How Great is Our God?

How Great is Our God? “Your life is a miracle, and the Creator of the universe knows you personally by name.” TONIGHT at 7 pm Pastor Jim will show the next DVD by Louis Giglio, Pastor and inspiring speaker, who will talk about our God who is intimately acquainted with you and promises to carry you through life. Come and be inspired! Tonight at 7 pm

70th Wedding Anniversary 235 Dowd Rd. Elyria

Announcements • Ash Wednesday Service – This coming Wednesday at Noon and at 7 pm. Lutheran World Relief - SpecialOffering during Lent…

Cottage Meetings – This Monday at 3 & 7 pm, and again this Wednesday at 1:30 pm (after Ash Wed) and at 6 pm (before Ash Wed). • “So, What’s Changed?” - Please read the Article and fill out Survey • On March 4th – Service Time at 10 am – Worship Style will be “Blended” • Voter’s Meeting – March 4th 11:30 am

What is Mission U? MISSION U is Lutheran Hour Ministries’ new witnessing-training program designed to provide ordinary people with the tools and training needed to confidently share Jesus Christ with people in many different settings.

Saturday, March 10th9 am – 2 pm • MU-101 – Equipping to Share: Everyday Evangelism • Learn to overcome fear and to effectively share your faith in Jesus. • Cost? $10 covers materials, snacks and lunch • Register on the Sign Up Sheet in Church Lobby

Christ – the Center of My Belief Week of February 19, 2012

Outline of the Passage • Choose Fullness over Emptiness - Colossians 2:8-14 • Choose Substance over Shadows - Colossians 2:16-19 • Choose Relationship over Rules - Colossians 2:20-23

Our study today is about keeping Christ the center of your belief by rejecting any thinking or practices that deny the centrality of Christ. Let’s Pray for the Spirit’s Guidance We will recognize the importance of sound doctrine and evaluate all spiritual-truth claims in light of the Bible and that have Christ as their focus and fulfillment.

Choose Fullness over Emptiness Colossians 2:8-14 8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. 9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority…

Choose Fullness over Emptiness Having been buried with him in baptism [you are now] raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 When you were dead in your sins… God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.

Choose Fullness over Emptiness • We are to guard against being taken captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy. What is a philosophy? • What are hollow, misleading words that had no real value? (i.e. “God helps those who help themselves.”) • “To not be taken captive” carries the sense of being victimized, of being kidnapped or taken by a slave trader.

Paul did not want believers to become prey to false teachings based on human tradition or handed-down theory, and not on the Scriptures. • Paul included in these false teachings the Jewish emphases on Sabbaths, circumcision, the law, special days and festivals. All these were unnecessary now that Jesus Christ had come.

Christ is the source and measure of all human knowledge, of belief and life. • The false teachers said a person had to move through this series of powers in order to relate to God. The false teachers claimed to have secret knowledge to enable individuals to work through the powers to get to God and His fullness.

Paul asserted that the entire fullness of God’s nature—the complete Deity—dwells bodily in Christ. Jesus of Nazareth was God incarnate, fully human and fully divine. • Christ was all believers needed for salvation and a full life. They were fully complete in Him. He was supreme over every ruler and authority.

False Teachings Today C O E X I S T

Paul used Christian baptism to illustrate the believers’ identification with Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. • In the waters of Baptism, our sinful nature was put to dead and was buried with Him. • Rising from the waters of Baptism, we also rose with Him to new life.

We were spiritually dead, but God raised us even as He raised Christ from the grave. • We are alive together with Christ through the forgiving of our sin. • We have God’s IOU – certificate of debt – that our sin-debt has been paid. • God did this by nailing it to the cross. “Tetelestai”

Choose Substance Over Shadows Colossians 2:16-1916 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. 18 Do not let anyone… disqualify you for the prize.

Choose Substance Over Shadows Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. 19 He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.

Choose Substance Over Shadows • Paul urged believers not to allow anyone to judge their religious practices. • False teachers insisted some foods and drinks were approved and others not. • False teachers also promoted observance of special holy days, likely annual Jewish feasts; monthly festivals; and even weekly observances. • These rules and rituals that would shift focus away from one’s personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Do We Have Human Rules & Rituals? What elements in our Church building did God command us to have and use? ___ Altar ___ Lectern ___ Pulpit ___ Pews ___ Organ ___ Guitar ___ Screen ___ Baptismal Font Did God command us to use any of these? Did God forbid us to use any of these? No No

Paul declares that anyone who elevates these things has lost connection to the head - Christ. • Christ’s people—His church or body—drew its nourishment and unity from Him. God enables the body to grow. • Spiritual growth occurs in only two ways. • Personal Relationship to Jesus Christ • Connection to the Community of Believers – the Church.

Choose Relationship Over Rules Colossians 2:20-23 20 Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: 21 "Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!"? 22 These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings.

Choose Relationship Over Rules 23 Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

Choose Relationship Over Rules • Some believers were turning to humanly-devised regulations that supposedly led to greater spirituality. • The false teachers’ rigid system included rules prescribing what could and could not be practiced. • Paul stressed that a relationship with Christ, not religious rules, determined believers’ spiritual condition.

Why, then, were some Christians reverting to their former lifestyles, and choosing to become enslaved to humanly contrived, legalistic regulations? • Paul quoted three regulations: Do not handle; Do not taste: Do not touch. • All these regulations concerned things that were consumable; They were temporary, not eternal. Sin

“Adiaphran” are things which God has not commanded nor forbidden. • Such external, non-essential matterscould end up replacing a person’s relationship with Christ. • The hook is that some of these regulations seem reasonable and sound. • Just because something “sounds” good does not mean its spiritually valuable.

Paul mentions three elements of false doctrine that was being passed off as necessary for salvation: • Self-imposed worship: • False Humility: • Harsh treatment of the body: • Such practices will NOT help us combat evil; only Christ’s indwelling presence and power can do that.

How Great is Our God?