Set Free from Spiritual Slavery

Well, there is a letter that's 150 years old. Speaking of American history, that's been making something of a splash on the internet this year, and making kind of a minor internet celebrity of its author more than 100 years after his death. Here's the context. In August of 1865, someone named Colonel P.H. Anderson of Big Spring, Tennessee wrote to his former slave, a man named Jordan Anderson, and requested that he come back to work on the farm.

So do you understand what's happening here? Colonel P.H. Anderson of Big Spring, Tennessee is asking one of his former slaves to come back and work on this plantation where he had been held captive with his wife and his children. Now, what would Jordan respond? Jordan, who since being emancipated, had moved to Ohio, found good work, and was by now supporting his family, responded spectacularly by way of this letter, which is in a brand new book called "Letters of Note."

I'm just going to read you part of this ex-slave's response to his master, dated August 7th, 1865. "To my old master, 'Sir, I got your letter and was glad to find out that you had not forgotten me, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again. I have often worried about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this for harboring rebels, and although you shot at me twice before I left, I didn't want to hear of your being hurt. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again and to see your family. Please give my love to Henry and all the children.

I would have gone back to see you all when I was working nearby at the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got the chance. Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you were disposed to treat us kindly, and we concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. I served you faithfully for 32 years and Mandy 20 years at $25 a month for me, which is my current wage, and $2 a week for Mandy. Our earnings would amount to $11,680. Please add to this the interest for the time our wages were kept back and deduct what you paid for our clothing and three doctor's visits over the 25 years I was there, and the balance will show that we are entitled to this much money. Please send the money by express in care of V. Winters Esquire, Dayton, Ohio. If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past, we can have little faith in your promises in the future. Also, please tell me if there are schools there that my children can attend. My greatest desire is for them to grow in knowledge. Oh, and say howdy to George Carter and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me from your old servant Jordan Anderson.'

Isn't that great? I love that. But let me ask you a question. Has anyone ever received an invitation from their old slave master to go back to life on the plantation and taken it eagerly? It happens all the time to Christians. Let's talk about it today. Grab your message notes that look like this as we continue our series in the book of Colossians in the Bible called Set Free. And we call it this because the hallmark of a Christian should be freedom.

Finish some of these Bible verses for me. In his first sermon, Jesus said, "I have come to set the prisoners free." That's right. Shout it out if you know the answer. He said later, "The truth will set you free." The Bible says, "If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." The Bible says, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." Galatians 5:1 says, "It is for freedom Christ has set us what? Free." But have you noticed? So many Christians are so far from being free. They live in spiritual slavery.

Why is that? Why is it that some people start out so fresh and so full of vitality, but after a while they lose their joy and they look like captives again? Why is that? It's because they allow their old masters to lure them back to the old slavery system. And that is what the second chapter of the book of Colossians is all about. As Paul says in the key verse of this chapter, Colossians 2:8, "See to it that no one takes you captive." And it's an interesting Greek word that he uses there. It's used in other Greek writing to speak of kidnapping or robbery. He's saying, "Don't let anybody kidnap you. Don't let them rob you of your precious freedom in Christ with their false teaching that will lead you back into spiritual slavery."

And the Colossians really needed to hear this quick review of Colossians so far. If you've been with us on this series, you know that the Colossians lived in an area of the world that was the birthplace for all sorts of what you could call mystery religions. They were led by, you could call them in today's terms, spiritual gurus who taught the Colossian Christians that they had special connections to angelic spirits. They called these spirits eons. And through layer upon layer of eon communicating to eon and then down to the ascendedness of the gurus that would teach the Colossians, they would have an understanding of God's will.

Really, it all amounted to the idea of salvation by works. The belief system of the Colossians emphasized that the key to enlightenment or salvation was to learn more, learn more occultic mystery secrets that these teachers would tell them about, do more, more religious rituals that they would be instructed in, experience more, more mystical experiences like how to commune with your eon, your angelic spirit guide and give up more. Give up doing this, give up doing that because the stricter your diet, the stricter your life, that meant you were more and more spiritual. In fact, you could say that their key word was more. Jesus is fine, but you need more.

We talked about this, you could call their belief system Christ plus because they exchanged the cross sign for a plus sign. The cross had changed into a plus and this creates spiritual slavery because you're never sure you've done enough. Have I given up enough? Have I experienced enough? Have I done enough? Have I learned enough? And in response, Paul reminds them that Jesus is enough all by himself. And you and I need to hear this because this belief system that the Colossians had in their region of the world has never really died. It started long before Christianity came to Colossae.

In that region of the world known as Phrygia, people had long believed in all of these occult mysteries, the ancient temples of Apollo and Hades were located in that part of the world. And what the Colossian Christians did was they imported this idea that you had to somehow work hard to earn the favor of the gods into their Christianity. And not only did it not die when Christianity came to the town of Colossae, it still is alive. That whole way of thinking still prowls around. Today, today that old slave master is still trying to woo Christians back, trying to woo you and me back into spiritual slavery, it prowls the aisles of the auditorium and of Munsky Hall.

It walks up and down the sidewalks of your neighborhood. It slithers into your house trying to plunder your spiritual freedom today. So there are four religious freedom killers that haunt the church in every age that Paul warns about in Colossians chapter 2. And you need to know these or they could steal your freedom too so easily. If you have your Bibles, crack it open to Colossians chapter 2. That's on page 834 and those brown TLC Bibles that you have in front of you because I'd like you to look at the words of the Bible as we explore this fascinating chapter.

And Paul talks about these four freedom killers that you and I need to really be on the lookout for. You got that? All right, the first freedom killer is this. Christ plus extra human teaching. Christ plus extra human teaching. Teaching based on human ideas, not biblical ideas. In chapter 2 verse 8 Paul says, "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ."

Now a couple of things I want to point out here. Excuse me. The word philosophy in the days that Paul was writing, this word referred to any system of teaching, religious or not. So Paul is warning them against hollow and deceptive systems of teaching based on two inadequate sources of authority. What were the two things he talks about here? The first was human tradition and the second is the basic principles of this world. This is a fascinating phrase that Paul goes back to repeatedly in Colossians. So you really have to understand what does he mean by this?

Well the basic principles of this world, if you think about it, are all based on cause and effect. They're all based on performance. If you do something, you get this result. And this permeates every area of this world. You are judged by your performance in practically every area of the world, right? Sports, work, school. It's the American work ethic. It's all based on effort, sweat, hard work. If you put in hard work, you expect to get this result. And if you don't put in hard work, you will not get this result. It is so ingrained in us. In fact, finish these sentences. There's no such thing as a free that's right. If you want something done right, do it yourself. No pain, no gain. Absolutely.

Those are the basic principles of this world, cause and effect. So when it comes to spiritual matters, many people assume that God relates to us, follow me here, on the same performance-based ethic as the world. For example, finish this one. God helps those who, you know, that's not in the Bible. Did you know that? In fact, the Bible teaches the opposite. That God helps all of us because we cannot help ourselves. Now, the Colossian teachers were teaching, "God helps those who help themselves, and you help yourself more than you get more help from God." And that is what many Christian teachers teach today.

And what happens is slowly, because you're listening to hollow and deceptive teaching based on human tradition and the basic principle of this world, which is work, salvation, what happens is slowly you start to feel like you have to earn God's approval. You have to deserve God's love you have to work your way to heaven by doing good or trying to be perfect. But that is all based on the basic principles of this world. That's not the basic principle of heaven. The basic principle of heaven is grace. God always operates by grace.

What God gives you, He gives you not because you deserve it. Jesus said it. He said, "Hey, the rain falls on the just and the unjust." You didn't deserve to be born. You just were, right? You didn't earn your birth. And you don't deserve to be born again. God just gives it to you by His grace. Salvation isn't a matter of trying but trusting. It's not a matter of proving you deserve it but accepting it by faith because you don't deserve it. But it is so easy to fall back into viewing heaven as if it operates by the basic principle of this world, which is salvation by works.

In fact, have this filter on whenever you walk into a Christian bookstore or whenever you turn on the Christian radio station or watch Christian TV or you're sitting in a church like you are right now listening to teaching and ask yourself, "Is what I am hearing based on the basic principles of this world which is performed? Work hard to earn it, to get higher, to achieve enlightenment. I got some more secrets for you that'll help you work harder." Or, "Is it based on the basic principle of heaven which is grace?" And you will be surprised at how much stuff that there is out there passing for Christian teaching that really is based on the basic principles of this world. It was happening here in the first century and it happens now 20 centuries later.

This is why we have to keep warning ourselves from Scripture against this. So what's the solution? It's to remember I have all I need in Christ. Paul says, "Hey, Jesus is where it's all at, Colossians 2:9-10, for in Christ all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form. And you have been given fullness in Christ who is the head over every power and authority." Now, before you turn your pages, I want you to circle the word fullness. Did you notice how many times he uses that word? He's saying, "You don't need Christ plus. You have been given fullness in Christ." In other words, in Christ there are infinite mysteries, infinite knowledge.

You can think about Jesus and what he has done for you for all eternity and never reach the bottom of it. The most famous brilliant theologian of the 20th century, Carl Bart, visited the University of Chicago one time and he did a brilliant lecture on some esoteric topic of theology and he had a question and answer session afterwards and a student there at the university stood up and asked him, "Dr. Bart, what is the single most profound theological truth that you have encountered in your studies?" And without hesitation Bart replied, "Jesus loves me. This I know for the Bible tells me so. True story." And I agree, so keep it simple, saints. Stay focused on Jesus Christ.

So the first freedom killer is Christ plus this heavy emphasis on extra human teachings that are based on the basic principles of the world. And then the second freedom killer is Christ plus legalism. Christ plus legalism. Now we talk about this a lot. What is legalism? Legalism always follows that first freedom killer. Teachings based on the basic principles of this world. Legalism is adding extra rules to Christianity and then judging people based on their performance of those rules. But look at what Paul says, "Therefore do not let anyone judge you by..." And then look at the list that follows. This is so arbitrary. "By what you eat or what you drink or with regard to a religious festival, a new moon celebration or a Sabbath day."

Paul's going whatever. From all kinds of different religious backgrounds these guys can come up with all kinds of rules. These are a shadow of the things that were to come. They're a shadow of real religion. The reality however is found in Christ. I want you to circle the key word here. Circle the word judge. Legalists judge you for not keeping their rules. Whatever their seemingly random rules are. And Christians have been doing this to each other for ages. Just a couple quick examples. In Geneva, Switzerland, John Calvin tried to have a totally Christian society. And there's a lot of good that came out of that. Calvin was a genius.

The legalism though that developed there is astounding. It started with church attendance being legally required of everyone. And then they added all kinds of laws in their community on top of that. Here's just some of them. They had laws about how many dishes could be served at every meal. Laws about the appropriate colors of clothing. Laws against singing, pictures, statues, church bells, organs, theater, wearing rouge. Darn it. No, just kidding. Wearing lace, hunting, and naming children after anyone but people in the Old Testament. One father, true story, named his son Claude and was sentenced to jail. One woman's hair was judged to have achieved an "immoral height." Off to jail. An immoral height. I'd like to know how high that had to be to be immoral, right?

But it happened in America too in Connecticut. It was once against the law under the Puritans there to shave on Sunday. And obviously I'm keeping that law. It was against the law to kiss your spouse on Sunday and I'm definitely not keeping that law. But the Puritans were an interesting bunch. Again, a lot of good came out of them. But as far as all their rules, as H. L. Mencken once described a Puritan, he said, "A Puritan is a person with a haunting fear that someone somewhere is happy." And listen, when you judge people based on their adherence to outward rules, you can draw conclusions about them that are just wrong.

For example, an American pastor in the 1930s sent back this report of what he found in one Christian country that he had just visited that he loved. And he sent back this letter to his church, quote, "It was a great relief to be in a country where salacious sex literature cannot be sold, where putrid gangster films cannot be shown. This country has destroyed great masses of corrupting books and magazines. Their leader does not smoke, does not drink. He wants women to dress modestly and he opposes pornography." What was the country? Nazi Germany, that's right. And that leader judged to be so great because he obeyed all of those external rules, that was Adolf Hitler. Judged A-OK because he kept all the rules on the list, right? Except for that pesky rule, "Do not kill." He forgot about that one.

But legalism encourages superficial judgment. Of somebody's character. Now maybe you say legalism is ancient history. I don't know why you keep talking about this René because obviously in our society today it is not a problem anymore. No? Let me ask you this question just personally. Is your assurance, listen, is your assurance that you are loved by God honestly based at least a little bit on your observance of religious activity? If you miss reading the Bible for a day or for a week, or if you skip church one week, do you kind of feel like, "Oh, I'm going to miss out on some of God's blessing. He's holding me back a little bit. He's holding back on me because I didn't do this thing."

Is your assurance that you're loved by God based in some way psychologically on how well you follow the rules? I'll never forget being at the deathbed of an elderly man from this church. He had served faithfully here for many years as an usher. And on his deathbed he said to me, "I hope God accepts me into heaven. I've tried so hard to be a good Christian." And when I heard that from his lips I thought, "I can't believe he's saying that." And I said, I started to try to comfort him and he said, "You know, I was the person responsible for the new Sunday School building at my own old church in Los Angeles." And he went on to recite all the things that he'd done and saying, "I hope they're enough to get me into heaven." He had zero sense of assurance. He was from this church. That is the slavery of legalism.

You're never sure you have performed well enough because you're enslaved to the old master, works salvation, the basic principles of this world thinking that God operates like a boss or a CEO. The solution is to refocus on God's grace. I told that man on his deathbed, "You can know for sure that God forgives your sins." Like Paul says here, when you... Look at these great verses. When you were dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your sinful nature. In other words, before you did one thing to earn it, before you could do one thing to earn it, when you were dead, how much can a dead person do? Can a dead person twitch a finger? Can a dead person bat an eyelash? Now Paul's saying, "When you were dead in your sins, before you could do one thing that could in any way be perceived as a good deed, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all of our sins having canceled the written code with its regulations that was against us and that stood opposed to us, He took it away, nailing it to the cross."

Now what does that mean? Well in those days when somebody was crucified, a list of his crimes was often nailed to the cross right above his head and his death was seen as payment for those crimes. Does anybody remember what was on the list above Jesus' head when he was crucified? Yeah, it said that he was the king of the Jews, right? Because from the Romans' perspective that was insurrection and so they were crucifying him for treachery, for insurrection, because he had claimed to be the king of the Jews. That's what they put above his head. Well what Paul is saying here is that he took the list of rules in the law away, nailing it to the cross, and I take him to mean that in a spiritual sense, Jesus stood in for the long list of sins in the law.

Jesus stood in for all the ways that we human beings have ever broken any religious law, all the ways, to put it in Santa Cruz language, that we built up bad karma. And he paid our karmic debt. He was punished for us taking away our penalty. Listen, this is so essential. Paul is fighting here for the integrity of the basic Christian message. And it's very personal, maybe you've been struggling under this load of guilt before God. He's saying you don't have to climb some religious stairway to heaven trying to perform well enough to earn the next step up. Jesus has already paid it all.

So watch out for Christ plus extra teaching, Christ plus legalism, and then the third freedom killer, Christ plus mysticism. Christ plus this overemphasis, this obsession with seeking mystical experiences, thinking I have to have certain kinds of mystical experiences in order to really be a good Christian to get to the next level. And when you have an all-encompassing, all-consuming overemphasis on mystical experiences, that leads back to slavery too. Remember in the Colossian church, their leaders said, "We channel angels that connect us to God." Right? So you need to listen to us.

Well, Paul says, "Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize." In other words, don't let them mess up your spiritual life. Paul says, "Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions." Now if you've ever met somebody like this, you know exactly what Paul's talking about. They're puffed up. Right? In Christian circles, they come up to you and they say, "Now the Lord told me, and it's always something about you that bugs them." Have you noticed that? Why is it the Lord never talks to them about what they need to change? I don't know.

But Paul says their minds get puffed up with idle notions. What does that mean? Dr. Elizabeth Hylstrom has investigated these kinds of spiritual movements that overemphasize mystical experiences and so on. She says, "Having largely set aside their ability to think rationally, these people become hyper suggestible, which means they're likely to accept any so-called spiritual truth that enters their minds. They may attach great spiritual significance to virtually any event or thought, no matter how mundane or foolish." In other words, after a while they lose all discernment and they almost become delusional. Everything becomes ultra-spiritual.

What's the problem? Focusing on experiences instead of our foundation in Christ. There are whole entire groups of wonderful Christian people getting sidetracked by Christ plus mysticism. To be a good Christian, you have to have this kind of ecstatic mystical experience. And there's all sorts of varieties of this. You've got to experience holy laughter or you've got to bark like a dog. And there's all kinds of things you can see on the internet that different groups are emphasized. And I know this because I used to be a pastor in a church that I now believe overemphasized mystical experience. And I saw it rob so many people of freedom in so many ways.

I saw it create two classes of Christians, second-class Christians who hadn't experienced this yet and first-class Christians who had had that mystical experience. The biggest problem, Paul puts it very bluntly, he says, "Such a person has lost connection with the head. They're so inwardly focused on their emotions and experiences that they've actually lost connection with Jesus Christ from whom the whole body supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews grows as God causes it to grow." Underline that phrase, "as God causes it to grow." If you just submit yourself to God and say, "God, I want to grow as you want me to grow and I want to be part of a church that is growing as you want it to grow," what happens is God may allow you sometimes to have amazing, what you could call, mystical experiences where you feel like you're just standing under a spiritual waterfall of God's love.

I've experienced this. Times where you feel like you're just brushing up against the closeness of God, that you feel like laughing and crying at the same time and you're just overwhelmed, but the key is to seek the giver, not the gift. When you just pursue God, when your focus is on Christ, then as God causes you to grow, as God wants you to, you may or may not have sometimes that sense of closeness, but the solution is to rest in God's care, don't strive for salvation. Does that make sense? You rest in your salvation, don't strive for sensation.

It's kind of personal for me. My own grandparents on my father's side were Christian people, but they sought phenomena. And they started out in a Christian church in Los Angeles that emphasized a lot of remarkable spiritual phenomenon and mystical experiences and so on. And after a while, that wasn't enough for them. And they got into spiritism and automatic writing and seances. And like the Colossians, they would have called themselves Christians. Absolutely, we believe in Jesus, but that wasn't enough for them. They sought higher and higher, so-called mystical experiences to the point where just as Paul says, they lost connection with the head.

They kind of lost any grounding in Jesus Christ and they were more focused on their spiritism than they ever were on the Holy Spirit on Jesus Christ himself. So rest in your salvation, don't strive for sensation. And then finally, the fourth freedom killer is Christ plus moralism. Christ plus moralism. Now what is moralism? Moralism is believing that strict morals are the goal of the Christian life. Self-perfection is the goal of the Christian life. But I want to show you verses that I think are the most surprising verses in the entire Bible.

In fact, you'll recall when we started this series, I said that according to one recent poll, over 80% of people who self-identify as Christians in America say that the definition of what it means to be a Christian is somebody who follows the rules. Well, they would be shocked if they really read this verse from Colossians chapter 2 where Paul says, "Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world," I remember the basic principles of this world are you earn whatever you get, work salvation. "Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why as though you still belong to it do you submit to its rules? Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch."

Paul's saying, "Why do you still think that that's the definition of a good, healthy, spiritual life?" And I want you to circle some key words here. Circle the word rules and all the times it says do not. Do not, do not, do not. That is a key phrase for moralists. A pastor I know got a tract a few years ago while walking along the street, somebody handed this to him and on the cover it says, "Jesus says don't." Now isn't that a positive tract? Doesn't that warm your heart with the good news, right? And you open it up and on the inside there's a list of 40 things you shouldn't do. And there's scripture references after every single one of them. Here's just a few of them. Don't have long hair. Don't wear pearls. Don't study anything other than the King James Version, of course. Don't tell jokes or use clowns or puppets to explain the word of God. Do you know the Bible's against puppets? Don't say no whenever you're asked for money, again of course. Don't join the armed forces. Don't join a union.

Don't you just feel your freedom slipping away as you listen to that list of rules? There's a few problems with living life by the lists. First, they don't last. Have you noticed how all these rules seem awfully dated in just a few years? You know Christians used to debate the morality of dying clothes. Did you know that one of the biggest arguments of the 19th century between two opposing Christian groups up in Canada was whether or now Christians should be able to allow clothes with zippers or whether they should wear only clothes with buttons. Now these days who cares right? Well that's what Paul's saying here in Colossians 2:22. These rules like do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, these are all destined to perish with use because they are based on human commands and teachings. He's saying these lists are all bound to a particular time and place. They don't last.

And second, they don't work. They don't work. I want you to check out what Paul says here and I keep thinking if only more Christians knew these verses. Colossians 2:23. He's talking about these do not touch, do not taste, do not handle, do not you know do anything rules. He says such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. Now does Paul say you know they're not great but they have some value. They're kind of good. They're like 10 percent good. No he says they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. Don't you think this verse is a surprising verse in the Bible? Don't you think it completely goes against the way a lot of people perceive Christianity?

Paul's saying all the do nots, they don't last and they don't work. They lack any value when it comes to actually transforming the things in your life that you want to transform. Why do they lack any value? Check this out because these rules actually focus your attention on the very thing that you're trying to avoid. Let me just give you an example. Try really hard right now not to think of an elephant. Don't think of an elephant. A gray elephant in a circus wearing a clown hat. Don't think of that. An elephant in a circus wearing a clown hat in a tent. Don't think of that right now. Don't think of especially not like Dumbo from the Dumbo movie with his big ears and his big eyes. Don't think of Dumbo. Don't think of Dumbo with Timothy Mouse right next to him and he's got the feather in his trunk. Don't whatever you do get that out of your head right now. What is happening in the heads of every single person in this room?

I have told you six or seven times not to think of Dumbo and that's what everybody is thinking about right? These rules don't work because they devote your attention to exactly what you're trying to stop and if you keep telling yourself not to stop there in fact is no way to stop. But some of you are doing that very same thing. You're telling yourself don't smoke, don't smoke, don't smoke. Don't drink, don't drink, don't drink. Don't look at porn, don't look at porn, don't look at porn. And it's not working because you're focusing on your human will and it's impossible to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. So what's the solution? Focus on the savior not the very sin you're trying to avoid. Like Paul says next in the first two verses of Colossians 3, "Since then you have been raised with Christ. Set your hearts on things above." Where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above and not on earthly things.

Really important here. Circle the phrases, set your hearts and then set your minds. This is the principle of redirection. It's kind of like when you're playing with a toddler. If they decide that they want to put your keys in their mouth. Man that is all that they are obsessed with. I was playing with Adrian Moreno who's up here leading worship and his wife Jamie playing with their little daughter Ella. And Ella this was I think last Wednesday and I took out my keys to jingle them, right? And she just decided she wanted to grab my keys and she had to put them that was her life's purpose. Putting my keys in her mouth. And so I didn't you know sorry but I didn't want sloppery keys and so I didn't let her have my keys. Man do you realize how strong toddlers were? I was like you know when she's just throwing around my keys like this.

So what is the solution? It's the solution to tell her no, no keys. You cannot have my keys. No keys. I want no keys. Now what do you do when a toddler's focused on one thing? What do you do? You redirect them to something else, right? If you've got a little stuffed animal redirect them to that. If there is a puppy or a kitten handy that always works. None of these things happen for me and so I redirected her by playing peekaboo and that seemed to work for a little while at least. But that's the same thing with you and with me. You distract them with something cooler. And Paul says distract yourself with something way, way cooler. Set your minds on things above. Not on earthly things. It's when you fall in love with Jesus that you truly change.

So do you see this theme here in Colossians chapter 2? Paul says in Colossians 2:3 kind of the verses that are the run up to this section of Colossians that I just barely touched on. He says in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. In other words you can think about Jesus for all eternity and not drain that thought dry. In Colossians 2:9 all the fullness of God lives in him and he lives in you. In Colossians 2:10 you have been made complete in him. What more could you possibly need? The bottom line is I have all I need in Christ. So resist the lure of the old slave master and stay free.

Now some of you are sitting here going "Ride I don't like it when you emphasize grace like this. You cannot teach this. Is you some disclaimer or something because some people here cannot handle it. They're gonna go wild. They're gonna hear you say throw out the list and they're gonna start dancing or something and who knows where that can lead?" Okay. Later on in chapter 3 which we're gonna cover next weekend Paul talks about that. Okay what does it mean to look like a transformed person in Christ? So we'll get to that. So relax. But it's important to frame it in this perspective that all of the transformation work that God does in us is based on Christ's sufficiency. Is based on our liberty in Christ.

And by the way what happened to that former slave who wrote his old master? Did Jordan Anderson ever go back to work on that plantation? That's a great question and over the last couple of weeks he's become somewhat as I said of an internet celebrity and so one historian did some looking around and found a census record from 1900 of an elderly Jordan Anderson still living. Here's a picture of it. He and his wife Mandy were in their 70s. They'd been married for 52 years. Six of their kids were still living and a couple of salient points here. They were still living in Ohio free. They'd never gone back and all of their kids are listed in the census as being able to read and write which was Jordan's great desire.

Listen. Be like Jordan. Don't let yourself be taken captive again by your old slave master. Works righteousness. The basic principles of this world you know. Now you might be saying well that kind of applies to the historical context of Colossians but does this still apply? This is very real today. In fact I want to introduce you to somebody who knows about this stuff firsthand. She emailed me with her story which was so similar to the spiritual situation of the Colossians and so I asked Sherry Delcore who attends here at Twin Lakes Church to share part of her story with you today. So would you please welcome Sherry as she joins me on stage to share her story.

Good morning church. Enlightenment through personal striving was the core of the religious movement that I grew up in and it shared a lot of the same characteristics as the Colossian church that René's been talking about. My grandparents became frustrated with judgmental attitudes from their home church and found their way into a movement that was a fusion of eastern beliefs and western thought. Disciples in this movement followed the teachings of a guru who initiated them into higher spiritual levels as they improved. The goal was to strive hard to purify your thoughts and reach new levels of spirituality and work through lifetimes of accumulated karma.

Jesus was acknowledged not as the son of God but as a great world teacher, an ascended master, one of many. As a young teen I began to see the over dependency many disciples had on the guru and for my part living under the law of karma backfired. Overwhelmed with life in general. I started using drugs and got into a lot of trouble. The concept of karma was just too much. I was so young and already had accumulated so much karmic debt to work off and that wasn't even counting the past lives. Karma became an unbearable burden with no end in sight. I sort of gave up figuring I'd already blown it so why not take this life off as a vacation life. I really thought that.

My lifestyle brought its consequences and I found myself turning to God in my suffering. A personal God was unknown to me but here I was calling to him anyway and the freaky part is that he answered back. Not audibly in my heart but I'm not audibly but in my heart. I heard a voice that wasn't mine, a voice with power and authority that resonated with every fiber of my being saying I love you and I have a better plan for your life. Where suddenly there was a God who communicated to us I read all kinds of spiritual literature mostly Eastern thought since that was familiar. It didn't occur to me to pick up a Bible. I didn't have a Bible. I still believed what I had been taught that Christians were non-thinkers, deluded, taking the easy way out with their story of Christ's payment for their sin and all that. I was raised to understand that the idea of divine mercy and forgiveness was simply an opiate, a superstition.

Years later, married and pregnant with my first child, I was invited to a Bible believing church that rocked my world and that was Twin Lakes through the women's ministries here. They indeed seemed very foolish to me at first. The first few times I went I'd start to sweat literally and wanted to run out but I didn't know where my child was in child care so I had to stay through the whole thing but something kept drawing me back. At first the Bible made little sense to me but as I prayed with an open heart in mind I came to realize there was something definitely supernatural about that book. One day as sort of an experiment I prayed for Jesus to take me in and be my Lord. I began to see that I was indeed receiving guidance from this supposed indwelling Holy Spirit that believers received when they accepted Christ.

I became aware of God's presence in my life in a whole new way, very practical and very real, the only intermediary being Jesus. I went through some more tough years and to my amazement found I was no longer floating adrift but rather securely anchored and fortified with a strength that was beyond my capability, a fortitude I could never muster up myself and eventually a joy and peace beyond any conventional wisdom. It took several more years before I could truly accept that through Christ's mind-blowing supernatural covering and indwelling that God saw me as his beloved child and not a huge karmic debtor. What a relief not to rely on my own striving for spiritual attainment, to be forgiven and lavished with unmerited grace. What a delight to surrender my life into the arms of my Creator and Savior who loves me so much. I found Jesus to be the door revealing the Father. He rescued me from destruction and despair, from the false promise of liberation through self-perfection and his Spirit continues to guide me in the way of truth and love.

Thank you.

Thank you so much Sherri. Now listen closely, Sherri came from a unique religious background but I did not ask her to share about that because I think we're immune. This is not an us versus them thing because the same exact experience can be had by anybody even in a Christian church. The same emphasis on salvation by works. The answer is the same universally. It's receiving God's grace available through Jesus Christ and so let's go to him right now in a word of prayer. Would you bow your head with me?

Just as our heads are bowed right now, just in quietness, would you just focus on Jesus? Just think of Christ and let him draw you to himself. The visible image of the invisible God. And with all of our heads bowed, as you're thinking of Jesus, let me ask you a personal question. Have you lost the freedom and the joy in your Christian life? Have you got the spiritual blas? Well my guess is maybe it's because you've fallen into one of these four subtle traps but Jesus didn't come to earth and love you so much that he died for you to pay your penalty so that you could keep the rules. He died so that you might be transformed through a relationship with him and so right now just pray Jesus help me to fall in love with you again. Set me free from this unnecessary spiritual bondage.

Or maybe you've never taken that first step of faith, committing your life to Christ. If not do it right now today. Jesus said I have come to set the prisoners free and that's what he's here living, active, available to do for you right now. Just say Jesus come into my life. I commit myself to you right now. Take all of me and make me into the person that you want me to be. Thank you Jesus so much for your love for us. Help us never to turn the cross sign into a plus sign but instead to turn our eyes on Jesus and to look full in your wonderful face and to discover that the things of this world grow strangely dim in the light of your glory and your grace. Thank you for that truth in Jesus name. Amen.