Colossians 2023

So the reading is colossians 1 versus 1 to 8. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of god and Timothy, our brother. To god's holy people in Colosai, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ, grace and peace to you from god, our father. We always thank god the father of our lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all god's people.

The faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood god's grace. You learnt it from epaphras, our dear fellow servant, he was a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf. And he also told us of your love in the spirit. Thanks, Finn.

Good morning, everybody. My name is Tom with we haven't met before, and I'm 1 of the pastors here at the church. And, it's lovely to be with you. Lovely to have you with us here this morning. As, as Dean said, next week, we've got the feast and, just to just to underline what he's already said, we would really, really want to encourage you all, to come along to that meal that will be taking place next week after the morning service, it'd be lovely to have a good crowd.

We are, as Dean said, bringing back the queue. We're also hoping to, at some point, after the lunch, we're hoping that the kids will be able to go out, just to spend some time with some of our kids' workers so that we can have a bit of content here for the adults So if you remember in the old days of the church lunch, we used to do hellos and goodbyes. Say goodbye to folks who were leaving, say hello to people who joined used to have some testimonies and interviews and that sort of thing, and we'd love to bring something of that back to the to the feast as well. So we'd love to, lovely to see you. Also just to say, this is sort of the time of year, when new students begin to arrive, And, I've already, I've already met 1 new student, who is here with us for the first time this morning.

So if you are a new student, then it's lovely to have you. And do come and make yourself known to us after the service. You can either speak to Dean or to myself or to Tom and Safron they'd be lovely, happy to speak to you and, particularly to tell you about this, this group that's meeting in their home, this evening. So if that's you, do make yourself known to us. And, let's, let's go back to colossians.

So, hopefully, you've still got it open. And we'll ask the Lord's help, as we come to this letter together. Father, we do thank you that you are a god and, we we thank you for this every week and we thank you for it this morning. You are a god who speaks to us, that you have given us your word, that you have not left us to fumble around in the dark trying to work out what is true and who you are and who we are that you have spoken to us through this word in front of us breathed out by you, our eternal god, and preserved across the generations and placed into our hands in a language that we can understand so we can truly know true things about you, which change our lives. And we pray that as we come to your word now and, unpack together these wonderful verses that you would please heavenly father speak to every single 1 of us in this room this morning speak to our children as well.

We pray, who've gone out to learn about you, and we ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. Well, you will know that, that many people, normally normally when they're young, normally when they're growing up, will, for a time, get into collectibles. They'll start collecting things. That will become a hobby for them. And, they may do that just for a short time.

While a particular thing is popular, or that may become a lifelong pursuit, you know, collecting a certain item. So I think the most famous ones are things like stamps. Any stamp connectors in the room? None here today. Okay?

So that's fading. Clearly, that 1. Coins? Anyone collect coins? Jamie, do you collect coins?

Do you? How how's how's it going? How's your collection? Not great. Yeah.

Are they all just British ones in your pocket right now? Yeah. Yeah. If you wanna give him some coins for his collection, they have to be British, they have to be usable right now. Okay.

There we go. Yeah. In the old days, people would collect cigarette cards. There might be things like beer mats my father-in-law is a big beer mat collector. So if you've got any strange or unusual or rare beer mats and send them my way, he'll be grateful.

Apple technology. There's people who love Apple and collect Apple stuff, action figures, toy cars, Pogs? And you remember Pogs? Did you collect Pogs? Did you?

Where are they now, Craig? I couldn't tell you. Yeah. In a bin or flogged for a lot of money. Yeah.

Yeah. Very good. And, all all kinds of things, but I think the biggest, certainly, of recent times, and still today, is pokemon, pokemon cards. So in the late in the late nineties, schools around the world I think, had to bring in sort of pseudo gambling laws into their playgrounds, because there was so much abuse of Pokemon card trading going on. They were kids, you know, perfectly young innocent kids being bullied to within an inch of their lives for their Pokemon cards and their cards were being stolen and trades were being made that were unright, and there was all kinds of things.

And and still today, Pokemon cards is a huge, huge industry. So in 20 21, the company that makes them produce 9000000000, Pokemon cards, 9000000000 Pokemon cards, for the world. It is a multi multi multi million pound industry. There are road shows up and down the country and across the world. You know, if you just, even after this service, in this very place, if you go to that back bench over there outside, you will find our kids trading Pokemon cards and trading football stickers It's a it's a huge, huge thing.

And, with any with any industry that is as as popular and as lucrative of that, What you also find is, is a big industry in counterfeits, right? Big industry in counterfeits in fake cards, that's a that's a huge thing. I was reading about it this week, and apparently, at some ferry ports and at some airports, there are special teams you know, customs teams that deal with the fake trade of Pokemon cards. There was a seizure recently of nearly up to 8 tons 8 tons of fake Pokemon cards that were coming into Europe and going to make their way into the world. And, you will know if anybody in your family or if you've got kids to collect these Pokemon cards, but if you're into it for any length of time, you will get a fake.

A fake will come to you. Someone will give you a fake or you'll come across a fake, and that and that's what happens because because it's so it's so prolific. The trade in fakes that any trader can't help but have 1 at some point. And therefore, the question becomes from as young as, you know, 5, or 4, 5, 6, 7. How do you spot a fake?

Right? And this is something that me and Laura have even been having to Google, you know, in the past few weeks, how do you identify a fake Pokemon card? And there are all kinds of ways that you can identify the fake. So you can look at the spelling. If the spelling is wrong, That's normally a sign that you're holding a fake.

If the color scheme is wrong, that's normally a sign that you're holding a fake. If the color scheme between the main card and the border, if those colors bleed into each other, well, apparently that's a sign that you're holding a fake. So you can see we've been doing our research, this week, and it becomes it becomes a big thing, you know, how how do you spot a fate? And of course, the more you, the more invested you are in the Pokemon card world, the more that the more that matters, doesn't it? Right?

So if you're just if you're just friends trading in the playground, If 1 of your mates slips you a fake, well, it's annoying and you're a bit angry at them for that, but it's not as serious as if you're going to pay a hundred pounds for a card. You're gonna pay a hundred quid for 1 and you get dealt a fake, well, you're gonna be really, really annoyed, and then up it goes. So some people will pay up to 400000 pounds for a single Pokemon card. Okay? Well, if you're paying that sort of money and it's a fake, you're gonna be really peeved, aren't you?

You know, if you've parted with that sort of cash and you haven't been dealt with the real thing. And so this becomes a big issue. The bigger the investment, the more invest did you are in the thing the more it matters that what you are holding and trading in is the genuine is the genuine article? Now, you take that idea and apply it to the marketplace of beliefs. If you are invested in a worldview, if you've committed to a way of living, If you've committed to believing certain things about life and about yourself, if you have laid down things and sacrificed them, for the sake of this worldview, if you have been even willing to part with your money to fund and support this worldview in the world, then it really, really matters whether you're dealing with something genuine or something fake, doesn't it?

You might know that Blaise, Blaise Pascal, who was a seventeenth century, mathematician. He came up with or is at least or is at least said to have come up with, this wager, and I don't know if he would have put it in quite these words, but this is famously known as Pascow's wager. And he said something like this, if I if I live my life believing in god and turn out to be wrong, Well, I haven't really lost anything major. Okay. I could have spent my life doing something else, but if I die and it's not true, well, I'm just gonna be unconscious.

There's gonna be, I'm I'm not gonna nose. And so it doesn't really matter that much. But if I live my life not believing in God and it turns out to be true, Well, then the consequences are eternal. And so he said, better in that case, to bargain with god, to believe in god, if eternity is at stake. Now I don't know whether that is an accurate reflection of his Christianity, to be honest, and I don't think he would have put it in those terms But nonetheless, we have we have to really reject that when it comes to Christianity because that is not new testament teaching about what it means to be a Christian.

Paul actually says in 1 Corinthians 15, if Christ is not raised, It's the worst news in the world. It's not that we've just spent our lives doing something that others wouldn't do, We if if it's not true, then everything collapses. If Christ is not risen, then my faith is futile. If Christ is not risen, then I am still in my sins, he says. If Christ is not risen, then I am found to be a false witness about god.

I've given my life to saying something about things about god that aren't true. If Christ is not risen, then the ones that you love who've fallen asleep in the lord have no hope because it wasn't true. And so do you see it's not just a case of if you've got a gamble, better to gamble with God. He's saying if you have based your life on a fake card. If it wasn't genuine, that really, really, really matters.

And that concern is behind so many of the new testament letters. Paul and the apostles made a staggering claim in the world. They said that the risen Jesus Christ had appeared to them, that they had seen him bodily back from the dead that he had given many convincing proofs that he was alive and that this risen Christ had appeared to Paul and changed his life and therefore they knew that Jesus Christ was the only way and the only truth and the only life, that there was no other name given under heaven by which men and women could be saved than the name of the risen Jesus Christ. And so they became like the customs officers at the border. They wanted to seize the fakes in the world before they made their way into the church because they knew the truth that there was 1 Christ risen from the dead and only by him can men be saved, and they they thought they wanted to get the fakes and the counterfeits out of the world and out of the church.

And that's 1 of the big concerns that is behind this letter here. They wanna get the fakes out of the church and out of the ears of Christians. You see Satan has always been into the fake card industry. He's not a good creator, but he's a great counterfeiter. He's bad at the creation game, but he's great at the fake game.

And he has always been wanting to create and to sell and to to give out fakes into the world. And so now, Paul in colossians is wanting to take that on. You see in our day, we might say, well, it, you know, it doesn't matter all that much, does it? You know, people believe different things, and that's part of the beauty of modern Britain, isn't it? You can believe something and I can believe something, and whether it's absolutely true or not is really beside the point.

We don't have to be dogmatic about that. What matters is whether you're sincere and whether you're happy. As long as you're sincere and you're happy, you can believe what you want. That just finds no response from New Testament Christianity. They they they apostles, the writers of the New Testament wanted to get the fakes out of the church for the good of the church.

And so you can see, verses 1 to 8. We come to colossians. And although There is no mention here of the false gospel. That's gonna come later. It affects everything that Paul says in this letter.

And what we're gonna discover this morning is that this introduction is not just a polite way of saying thanks or a polite way of introducing himself. Paul is giving them here a word of assurance. He's saying we are thankful for you because we see all the signs of the authentic gospel in you. We are thankful for you because we see signs of the authentic gospel in you. That's what this introduction is designed to achieve.

You see, Paul at this point was in prison. He was under house arrest in, in Rome. He had never been to this church. He did not visit this church. He did not plant church.

This was a church that was planted, as you can see in verse 7 from Epaphras. Epaphras was a co laborer of poles, He was a member of this church, and he had taken a report about the colossians to Paul, and this letter is in response to that report. And the reason for this Thanksgiving, the reason he opens so positively is because these colossians have what false teaching cannot produce. They have what false teaching cannot produce. So you see, when it comes to Pokemon cards, there are all kinds of ways of telling if you are holding an authentic card.

But what about the gospel? What about the gospel? What are the signs that you are holding and believing the authentic gospel. What was what must we look out for when considering that question? Well, there's 4 things that we're gonna look at this morning.

4 signs of the authentic, and the first is this, authentic faith, authentic faith. Have a look at verse 1. Paul and the apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of god and Timothy, our brother, to god holy people in Colosse, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ, grace and peace to you from god, our father. We always thank god, the father of our lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus. Now over the summer, we were thinking a lot together as a church about real faith.

We were looking at Hebrew's chapter 11, and we saw many, many case studies, many, many people who had the sort of faith that was pleasing to god. And so hopefully, over the course of that series, if there's 1 thing that we learned together, is that faith is not just crossing your fingers, burying your head in the sand, and hoping for the best. It's not the kind of Pascale's wager type where we're just gonna live for it, and if it turns out to be true, great, and if it doesn't owe well. And we've also learned that faith is not a commodity. You know, it's not something that you buy.

When people say, I wish I could have the sort of faith you have, it's not it's not something that you could put us. You know, I wish I had the the sort of Tesla that you have, or I wish I had the house that you had or the job that you had. It's it's not like that. We were learning that faith is all about understanding and trusting in the promises of god, understanding them, and then living in light of them. And you can see genuine faith is described in the same way here.

Have a look down with me at verses 6 and 7 and notice the words he uses about this growing faith. He says in the same way the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it, and truly understood god's grace, you learned it from epaphras, our dear fellow servant. So what is authentic Christian faith? It is something that is heard, something that is learnt, something that is understood and something that is passed on. It's interesting words he uses, isn't it?

Heard, learnt, understood. You see, 1 error would be to say, well, as long as you can intellectually understand the Christian faith, then then you're saved. That's all god really wants. You know, here's here's some here's some sort of propositions about god. Here's some things that we say about god.

And if you can just intellectually affirm them, if you think they sound reasonable to you, then you're saved. Well, that has been 1 heresy in church history that all you need to do is think it's true and you're saved. The Bible says, no, no, you do need to think that it's true, but you need to be born again by the Holy Spirit of God if you're gonna be saved. That's 1 error, but another error would be to say that faith has no content, but actually it doesn't really matter which Jesus you believe in as long as you're positive about the idea of their being a Jesus. It does we don't have to be we don't have to be dogmatic about it.

We don't have to worry about exactly which Jesus we're talking about as long as you're generally in the Christian camp of liking Jesus. That's all that really matters. That would be another error because Paul says in verse 6 and 7, that authentic Christian faith is rich with content. It is something that must be learnt and something that must be understood if it is to be genuine. And this is 1 reason why in our home groups in this church, we spend time talking about questioning and understanding the Bible.

It's 1 1 reason we have seminars in the church. We had a great seminar this morning. It looked packed this morning, the Roman seminar. Because we want people to understand the Christian gospel. It's 1 reason why if you were here a couple of weeks ago when Rory Bell came up on the stage, who looks after our children's work.

He was telling us about a new resource, or he want he wants to make the lessons that the kids have here available in the languages of the people in the church. He wants us to be able to access bible material for our children in a language that we can understand. Why? Because it matters that it's understood. It's 1 reason why our musicians think so hard about songs that we can sing that are going to help us understand what is true.

We want them to appeal to our emotions. We want to enjoy singing them. But we want them to help us to understand what is true because the Christian faith is something learned It is something understood. That's what he says. That is authentic faith.

But equally verses 3 and 4, you can see what else he says about it. We also thank god, the father of our lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus. Authentic faith is in Christ Jesus. And if you scan your eyes down to verse 15, you see exactly what Jesus he is talking about. The sun, we're gonna get to these words in a few weeks, The son is the image of the invisible god.

That's who he's talking about. Jesus Christ is the 1 who makes god visible in the world. You wanna know what god's like look at the image of Jesus. He's the firstborn over all creation, the most senior ruling person in all creation. He is the 1 who came into this world because he loved us in order to show us the father and ultimately through the blood of his cross to reconcile all things to himself before rising again in triumphant power 3 days later.

That's the Jesus he's talking about. Not just any Jesus. He's talking about the historic Jesus of the Christian faith. And again, that is really, really important because as we'll see, the false teachers in the church would have been very positive about Jesus in general. They would have talked well of Jesus, but they would really have seen Jesus like the ground floor If you imagine yourself going into a shopping center, on the ground floor through the door is Jesus, and everyone likes Jesus and having a look around Jesus, but what you really need is an escalator to take you up to to the greater heights, to take you up to the next level, the next floor where the really spiritual people are hanging out and doing their shopping.

That's what the false teachers said, but Paul is saying, no no, authentic faith is understanding and trusting and embracing the real historical Jesus as all that you need for life and salvation. If you've got him, then you need no other. And that is what authentic faith is like. Something learnt, something understood, something heard, and something that is absolutely satisfied. In the Jesus of history as all that we need and nothing more.

He says verse 3 to 4, we always thank god the father of our lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you because we have heard of your faith. Do you see what he's doing there? That is not just nice Thanksgiving. That is a word of assurance. We are so thankful because the authentic faith of heaven is the authentic faith in you.

We see the signs of it. Praise God. Praise God. And so secondly, authentic faith, but also authentic love. Verse 3 to 4, we also thank We always thank god the father of our lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus.

And of the love that you have for all of god's people. A few of us, elders were at an event the other day, a commission event. And, we were hearing some stories from a man who's, who's a minister in tottenham, up up in North London. And he was telling us all about the community there in into which the church is ministering, and he was saying that just just like here, really, the the the amount of internationals that they have the opportunity to get to know is just wonderful. So there's that there's the Bulgaria community and there's the Polish community in Topnam, and there's the Somalia community, and he was going through all the all the different communities that are on their doorstep.

And, 1 of the 1 of the struggles though he was sharing with us is that if if you're in a community and it's large enough and you feel safe enough, then we often have no reason to grow friendships across those communities. Because we've we've sort of got we've sort of got everything we need within our own community. And so he was saying it's very hard for the Bulgariaians to to want to make friends with the Polish, and it's very hard for the Polish to want to make friends with the Somalia. And it's very hard for the English to want to make friends with anyone. Because they just, they don't even want to be friends with people in their own homes.

Let alone people further afield than that. And he was saying, so it's a struggle this. It's a struggle to get them evangelizing and building friendships across these communities. And so he was saying, you know, what an opportunity we have then as a church for there to be a love which arcs over the top of these different communities where we can welcome them together and we really can get to know each other. Where we'd we're not just a friendly church.

We're a church that people make friends in, and those friends are across cultural, across personality, across across race and ability borders. What an opportunity we have? And he's absolutely right. You see, if you have a look at verse 8, it's an interesting verse because this is the only time that the holy spirit is mentioned in this letter. Epaphras, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, and who also told us of your love, in the spirit.

The only time the spirit is mentioned and what's he responsible for What's he connected to? He's connected to love. Love for all of god's people. You see there are some types of love which don't really require the work of the Holy Spirit. There's the love that we might have for those in our immediate family.

It's what you might call a natural love. There's love that we might have for our friends. It's what you might call a natural love. There's a love that we might have for our nation and our country. It's what you might call a natural love.

But this Christian love, which stretches across communities and across races And across nations, that is not what you would just call a natural love. That's what you would call a spirit a spiritual love. That's the love of verse 4, Paul's so happy to see it. We have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love that you have for all god's people, verse 8 who told us of your love in the spirit. You see, what we have here at Cornerstone by the grace of god and what many other churches enjoy too is not is not perfect But it is our best apologetic to the world, isn't it?

That we have a community, thanks to god, where this is happening. Where people from the nations do come, and people who are very different do come, and people who might not otherwise get on in any other sphere of life are able to love each other and unite under a common saviour for a common purpose. This is the love that only the Holy Spirit can produce and only an authentic gospel can produce. And it's what Paul wants above everything else. I mean, just flick over with me to chapter 3 in verse 12.

And again, we'll we'll arrive at these, at some stage. Therefore, as god's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, bear with each other and forgive 1 another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the lord forgave you, and over all these virtues. What's he gonna say now then? This is gonna be a big 1, And over all of those virtues, which we would agree, are pretty nice to have, put on love.

Which binds them all together in perfect unity. We could say that it is the virtue that he wants to hear about above all others in authentic gospel churches that they love 1 another. And so how about us as individuals? Praise the lord. We see it in the church.

And how about us as individuals? Do we see this above all virtue growing in our own hearts. You see, alongside the feast, we're having a a meal emphasis each month. And, 1 of the things that we've suggested for this month is that we could all try to have somebody over to our house or just to be hospitable to someone, we've never we've never had before. We've never shown hospitality to before.

And, it might be if you haven't yet organized that or next time it comes round, we could ask 2 questions. Who have I never had over before? Who is also very different from me? Someone I've never had before and someone who is very unlike me because that's what we want, isn't it? We want to be growing in the sort of love that is described here.

Loving people like us is super easy to do. But love in the spirit requires this authentic, this authentic gospel. And 1 other thing on this point just have a look at verse 4 with me because I think it extends beyond just this congregation. We always thank god, the father of our lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you, Because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all of god's people, Now I think he's saying there that what we are so thankful for is that you have a generous love that extends even to people like me who you've never met, to to to me, to Paul, and to the other congregations who believe in the same historical Jesus as you do. I was at another event recently for student workers in London.

And, 1 of the things the, the chap hosting the event was saying is that at at the university campuses, across London, where there are genuine apostolic gospel churches trying to do stuff to get together on campus or whether our genuine Christian societies, trying to do stuff together on campus, it's really good to think about given the numbers what we can do together for the sake of the gospel on campus and to speak well of other churches who really are trying to do the same thing that we're trying to do. And he was saying, this is 1 this is 1 area or 1 thing which really distinguishes true Christianity from cults because the cults never ever speak well of each other. Never. It it's it's very, very narrow, very narrow, very elitist, very exclusive, and anyone who doesn't agree on a minor point of doctrine is considered to be an enemy, an enemy of god. And you know, that is that is what false teaching produces That's what false gospels produce.

It doesn't produce a general charity towards others who are trying to do the same thing. It produces a a narrow mindedness and a harshness. That's what was going on in colossians. You've got Jesus That's fantastic. We've got Jesus too, but have you also been circumcised?

And are you also going back to the old Jewish customs? You're not. You're an enemy of god then. You're an enemy. You don't do the new moon Sabbath festival.

You're an enemy of God. Yeah, but we're trusting in Jesus. Yeah. Well, that's great, but you're an enemy. Cause you don't do this.

You've got Jesus. That's great. But have you had these spiritual experiences that we've had? We've seen angels. We've been taken up into spiritual delights that are above the norm.

No, we haven't really. We've only got gee. You're an enemy. You're an enemy then. That's what false gospels do.

They make people narrow And you see this today. I mean, I know it's an extreme example, but in some parts of America, you know, you have churches which say that the the only bible translation that is spirit inspired. The only bible translation from god is the King James version. The old English version. And if you don't do that, if you don't listen to that, you can't hear god.

You're a heretic if you don't lose that translation. I mean, it's wild, isn't it? And yet that is what false teaching produces. It it narrows people down. And yet Paul is saying, no no, wherever the authentic gospel is, we want to love god's people.

That's what he's thankful for there. Look, I mean, look at the scope of it with me. The love you have for all of god's people. Wherever it is, you love it, you love to hear of it. And so we want that spirit too, don't we?

You know, hook evangelical church up the road, They believe and teach the same gospel as us. Chesting to the evangelical church, they believe and teach the same gospel as us. You know, King's church Walton, St. Michael's full well. There are churches in our network churches nationwide churches locally.

You've got Bart at Emmanuel Tollworth. You've got John Sheppard, Christchurch Servburton, look different to us, but trying to do the same thing as us. And we wanna love them because they're all god's people in this area who are doing the same work as us. That's authentic love, he says. Thirdly, authentic hope.

This is the famous trinity of Christian virtues faith hope and love. They're all here. Verse 4, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all of god's people, the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven. And about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel. I was having a read of some, some stuff some articles about survival, this week.

Don't ask me why I stumbled stumbled across it. And, apparently there's something in survival called the rule of 3 I don't know if you've heard about this before, it's called the rule of threes, and it's designed so that if you find yourself in a situation where you need to survive, or in an environment which is hostile to life, you need to remember these rules and they will teach you what to prioritize and therefore how to survive. And it goes a bit like this, the rule of threes. Apparently, a person can live for 3 minutes without breathable air. They can live for 3 hours in an extremely hot or cold environment without shelter.

They can live for 3 days without drinkable water, and they can live for 3 weeks without food. And each 1, of course, assumes that the previous 1 is true. K? So if you happen to have loads of foods, but no breathable air, well, it doesn't apply. Okay?

You you need to have them in order. So it's trying to teach you what to prioritize, oxygen, shelter, water, food, and then you'll have the best chance, the best chance of survival. And of course, if you're if you're someone like bear grylls, you know, who's happy to know, eat scorpions and drink your own wee for weeks. Then you can probably last a lot longer. But for most normal people around the world, these are the sorts of rules.

But then on top of that, I was reading that, people and it's hard to know who first did it or or whether anyone really did it. But there's a there's a there's another thing that people add to that list. And it goes like this. So you can have 3 minutes without breathable air, 3 hours in an extremely hot cold environment without shelter, 3 days without drinkable water, 3 weeks without food. But only 3 seconds without hope.

Only 3 seconds without hope. And it's a little bit, it's a little bit, you know, try I I know, a little bit cheesy perhaps, but nonetheless, you know, I think it is reaching at something true. Which is to say that you can you can have everything else that you need in life, but if you don't have hope, if you do if you are without hope in the world, you can have everything else, but eventually life collapses and you fall in on yourself without hope. And that is certainly true. You see, we are in a world at the moment where people are people are hopeless.

I mean, I don't need to tell you, but the the the mental health statistics amongst young people, people in their teens, their twenties, even younger than that in primary school, the amount of children reporting a sort of hopelessness and problems with their mental health is absolutely skyrocketing. And it is we should feel the sadness of that because We are in in our part of the world, at least. I know this wouldn't be true everywhere, but in our part of the world, when you're a teenager in your twenties, that ought to be sort of the most hopeful time of life, shouldn't it? Cause your whole life is ahead of you, and there's things to look forward to, and there's things to hope in. But we're in a world now where it's, you know, for statistics to be, it's the most hopeless, it's the most hopeless stage of life.

Teenagers, the most hopeless stage of life. And we are in a world without hope. And it's interesting when you apply that spiritually, You know, the new testament says that actually all of us for a time without Christ were like that we were completely hopeless. In ephesians 2, verse 12, Paul says remember that at 1 time you were separate from Christ without hope and without god in the world. To be without Christ is to be without god.

To be without god is to be without hope in the world. Can we find temporary hopes to keep us going? We can. But can we find the sort of hope that will survive death? Can we find the sort of hope that will be robust even in the face of suffering?

Can we find the sort of hope that will give us joy even in our trials? Without Christ, he says there is none. And it was that hope which revolutionized the colossians. Verse 5, the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven. And about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel.

That has come to you. The authentic gospel delivers indestructible hope into the human heart. It is the hope of heaven verse 3. It is Christ in you, the hope of glory verse 27. So you can tell somebody who really does believe the authentic gospel because in their hearts is the cry come lord Jesus.

Come lord Jesus. I know there are times when we might feel that quite strongly, and there are other times when we get caught up with the world and we we don't feel it that strongly, but somewhere in every Christian heart is the knowledge that to be with Christ is better by far. To be with him is better by far, and so we cry, come, come lord Jesus. And do you see how when it's understood This hope is like a VA engine in the Christian. See how it powers faith and love.

I wrote that When I wrote that in my notes, it's like a VA engine I realized afterwards, I don't actually know what that is. But I know it sounds powerful, and people sort of who know about cars say stuff like that, don't they? It's got a VA engine and you think, okay. Well, that probably means it's powerful. You know, So anyway, I'd I'd no idea what that meant, but it may mean something to somebody, a VA engine in the Christian.

Verse 3, the faith and love that spring from The hope stored up for you in heaven. It's the opposite of what many people think about faith, isn't it? That Christians are all about heaven. They just think about the life to come. They're obsessed with talking about death and eternity and what comes next, and they're so taken with heaven that they're no earthly good at all.

That's what people say. But for Paul, it's the opposite. He seems to think that there is nothing more transformative now than authentic hope for the future. Nothing more transformative now than authentic hope for the future. And that's right, isn't it?

He says to the colossians, you have this hope, and therefore there is faith and love, and that would be true in our congregation too. You think about the people that you know, your brothers and sisters, your friends here in the church, You think about the home group that you're in if you're in 1. And just week by week, all all the little examples, all the little stories of people who are living by faith in Christ or people who are showing little acts of love for 1 another. The church by the grace of god is alive with all kinds of examples of faith and love. And what does that tell us?

It tells us that people in this church are excited about heaven. They're excited about going to heaven and being with Jesus. We know they're excited about heaven because there's faith and love in the church. That's what it produces. People who don't care much for glory don't care much for now.

People have got their eyes on being with Jesus. Well, their lives are just full of all kinds of hope and love. That's what he says here. There's a fourth point authentic allies, but I think that's probably enough for now. You can come and ask me about it at the end.

So there we go. Brothers and sisters fantastic, isn't it? This is the opening introduction. Paul is wanting to get rid of the counterfeits and the fakes, and he does so by giving thanks for the genuine, for the genuine, for the faith and the hope and the love that are on display in this church and by the grace of god are just on display in this church as well. And so let's pray that we would keep going together with that.

I'll just give you a minute to look inside your own heart and just to think about authentic faith, authentic love, authentic hope. And to see whether these signs of the genuine are alive and well in your own heart and are growing in your own heart. I'll give you just a moment of silence to think about that and then perhaps Dean could come and lead us in a closing prayer. We always thank god the father of our lord Jesus Christ and when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love you have for all god's people. The faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven.

Heavenly father, we thank you so much for these words. For, the words we've just heard explaining them. And finally, do you ask that you would help us to be a church that really does demonstrate authentic faith authentic love that spring from a real hope. Help, please help us to have, not those fakes, lord. Help us not to be fake, but to genuinely, love 1 another.

To put on display what we believe. Lord, and we ask that you would, lord, these things would spring from the hope that we have Christ in us. We thank you that we, we have opportunities to to do these things this morning, as we gather together in home groups, as we as we contact 1 another in the week, as we serve together on teams, father we we pray you would help us. We we asked that that, you would help us to demonstrate this to the world as well. And father, may this may this truly be?

The best defense of the faith that we have. Our love for 1 another. That brings great glory to you. And so, father, we we do ask that you would help us to protect this, lord. It's not something we take for granted.

And it can easily be spoiled and ruined. And our enemy would love that above all. So please help us to protect it and cherish it. And we ask all these things in Jesus' name, Army.