Summary: 1 of 5 messages on Colossians. This message is focused on the basics of spiritual life - faith, love, and hope. These are the elements which transform lives if they are focused on Jesus.

Life 101

Carbon, Oxygen, and Hydrogen

Sunday, September 24

The Building Blocks of Physical Life

Carbon, Oxygen, and Hydrogen

The building blocks of our physical bodies and the life that they sustain are three simple elements. Without these three elements there would be no life on earth. We are made from carbon. We breathe oxygen. And we cannot live without water – hydrogen and oxygen – for more than a few hours – a couple of days at the very most.

All animals are made of carbon, breathe oxygen and depend on water just as much as you and I do – yet there is a difference between animal kind and human kind.

Do not write this off as an unimportant consideration. In the last few decades we’ve seen the rise of a whole new way of viewing humanity – which is the lowering of man into the category of being simply another animal.

It has happened in two ways… first, by giving animals rights and recognizing them as having the same value of humanity. And second, through the degradation of man into just another piece of flesh on the hoof. We live, we procreate, we die and the cycle continues.

Both of these doctrines are permeating our world today. Your children are being taught this in school and your college kids are learning it in the universities.

Organizations like PETA would lift up animals to the same ethical and moral plane as humans while many atheist and agnostic groups would see humanity as no different than animal flesh.

We as people of God see human life differently than other forms of life.

I submit to you today that you and I are different than the animals in this world because of three critical spiritual building blocks. These building blocks are the foundation of our eternal existence. There are as important to us in our ultimate future world as carbon, oxygen and hydrogen are in this present world.

In Colossians 1 we learn what it is that makes the difference between us and the animal world. Let’s begin in the third verse.

The Building Blocks of Spiritual Life

3 In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 because we have heard about the faith you have in Christ Jesus and the love you have for all of God’s people. 5 You have this faith and love because of your hope, and what you hope for is kept safe for you in heaven.

Colossians 1:3-5

Faith

4 “…because we have heard about the faith you have in Christ Jesus…”

Colossians 1:4

Just as carbon is the basic building block of all life on earth so faith is the basic building block of all human spirituality.

Notice that I said “human” spirituality. Do you know of any animals who exhibit faith beyond the attachment of a pet to its master? Do you see any animal who exhibits the ability to believe in what it does not see and cannot touch? I don’t. Animals do not have in them the quality of faith nor do they have the ability to believe in that which then have never experienced.

Yet human kind does. All men live by faith – and it has little to do with believing in God. The presence of faith in us is part of what makes us human and not merely an animal. In fact, every person has faith. It’s hardwired into their mind and soul.

Faith is a commodity that is evidenced in every person who has ever lived, who is alive today, and will be in every person yet to live.

Now, some have faith in God others have faith in themselves or another. Some put their faith in a philosophy or a system of thinking.

The evolutionist puts his faith in a system of thinking that claims to be purely rational but is constructed from many different beliefs. The belief in the idea of natural selection is just one such tenet of faith. In the gospel of Darwin there are many doctrines leading from a simple ameba in a primordial soup to the complex world we live in. In this system of thinking there are huge gaps and tremendous leaps of logic – all guided by faith.

The Marxist puts his faith in social evolution built around the idea of thesis, antithesis and synthesis, other wise known as dialectical materialism. According to Karl Marx capitalism was the thesis, the antithesis was revolution of the trampled workers and the synthesis was a new state called communism. It was built on faith.

The fascist puts his faith in the idea that there is an elite group that is better, stronger, mightier, and righter than all others who have no right to even exist. They live by faith in their own supremacy.

The humanist believes in the innate supremacy of the brotherhood of man. He believes that man is ultimately good and that eventually we’ll all get along – now that is faith!

The hedonist believes in himself and his own desires. He is all about enjoying himself.

The Buddhist puts his faith in the teachings of Budda.

The Hindu puts his faith in a pantheon of gods hidden in every crack and crevice in the universe.

The Muslim puts his faith in Mohammad and would follow their God Allah and the teachings of the Koran – to the point that some willingly give up their lives and some willingly take others lives.

Christians are people of faith, too. But there is one key and critical difference. The Christian faith is in a God who sent his “one of a kind” (John 3:16 uses the word monogenes – one kind) son to die on a human cross so that you and I can be forgiven for our sinful rebellion from His righteous ways. Our faith is a trust in THE one who is sufficient.

Others may believe with even greater faith than we evidence but the one they put their faith in is not sufficient – Jesus is.

Yesterday, he died on the cross and today his tomb is empty. Tomorrow he is returning to gather up his own to join him in his eternal kingdom.

Jesus alone is sufficient to change me now and for eternity.

Love

“…because we have heard about… the love you have for all of God’s people.”

Colossians 1:4

Just as oxygen is essential for a body to live so love is essential for a spirit to live.

Hard as it is to believe, during the 1930’s and 40’s a whole school of mental health professionals decided that unconditional love was a terrible thing to give a child. The government printed pamphlets, warning mothers against the dangers of holding their kids. The head of the American Psychological Association and even a mothers’ organization endorsed the idea that mothers were dangerous – until psychologist Harry Harlow set out to prove them wrong with a series of experiments with monkeys.

In the 1950’s there was an early television show that showed an experiment in which baby monkeys were given surrogate mothers – a wire mother with milk and a soft cuddly mother without milk.

In this experiment devised to prove the existence of love, the baby monkeys would go to the wire mother for food and then rest in the arms of the cuddly mother monkey made of soft cloth.

When they made the soft mother monkey into a mean mother that would push the baby away the baby would give up food and everything else including play with its friends to try to repair the relationship with the cloth mother monkey.

It has been learned since that time that many babies born and then raised in orphanages – untouched by human hands, never experiencing being held, rocked, or hugged – these often simply died or worse – sometimes they grew up without any attachments or connections – lost souls – a kind of sad and loveless Peter Pan who is not cute and cannot fly.

The fact is that love is a huge building block in the human soul. The capacity to love and the need to love is in each one of us. We all desperately need to be loved.

The source of that characteristic… The center of the love gravity in the universe of humankind is God. From him emanates all of our love and our capacity to love others.

Last week on this American Life Ira Glass talked about the love of a mother and father who adopted a child who was raised in one of those orphanages. He was angry and hurting. He at the age of 12 having lived in an orphanage in Romania all of his years of existence came to America and lived with his very first family. But he didn’t know how to love. He was destructive and vicious. He would smile when his parents were hurt by his rage and anger. On one occasion he put a knife to his mother’s throat and was ready to cut her open. Yet his parents continued to love him. They went to all kinds of therapists, counselors, and psychologists and the only thing that worked was that they were told to simply hold him for an hour every day and talk to him.

Here he is a 12 year old kid – 250 pounds sitting on his mother and father’s lap eating ice cream and being held. Today he is becoming a well adjusted and loving man.

This is the love we gain from God. It is what makes us different spiritually and sets us apart from the rest of the world. The capacity to love and the need to love and to be loved is what sets us apart.

But love cannot be kept, it cannot be stored up or frozen for future use – it must be shared.

And when we who are followers of Jesus take God’s unconditional love and share it freely – that is when the world sits up and takes notice.

Hope

5 You have this faith and love because of your hope, and what you hope for is kept safe for you in heaven.

Colossians 1:5

In the physical world hydrogen is the hidden building block of life – yet mixed with oxygen we have water without which there can be no life at all. The search is on through out our solar system and galaxy for evidence of water – for that very reason.

The third and final building block for spiritual life is something very simple. It’s called hope.

Animals have no hope. They simply live, procreate, and die. Only man puts his names on buildings. Only man shares his name with his children and gives him an inheritance. Only many hopes that the future will be better than the present and more than the past.

Faith is rooted in hope. Love is focused by hope. Hope is that which gives purpose to life. Hope moves us past pain, vengeance, and resentment at being mistreated. Hope give you the ability to overcome the unfairness of life – and life is so completely unfair isn’t it!

Here in Colossians, as in 1 Corinthians 13, we see that Paul is thankful for their faith, love, and hope.

Peter put it this way… and he makes it very clear!

Hope

4 Now we hope for the blessings God has for his children. These blessings, which cannot be destroyed or be spoiled or lose their beauty, are kept in heaven for you.

1 Peter 1:4

If we have no hope of heaven, then we will not be able to persevere when we need to. The things of the world will look too attractive to pass up if our faith does not rest in hope.

One of the blessings of hope is it allows us to sacrifice the present on the altar of the future

John MacArthur, Jr.

That runs contrary to human nature. Young children, for example, have a difficult time waiting for something they want. The world wants it and wants it now.

The Christian has a different perspective. He is willing to forsake the present glory, comfort, and satisfaction of this present world for the future glory that is his in Christ. In contrast to the “buy now—pay later” attitude prevalent in the world, the Christian is willing to pay now and receive it later. What makes Christians willing to make such sacrifices? Hope, based on faith that the future holds something far better than the present.

Romans 8:18 (GWT) 18 says “I consider our present sufferings insignificant compared to the glory that will soon be revealed to us.”

If Jesus is making a difference in your life, your hope in the future will allow you to sacrifice some of the present things for the future gain of heaven!

The Transformed Life

Faith in Jesus, Love for one another, and Hope for an eternal inheritance is what transforms our daily existence into a joy filled life

What does that mean? It’s explained in the text

Great wisdom and understanding in spiritual things

A life that honors and pleases the Lord in every way

A life that produces fruit in every good work

Personal growth in the knowledge of God

Strengthened by God’s own great power to not give up when trouble comes but be patient

Joyfully thanksgiving to the father who made you able to have a share in all that he has prepared for his people.

Are you experiencing this kind of life yet? You can have it starting right now! Today!

It’s not rocket science…

Just put your faith in Jesus,

determine to love one another,

and hold on with all your might to the hope for the glorious and wondrous inheritance to come…

Let’s pray…