Today on Summit Life with J.D.
Greer. Christ is life. It's not that he gives me life. He is life. Knowing him is fullness.
It's the fullness of God. He's the greatest possession and he sits at the right hand of God and he's going to be the one that shows up. My money is going to be on him because I believe Jesus rules now and I believe eternity is real. And if I got him, I have it all. You have to choose. Welcome to Summit Life with Pastor J.D.
Greer. As always, I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch. And we are so glad that you're back with us today as Pastor J.D. cautions us about treating Jesus like an a la carte menu. We'll see that we can't take Jesus and a little bit of this and a little bit of that.
That's just not how it works. We're continuing our teaching series called First, The Preeminence of Christ in Colossians. And Pastor J.D.
titled this message, Live as if Jesus Rules and Eternity is Real. Colossians two and three is where we're going to be. I told you in our first week in this series that one of the problems that Paul addresses in this letter is his concern that the culture of Colossae, where the Colossian church was, the culture of Colossae had warped the Colossian believers understanding of and approach to God. You see, Colossae was famous, I told you, for its vast array of temples and superstitious practices. It was the virtual golden corral of God options in the first century. You could find temples and religious practices for literally whatever need you were feeling at the moment. If you needed better health, well, they had a God for that. If you wanted fertility or prosperity or protection, there were gods for those things as well. There was even a temple in Colossae to the sewer god.
I've always wondered what worship was like in that temple, but they had it. So the religious custom in Colossae was to assemble whatever package of superstitions and rituals you felt like you needed to fit your needs. Well, the Christians in Colossae understood, of course, that they were not to worship at pagan temples.
They understood that, but that general mentality of religious pluralism had influenced their approach to God as well. So many of them, the Colossian believers, assumed that in addition to faith in Jesus, you also needed other things, other rituals, other practices in order to gain spiritual stability and spiritual power and prosperity. Now, Jesus was, of course, essential to that package. You didn't want to be without him because you needed him for eternal salvation.
He was important. But if you really wanted to thrive in life, if you really wanted to have wisdom and power and prosperity, well, then you needed other things in addition to Jesus as well. Furthermore, a lot of these Colossian Christians had grown up as Jews under the law, and so many of them believed that if you wanted to be really right with God and really in touch with his power, then you had to observe a lot of the old Jewish laws and customs and traditions.
Think of it like this. The Colossians had a Jesus and mentality. They didn't discard Jesus.
On the contrary, look at chapter 2, verse 5. If your Bible is open, Paul says you're very firm in your faith. They did not discard Jesus.
They were firm in their faith. They just thought they needed other stuff in addition to Jesus in order to thrive. Jesus and observance to the law.
Jesus and mystical rituals. Paul's answer in the book of Colossians is a simple and emphatic no. No, Christ is enough. In Christ, he says, you've got the ultimate possession, the fullness of God. In Christ, you have experienced the ultimate love. In Christ, you have overcome the ultimate enemy, sin and death. And in Christ, you now sit at the highest place of authority and power with Christ at the right hand of God, which is the rule of the universe. So, Colossian believers, once you have him, you have it all.
You don't need anything. Jesus plus nothing equals everything. That is the message of Colossians. Paul starts to unpack this idea in chapter 2, verse 8. So let's take a look. Chapter 2, verse 8.
Be careful. Paul says that nobody takes you captive, watch this, through philosophy and empty deceit, based on human tradition, based on the elements of the world rather than on Christ. In other words, the elements of the world are worldly ways of obtaining security and strength and power and salvation.
He's like, don't be taken captive by that. For the entire fullness of God's nature dwells bodily in Christ. You've got the ultimate possession. And you have been filled by him who is himself the head over every ruler and authority. So if you've got Jesus and Jesus is on your side, then why would you possibly need anything else? And then Paul goes on to address both the people who are looking to the law and Jewish customs to gain greater access to God and greater access to blessing and those who are looking to mystical practices.
Watch this. Therefore, don't let anybody judge you in regard to food or drink or in the matter of a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day. These were a shadow of what was to come. The substance is Christ. All the Old Testament, all these things, these laws, customs, and all that, that was all just pointing to Christ. Now he addresses the people that are into mysticism. Let nobody condemn you about delighting in ascetic practices and worship of angels, claiming access to some visionary realm.
No, you don't need that either. His driving point is verse 20. If you died with Christ or the elements of his world when Jesus died, if he demonstrated that there was no other way to gain blessing and favor with God only through his sacrifice, then why do you live as if you still belong to the world?
That doesn't make any sense. Then he starts to his conclusion in chapter three, verse one. If you've been raised with Christ, seek the things above where Christ is. Seated at the right hand of God. In other words, you serve a savior who sits at the ultimate place of power, and he is going to rule there.
So why would you need anything else? Because he's got authority over everything, and he can give whatever it is you need. Verse two, he says, set your minds on things above, not on earthly things below. Don't look down here for solution and salvation.
You stay up there, for you died. You see, and your life is hidden. It's hidden with Christ in God.
No longer should we be looking to earthly things to make life work, right? We got Christ, and Christ is all, and Christ is everything. We now possess the one who is himself, the fullness of God. In him, we have the ultimate treasure. We've experienced the ultimate love. We've experienced the ultimate deliverance. We have the ultimate power.
If you got him, you got it all, right? So everybody say it. The theme of Colossians, Jesus plus nothing equals everything. Based on everybody, I mean everybody more than just the 20% of you that actually did it.
Ready, here we go. Jesus plus nothing equals everything. That's the message of Colossians. Now, the particular issues that the Colossians struggled with and what we struggle with in 21st century America are different, okay? They were really superstitious.
We're only a little stitious, okay? They were superstitious, we're a little stitious. But we typically express a Jesus and mentality by thinking that in order to really make life work, in order to be happy and to be secure, then we also need other things in addition to obedience to Jesus. We don't reject Jesus, of course.
They didn't either, right? I mean, we don't reject him. We are very firm in our faith as well. But just like the Colossians, we think in order to make life work, in order to be significant, in order to be happy, in order to feel secure, we need other things in addition to obedience to Jesus, the chief of which I'm going to show you ends up for most of us being money. To us, Paul would say exactly the same. No, Christ is enough. Once you've got Christ, you've got it all. Just as a Christian doesn't need to have multiple gods, they also don't need to have multiple priorities in life. You got one God and one priority, pleasing him is first. He comes first. And when he is first, guess what?
Everything else falls into place. You see, the Colossians thought of their lives and think of it like buckets. They thought the eternal salvation bucket, that's where Jesus rules over here, okay?
But then we got like security and satisfaction and significance. Well, we need other things for this over here and Paul's answer is no, Christ is the whole bucket. Put him first and he'll take care of everything.
Put him first in everything and he takes care of everything. Now, like I noted, in our day, maybe the primary place that we express a Jesus and mentality is in relation to money. I read a book recently called God and Money. It was written by a couple of Harvard Business School guys who became Christians and when they became Christians, it totally reshaped the way they approached money on a fundamental level. In the book, one of their driving themes is that when it comes to money, people tend to have one of three relationships.
I'm gonna give you their definitions of these relationships and I want you to try to see which one you most closely identify with. Category number one is the spender. The spender, these people, the authors explain, they believe money's greatest value is adding pleasure and enjoyment today. So they spend their money on consumption seeking maximum enjoyment in the moment. Now, these people might save if they're responsible and they've had good training.
They might save a little bit. They might save some for the future but money for them is primarily about pleasure in the moment. Spenders maximize value today. All right, we got any spenders in the house, don't raise your hand yet.
We got a spender, okay, you got some, that's right. All right, opposite of them is what we call the saver. The saver. A saver is somebody by contrast who thinks that money's greatest value is not adding enjoyment today, it is providing security for tomorrow. Thus, these people, savers, will try to limit consumption and they will focus instead on increased wealth accumulation over time.
All right, category number three is the steward. These people see money as only a temporary gift of God to be used for the purposes of God. Now sure, they use some money to provide for their needs, of course, and they even get enjoyment out of those things. And they save responsibly for the future.
But here's the thing, listen, they intentionally limit both consumption and wealth building, focusing instead on giving the most money they can to blessing other people to the kingdom of God. That's a steward. Now, did you figure out which one you most naturally, instinctively are? Well, I'll tell you what, let's take a little quiz to help make it even clearer, okay? I'm gonna give you some questions and you're gonna have three options, A, B, or C, and you've gotta figure out which one most corresponds to you. You can only choose one of the three that I give you.
All right, here we go, question one. Which of these excites you more? All right, letter A, a four-star vacation across Europe. Letter B, maxing out all your retirement accounts for the year. Or C, dinner with your pastor who expresses heartfelt thanks. Which one of those three excites you the most, okay?
Question number two. When you were a kid, what was your tendency with new money you received? Not what did you actually do with it or what did your parents teach you to do, but what was your gut level instinct? Letter A, to buy new toys or spend it on experiences as soon as you got it. Or letter B, to save it in a piggy bank or a savings account. Was that you? Letter C, to spend on or give to others your church or charities.
What was instinctive for you? Question number three. Success looks like letter A, experiencing great food and travel, living comfortably and driving a luxury car.
Is that it? Is that success? Or is it B, retiring at 50? Letter C, extending payoff of your mortgage and foregoing some luxuries in order to sponsor a missionary family. Which one of those is your instinctive kind of like, that's what success is? Question number four.
Your annual bonus is twice as much as you thought it would be. What's your first thought? First thought. Letter A, I'm headed out shopping. I'm going on vacation. B, I'm putting this on the mortgage. C, thank God for this provision.
I can't wait to give a junk of this away. All right, what's your reaction? All right, number five. The spending in my life is, pay attention to this one.
Letter A, effortless. I love it. A spender. This is you, man. You're like, I just love spending money.
Right? Now a saver, they're different. They're gonna be B. Bothersome, I wish I could spend less. Savers have to spend money, but I know a few and they're like, oh, I hate it.
I wish I could live on less. I just wanna, you know, or is it C. Control and I feel good about the way it's managed. Which one of those best? All right, number six. The giving in my life is, letter A, obligatory.
Right? I gotta do it because I feel guilty. Or B, formulaic.
If you're a saver, you're like, you know, it's gotta go on the formula and it's gotta do it because it's what it's supposed to do. Or is it C, joyfully overflowing. All right, how many A's we got in the house?
Raise your hand. Everybody, all campuses. How many A's we got? How many B's? So you're right beside A's, all right?
Put it on your hands. I knew it, I knew it, I knew it, I knew it. Okay?
All right. If you're a C, we don't want to know, okay? Don't brag. Nobody is a C instinctively.
Nobody's a steward. That's something the gospel, and the gospel alone teaches you. Paul says, set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. And what that means, listen, is that means set your mind on things above, not on earthly things means don't look at money as satisfaction like the spender. Don't look at money as security or flexibility like the saver. You look to Christ as both your satisfaction and your security, and then you'll start to see money for what it actually is, and that is a tool given to you by God for you to steward for the purposes of God.
But you'll never get there until you've set your mind on things above. Yes, you will spend some money on your family and you'll even enjoy the use of that money. And yes, you will save for the future. But the point is you will limit both spending and saving because you find your satisfaction and security in Christ, and you see money therefore as a stewardship given to you by God for the purposes of his kingdom. Let me give you a really simple translation of what Paul means when he says in verse two, set your minds on things above and not on earthly things. Here it is, live as if Jesus rules and eternity is real. You need to live as if Jesus rules and eternity is real. Now, church, listen, you know these things, right? I mean, nobody is sitting here going, oh, wait, Jesus rules? I need to write that down, right?
Eternity is real, I thought it was imaginary. Nobody's writing that down. We know these things. The problem is that we are forgetful of them. And forgetfulness of these things, Jesus said, is the primary thing that makes people go awry with money.
He says, you know it, you just forget it. And so Jesus tells a couple of parables that really kind of drive this home. The first one is in Luke 12, where Jesus gets approached by a couple of guys who were in a money dispute, right? A couple of brothers in a money dispute, and Jesus perceives that both of them, their lives are too wrapped up in how much they own. And so Jesus said to them, Luke 12, take care and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. Now, I'm gonna redo this parable that Jesus told in modern terms. If Jesus were living today, this is how I think he probably would have told the same parable. Here we go, is you ready?
The stock options belonging to a manager, vested after a major run-up in share price. And he thought to himself, what shall I do? For I already have enough saved to send my kids to college. My house has paid off and I've already maxed out my 401k every single year.
And he said, I will do this. I will open an investment account and create a passive income portfolio. And I will exercise my options and I will put the money there. And I will say to my soul, soul, you have a big enough portfolio to be financially independent, retire early.
Plan some vacations and plague off. But God said to him, fool, this night your soul is required of you and the portfolio you've built, what use is it gonna be then? So is the one who endlessly builds his net worth and is not rich toward God. In other words, what good is all that money going to do if you enter into eternity and have not done with that money, the things that God gave you that money for? You need to set your mind on things above and not on things of the earth. You need to live as if Jesus rules and eternity is real. The second parable that Jesus told is a really interesting and often confusing one.
So be patient with me here, but it's from Luke 16, four chapters later. I'm gonna retell this one in my own words as well, okay? According to Jesus, there was once an accounts manager for a really rich guy who was given his two week notice. He got fired, okay? And so he starts to panic because he's like, I'm too old to start a new career and I've gotten too used to this posh lifestyle I live, you know, my $5 Starbucks drinks, I cannot go back to Maxwell's, I cannot do that.
So I've got to do something. So according to Jesus, this man has a brilliant idea. This man begins to call up all of his boss's clients who owe him money and he begins to say, hey, the conversation goes like this, hey, how much do you owe my boss? $100,000? I tell you what, why don't you write a check for $25,000 today and I will issue a certificate saying that you've paid the full debt. Now remember, he's only got his two week notice so he hadn't been fired yet so he still got the ability to do this. And he does this with all the boss's clients and every time he says, give me a fraction of what you owe and I'll write you a certificate calling it even and then he says to them, but you just remember, you just remember who took care of you later. Jesus says, what a wise steward.
He used his opportunity that he knew was coming to an end to prepare for the future, to make friends in the new future. This is how you should be with your money in regards to eternity. Now I have two thoughts. Number one, first, what an awesome story. Who else but Jesus could get away with telling it?
I mean, here's a guy who's clearly a crook and Jesus is like, he actually is kind of smart, right? But here's the second thought, did you get the point? The point is, if you know that your time and your current situation is coming to a very quick end, is it not wise to use these precious few moments to prepare for the coming reality, the permanent one? If you know that life is essentially, you've been given your two week notice, is it not wise to use these brief moments you have here to prepare for the coming eternal future, the one that will last forever? In fact, is it not outright foolish to live otherwise? Right, I mean, say that I were staying at a Holiday Inn for two nights and after the first day, I'm like, you know what, this room is just, we're gonna put granite countertops in here and I'm gonna put in a bay window right over here so I can have a better look at the parking lot and we're gonna get a new bed, nicest bed on the market and we're gonna put in a hot tub, right?
Even the manager would be like, hey man, I appreciate all the upgrades, but what are you doing? Right, why would you invest so much in a place that you'll be staying at for so short? What Jesus is saying in Luke 16 is why are you investing so much in these brief moments when eternity is right around the corner?
Set your mind on things above, not on things of the earth. What lasts, what matters? What are you gonna wish you'd done with your money in 100 years? What are you gonna wish you'd done in 10,000 years? You think it's gonna be about the kind of car you drove in this little chapter of time you called life?
You think it's gonna be about the kind of neighborhood you lived in? You should live as if Jesus rules and eternity was real because only one life to live will soon be passed like a vapor, it'll be gone. Only what's done for Christ and eternity, that's the only thing that's gonna last. Only two things in your life right now are eternal. Number one, it is the kingdom of God. Number two, it is the souls of men and women and people around you. The kingdom of God, the souls of men.
If you're wise, you will invest your life there because that is the eternal reality. One of the dumbest statements in our culture, it's so popular and so dumb. YOLO, you only live once.
Really? I mean, I proposed in its place, YALF. You actually live forever, okay? You actually, get your bracelet with YALF on it.
I thought about you only live once and after that a judgment, but that would be YOLO, and that's not nearly as catchy, okay? Right, you actually live forever. Of course you do, you know that. If you know that, why would you waste your life on trivial things in this world?
Why not make your life count for eternity? You ever play Monopoly? You ever play the game of Monopoly? You know when you play Monopoly, you just gotta like, you gotta knock out the rest of the day, right?
I mean, it's like, it's a five or six hour game. You know what happens when you're done, when you're finally over playing your Monopoly game? It doesn't matter what you had, does it? It didn't matter if you had boardwalk and park plays or if you had that cruddy Marvin Gardens and a couple of rail roads, right?
It didn't matter. Because what happens at the end of that game? It all goes back in the box, right?
It just goes back in the box. I got a revelation for many of you. This thing called life might feel as long as a Monopoly game, but it all goes back in the box at the end. Paul says to the Colossians, you got a choice to make. You can live as if Jesus rules and eternity is real, or you can live as if you are self-sufficient to save yourself and that you're gonna live forever.
There's clearly a wiser choice, he said. Paul said, my money's on Jesus. In fact, you can see that in verse four.
See what he says? When Christ, who is your life, appears and you will appear with him in glory, Christ is life. It's not that he gives me life. He is life. Knowing him is fullness.
It's the fullness of God. He's the greatest possession. And he sits at the right hand of God and he's gonna be the one that shows up at the final day in glory. And so my money is gonna be on him because I believe Jesus rules now and I believe eternity is real. And if I got him, I have it all. You, you have to choose.
You gotta choose. Faith is living as if Jesus rules and eternity is real. You gotta stop living in this world where two buckets where you got like Jesus in one foot and your other foot over here as if money is one thing and Jesus is another thing. He is the whole bucket. My friend, Joby Martin, who's preached here several times, he's just a person trying to trust in God and money. He's like a person who's standing on a boat with one foot on the dock. And you gotta make a decision really soon here because as that boat starts to drift away, they're like, ah, you know, and you're like, there's gonna be two of you and that's not the kind of multiplication that we're talking about.
So we don't want this. You got to choose in your life if Jesus is first and if he is your treasure and trust or if this over here is because where you are right now is just kind of rip you apart. You looked at Jesus for eternal salvation. You can also look to him for happiness in life. You can look to him for security. If you took care of your eternal debt, then he can take care of your temporary happiness. Why would he do the former if he was not capable and willing to do the latter?
You gotta choose and you gotta keep choosing, by the way. That word set in verse two is a word in Greek, froneo, that means continuous action. Or it's from the root word froneo. It means you just do it over and over and over and over again. It means you get up today and do it because so quickly are you gonna take your transfer off of Jesus and put it onto money. You gotta look forward into eternity and see who rules there. There, I promise you, your life will not be determined by the kind of stock portfolio you amassed.
Whether you're Jersey hung in the rafters, so to speak, or whether you own a second home or retired at 50 years old, it's gonna be determined by one thing. Only one life to live will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. You're listening to Summit Life, the Bible teaching ministry of pastor, author, and theologian J.D.
Greer. If you missed any part of today's message, you can hear the complete sermon online at jdgreer.com. All right, J.D., we're in the last few days of our latest resource meant to help us to remain steadfast in our time with God no matter what is going on in our lives. And it's called Smoke from a Fire.
That's right, Molly. We have created a 10-day workbook to guide your time in reading scripture. It's different because it allows you to reflect and pray more independently through whatever difficult emotions you may be feeling.
And we all go through a range of emotions every day. Every day in this study is gonna give you a short passage of scripture to read and reflect on. And then it's gonna give you some space and some prompts to process what you're reading and what's going on inside you.
I think it'll really help you get in touch with what's going on inside you because that's the place that Jesus wants to rule. You can get yours today, as always, at jdgreer.com. I think it'll be a big help to you. As for the Smoke from a Fire 10-day devotional and scripture guide, when you donate today to support this ministry, give us a call right now, 866-335-5220. Or you can donate and request this study online at jdgreer.com. I'm Molly Vidovitch, inviting you to join us again tomorrow as we continue this teaching series with the message titled First in Everything. That's Tuesday on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program is produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries.
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