Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Good morning, church. It's great to be back.
[00:00:08] I had a lovely time away. I hope you all did with your family as well. But I'm glad to be back here in Newt Nabur. I was down here in Plymouth with my family who were at the back. You might have seen the little boy who was taking some photos, my fiance and her family as well. It was a very nice time. I hope you had a good time as well. I, but it's good to be back. I think I've missed you guys. For those who don't know me, my name is Ruben. I'm the young adults pastor here, part of the team with Feline Esther. And this is a one off. This isn't part of the series. I'm just going to tidy this up, otherwise I'll fall over and that will be quite embarrassing.
[00:00:39] And as I was kind of praying into it, it's quite interesting as you're like enjoying Christmas. And I was also aware I was preaching on Sunday and I was like, God, can you give me some hints? Because sometimes when you're preaching it's like, oh, there's something really clear. Sometimes it's like, God, can you speak up a little bit? Maybe my ears are blocked.
[00:00:56] But as I was kind of thinking into these New Year's resolutions, it's quite a classic, I think, for New Year's Eve. Has anyone here got New Year's resolutions?
[00:01:03] No? Okay, well, that's brilliant because I'm going to give you some. It's not the ones on this screen. There's some other ones later. But this whole idea of new Year, new me, you see it plastered all over Instagram, all over social media.
[00:01:17] It's a really great thing. Maybe here's some ideas for you. Maybe there's got some better ones later. It's to invest more money. It's to start a journal, to write down your thoughts, to learn a new skill, to be more confident. Maybe it's something in your personality you want to grow in. But as I was kind of praying for what God was asking me to bring today, I got drawn to Mark, chapter twelve and verse 17 as a specific. But I'm going to read the kind of, the context around this verse and then we're going to jump through to Colossians as well. This is where we're going to be today. If you want to follow along in your bibles, I'm going to read it out. This is from the ESV version.
[00:01:53] And in Mark, chapter twelve, verse 13, it says this. And they sent him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians to trap him in his talk. It's talking about Jesus. And they came and they said to him, teacher, we know that you are true, and you do not care about anyone's opinion. For you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God. They flatter him and it says, is it lawful? This is the trap here. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay them or should we not? But knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, why do you put me to the test? Bring me a Daenerys and let me look at it. And they bought him one. And he said this to them, whose likeness and inscription is this? They said to him, caesar's. Jesus said back to them, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the thing that are God's. And they marveled at his answer.
[00:02:50] So, one interesting thing, and as I was kind of praying, I was like, okay, God, that, like, great. Where are we going to kind of go from this? And this would have been quite interesting at the time. So the Pharisees and all the religious people, they'd have been waiting for this messiah. And the Messiah wouldn't have necessarily came like a baby, though, like what we remembered it. They were expecting more of, like, the revelation Messiah, like, massive tattoos, like, sword, like, from the mouth on the horse, like all this kind of stuff. They were expecting someone to set them free from the Romans. And what was Caesar doing at the time? He was putting them these really unfair taxes. And I haven't quite got to this adulting stage yet. Maybe some of your mortgages are going up, and you're seeing the percentages that you were used to be paying, and now you are like, this. Isn't that fair? The jewish people were experiencing a lot worse than that. They were having to pay so much of what they earned. And if they didn't pay it on time, there'll be roman soldiers coming to their house and knocking on the door. So this was the Pharisees here, going, hey, these jewish people we're at war against, we're oppressed by these Romans. What does Jesus have to say about the oppression that we're in? So let's trap him. Let's get him in this question. Let's say, what do we have to do about our taxes? These things that are unfair, like, Jesus, are you going to tell us, like, they're so unfair? Like, only pay a little bit, pay what you can, maybe fight against them, maybe this is part of that rebellion you're wanting to cause, this freedom you're wanting to bring. And actually, it was something so opposite that he was saying. He said, give me that coin and let's look whose inscriptions on this. It's Caesar's face will give him back what is his.
[00:04:27] And it was almost this countercontral thing. They were marveled at his answer.
[00:04:32] So maybe a really direct thing you could take from this passage is like, pay your taxes if you're feeling some oppression, if you're feeling overburdened, overwhelmed, actually, what's Jesus'response? It's not necessarily a rebellion against it, but it's a shift of focus.
[00:04:49] There's responses right now, you're looking at what is on this earth and all of this will burn away, that it won't last. So shift your perspective. Yes. Look at what is Caesars and give it back to him, because that doesn't matter. That doesn't affect your life, but give to God what belongs to God.
[00:05:13] So, church, as we read this, coming into 2024, like a practical one. Yes. Pay your taxes, pay your bills, do those things don't necessarily grumble and complain about some different loads that you might be carrying. But on this next slide, the real focus, I think I want to say, is to give back to the world what is from the world and give back to God what belongs to God. And maybe not all of you in here, as you said, no one's really got these New Year's resolutions, but it tends to be a theme around this time of year of how do I want to better myself.
[00:05:46] I think one thing I try to live by is every six months, I want to be more of the person that Jesus wants me to be as a young leader, as just a young person, excited and zealous about the faith. I'm so excited to grow, to learn. It's great to be under Phil and Esther. They've really given me opportunity to do that, to be 20 and a pastor and helping steward this church in a heart for Newton Abbot.
[00:06:11] And every six months, I don't want my trajectory to stop. I don't want to look back six months ago and say, I was closer to God then than I am now. And this is maybe just the thing, as we have this time of year and some conversations might come up, what does it look like to shape your 2024, to be closer to God than you have been before?
[00:06:31] These burdens and these pressures that you might be feeling to give them back to the world because they're not yours? To hold.
[00:06:38] But actually, as you might hear, by the end of this, we end up with this not holding a lot that we give back to the world, the things of the world, but we give back to God the things that he has given to us. One of the dna, you might see it at the back, the blue booklets, and read through it as well. It tells you a bit about the culture of us as a church. And one of the things on there is we are stewards, we are not owners, that we believe everything is a gift from God to us. This isn't Phil's church, Esther's church, our church. This is God's church. These aren't his equipment. All of this is for him. And he's given us the permission to steward it and he can take it back whenever he wants. So as I give you these focuses as we read through in Colossians, in a minute, maybe some of the things that God has given us and some of the things that the world has given us. I want you and we're going to go in some prayer after. That's kind of why we did the offering before, is so that we can have this time to really surrender these burdens we might be feeling. To give back to the world what is the world, but to give back to God what he has given us.
[00:07:44] So if you want to turn with me to Colossians, chapter two. It's quite a small book. I actually googled the pronunciation. It's the church of Colossi, which is quite good. So hopefully I'll get that right.
[00:07:57] There we go here. And I'm going to read from chapter two again. This is the ESV, if you're following on, and it seems a bit different, and it's verses 16 to 15, and it says this, therefore, as you receive Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition and according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ.
[00:08:32] For in him the whole fullness of deity, the Godhead dwells bodily and you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority. In him you are also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you are also raised to life through faith in the powerful working of God. Who raised him, Jesus from the dead. And you who were once dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God has made alive together with him having forgiven us all of our trespasses by canceling the record of debts that stood against us with 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, in Jesus.
[00:09:31] So this is Paul talking to the church in Colossae and he's saying that now you have received Christ, now you know Jesus. And this is such a common thing in all of the letters in most of the New Testament. Now you know the good news. What does your life look like? And as I was kind of praying and I didn't make these connections, it wasn't like as soon as I read the mark verse I was like, I know just the passage, I was kind of praying, I felt God and it didn't make sense to me at first until I started looking through it. But if we can get to that first slide, please Jacob. These are the things that I feel like God might be saying give back to the world. These things that are articulated in these passages, particularly verse eight that it's talking about the things that we might have been caught up in and some of you who might have studied psychology or known any of those kind of things, been involved in some of those conversations. There's this whole nature nurture kind of debate. What is part of a human that is just from their dna and what is learnt behavior. I think a lot of this maybe is talking about a human traditional side and then this spiritual side which might be quite interesting for some of you here.
[00:10:37] But the first thing that I think God is asking us is to take and give back to the world is this philosophy and empty deceit, this misrepresentation of the truth. In Colossi here it was the big problem that they'd heard the church, they'd built the church, they'd established the church, but people were coming in and they were giving these misrepresentations of the truth. There was different people telling you what it really means to be a Christian, that maybe through faith actually you still have to follow the law, maybe there's this thing about circumcision that's mentioned that people are still making them have to go through those rituals that they don't have to anymore because they've been fulfilled spiritually. So this warning was what's coming into your ears? What's guiding your life and this philosophy in empty seat. It's saying that maybe it comes from human tradition.
[00:11:31] I think one of the best piece of advice I received as quite a young guy, and it said to me regularly is, be careful who you're around.
[00:11:39] I think in so many conversations they've said, show me your closest friends, I'll show you who you'll be in five years time.
[00:11:46] So for me, when I actually became a Christian, I was caught up in drugs, alcohol, girls, parties, all those things that the world told me that I love my family here, but we were kind of growing up just amongst ourselves, this orphan generation that's rising up with no input necessarily, but maybe as a close to that, that we look at our friends and we say, well, this is what the people that are showing us is how we live our lives, so let's just do it and let's work out the consequences later. And when I went sober from drugs, so I did basically most drugs that you can name, really. I won't go into details of little ears, but when I decided I'm going to go all in with God, one of the first things I had to change, I actually relapsed. I did six months sober, and then six months later I relapsed. And then now it's been over three years, I think, since I've last touched drugs or alcohol. But one of the biggest things that had to change and the biggest thing that led me back to my old ways, proverbs says, like a dog to its own vomit, I keep going back. That's us with our sin.
[00:12:48] That actually was the surroundings around us. Who is inputting into your life? Maybe you've raised in a christian family. Please embrace those traditions. I don't know what your Christmas looks like, whether it was fun, laughter, games and gifts. Maybe it was prayer and a real focus on the nativity, a thanks being to God, humbling himself, coming as a baby.
[00:13:11] Whatever those human traditions are, if they're from the world, I think God might be inviting us to give them back to the world, to hand over and surrender that influence.
[00:13:21] And this second thing here, this thing that might be influencing us, is this. Elemental spirits of the world, the things of the world.
[00:13:30] And for some of you here, you might agree with this theology, but our practicality might look quite different. Esther and Phil and I haven't chatted so much after we've been back for Christmas, so I'm really excited about this call to prayer. It's things that I know God's been working in me for a long time as well.
[00:13:46] But in ephesians two, this is kind of my evidence here for you. It says, as for you, again, a really similar passage to this. As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and your sin, in which you previously walked according to the ways of the world, according to the ruler and the power of the heir, the spirit, now working in the disobedient.
[00:14:06] And when we look out at Newton Abbot, when we look out at the southwest, we see the 96% that we're here for those that don't go to church, this is the spirit that's working.
[00:14:19] And maybe for you, like you've grown up in that christian faith, but I think there's influence in our tv, in our media, in this call to prayer, there'll be a call to purity.
[00:14:29] I think there's been things God has asked me to sacrifice that I've never thought were a problem until I gave it up.
[00:14:37] And then after I see the freedom and I look back and I go back and I go, wow, the desensitized nature. I have to these things to protect my eyes and not want to look upon those things.
[00:14:49] That if we really believe what the Bible is saying, it's saying there's a spiritual battle. I can't remember where it is, but it's a well known verse. Well, these battles are not against flesh and blood, but spirits and principalities.
[00:15:01] So maybe it's the human tradition that looks quite obvious in our lives, the things that we do, the regularity with us, but actually, in theory, might agree. But do we really think that we're being influenced by the spirit?
[00:15:16] Things that are controlling and manipulating this earth? What does it look like to analyze your life to see and pray? What is of God? This was the big thing here. You're being influenced by human tradition. You're being influenced by the elemental spirit, not according to Christ.
[00:15:36] So as we look at this, and these are the things maybe I want to encourage you to put down. Be prayerful in this, please. What are the things, according to Christ that you replace?
[00:15:47] And then finally, in verse eleven. Sorry, Jacob, one more. There we go. Finally, in verse eleven, it's putting off the body of flesh. It talks about this circumcision. Again, I won't go into details about that, but it's cutting off the flesh. It's being fully set apart. A promise and a call that Abraham was given to show that he was physically set apart and his descendants were set apart for Christ. What does that look like in the. Nowadays? This was one of the arguments that they were having. You don't have to be circumcised. Good news for us guys in here, I think.
[00:16:20] But actually, what this circumcision looks like is a spiritual thing. It's actually, if you look at me now, the flesh that was once gone was my old life that we can say stories like this of. Now look who I am, and I look more like Christ.
[00:16:36] So these are the things that I want to encourage you to give back to the world. Now we'll go into those things that maybe we need to give back to God. And if you thought those things were maybe a little bit harsh, it actually seems a bit harsher here.
[00:16:51] This talks about our freedom and our life, that as we look at verse, chapter, verse twelve and 13, it's saying about your life that God made you alive together with him, that you were buried with him in baptism, that you were raised with him through faith in God. And God made you alive together with him having forgiven all of our sins.
[00:17:14] What does it look like to be stewards, not owners?
[00:17:19] I think the more as I made decisions in my life, the more I try grasp onto things in my control, I realize how little control I have. The more I try control my life, the more I try guide my life.
[00:17:32] I'm 21 and unnaive, and there's a good God that's panned out before me. And when I listen to him normally, it works out a lot better. And when I listen to myself normally, I end up regretting it, that your life is not your own. So it was bought with a price. We studied this in corinthians. It says that whether you were free or a slave, if you were a slave, you've been bought by a price. You are now free in Christ.
[00:17:58] But if you were free, your life has been bought with a price. You are now a slave to Christ.
[00:18:06] I'm sorry, church. If you've come here for the happy clappy Christianity, we've got it. We've got the claps in abundance, as you saw this morning. But we believe here that our lives are not our own.
[00:18:18] So it was bought with a price by Jesus on the cross. This is what we remembered with communion.
[00:18:23] So this life is not our own, and we only have to give it back to him.
[00:18:28] And this way is good.
[00:18:31] It's not easy, but it's good.
[00:18:34] And maybe a 21 year old saying, it's worth it. I haven't experienced a lot of life, but I think if you ask most people in this room, they'd say the same thing. When they gave their life to Christ when they walk in obedience with him. It is good.
[00:18:50] It's definitely not easy, but it is good. Your debt, now, this is a freedom in abundance.
[00:19:00] What does verse 14 say? It says, as you've been forgiven all of our trespasses. This is what Jesus did by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
[00:19:16] Maybe you look back at this last year and see a lot of past mistakes, a lot of guilt, a lot of shame, a lot of burden, and you're seeing some of the consequences from it.
[00:19:28] Maybe here it's talking about the debt that you have, the legal demands that through your sin, through your mistakes, you've accepted these consequences. I want to tell you, what God is asking us to give back is our debt, our sin and our shame. This is what we remember when we take communion, that your burdens and your guilt. Maybe you're one of those people that beat yourself up all the time. I constantly am making mistakes. I'm constantly doing the wrong things. That is not yours to hold.
[00:20:03] We believe in a good judge, the righteous judge, who will come, and he'll judge humanity for all of their things. And trust me, you won't be grateful when he gives you the account.
[00:20:12] But the thing you'll be grateful for is when he points at Jesus, he says, that's taken it all. My son I sent down is the lamb that was slain. That sin is blotted out. It says here it is pinned to the cross. It is no longer on your record, but on Jesus, the perfect lamb.
[00:20:29] So, church this morning, the burden you might be feeling, the weight, the guilt, the shame that you might be feeling. I'm telling you, it's not yours to carry. There's a good guard that cancels the record of debt sent against you, that you have no authority to judge each other or yourself. Allow him to a good God who is way too kind to us, and finally, your freedom. It says here in verse 15, he disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them. In him.
[00:21:10] We look at maybe this life, I don't think we've got quite a Caesar figure in the UK.
[00:21:15] This oppression, this burden that they were feeling, this stress and worry about money and their family having to work so much just to provide a little bit, to give it all to Rome.
[00:21:28] These rulers and these authorities in your life, our government and these things, what does it mean for a God to disarm them all?
[00:21:38] What power is it that it shames them by triumphing over them? And it looked like this.
[00:21:45] It looked like death on a cross that said, you've had your last laugh.
[00:21:51] This was the triumph. This was our freedom. This messiah that they were waiting for, this God to set them free from burden and captivity. It wasn't just from the Romans. In fact, it didn't really look a lot like the Romans. The Christians in the early church got turned into human candles.
[00:22:13] There were play toys for the Romans in their torture in the coliseums. It was the Christians that would fight the animals that they'd probably lose against what Messiah gave that as freedom. But us, with our human perspective, our closed, close vision, even when we think, we think far off, we look at our problems now. We don't look at eternity.
[00:22:39] If you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and you believe that this debt is cancelled against you, I promise you, one day you will pass and you'll see God face to face, and you won't be upset that you gave away your life for him, because he is so good and we can't think eternally.
[00:23:01] None of us in our human minds have that capability.
[00:23:05] But this is what we live for. With a God who disarmed the rulers and the authorities on this earth. And right now, it still might look like war, it still might look like oppression, and it's probably going to get a bit worse.
[00:23:23] But we have trust, and we have faith in a God that has overcome it all. That's why we sing. That's why we dance. That's why we clap. It's why we do praise waves, because God is so good and we trust in him. And in conclusion, now, and, Matt, I'd love to invite you up, and we're just going to spend some time in response, as we look at this, as Jesus responds to the oppression in our lives, the heavy burdens given by man to give back to Caesar the world what is the world's, and give back to God what is God's. To shift our perspective this year for anything that we let into our lives, understand where it came from and how it got there, and let's put it in the right places. As I said, you might not be ending up with a lot.
[00:24:17] You can give back the burdens to the world, but give to God the good things and entrust him with your life this year. The philosophy and empty deceit, this false truth that may be caused from the human tradition and the spirits of the world, the things at work in this world, let us put that back, say you have no hold on me anymore. It is the Bible. It is Christ that directs my life. It's not the influence from this world, this body of flesh, our own desires, this selfishness. As I've said before, I've recently got engaged and even just planning a wedding and deciding loads of different things about what life might look like. Together with my fiance, I realized the selfishness that I hold, that it's, yeah, we'll do what you say as long as it aligns up with my preference.
[00:25:04] And as we go through this sanctification process that the Bible talks about, it's every day understanding a bit more of your body flesh and then surrendering it back up, pinning it to the cross. And what do we give back to God?
[00:25:19] Your life that is not your own. You were bought with a price, and it cost a lot.
[00:25:26] Your debts, these burdens that you might carry, these things that you might be holding, give them to God because he is just and he is right.
[00:25:36] And trust me, you'll feel his love, his grace, his presence, his smile gleaming upon you. Because you're his sons and his daughters. He loves you dearly.
[00:25:46] And your freedom. That we're under the king of kings, the one who has overthrown all authorities, that our lives are not our own in 2024. I promise you, I've staked my life on it. I'm living proof of the confidence I have in these things.
[00:26:08] That if you give your life and your freedom and your debt to God, that you will have the best year of your life.
[00:26:17] Every day you make that decision, every hour you make that decision. I've staked my life on it.
[00:26:24] And church, I think God's asking us to do the same.
[00:26:29] So I'm going to pray. Matt's going to lead us in maybe one or two songs. And there's no agenda, there's no focus. There'll be lyrics on the screen. You can sing them along if you want. Prayer, there's people who ask your neighbors, we've prayed for each other today. Ask Phil, Esther, myself, whatever you want.
[00:26:46] But maybe as we look at these things in our life and we carry what is God's and we give it back to him into 2024. And the things and the influence of this world we put down and say, they're not coming with me from this day, they stop here.
[00:27:04] So, Lord, help us.
[00:27:07] Help us to analyze our lives. Holy spirit, give us your insight, show us the things that are not of you in our life.
[00:27:17] And Lord, we repent. It's the first step, Lord, we're so sorry we've let our human tradition and the ways of this world any spirits in this world that are influencing us so obviously or so subtly Lord we're so sorry we don't want to go that way anymore Lord these selfish desires in us are emotions that send us away from you this flesh, this natural desire Lord take it away let it be a mark that we are set apart for you by we do not listen to those lies anymore that we only listen to you and God we thank you Jesus we thank you Jesus for your sacrifice that we are raised with you that we are alive in you God and we give you our burden, our sin and our shame and we trust that you are good we know exactly where it's going and it was pinned on the cross Lord, take our debt and have our freedom King Lord Jesus, king of kings we honor you we worship you holy spirit help us it to follow the ways of you amen.
