this repetition of thankfulness too. You'll see that again and again and again, the symptom of the gospel and grace taking fruit, bearing fruit in someone's life. As I read this passage, this is of course a church that shows many signs of growth. If you look back at chapter one, Paul actually calls these people faithful brothers and sisters. This is not like the church in Titus where there's clearly not a lot of good going on and we have to totally renovate. But notice Paul here says, and now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. To Paul, it never gets more than the gospel. There's never a level two to the gospel. So my question for myself would be, am I continually realizing my need for the gospel to live and grow? A few years ago, my wife and I were involved in the youth ministry, and I met with a friend. You notice a pattern here, hopefully. I met with a friend, and I just couldn't wait to share just where I was spiritually. This is what I've accomplished. This is what's going on, teaching on this. Had this many kids respond in this way. So-and-so's been talking about how great my teaching has been going. And I wasn't allowed to talk about any of that. But suddenly out of nowhere, this friend just said, you know what, Ryan? Jesus will never be done. Jesus will never be done. with you. He's gonna continue to give and pour himself into you until there is nothing left of you. The danger in my heart was stagnation. I was beginning to trust in myself. I was beginning to think that life was found in myself. and not in Christ. I need to be perpetually realizing my need for the gospel to live and grow. Paul continues on in this chapter in verse eight. He says, don't let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority. See, Paul addresses our identity right here. He says that you also are complete through your union with Christ. And to not let anybody capture you. I love this, the way the NLT says, empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense. Am I captivated by nonsense? Are we captivated by nonsense? Paul is just, It's almost like he's laying out the book of Ecclesiastes for us right here in the book of Colossians. I mean, we just heard from Ecclesiastes just a few weeks ago, right? There's nothing new under the sun. There's nothing that can truly satisfy. I mean, I saw that recently when I was flipping through, now we have Hulu with Disney Plus, and I was flipping through just trying to find something to watch. There's nothing to watch. I mean, I just heard that Barnes & Noble is making a comeback and is opening new stores. It's another cultural shift because people are going, my favorite show, I need to go buy a DVD. These books are better than having these subscriptions. And the point is, our culture has a spiritual, as I was reading in one article recently, malaise, right? That the more we try to pursue something, the less filled we are. Like, if you want to be pumped up and feel good about yourself, there's no end to the number of books that could try to make you feel better. And yet, I gaze out on my students every day and The lack of just even significance in their lives has spiraled, right? They don't view their actions as important. They don't view the world as something worth even living for sometimes. Am I captivated by nonsense? I'll admit to you that I've tried to find satisfaction in other communities. I'm a physics teacher. That probably scares some of you. That's OK. I'm not here to teach physics, so you're fine. But you know, I've never seen such an accepting from a worldly standpoint, a more accepting community in some ways, like more humble. I've done things my first year, I remember my first year teaching physics, I tried to figure out a thing that I was struggling with, and I shared it with a teacher that had been teaching for 30 years, and he was like, wow, that's amazing, I gotta try that in my class. I was like, whoa, that's pretty humbling. This guy who's been teaching for 30 years is recognizing my value, right? But you know, the more and the more I poured into that community, the less and the less I found. I remember going to this guy's school and I just remember seeing him burned out from all the stuff he did for his teaching. It was just empty, right? And that's kind of what Samuel is trying to tell the people of Israel in 1 Samuel 12, when he says, don't pursue these empty things, these empty idols, because they really are empty. There's really no life found in them. And Paul even says that here, where he He talks about in the end of verse 18, he says, their sinful minds have made them proud, and they are not connected to Christ, the head of the body, for he holds the whole body together with its joints and ligaments, and it grows as God nourishes it. And he goes on to say in verse 22, such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them. These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline, but they provide no help in conquering a person's evil desires. The world hasn't changed. Those markings of human teaching and things that deteriorate, I mean, that's almost all of the New Year's resolutions out there. Have you seen that? New year, new you? Paul will have something to say about that in just a minute, but how distracted are we? How captivated are we? I'm telling you, I am easily distracted by this. If you could pray for me, this is a big distraction in my day. And one of the ways I'm trying to not be captivated by this is to take to heart something that was preached on recently, which is showing that God would show his glory to me each day, the very beginning of the day. God, you are this, so I don't need this. But do you struggle with this? Do you struggle being distracted? I was sharing with a friend just recently that I was about to share that I was so distracted by this, but he beat me to it, because I was like, so you said this, and I'm wondering what's the root of the problem here? He's like, it's this. And I was like, oh, oh, okay, so the root of my problem is also this. We're in this together, right? Our struggles are common. But we both found that we were trying to escape our problems. We were both trying to run from confronting really our God. and the problems that we had with him and the control we were trying to have in our lives. The timing of this, if I could share one more thing, is when I transitioned from teaching to a holiday schedule, which for me is not a schedule at all in some ways, right? Pray for me that this would not be what I tried to escape to. It was a struggle this last Christmas. and I have spring break, and I have summer break, that's a big one too, so I need your help with that. Please pray for me for that. Last but not least, let's go to chapter three. Let's go to where Paul has been driving toward this whole time. Notice in verse three, well, starting in verse one, since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God's right hand, the realities of heaven, right? Real things. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth, for you died to this life and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory. The exaltation will come. We heard that this morning. The exaltation does come in the humble pursuit, but it's when God when God exalts you. Notice Christ who is your life, your real life is hidden with Christ. In verse five, Paul says, so put to death the sinful earthly things lurking within you. Verse 10, put on your new nature and be renewed as you learn to know your creator and become like him. We are already made new if we're in Christ. We are already new. That's the deceit of new year, new you. You are already new if you're in Christ. Isn't that wonderful? Nobody can make you more new than new. Paul says we need to be renewed. New year renewed you, right? And really, it's renewed us. You see that? For he says in verse 11, in this new life, it doesn't matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave or free, Christ is all that matters and he lives in all of us. Yes, Paul did prepare us for verse 12. Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, making allowance for each other's faults. and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony, and let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts, for as members of one body, you are called to live in peace and always be thankful. In Ecclesiastes 4, Verses nine and 10, Solomon says, two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. If you've been trying to answer these questions yourself tonight, you've missed the point. We need others to be able to answer these questions for ourselves. We need others in the body to be clothed with humility. In other words, I can't tell, Jerry Bridges agrees with this, agrees with Paul. He says, one of the problems with pride is that we cannot see it in ourselves. We can only really see it in others. In other words, if you've been trying to answer these questions tonight by yourself, you've been fooling yourself. Are you captivated by something else other than Christ? I'm asking these questions to you really in a way to answer it for me. And so is there anyone in your life today that you could go to with these six questions and go, can you help me answer them? Question number one, am I marveling at the grace of God in the gospel? Question two, am I seeking to know God better and better? Question three, am I recognizing the supremacy of Christ? Question four, am I perpetually realizing my need for the gospel to live and grow? Question five, am I captivated by nonsense? And question six, am I being renewed to become more like Christ? Let's close in prayer. Our Father, we thank you that although you oppose the proud, and sometimes we sense your opposition to us, you're humbling us. But how do we clothe ourselves in humility? We seek it in one another. We must, we must Pursue one another and genuinely ask these questions and seek the answers from another person here in this body. Help us tonight to seek those people out or to get to know someone else as Epaphras did, who could truly see the love, the faith, the hope that was found in these believers' lives. And help us to see that We need to be renewed to be more like our creator, Jesus Christ. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.