Remain in Christ (Abide)

Hey friends, I'm JP, Jonathan Picluda, and we are in Colossians 2 today, six through 15, looking at some of the greatest news in history, which is that all of our indebtedness, like all of the sins that we've committed, all of the things that we've done wrong against God, Jesus Christ takes and nails them to the cross and then triumphs over the enemy, those that seek to accuse us, those that seeks to do us wrong. And so I'm thinking about you. We love, we're so thankful for the Pando app and that you are able to watch what God is doing here from where you're at. I'm praying for you that you would be rooted and built up and strengthened, overflowing with gratitude because of the work that Jesus Christ has done in your life. So we love you guys. We're praying for you. Watch this message. Church, how are we doing? Let's go. Let's go. I wanna tell you about a tale of two dogs that I had at two different seasons of life, one than the other. And they were instrumental in my childhood. I grew up abnormally tall. I was six feet at four years old. And,

and so awkwardly tall and just exceptionally uncoordinated. So lots of hype, didn't know what to do with it. And so they say dogs are a man's best friend. Very true. In my case, I didn't have a lot of options. So the first dog I had that I got when he was a puppy was named Zach. Named after my favorite, you know, show, Saved by the Bell, key character, Zach Morris. So his name was Zach. And I mean, we were best buds. Zach, he was an incredible dog. Unbelievable dog. And I would go outside. He would always wanna play. We would play fetch. I would go down to the river. We would go exploring together. He was fast. He and I would race. Like he would always win. Like he was just a really fast dog. And I just, I mean, just always joyful and fun. And he grew up like puppy paradise. 20 acres on the Guadalupe River. Like that was our home. Fenced with barbed wire fence or a cattle fence. Dogs could go anywhere. And Zach, this amazing puppy, we call him Zach the Wanderer

because he had one fatal flaw. He didn't wanna stay home. And so he would leave for long periods of time. And we would get phone calls from neighbors. Like, your dog's over here. You know, what's your dog doing here? And, you know, a neighbor a mile away, your dog's in our chickens. You know, come get your dog. And we'd always get these phone calls. And he would just wander everywhere. Like it was almost like he would cross that fence and he'd look out and like, the world is my playground. And so he would just leave. He would go. And as great of a dog as he was, one time, one day he wandered off and he didn't come home. And we waited and we called and we set out food. And he never came home. We didn't know if he had been trapped, if he had been stolen, if he had been killed. We were just left wondering. And I was a boy without a dog. And so in my despair, in my sadness, we got a second dog named Max. Max the Shadow. Because Max wanted to be with you. Anywhere you went, he wanted to be right by your side. And in fact, when you would go inside, he would just wait there by the door

till you came back outside. Like if it was the next day, you come out that door, he's right there waiting on you. Anywhere you go, anywhere you walk, he just wanted to be with you. And he would do all the things that Zach did. We would play fetch, we would race, he would win. We would go exploring at the river. But anywhere I went, he just wanted to be with me. Even like I would climb a tree, a big tree in my backyard, and he would just pace around the tree wanting to get up there. Because he wanted to be with me so badly. And in fact, one day he just went for it. I mean, just jumped up and he started crawling on the tree and we found out in the moment that Max could climb a tree. And so here's a picture of him with my, that's my older brother and Max in the tree. He would climb that tree, true story, because he just wanted to be by your side so badly. And with Max, Max would walk up to that fence and he would look out, you know, and he's like, I don't want any part of that. Like he would look at the neighbor's yards, he would look at the neighbor's sheep and goats and, you know, chickens, and he's just like, this is the place to be. Like I want to stay right here. The difference between Zach and Max is, Zach the wanderer, he died.

He wandered off, we never found him again. Max. Max, he stayed right there and he lived a long, healthy, fun life in the rest of my entire childhood until he died of old age because he remained with us. And I tell you that this morning because that's the call from Colossians today, that you are to remain with Christ. Remain in Christ, remain with Christ. If you're here, there's a very good chance that Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, has had some impact on your life. And potentially, you've been saved by Him. You believed upon His death and resurrection for the forgiveness of your sins. But the call of Christianity is then to continue with Him. And the evidence that you were saved by Christ is that you are now walking with Christ. That others would see Christ's work actively in your life every day. And that's what the Apostle Paul, who's writing a letter to a church in Colossae that he's never been to, he didn't plant this church, Epaphras is the pastor there, and he pens this letter telling them, hey, it's Jesus Christ who saved you, stay with Him. It's Him. Because the Colossians, they believed that Jesus is God. They believed in the profound nature and supernatural nature of Jesus. They just didn't believe He was enough. And what a word for us, thousands of years later, that we would pick up this text that the Holy Spirit preserved, and at Harris Creek Baptist Church, we would look at it and say, you know what, I think we believe in Jesus. We believe Jesus saves us. We just don't think He's enough. We need Jesus plus a great job, Jesus plus a bank account, Jesus plus these relationships, Jesus plus good kids, Jesus plus, and we'll turn toward supernatural ways, Jesus plus tapping my knee twice, or turning around, or making the sign of the cross, or whatever it is that we think's gonna get us what we want, and unknowingly, we tap into sometimes

satanic and demonic forces. You didn't mean to. You didn't know you were leaving a door open. You didn't know you were inviting a demon in. You thought you were just knocking on wood. You thought you were just being superstitious. Jesus plus something else, the evidence that you've been saved by Christ is that you continue to live your life with Him, and I want you to notice that preposition, because I didn't say for Him, that's a separate sermon, that's a separate text. We could talk about living your life for Christ. I'm calling you today, the scripture's calling you today to live your life with Christ, that you would stay with Him. You've heard it said, curiosity killed the cat, well, curiosity killed the Christian, that we're here, and we're like, oh man, there's some really good stuff in here, and on TikTok, some really good stuff in here, and why am I not with them, and there's some really good stuff in here. You got an investment opportunity, and really good stuff in here, and what latest, greatest book self-help, 10 steps can I do to save my marriage, or help me, or get rich quick, or whatever it is, so it's like this stuff that we're like, oh yeah, I embrace this stuff, and this stuff, and give me this, and it's like, no, no, return, Jesus is enough. That's the call of the text today, to remain in Christ, the Christianese way to say it is to abide. We spent an entire sermon series on it called Abide, go check it out if you haven't. We're back in Colossians, I'm gonna be in chapter two. We looked at how the gospel changes everything in the last two weeks, just that this call to make Jesus Lord, because that's what the Colossians need to hear, that's what Harris Creek needs to hear. Today we're gonna continue in that as we look at chapter two, verses six through 15. The text is where we're gonna be, is to continue to live your life in Christ, number one, two, don't be captured by counterfeits, and number three, your charges are canceled, and Christ

work is complete, and so sticking to our Baptist roots, we have an alliteration with C, this message brought to you by the letter C, and we'll just dive in, verse six. So then, just as you receive Christ, Jesus is Lord, continue to live your lives in him. In the Greek, parapatate, this is fun to say, parapatate. Your Bible, if you have ESV, it says to continue to walk in him, that's actually what it says in the Greek because it's a Jewish idiom, to walk with someone, in the idiom, you would say, having to walk. walk with them, that meant to do life with them, to live with them. And so he's saying, continue to live with him, here in NIV, continue to walk in him, the ESV, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught and overflowing with thankfulness. In preaching, when we are training preachers, there's this feedback that I will sometimes give them and I'll say, hey, the slides are changing too fast because people think in pictures. So when you say something descriptive, they see it in their mind. And you gotta be careful not to go from this image to this image, to this image, to this image. Paul, the slides are changing too fast. So he says, when you receive Christ, continue to walk in him. So what I see in my mind when I read this, is it's like, I receive him, dap him up, give him a hug, hold his hand, begin to walk with him. And it says, be rooted in him.

So my feet grow roots into the ground and I take a step and I pull up the earth, being built up, now I'm turning into a brick building, being strengthened. Okay, now there's rebar and I-beams overflowing. The building turned into a cistern that is just overflowing out the top with thankfulness. That's what I see when I read this text. It's like just image, to image, to image, to image, to image. And his point is saying to continue to live in him, don't wander away like Zach did. Zach the wanderer. Be Max the shadow. Stay with him. Number one, continue to live your life in Christ, directly from the text. Continue to live your life in text. Being rooted, in our context, what does that look like, being rooted? It looks like belonging to a church. I look out here and I see kids ministry shirts. Meaning you served at the first service, you're attending the second, you are rooted here. This is your place, you belong here. You're serving here, you're contributing here, you are the church. And then they're spectators, consumers, right? And I have done this for a long time, I've said this for a long time,

so I know what happens is there are people here that are like, yeah, you spectators, you consumers. And then they go, oh wait, I am one. Because I showed up this morning like Cinemark. You know, instead of popcorn, I got coffee and I sat down and I hope it's a good message. And I hope the worship is good. And I hope I can go back to my car and be like, that was good. And you aren't the church, meaning you don't, you're not rooted in the church, you consume church. And there's a tiny shift that you make in your life that will make all of the difference. Being built up, staying with Jesus, being strengthened, like he's feeding you, okay? Strengthened is the next word. So this is your discipline, your Bible reading, you're praying, your evangelism, you're exercising spiritual muscles and getting stronger and then overflowing with gratitude. It's kind of the end result of what happens to someone who's rooted. Gratitude marks their life. I told you before guys, grateful people win. Grateful people win, like they are the people, everyone wants to be around. They're raising kids who are full of joy, like grateful people win the day, man. Now it's not application, don't leave here and try to be grateful.

The application is leave here and be rooted because if you're rooted, you'll be grateful. My friend, Ginny Allen wrote a book, The Lie You Don't Know You Believe. And so we did a podcast recording at Common Grounds on Baylor this week. And it's one of those things I'm driving down, I don't know exactly what I'm getting into, and so we were sitting in the back there at Common Grounds on Baylor and I'm asking her questions, she's asking me questions, it's a recording and it was great, it was a really good conversation about her book, I commend it to you, fantastic. And I wrap up and I'm thinking, okay, she's gonna sign some books, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go, like I'm gonna leave. And there was about like, it was about like 80% Harris Creek College members, that's who was there. And I know that because she asked, how many people go to Harris Creek and so, and so I'm thinking, okay, like these are people I see all the time and I'm gonna walk back to my car and I'm done and so as I'm walking back to my car, someone stops and says, hey, can I just talk to you for a second, I say, sure, talk to them. And as I talk to them, there's a line forms, which is great, because I love talking to you guys, like it's like my favorite thing, I was like, I wanna be, I wanna hear your stories and know what God's doing.

And so the first four people, college students, same story, almost repeat, it's like, hey, a friend invited me, I was either, wasn't a believer, I was really deep in sin, really struggling. came in that place, got discipled there, got in a life group there. Now I'm reading my Bible for the first time and I just want to thank you. That's every one of those, and I just want to thank you. Thank those people, thank that place, thank that ministry, just gratitude. And so then the next person was this young woman who said, hey, I started going to Harris Creek and I went to Courageous Hope, which is our ministry to help those who've endured sexual abuse heal. And she said, I went to Courageous Hope and God has changed my life through that ministry. And she's sharing her story with me. I'm like, that is unbelievable. And her friend's like, tell him what you're doing tomorrow. Tell him what you're gonna do tomorrow. And I was like, what are you doing tomorrow? And she's like, oh, well, I heard my abusers on his deathbed and so I'm gonna fly home to forgive him and share the gospel with him before he dies. And I'm like, oh my goodness. And she's like, I just want to thank you.

And I'm like, I just want to thank you. Like, that's the most encouraging thing I've heard all week. That is unbelievable, praise God. And then she leaves and I'm just like, I'm so thankful I didn't go to my car, you know? And then this older woman walks up who's there and she kind of waited till everybody else talked and she comes up and she's like, is Nate here? I'm his biggest fan. And I'm like, I'm so sorry, you're stuck with me. And she goes, I just want to say thank you. Like, our son, he went off to college. We're traveling through and a friend invited him to Harris Creek, we've been praying for him and we have seen his life change because of that place. He's now in a life group, he's serving. And I'm just like, it was just like gratitude was the theme of all of those conversations, gratitude. And I just thought that's because they're rooted. You know, when you get rooted, you get built up. And when you get built up, you get strengthened. And when you get strengthened, you become grateful. Like, this is the way, this is the progress of this text. And it's what I see all the time. So if you're not grateful, make sure you're rooted. Let me say it like this in a different way. If you're not grateful, you're not rooted. You're not rooted. And it's not panic, it's not like, oh no,

whatever shall I do? It's like, it's okay, it's okay. Just, today's your day. Like, jump in with us. Like, just make the switch from that's the place I go to to that's the place I am. I'm a part of the body of Christ. I'm there, I'm not just being fed, I'm also feeding. Verse eight, see to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. You see this dichotomy, it's like Jesus and other stuff. Jesus and other stuff. It's like, we don't know exactly what those philosophies are but we know that it's something they're saying, hey, there's something else you need to do to be saved. You've gotta trust in Jesus and be circumcised in Galatia. You've gotta trust in Jesus and worship angels, which is happening here in Colossae. You gotta trust in Jesus and do these superstitions and this ancient tradition. You gotta trust in Jesus and confess sins in this particular way. You gotta trust in Jesus plus something else. And he's like, no, no, no, no, no. It's Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Saying, to be saved you gotta do something else. Like, no, it's Jesus, to be powerful

you need to depend on something else. No, no, it's Jesus. Trying to access God by any other means. Like, trying to access God in some other way. So he says, for in Christ all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form. And in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. All of God is available to you in Jesus. And Jesus is how you access all of God. It's not Jesus and tarot cards, Jesus and crystals, Jesus and psychedelics. All of those things are satanic and demonic. And if you access any power through them, which you might, it's a demon behind the power. And you aren't going to like where that takes you. You're not gonna like where that ends up. So number two, don't be captured by counterfeits. The scripture says, see to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy. Don't be captured by counterfeits. There's debate among scholars over what the elemental spiritual forces of this world are. I believe it's demons. And in fact, he's gonna go into talking about the spiritual war that we're in, which just gives more weight to the fact that I believe it's demons. And so he's talking about the villain of your story. He's talking about these fallen angels

and disembodied spirits who have a plot against you, a plot against your children, a plot against your marriage, a plot against your relationship with Jesus. Right now, we're in here, they're gathered up somewhere, they're super spiritual whiteboards with your name on it and plans, and hey, here's how we're gonna get them, and here's how we're gonna get their family. And if you are not with Jesus, you are unprotected. If you're one, like they want to distract you, they want you to wander into something, to follow your greed, to follow your lust, to follow materialism, to follow your own self-righteousness and independence and self-reliance, that you would depend on you so they can go, we got you, we captured them, we've trapped them, and try to hold you in this place of despair and depression and anxiety, to try to lock you in a prison of self-reliance and independence so that you would not remain connected to the body. They'll use your hurts in that way. They'll use your story in that way. They'll use, they know you, they know what your proclivities and instincts and desires and what your flesh wants. Like that's what they're using for bait. They use the things you want for bait. Right now, at our house we have rats in the attic.

I'd like to think it's a rat, but I'm pretty sure it's an army of rats. So this is war, this means war. Like so I'm doing the research, I'm on Amazon, I'm finding the traps, I'm doing the research, I'm doing the research, I'm doing the research, I'm on Amazon, I'm finding the traps that work. I know some of you are like catch and release. I'm not, I'm just like catch, catch and send home. That's how I'm rolling. So I'm trying to find the good traps. There's cheap traps and then there's good traps with five-star reviews, I'm getting those traps. I got a bunch of them. And then I'm on chat, GVT and Google, you know what bait, like what works the best. And if you're wondering, I found out it's peanut butter. At least that's what the internet says. So I'm putting peanut, I'm like painting peanut butter on these traps carefully with my butter knife, you know, and I've got, man, and I set out a landmine of traps. I'm talking these rats don't have a chance. Like I put them everywhere, like every foot, there's another trap, like anywhere you go, it's like. And as the days progress, I go up there to check the traps. Traps are still set, peanut butter's still in place, and more evidence of rats. Yeah, I'm like, these guys are smart. You know, they're like, oh, the Victor 90027 from Amazon, this guy, you know, he's like, he got out the jiffy.

Don't fall for the jiffy, Bob, you know. He's like, that's what took home Fred. Remember Fred, he got the jiffy, got him. And they're up there, you know, and there's all the traps, and they're just up there, you know, dancing around, having a good old rat time, you know, avoiding the traps. Because there's clearly a party up there, it's a rat party up there, and the traps aren't working. So I guess the application of today's message is be like my rats, you know, because there's traps all around you. And the bait is the same that it's been since the garden. So we gotta be like, oh, that's what took out Bob. That's what got Mary, that's what got Fred. Like, no, don't fall for it. Don't go greed, don't go materialism, don't go lust. Don't go self-righteousness. Don't fall for the same things people have been falling for for thousands of years. Stay with Christ. Like, let him guide you. Let him walk you through the traps. Don't let the enemy capture you into a lukewarm, mundane, Americanized churchianity, faithless life. Like, you're like, I have a faith that I hope I never have to use. No, no, no, no. That's not our life. That's not what we do.

We found out where Zach went. We've, about a month later, We were tipped off, he had been shot. Neighbors shot him, which as a boy, you're kind of like, man, what were you thinking? It's like, we got into my chickens again. That's my dog, though. You killed my dog, you know? We trespassed, that word, trespassed. That's the word that's often translated sin in the Greek, and you know this from our father. Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Peraptumason is the Greek word, peraptumason. And it literally means to step where you shouldn't. It means to go beyond boundaries, and it's the word we're about to see in this next passage. But it's like the Holy Spirit is saying, no, you wanna stay in my kingdom, not venture off to another kingdom, you know? People are like, can we go to casinos, can we go here, can we go to the bar, can Christians go to the bar? I'm like, man, you just gotta be careful. It's where the demons live. You know, you trespass things, like, just be careful, man. Like, be on guard, what are you there for? You know, what are you doing there? What's your motive? And people all the time, I see it all the time, no longer rooted in church,

no longer enjoying God or his people. What happened? They were taken captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy. That's what happened. They were taken captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, verse 11. In him, in him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ. Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead. Week one, we talked about you being changed by Christ. In this whole series of Galatians, we have an entire book about circumcision. It's like, hey, you don't have to be a mutilator of the flesh to follow God, but here he's saying in the new covenant, Christ has circumcised you. So bizarre, like we should be confused by this. In 2012, like there should be a part of you that's like, dude, what's up with circumcision? I mean, so much of the New Testament is about this really obscure act. And like, you're thinking, man, I really hope he doesn't go too far into this. Like, just stop right there, preacher. But what he's saying is this act,

this practice of us removing a piece of flesh on males is what Jesus Christ did to your heart. To say it in a different way, he's circumcised your sin nature. So here's how to explain it. Before faith in Jesus Christ, you have no supernatural ability to overcome sin. Can you be conditioned out of it, parented out of it? Sure, can you be taught that's just bad, don't do it? And you're like, yeah, and it's like the shot caller approach. It's like I tried to do it once and I was like, okay, I'm not gonna do that anymore. You know, you can be conditioned out of sin and in your own strength try to resist sin, but you have no supernatural ability to overcome sin. When you place faith in Jesus Christ, you believe upon his death and resurrection solely for the forgiveness of your sins. The Holy Spirit, God himself comes to live with you to strengthen your resolve not to sin so that no temptation has seized you except what is common to people. And God is faithful, he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. And every single time you are tempted, he will provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. If you're wondering how that rolls off the tongue, it's the Bible, right? It's Bible, that the Holy Spirit's gonna strengthen you

in the midst of temptation. Now you have a supernatural ability to overcome sin as you remain with Christ. In Jesus, you were dead and he made you alive. When you were dead, verse 13, when you were dead in your sins, that's the word, trespasses. When you were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness which stood against us and condemned us. He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross, and having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. What does that mean? Paul, writing this letter to a church he hasn't been to, begins to use modern or familiar Roman imagery. In Rome, if you owed somebody money, there would be like this public IOU nailed to the town square. Like it would say, you know, Nate Hilgenkamp owes John Elmore $2 million right there for all to see. So that when it's like public accountability, you bump into Nate, you're like, hey, did you pay John back? I saw it, did you pay John back?

How are you doing with that? Is that something we can help with, you know? And it was just everyone there can see. And then when it was paid off, you would go and you would cross through it. Paid off, that's paid, and everybody would see how Nate paid John back. Well, what he's saying Jesus did is he ripped that down, took it over to the cross, and nailed it to the cross. Remember that sign that says Enri, or King of the Jews, that he's taken all of your sins, all of your deaths against the holy and eternal God, everything wrong you've ever done, thought, or said, and when Jesus was crucified with the nails in his hands and his feet, your deaths were nailed to that cross. And when he said, to tell us die, or it is finished, he said, paid in full, paid in full. You got nothing else to do. The work was done on your behalf. Then he switches imagery, still in Roman tradition, and he says, when the Roman Empire goes into another empire, invades another empire, and attacks them and defeats them, they take all of their arms, all of their swords, all of their weapons, they gather them up, and then they take the rulers of that empire and they chain them hand and feet, and they march them through the city, all defeated.

Kings, formerly like people, commanders-in-chief, you do what I say, now in chains. And everybody looks at them and spits at them and curses them and throws things at them as they're paraded through the city, embarrassed, humiliated. He says, that's what Jesus did with the demons. That's what he did at the cross. What does that mean? Well, you get it. They're watching on, everybody, big old demonic, satanic party, they got him. They got him, they got him. It's amazing. Ooh, he's bleeding. They're just delighting Jesus. He can't breathe, guys, look, he can't breathe. He's gonna die, and they're like, he died. He died, throw the party, pop the bottle, you know? It's like, he's dead, we won. He's dead, humiliated. He showed back up, he showed back up, we can't kill him. We can't kill the Son of God. This means all the sins, all the rights in, all of the legal ways we have to devour them has been defeated by the cross. It's over, it's over. So you don't fight for victory. You fight the enemy within the victory of Christ that Christ has secured on your behalf.

Number three, your charges are canceled. Christ's work is complete. If we knew what that meant, we would just, it would be like the Bears won the Final Four, if we knew what that meant. Let me read it again, just so you can respond appropriately. Your charges are canceled, Christ's work is complete. We better do it one more time. Bears just won the Final Four, okay? Or whatever bowl game, or whatever your thing is. I don't know, like you just won the lottery. Okay, let me do it one more time. Your charges are canceled, Christ's work is complete. Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo!

Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! So you stay with Jesus. Woo! Woo! What happened at the cross? Woo!

The cross was a courtroom, an execution, Woo! Woo! Woo! and a victory parade all at once. The cross was a courtroom, an execution, Oh, yeah. and a victory parade all at once, in one moment. And so you stay with him, and you're like, where's that in the text? Well, let me just show you verse 11. In him you were, verse 12, having been buried with him, you were also raised with him, verse 13, and made you alive with Christ, with him, in him, with him, with him. You're just like, I wanna make sure you see. Don't be Zach the Wanderer. Be Max the Shadow. Let him lead you. Allow him to be Lord. This concept, this spiritual reality, this theological truth, radically transformed my life. Okay? How'd you go from this pastor, this right here, what we're talking about right here, okay? And I've told you this. I said I was gonna tell you every year. My team said it's been three years, so here we go again. I was at a club. Someone invited me to church.

I went, hung over, sat in the back row, smelled like smoke from the night before, and I began to wrestle with what I actually believe about God, having said that I believed in God my whole life. I'm like, what do I really believe about God? And the preacher told a story about a horse, a wild stallion that just wanted to be free. And as I heard that, I thought, that's me. I just wanna be free. And he said in his desire for freedom, he would have to hunt for food and hunt for water and find shelter from the elements all while these local villagers and cowboys tried to capture him. But they would throw a rope at him, and he was too strong. He'd break them loose, because he just wanted to be free. And I thought, that is me. I just wanna be free. You can't tame me. The world is my playground. Let's go. Well, there was a drought in the land. And the water sources dried up, and the food sources died, and this beast of an animal became weak. And I thought, oh, no. And a cowboy, local villager, successfully put a rope around this horse's neck,

captured him, and took him home, put him in a pen. And I thought, oh, no. This is terrible. And he said he loved him. He cared for him. And he provided for him. He eventually broke him. He was able to ride him. And when he would ride him, he would lead him to food, and he would lead him to water, and he would protect him from the elements. And it was this line. He said, and it wasn't until this horse was fully submissive to his master that he truly experienced freedom for the first time. And the Holy Spirit went. That freedom comes through submission? That victory comes through surrender? I thought, what am I doing? If there's a God, then why would I try to live this life by my own strength? Why am I gonna apply my own logic and pragmatism to situations? If there's a supernatural reality that you and I exist in, if I'm gonna die and be somewhere forever and ever and ever and ever, and I'm just here for a moment, then what else am I gonna live for other than this God who created me for a plan and has a plan and a purpose for my life? And I said, Jesus, you drive.

And then I was like, if this is true, like if all of this is true, what else am I gonna do with my life but tell every person I can? What am I gonna do? Like, I mean, I feel like I'm just, you know, working to make these pieces of paper with dead presidents on them so that I can build a bigger, better me. Like, I've gotta turn my life inside out and begin to live it for the supernatural reality that we exist in. Like, what else am I going to do? And so the application today is to abide. And here's what has happened, I would say, in the past two, three years of my own life. It feels like I've gone into a spiritual door that I didn't know existed, which if I heard that, I'd be skeptical and even a little bit concerned. But I'm gonna say it again, so you can be. I feel like I've gone into a spiritual theological door, a room that I didn't know existed, where mentors of mine have said things like, hey, you just need to be with Jesus, to which I interpret, ready, lean in. I interpret it as like, oh, really? Read my Bible. And they're like, no, be with Jesus. And I go, got it, pray. They're like, no, be with Jesus.

Okay, journal in hand? No, put down the pen, put away the journal, be with Jesus. And I'm like, what does that mean? They're like, well, there's this supernatural, theologically accurate and profound fact that he's with you, so sit with him. If you need to add a verb, which we do, because we're so much achievers, he's like, what do I do? Listen, listen. And so now I have a chair that in the morning I sit in, and I've got my Bible, and I've got my journal, and I've got my book, but at this moment, it's right here. And I just sit here, and I'm just like, okay, Jesus, let's hang out. And for some of you, that's gonna feel really weird, okay? And I get it, because I was there. But it's transformed my walk with him. I would say it's changed who I am, even as a believer, even as a pastor. And so I read this text, and I think this is what he's saying, is stay with Jesus. In summary, continue to live your life in Christ. Don't be captured by counterfeits. Your charges are canceled. Christ's work is complete. It's good news. Max, second dog, Max the shadow, wanted to stay at home. We went to check on the cows at a cattle lease we had about seven miles away.

So we said, hey, Max, load up. He got in the truck, he went with us. You know, whenever you, it's funny, you get out of the truck, he wants to be right beside you. My dad got out of a truck to sight in his rifle, which means to adjust the scope of his rifle. And so Max jumps out of the truck, he's right there by his side, I'm right there as a little boy. I'm covering my ears, because I know it's gonna be loud. My dad fires the rifle. Max had never heard a rifle before, so he just takes off. And we think, oh, he's gonna realize everything's okay, and turn around, come back, but he doesn't. He never even slowed down, he just took off, and just ran for the horizon. I mean, we're seven miles from home, you know, crossed a giant bridge over the Guadalupe to get to this deer lease down, not deer lease, cattle lease down the road. And so we start driving around, looking for Max. Max, here, boy. Max, come back, buddy. Hey, don't see him. Sun sets, gotta go home, just, oh, no. Like, dad, we gotta go back tomorrow, we gotta go back tomorrow, dad, we gotta find Max. I gotta go to school Monday, go to school, dad picks me up, takes me back out there to where his cows are. We drive around, we set out food for him, don't find him.

Go home, go to school, dad picks me up, go back. Start talking to neighbors, showing them pictures, hey, have you seen, this is my dog, have you seen pictures of my dog? They're like, no, we haven't seen him. And I'm just like, oh, no, like, it's round two, this is terrible. Friday comes, and I'm like, man, I know, I know he's gone, you know, and we're just like, one more time, we're gonna go look for him. So we go out there one more time, drive out there, and it's like, trying to, come here, come here, boy, come here, boy, talking to neighbors, have you seen him? Sun sets, I just, we head home, it's like, it's lost cause, like, he's done for. And we pull up to my house, and he's right there in the middle of the yard, his tongue hanging out, drenched, swam the river, like, where have you guys been? You know, I'm like, let's look for you. He's like, oh, I came home. Now, I didn't like whatever y'all were doing out there. You know, I went home, seven miles. Homeward bound, you know, it's like, I'm going home. Like, I know where, I know where I'm safe. I know where I'm protected. You stay out there if you want to, I'm going home. You know, it's like, where have you been? He's like, I was in my father's house. You know, it's like, where, what's happening? And I said, hey, some of you need to come home.

You gotta make that mean whatever it needs to mean for you right now. I'm talking about hanging out with Jesus. You're like, man, I've never done that. My quiet times are not that. They're an achiever, you know, check the box, gotta tell something to life group. And I'm distracted. Some of you are lost in all of the distractions. Some of you may be sitting in the trap. There's gonna be a team of folks that are gonna come up here and we're gonna sing a song. And I just want you to be reminded that the battle's already won. And I don't want you to sleep on an opportunity to be prayed for. So if there's any part of you that's like, I wonder if I should get prayed, the answer is yes. The answer is yes. Just come up, let someone pray over you as though God's gonna hear them and answer it. Like that's how you walk up there with that confidence. Whatever I ask in the name of Jesus, just assume he's gonna hear it and answer it. We can walk in that truth and we can wrestle the spiritual reality of that later. But right now, you just walk forward with the confidence that you're gonna be prayed for and experience God's work through his Holy Spirit. So I'm gonna pray now, God, we thank you for this truth

that doesn't return void. Thank you for who you are and the way you love us through your son, Jesus Christ. Help us to remain in you, God. Help us to walk with you, God. Help us not to fall for the distractions of lust and greed and materialism and self-righteousness and gossip. Help us not to gossip, God. Purify us from all unrighteousness. Make us clean, God. We love you and we thank you for the finished works that our indebtedness is nailed to the cross. The victory is ours because of your son. It's in his name I pray, amen.