OPEN: Last week we introduced a devise known as a GPS or Global Positioning Systems.
This device allows the user to know where they are and where they want to go. It works through a process known as triangulation.
There are 24 Dept. of Defense satellites constantly circling our earth at a very precise orbit of approximately 1200 miles (show graphic of satellites in orbit). These satellites send signals back to earth and our GPS units need to pick up signals from 3 to 4 of these satellites and calculate the time it takes for that signal to arrive from each of them. Based on that information, the GPS can tell you where you are within 50 feet
It hasn’t taken long for people to realize some useful applications of this device. One specialized form of GPS works in tandem with an RFID or a "Radio Frequency Identification Tag". RFIDs can be as simple as the bar codes that are used in Grocery stores. But the military has found a way to combine the GPS and RFID to form a device that can be placed inside a shipping container. The U.S. military then use those GPS units to track supplies resources for our troops overseas in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.
At any given time, the military can know exactly where that container is.
And those shipments are NEVER lost.
Their location is ALWAYS known.
APPLY: Colossians 1:27 we’re told that God has placed His own GPS unit inside of us: “… God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is CHRIST IN YOU, the hope of glory.”
Essentially that verse is saying: God has placed a GPS unit inside of you and that GPS unit is “Christ in you.”
Colossians calls it “a mystery”…
And it’s called “the hope of glory.”
What does that mean?
Well it is called a mystery… because you and I didn’t deserve this kindness..
Colossians 1:21 describes us this way: “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.”
You and I were enemies of God.
We were alienated from God.
We didn’t deserve what God has given us.
Ephesians 2:1-3 described it this way:
“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts.
Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.”
Then it says:
“BUT because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions— it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:4-7
We weren’t worthy of His “great love”.
We didn’t deserve His mercy and kindness.
We were dead in our transgression.
But He loved us anyway.
And He showed us mercy anyway.
And then He placed us in Christ
Or as Colossians 1:27 put it “Christ in you the hope of glory”
That’s the mystery.
Christ in us - not because we deserve it, but because He loved us.
No other world religion teaches that.
No other world religion teaches that God’s love is a gift
Every other religion other than Christianity believe God never gives anything without first receiving sufficient good works from us. A kind of “quid pro quo.”
Heaven is considered a “paycheck” - something you get because you’ve been a pretty good person.
ILLUS: Dr. Timothy Keller described it this way (founder and preaching minister of New York’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan)
“The universal religion of humankind is this: We develop a good record and give it to God, and then he owes us.”
This is: God HAS to let them in to heaven because they He owes it to them.
And Keller continues: “But the gospel is: God develops a good record and gives it to us, then we owe him. (Rom. 1:17).
God took our punishment for us so that we could get in to heaven.
God put us in Christ and Christ in us.
We owe Him EVERYTHING.
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith— and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9
But how does this “Christ being in us” work?
Well, 2 Corinthians 5:17 says: “… if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
When Christ comes into our lives, we become a new person.
ILLUS: When Leon (one of the teenagers in our church) was baptized at camp this past week, Heather (one of our ladies who was there) tried to explain to him that there was nothing magic in the water.
When he was buried with Christ and risen up… he’d still be human.
He’d just be a NEW human.
That’s what Romans 6:4 tells us
“We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a NEW LIFE.”
You go down into the water a human… you come a NEW human.
The power to transform us isn’t in the water… it’s in Jesus.
And when Jesus comes into our lives:
· we have a NEW life
· we are a NEW creation
· the old is gone, the new has come.
ILLUS: A preacher friend of mine named Mike told of his conversion to Christ. He told me his family was known throughout the community as the worst examples of humanity.
The parents were irresponsible.
The kids were troublemakers.
They lived like animals… even eating food out of trashcans.
Everyone who saw them thought. That’s just who they are. That’s all they’ll ever be. They’ll never change.
But Mike did.
There came a point at which he heard the powerful message of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection and he decided that was what he wanted for his life. He believed in Jesus, repented of his sins and was buried in the waters of baptism for the forgiveness of his sins. He eventually became a preacher and part of his ministry reached into his family – of whom he baptized several.
Then one day, Mike was at the funeral of his brother-in-law. One of the women who was there (and who had not seen him since his conversion) spoke with him and she said that she was amazed at the change that had taken place in his life. She was surprised at what HE had made of himself.
Mike responded: “Oh I really appreciate your compliment, but I really didn’t change myself. It was Christ IN ME that brought about the changes in my life.”
It was Christ in him – the hope of Glory.
As Romans 6:11 taught him, Mike counted himself “…dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
ILLUS: There is a story about a little girl who proudly wore a shiny cross on a chain around her neck. One day she was approached by a man who said to her, "Little girl, don't you know that the cross Jesus died on wasn't beautiful like the one you're wearing? It was an ugly, wooden thing."
The little girl smiled at him and replied,
"Yes, I know. But they told me in Sunday school that whatever Jesus touches, He changes."
Now, how does that work?
How does God bring about that change in our lives?
Well, He brings that change about because He’s always with us.
He knows where we’re at – at all times.
We’re never out of His sight.
“Christ in me: is a GPS - that never loses sight of where I am.
ILLUS: Do you remember my telling you (at the beginning of the sermon) that they now place GPS units in shipping containers so they can track that container wherever its at? It doesn’t matter where that container is, the powers that be, in the U.S. military, can find it anywhere on the face of the earth. THE GPS inside the container makes it possible to locate anywhere it is
And this is how God’s GPS works for us.
Because Christ is in YOU and ME
GOD knows where we’re at all times.
He can find me on this stage.
(GO OFF STAGE sit in pew)
He can find me seated in this pew.
(Wait a couple of seconds, then go into a side room and SHOUT)
HE CAN EVEN FIND ME IN HERE!
(return to stage)
ILLUS: I just spent a week in camp and some of the newly baptized believers. A few of them were concerned that once they left camp and returned to their old circumstances, they might drift away from God. They’d expressed a desire to stay in camp all summer - and most of the school year - because they’d feel safer there (more protected from peer pressure).
But you know… we all live most of our lives SOMEWHERE other than in Church. We spend much of our time with non-Christians at work, at school, at home. And there are often people in those settings who can create a powerful drag on our spirituality. Some of them may even want to undermine our faith if they can.
But it doesn’t matter where you and I are.
Christ is IN us.
God knows WHERE we are at at all times.
And He’s right there beside us… never gonna leave us
As the 23rd Psalm tells us:
“Yea, though we walk in dark places… we’ve no reason to be afraid
Because He is there with us
His rod and His staff they comfort us
He prepares a place for us in the presence of our enemies”
(This is my loose translation of Psalm 23:4-5)
God prepares a place for us IN THE PRESENCE of our enemies.
We can be surrounded by our enemies, but that doesn’t make any difference because Christ is IN us. He’s the hope of glory. And part of that “Hope of glory” is that EVEN when we’re all alone we have no reason to be afraid because He’s right there with us.
That’s why Paul said nothing else could compare to this truth – that Christ was in him. In Philippians 3:4-8 he wrote:
“If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the 8th day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.
What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ.”
You see, that was made Paul so strong.
He had His priorities in order.
He had been successful in the circle of friends in which he walked, but he came to realize that that success… and those friends…weren’t going to get him where he wanted to go. So he literally turned his back on all that those things offered.
When he was baptized into Christ – he died to his old way of life and rose to be a different person.
ILLUS: One of the men at camp this past week was sharing the story of a the head of a prominent psychiatric unit in a Northeastern state. This man was wealthy and influential and highly successful by anyone’s standards. But something was missing in his life.
Then he began to talk with a preacher from the Church of Christ in his town. He became convicted of the righteousness of Jesus… and of his own sinfulness. He confessed his faith in Jesus and was baptized into Christ that very night.
But then he had to go back to work.
And he began to realize that many of the things he was required to do (like padding bills, charging for services never rendered, etc.) were wrong. He refused to do these things.
And then the company politely asked him to leave.
He lost his prominent job; he lost his powerful influence; he lost his big paycheck. But he gained self respect… and he went on to become a preacher in New York State.
It was Christ – in him – that was the hope of glory.
It was Christ – in him – that gave him the courage to do the right thing.
And now he’s happier than he’s ever been before in his life.
CLOSING:
So, how does this happen?
How can it be that Christ would be in me?
Well, Galatians 3:27 says:
"…all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”
(On stage I had bowl of water that had red food dye in it - and a white handkerchief)
If I could take a bowl of red dye and put a white cloth into it then the cloth would be immersed in the dye, but the dye would be in the cloth.
There would no longer be a white cloth; there would be a red cloth.
The white cloth is in the dye, but the dye is in the cloth.
We are in Christ and Christ is in us.
Christ in me is the HOPE of glory
Nothing in this world even compares to what God can do in our lives
Nothing else compares to what God can offer me because Christ in me is the HOPE of glory.
