It's really good to be here. This is, you know, the third different place I've been with you. I don't know if you've had other places. Yes. But here's what I really appreciate. You know, we are living stones, right? And you're Living Hope Church. And I was sitting there reflecting You know, just being with you again, feeling really grateful. I first came to Living Hope, I met you, I'm not remembering the years, like 98, 99, maybe 2000. It's been a long time, nearly 25 years. And here you are, I'm thinking of Colossians. Paul says, We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you've heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing, as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth. Now, I don't know how long it's been actually since Living Hope was begun, but it's been longer than 25 years, I know that. And I'm seeing the grace of God still, the gospel of Christ still bearing fruit in you since the day you heard it. And I'm feeling really encouraged by that, and I'm really thankful. And as I'm here sitting in this new building, which actually I like, I like the smaller space, I'm realizing there is no sense in which I feel like I'm with a different church. Like, you might feel that way when you're in a different building, right? I've never been here before. But it's because you are the church. It's not the building that you're in. And I think you guys model that well. And so, you know, as I'm sitting there thinking about this different place, just recognizing this feels like living hope. And even though I've never been here before. And it's because you are the church, not the building that you're in. You guys know that. And I just want to give thanks to God for what He's done to help you see that and to help you guys live that out. So this morning, I'm gonna share from Colossians chapter two. We're gonna look specifically at verses eight to 15. And I'm gonna give you now the sermon in one sentence. And if you know this and live this out fully and faithfully, you can check out for the rest of the time. Here it is. Knowing Jesus, who he is and what he's done for us makes us free. or knowing Jesus, who he is and what he's done for us, keeps us free. I should say and. He makes us free and he keeps us free. Knowing Jesus, who he is and what he's done for us, keeps us free. And we live in Jordan and five days a week with the Jordanian church that we partner with, we gather in order to have a time of worship. We sing a couple songs. There's some kind of Bible devotion before people start whatever it is they do. So this includes people who work in the administrative administration with the church or with the organization that works with the church, partnered with the church. It includes people who go out and do visits, visiting Iraqi refugees, Syrian refugees, Jordanians. It includes the people who are part of the handicraft ministry. These are actual refugees who are being blessed by this ministry to earn some extra income. It includes doctors who are at the medical clinic. It includes teachers who work in the Iraqi refugee school. Lots of different peoples. We gather five days a week. I'm usually there two or three times a week. Others from my team are also there. We worship a little bit and we study something from the scriptures, like a 15 to 20 minute devotional, except for Tuesdays when we do a longer inductive Bible study, helping people see that. You don't have to have a Bible degree in order to understand the Scriptures. Simple questions can really yield lots of insight if you just come to the Scriptures with an open mind. Well, I've been teaching through the book of Colossians on Monday mornings. As I've been doing that, I've been thinking, you know, I've got this context of people from all different countries, different backgrounds. We have Jordanians and Egyptians and Iraqis, sometimes Syrians, and we have foreigners from all over, from Korea, and then of course from North America, from Europe, lots of different people from lots of different backgrounds. And in that context, you're really forced to ask the question, how is this text relevant to the American doctor and to the Iraqi refugee who's left everything because ISIS destroyed his home. And so you really have to wrestle with that. How is this relevant? And of course, the scriptures, it is this remarkable text that God gave that really speaks into any culture, any time, any context, whether you're rich or poor, it has what you need. And it's been great to see that, the way that God does that through Colossians, for mostly Arabs that I'm connecting with as I teach this. And as I begin to think about coming back to America for the summer, I thought, you know, wow, this text is incredibly relevant to the people I'll see this summer. And so that's why I chose to speak from Colossians 2, verses 8 to 15. This text, you know, it really speaks into the Islamicized religion, religious culture of the Middle East. And I say Islamicized because even Christians who are faithful Bible-believing Christians, you know, there's this kind of pressure, this cultural pressure that just shapes how you view the world. But it also really speaks to our American secularized, non-religious culture. I think you know that that also shapes how we view the world, including genuine believers. You know, we are constantly being pressured in how we see the world. And so Colossians here comes in and speaks to both those contexts, lots of other contexts, and it's so timely and timeless because it's focused on Jesus, who he is, and what he has done for us. And so that's why I wanted us to look at Colossians 2 because it is this focus on Jesus as the ultimate reality. I just want to read this verse from chapter one before we begin, because it's just such a glorious text of helping us see who Jesus is. It says in chapter one, he is the image of the invisible God. the firstborn of all creation, for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him. And 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, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent. For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross. So Father, we come now and we give you thanks for your word. We give you thanks for your son, Jesus. And Jesus, we exalt you. You are above all things. You are the first and the last. You are the image of the invisible God. You're the firstborn of all creation, the firstborn from the dead. You are the one through whom all things were created. You are the one for whom all things are created. And of course, that includes us. And so I pray, God, that you would help us to see more clearly in this text from Colossians who Jesus is and what you have done through Christ on our behalf. Spirit, would you please come and open our eyes, teach us from your word so that we will not only know more about Jesus, but we'll actually know him better. I pray in Jesus' name, amen. So, Colossians chapter two, I'll read verses eight to 15. See to it then that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to the elemental spirits of the world, whoops, sorry, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. and you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. So in the city of Colossae at this time, there were people who had a philosophy that was compelling and they were seeking to convince others. And so Paul says, see to it that no one takes you captive to philosophy or to empty deceits. This philosophy was compelling. Paul says earlier that there were actually plausible arguments. So there's something attractive about it. It made sense, it was rational perhaps. And there was something about it that really attracted people. It was a philosophy of life that encompassed all of life. It helped people make sense of life. And honestly, that's what we want, right? We wanna make sense of life and the world we live in. And so we're attracted to things that help us understand our human experience. We get a taste of this philosophy at the end of chapter two when Paul writes in verse 16, therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. And then jumping ahead to verse 20, if with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why as if you were still alive in the world do you submit to regulations, do not handle, do not taste, do not touch? So the philosophy was a philosophy of how to live rightly in the world. What are the things you ought to do? What are the things you ought not to do in order to function well, in order to be accepted by God, in order to be accepted by the community, in order to be accepted by yourself? It was a philosophy of how to live rightly. It focused on all the important details of our life. So there's food and there's drink, the holidays we celebrate, the things that we must avoid, very specific, and in that sense, very helpful. You don't know what to do. We've got a rule for that. It laid out a plan for how to live so that one could simply follow these steps and find God's acceptance and their place in society. It also was helpful because it clearly separated them from other people, because we're the people who do these things and follow these rules, and those are the people who don't do these things, and therefore they're the others. We know the good things to do, so we're the good people. Those people, they do the bad things, so they're the bad people. Now we've got this clearly defined role in society. I'm in this place and they're in that place. We know who we are, we know who they are, we know how to avoid them. Honestly, we like to be told what to do. And we may, in America, in our individual freedoms, object. No, we don't like to be told what to do. We want to be free. I don't think that's actually entirely true. Here's a very simple example of that. You're at work, and your boss wants you to do your work well. Maybe he'll even give you a bonus, or she'll give you a bonus, but never specifies what it is. And so your challenge is, I'm not actually sure what I'm supposed to do. And I don't know if what I, in fact, do will be pleasing and acceptable to my boss. Is this the work that's going to get me the bonus or not? But when your boss comes and she says, do this, this, and this, now it's clear. Ah, yes, I'm actually now free to do what I'm supposed to do, knowing that if I can accomplish this, I'll please my boss and get that bonus. We like this in religion too. We want God to clearly say to us, do this and don't do that and then your life will go well and I'll bless you and bring you good things and you'll live happily ever after. We crave that kind of clarity. Islam does this, or at least it claims to do this. In order to please God and receive mercy, one must confess Muhammad as the messenger or prophet of God, pray five times a day, fast during the month of Ramadan, give alms, make the pilgrimage of Mecca. Of course, there's more, much more, but it's clear, and therefore, people believe it's doable. Now, our own religious culture does the same thing. In order to please God and receive mercy, one must go to church and read your Bible and pray and give and love your neighbor, and then God will be happy with you and He'll save you. And there's more, much more, but it's clear, and therefore people think it's doable. Our secularized and polarized non-religious culture does the same thing. In order to be a good person, acceptable to society, one must vote for this person, support this cause, reject that attitude, hate this person, listen to this news channel, cancel others who think differently than you, etc., etc. and you'll be accepted. Of course there's more, much more, but it's clear and therefore it feels doable. So whether we're Christian or Muslim, religious or secular, liberal or conservative, we do in fact like to be told or we like to know what we ought to do, what we must do, so that we can know we are the good people doing good things and they're the bad people doing bad things. The point is we want to be in control of our lives. We desire that control. And we also want to extend that control over others. Because we naturally believe that if others would just think like I think and just know the things I know and just do the things I know we ought to do, everything will be better. And so we want control in our own lives. We want control over others. And that's what's happening in Colossae. People were using plausible arguments. It made sense to try and control others with this philosophy, which was actually empty deceit. Verse 23, though, says that it has an appearance of wisdom. It looks good. It feels good. It seems right. I want us to see from the text today three remedies or three truths that Paul gives us to keep us free from this philosophy that would want to take us captive. And we also wanna take a little bit of time to think about how does this philosophy actually take us captive and how do these truths keep us free? So here are the three truths that we're gonna look at. One is the person of Jesus. Two is the presence of Jesus in us, and three is the power of God through Jesus for us. So the person of Jesus, the presence of Jesus in us, and the power of God through Jesus for us. We see them all in verses 9, 10, and 11. We'll again look at verse 8. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also You were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. So the three things, the person of Jesus, the presence of Jesus in us, the power of God through Jesus for us, I take those three things right from the text. And those three little words, for, and, and also are the keys to help us see the three different things, the three different truths or remedies to keep us free. One, the person of Jesus. The first truth that guards us is the person of Jesus, who he is. Don't let others take you captive for in Christ the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. Because Jesus is God incarnate, don't let others take you captive. Who Jesus is, in His very person ought to free you. Chapter 1, verse 15, we already read. I'm going to read it again. Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. So Jesus is the image of the invisible God. We can't see God. We don't know what He looks like. But Jesus was flesh and bones. He was seen But more importantly, we see God as the invisible God through Jesus in how he loved, how he lived, how he showed compassion, how he got angry. All the things about Jesus are revealing to us what this invisible God looks like because Jesus is himself God incarnate, the one in whom the whole fullness of deity dwells. Jesus is the image of the invisible God. Now, we think about this image of God language and we know we're created, right? In the image of God. And that's the difference. We are made in God's image. Jesus is God's image. There's no making. There's not in God's image or according to God's image or like God's image. It is, he is God's image and he is the one. through whom, by whom, we can see the invisible God. Now, it is a mystery, admittedly. I cannot explain to you exactly how it is that the infinite God can dwell bodily and be fully God and fully human. It is a mystery of mysteries. But I believe it because the word of God teaches it. And because Jesus himself rose from the dead and confirms all the truth of the scriptures by his life, by his death, by his resurrection. So Jesus was fully man. This fullness of deity dwells bodily. He is man. But it's a fullness of deity. He is God. So the first truth is the person of Jesus, namely God in the flesh, God incarnate. Now, we will look at how that truth is maybe not quite clear. How does that help us not be taken captive? We'll get there, but first let's better understand the other two truths. Truth number two, the presence of Jesus in us. So, the second truth that keeps us free is the presence of Jesus in us. Verse 10, and you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority. So when we read this verse, and we need to connect it to verse nine and the for of verse nine. So it can say, don't be taken captive by philosophy and empty the deceit for you have been filled in Christ. There's power that comes from that to keep us free from captivity. The head of all rule and authority lives in us. When we believed in Jesus, he came and dwelt in us. Dwells now in us. This is what he said in John 14. If anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him. So it's not even that Jesus comes and visits us. comes and lives, makes his home. Jesus is always with us. He'll never leave us, never forsake us. He has chosen gladly to dwell with us and in us. The one in whom dwells the fullness of deity is the same one has taken up his home in us. So the first truth is the person of Jesus, the second truth is the presence of Jesus in us, and the third is the power of God through Jesus for us. So, This power is demonstrated in verses 11 and following, in a circumcision that's made without hands, a baptism that unites us to the death and resurrection of Jesus. It's demonstrated in new life and forgiveness of sins and victory over the rulers who oppose God and his people. So again, we'll read verses 11 and 12. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead." Again, that word also, it's connecting it to verse 10, which is connected to verse 9. Why should we not let others take us captive? because you've been circumcised with a circumcision made without hands. Now, of course, that's not the normal circumcision we think of that is commonly done to baby boys. This is a circumcision that is not physical. It's made without hands. And it's also a circumcision that's needed by every person. So there's boys and girls, men and women. It is the circumcision of the heart that Moses speaks of in Deuteronomy 30. In verse six, Moses writes, And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul that you may live. The circumcision is actually a kind of death because Paul himself had said, it is a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the flesh. When you put off the body of the flesh, you die. And think about it, if you were to literally circumcise your heart, you'd have to open your chest and cut part of your heart off. This symbolizes a death, a death of our flesh. The greatest commandment, Jesus tells us, is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We're not able to do that. We can't. Unless God changes our hearts, circumcises our hearts. Our heart loves what it loves. We cannot, one morning, wake up and just decide to love something new and actually feel that love and attraction for that new thing. For example, the woman who loves to be with people, always with people, always with people, cannot just wake up one morning and say, I'm going to love being by myself now and just live the rest of her life as an introvert. It just doesn't work that way. Or the person who loves laziness. Doesn't just wake up one morning and say, I'm going to love being productive. Now he can do things to be productive, but it'll be a battle in him because that's not what he's naturally inclined towards. Just like we are not naturally inclined towards loving God. He has to actually change us, circumcise our hearts. The circumcision we need is an act of God to remove the heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh. It comes through faith, which is expressed in baptism. Verse 12, having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead. So baptism unites us with Jesus in his death and his resurrection. Think about the physical act of baptism, we're lowered into the water, that's the grave, we're put into the ground, and then we're raised up out of the water, we're raised out of the grave into new life with Jesus. The baptism is done in faith. It is through faith and the powerful working of God. Verse 13 tells us that we were dead in our trespasses and the uncircumcision of our flesh, but God made us alive together with Christ and he forgave us all of our sins. So being united to Christ's death and resurrection through faith is what gives us new life and forgiveness. We're forgiven because, Paul says, that the record of debt against us, with all of its legal demands, has been canceled. Now, every one of us has a record. It's a long record. It's even longer than we know. It's a shameful record. I guarantee there's no one in this room that would want anyone else to know the full record of all the ways he or she has wronged God and wronged others. It's a shameful record. But imagine Jesus as he's being nailed to the cross and the soldiers are nailing Jesus into the cross at the very same time God the Father is nailing the record of every person who will trust in his son Jesus. He's nailing that record of debt into the cross at the same time so that when Jesus died, our record of debt died, was wiped away, was removed. So our sins, we don't cancel our debt by then going and doing good things. We don't cancel our debt at all. God cancels our debt by connecting it, uniting it with Jesus so that Jesus removes it himself, pays for it. He's the one who covers our debt. Our disobedience died with Jesus. and there no longer remains a record. And therefore, there's no longer a reason to be separated from God. The accuser can remind us of our long, shameful record, and Jesus will remind him that that record was nailed to the cross. It's not canceled by suddenly being good and doing good, it's canceled by Jesus dying. You remember the thief on the cross? As he's dying, he's looking at Jesus. Of course, he'd heard about him, he knew about him, and something in the way he's seeing Jesus respond to all this, it could be his prayer, Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing. Lots of things, I'm sure. He sees, he recognizes, wait a second, this guy's not just an innocent man being wrongly killed. He's actually the Messiah. He's the Son of God. And he doesn't say to Jesus, oh Jesus, I see that you're the Messiah now, I've been changed. Will you, in your power and in authority, would you release me from this cross so I can go out and do good things and show you how much I've changed so I can be worthy to be with you in your kingdom? What's he say? He's hanging there, recognizing who he is, and he simply says, remember me when you come into your kingdom. He recognizes, there's nothing I can do to help me here. My only hope is this man. I have nothing else. And Jesus' glorious words to him, truly, truly, today I tell you, you will be with me in paradise. And that's the invitation that Jesus gives to us. He simply says, ask me to remember you. Don't go out, try to make yourself good, try to make yourself worthy of my love. Just ask me, Jesus, will you remember me? Yes, gladly, gladly. I'll take your debt, your record of debt, I'll cancel it. Gladly, just come, come. I'll remember you. The power of God through Jesus for us is the third truth. And this power of God is not only for the forgiveness of our sins, it's also for the victory over our enemies. So you think about verse 15. It says that he disarmed the rulers and authorities. And He put them to open shame by triumphing over them in Him. God has disarmed the rulers and authorities, the elemental spirits of this world that would seek to devour us. He's taken away their weapons, put them to shame. And so through the cross, we experience God's power over shame because we are filled by Christ, who is high and exalted, the head of all rule and authority. We experience God's power over death in the resurrection of Jesus and in our own resurrection, both the resurrected life we experience now today and the resurrection that's coming. We experience God's power over guilt and the forgiveness of our trespasses. We experience God's power over the rulers and authorities, and therefore we know God's power over fear, For Jesus has triumphed over them by his death and resurrection. The power of God through Jesus for us is the third truth that keeps us free. So again, number one, the person of Jesus. Number two, the presence of Jesus in us. And number three, the power of God through Jesus for us. But now we've got to do a little bit of work to think about how does philosophy and empty deceit try to take us captive and how do these three things help us? It's not, to me anyway, obvious how it is that Jesus being God incarnate is going to keep me free from the world's empty philosophy. We've got to think about this. Now, you remember that we said the philosophy that seeks to take us captive is a philosophy of how to live our lives so that we are acceptable to God, if we believe there is one, acceptable to ourselves, acceptable to our community. It's a way of life that tells us what is good and what is not. And it gives us the tools to determine our own goodness. and justify ourselves. Yes, I am in fact good. And it also gives us the tools to separate from us the bad people who are not good. Those who don't think or act or speak or look like us. And so let's think about some examples of how philosophy can try to take us captive and how these truths keep us free. So we are taken captive by philosophy and empty deceit through plausible arguments. When that happens, we lose sight of who we are. we begin to believe that we are the center of our existence. But the first truth, the person of Jesus, that it is in Christ that the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, it keeps us free because it reminds us, no, we're not the center of our existence. Jesus is the center of our existence. He is the head and therefore he is the center, the one to whom we ought to remain fixed. The one through whom we are nourished and knit together, growing with a growth that is from God. When we're taken captive, we lose sight of why we were created. So not only are we the center, but we think that all things were created for us. And therefore we seek our satisfaction in the created world and the things that are around us. It might be good things like family, fulfilling our purpose at work, that's a good thing. It might be bad things like drugs. But anything, whether it's good or bad, when it becomes the thing that we crave, the thing that we live for, the thing that we love, the thing that we become enslaved to for our happiness, it becomes an idol. But when we remember who Jesus is, the person of Jesus, We're reminded that he is the center. We're reminded that through him all things were created and for him all things were created. And therefore we recognize that I actually am made for him and therefore he will in fact be the thing, the one that most fully satisfies me, gives me purpose, gives me joy, gives me contentment. not the created world. When we're taken captive, we become enslaved by our own need to be approved by others. It creates in us to be a need to prove ourselves that I'm good enough. Our worth becomes dependent on what others think of us. So getting canceled actually becomes the ultimate disappointment in our lives. We can struggle with anxiety. Did that thing I post on social media get the kind of comments and likes and views that I was hoping for? Ah, everyone's commenting on his post but not mine. And now my worth is in question. But then we remember the presence of Jesus in us. And I remember that I have been filled in Christ and Christ dwells in me. He's the center and I have his approval. And therefore, I don't need the approval or the likes. That's not what I need anymore. If I'm accepted by Jesus, I don't need to live for the acceptance of others. Now the odd thing is, is when we're taken captive by philosophy, we become the center of our lives, and at the very same time, we make others the center of our lives. So that everyone, you all exist For me, and therefore my interactions with you will depend on how well you treat me. You're kind to me, I'm kind to you. You do something I don't like, then I'm going to respond in a way that you don't like. So I'm the center. And yet, I've got to live for your approval, and so you're the center. It's just this messed up world. But Jesus, the person of Jesus, he who is the image of the invisible God, he who in whom dwells the fullness of deity, and the one who dwells in me, the presence of Jesus in me, it frees me from all of that, and it keeps me free. I don't need to be taken captive by this philosophy of empty deceit. When we're taken captive, we believe that our worth comes from what we do, and that our acceptance from God comes from what we do. And so we believe that I have to be good for God to love me. I feel all the shame and the guilt of this record of debt that I know is huge. And how can I ever possibly be enough for God to love me? Why would He love that? I've got to, but if I can be better, I messed it up today. Tomorrow I'm going to be better. He's going to let me tomorrow. We do it even as believers. How many times do we maybe miss a quiet time? And then later we pray, oh God's not going to answer that prayer because I didn't read the Bible today. I'm going to read extra long tomorrow. Make sure God blesses me. So we think that our acceptance before God comes from what we do. This is the religion of Islam. They literally believe that there is an angel on our shoulders recording our good deeds and our bad deeds, and they're gonna be literally in a scale, hoping that the good deeds will outweigh the bad deeds. And this is also the predominant way most people around us live. Our good deeds, he's a good person, she's good. This is how we think we are to be accepted with God, but, when we remember the power of God through Jesus for us, the one to whom we're connected so that our record of debt is cancelled, having been nailed to the cross, And now I have new life. I've been made alive together with Christ. I recognize that didn't happen because I somehow became good. That happened because God is good, and he's kind, and he's merciful. And I simply said, Jesus, remember me, and he does. And so now I'm free. I don't have to live in the bondage of trying to make God happy with me. I can live as his beloved son. You can be his beloved son or beloved daughter and live in the freedom that God has for you because by Christ you are accepted because of the power of God through Jesus for us. We are taken captive When we become overwhelmed by our shame, fear, and guilt, our faults threaten our identity. But the power of God through Jesus for us reveals that it is not us who will be put to shame, but those who oppose God, those who oppose Jesus, those who oppose us in Christ. Therefore, we're victors, forgiven and whole. When we're taken captive, we rely on our own strength, we rely on ourselves. Honestly, that's exhausting. It's anxiety producing. But when we remember the person of Jesus, the presence of Jesus in us and the power of God through Jesus for us, we're kept free so that we can rest in Christ. For we were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by baptism connected to his death and his resurrection. We've been made whole through the work of another. So whether it's Islam or liberal secularism or the do-good Christianity that predominates our land, any other philosophy, whatever it might be, that is according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ, these truths keep us free? And if you're still in bondage to that philosophy, they'll set you free. Jesus himself will set you free. We are not bound by fear as we try to appease an angry God who's distant and demanding. We're not bound by shame as we feel the rejection of society. We're not bound by guilt as we face with honesty the sins that we've committed. We are freed. because of the person of Jesus, the presence of Jesus in us and the power of God through Jesus for us. And therefore I'm free to love my grumpy neighbor. I'm free to submit to my oppressive boss. I'm free to forgive my spouse. I'm free to be patient with my disobedient child. I'm free to stand for truth. I'm free to comfort the marginalized. Let's pray. Father, I thank you so much for this truth of the gospel, Jesus Christ, who he is, and what you've done for us in him. And my prayer, oh God, that we will not just know about the person of Jesus, but we will know Jesus. Don't let us simply know about the presence of Jesus in us, but let us know and experience in a new and fresh way today, Jesus's presence in us. And don't let us just treat the gospel and all that you did, your power displayed through Jesus for us. Don't let us just think about that as some list of facts, but let us experience that power afresh by your spirit. today, even right now. Father, guard us from the philosophy and empty deceit that would seek to take us captive. Keep us free, oh God. And then I pray that we'd use our freedom to love, to serve, to give, to go, to really love, to love you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love others as we love ourselves. In Jesus' name, amen.