Bobby Bosler: Welcome to the Thee Generation podcast.

I’m Bobby Bosler and I’m speaking to you today from Indianapolis, Indiana, where our team is doing our ninth out of 11 cola clashes this summer.

We’re working with Charity Baptist Church, Pastor Leo Mejia, and it’s a great church.

It’s become a very multicultural church.

God’s doing something great here.

And we’re just excited to be able to partner with them and join the things that God himself is doing.

Boy, it’s been an interesting week.

When we arrived, it didn’t occur to me that Indiana schools started so early.

And so we went from one week doing summer cola clashes out and about, recruiting without schools in session to all of a sudden having to deal with the schools.

And so it’s been a bit of a shift for our team, but God has used it to put us on our faces, to get us desperate for him and his deliverance.

And we’re grateful for the many recruits that we had and for the, I think it’s now 13, 14 young people or so that have trusted Christ as their savior so far.

As of the time of my recording, we’re heading into our final night of our rallies and I would appreciate your prayers.

Probably by the time you hear this, it’ll be done already, but we appreciate your prayers for us.

We’ve got two more weeks left, one in Pendleton, Indiana.

That’s just north, well, really east of Indianapolis.

And then we’ll be in Cookville, Tennessee with Calvary Baptist Church there.

So we’re excited about what God is doing.

We’re glad that we’ve got a few more weeks left for the summer to reach teenagers with the gospel.

One of the things we’ve been doing as a team is we have been studying through a couple books in the Bible.

You’ve probably heard me mention here this summer, we’ve gone through the book of Galatians from cover to cover.

And we just finished up this afternoon, the book of Colossians.

And boy, I want you to know my heart is stirred with this message.

I feel like the message of this book is one that is so needed today.

And as much as the specific details of what Paul was combating might be a little different.

I think the way that these problems are manifest.

All I got to say is God knew what he was doing when he inspired this book, because I feel like today in our society, we can so easily get our eyes off of Jesus.

You know, and I’m not just talking about in our lost world society.

I’m talking about in our churches, in our schools, in our Christian cultures.

It’s so easy for us to subtly shift away from Jesus.

If I could kind of personally summarize Paul’s burden for this letter, he’s burdened that they don’t shift their eyes off of the whole point of the universe, off of the fullness of God and Jesus Christ.

I want to briefly touch on just a couple things here in this book and then really focus in on a couple verses here.

In chapter one, Paul just wants them to understand that Jesus is everything.

He talks about the fact that Jesus is our path to redemption, and he is the image of the invisible God.

He’s like first place in everything, every creature in the universe.

And he says, for by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible.

And here he’s saying, whether you can see it or whether you can’t, whether it’s outside of earth’s atmosphere or inside of earth’s atmosphere, All things were made by Jesus.

Can I say this, young people?

Jesus is the creator of the universe.

The universe wasn’t a product of chance.

It wasn’t a product of natural processes.

As much as, yes, there are natural processes that are happening, that are making the world the way it is today, the ultimate originator of the universe was Jesus Christ.

He was the one that the Scripture speaks of in Genesis 1.1 when it says, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

In fact, John 1 verse 1 says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The same as in the beginning with God.

All things, it says, were made by Him.

That’s the Word.

And without Him was not anything made that was made.

And so that being said, I just want you to see here, Jesus is literally the originator of the universe.

But it says this.

It’s interesting.

It says all things were created by Him. in Colossians 1 verse 16 again, the end of the verse, but it also says they were created by him and for him.

Can I tell you, Jesus is also the purpose of the universe.

Jesus is the sustainer of the universe.

It says by him, all things consist.

And even when we’re talking about here on this earth, when we’re talking about his body, it says he’s the head of the body, the church.

And okay, at the end of this verse, though, it gives us what God was trying to do and letting Jesus and kind of, you could say, almost delegating to Jesus, the creation of the universe being the purpose of the universe, the sustainer of the universe.

Do you get the idea that the universe is all wrapped up in Jesus, right?

But it says that in all things, he, that’s Jesus, might have the preeminence.

The purpose of the universe is to make Jesus the focal point.

But this next verse This is so interesting, and this is going to be key for understanding this letter.

He says, for it pleased the Father that in him, that’s in Jesus, should all, here’s a key word, fullness dwell.

Wow.

So what is fullness?

Well, fullness is kind of the idea of something being filled.

You know, the idea of this is essentially just the idea of the total quantity, the completeness.

If I can maybe put it this way, I think what he’s saying here is God decided, it pleased God, that Jesus should be the originator of the universe, the purpose of the universe, the sustainer of the universe, so that he can be the preeminent one in the universe.

In other words, God is consolidating all good, all blessing, all power, and all glory to focus on one single focal point, and that is Jesus.

Jesus is the point of the universe.

I was talking to the team a little bit earlier, just summarizing the book again.

If you think about a black hole, right?

A black hole pulls everything within, oh, what’s the word for that?

Between that point at which not even light can escape, right?

The event horizon.

It pulls everything into, and while a black hole itself might be big, really what you’re seeing is the event horizon, but really inside of the black hole, everything has so compacted because of the immense weight of gravity into one almost unmeasurable point called a singularity.

And literally the gravity and mass is so great that it crushes matter into a single point, almost so small it’s unmeasurable.

That’s what Jesus is.

Okay, black holes are bad.

Jesus is good.

But Jesus is the focal point.

He’s the singularity, all blessing. by the dictates of the Father are crushing in and centralized into one point, and that point is Jesus.

And to think that Jesus, the focal point of the universe, came and died on the cross for us, his enemies, to think that he paid the price for man’s sins so that we can be reconciled to him, that’s an unbelievable thing.

To think that Jesus gets involved with us in our churches, right, to be our leader and our head.

When you get to the end of chapter 1, he says that I, Paul, my job description is to share throughout the world in this unique time in history.

It is my job to share what he says, the mystery, the glory of this mystery, this thing that was hidden.

My job is to share this mystery among the non-Jews, the Gentiles, and here’s the mystery.

Christ in you.

So wait a minute.

You’re telling me that the cosmic purpose of the entire universe is Jesus.

He is the one that God has consolidated all goodness, blessing, power, glory.

Everything that God has to offer is consolidated in the singularity of Jesus.

And Jesus is in us.

Whoa, that’s amazing.

And that’s what Paul’s point was in preaching.

It was to point people to Jesus.

Jesus in you is the solution. he says listen I want everybody to live up to that reality I want everybody to experience that reality it is your confident expectation of God’s glory that you have Jesus in you he says that’s what we preach that’s what we strive for that’s what we labor for and when you get into chapter two he want he’s praying that God will help you get it he’s praying that God will help you understanding understand excuse me and acknowledging and experiencing this unbelievable mystery that Jesus is in you and in him are hid all the treasures, verse 3 says, of wisdom and knowledge.

Listen, the treasures of God are available to you through Jesus Christ, the singularity, the whole purpose of creation.

But heretofore, up to this point in the letter, he’s been entirely positive about this, okay?

But in chapter 2, verse 4, he says this, And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.

The idea of the word beguile is to deceive someone by arguments or false reasons.

Simplistically, it’s to deceive somebody.

And he’s saying, listen, I’m saying what I’m saying in this letter because I do not want you to be tricked.

I do not want you to be misled.

I do not want you to be deceived by nice sounding words.

And he says, I praise God for you, for what you’ve experienced.

I want you to experience Jesus even more.

I want you to grow your roots deeply into him, to draw from him all that he has for you from him, springing out of him.

I want you to abound with thanksgiving.

But verse 8, he says, beware.

Watch out.

Don’t go to sleep here because there is danger lurking in your midst.

He says, beware lest any man spoil you.

You know, even though Christ is in us and we have unbelievable access to the treasures and goodness of God, it is possible for you to be led astray.

It is possible for people with nice sounding arguments, maybe even well intentions, to rob you.

That’s the idea of the word spoil.

To rob you of experiencing the unbelievable riches and fullness of Jesus Christ.

I’m going to come back to what spoils you in just a second.

But I want you to see in verse 9, the next verse he says, For in him, that’s in Christ clearly from the verse before, In him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead.

In other words, just like I’ve been saying, all of what God has to offer, this fullness, the goodness, power, righteousness, whatever it is that’s good about God, all of that is consolidated into Jesus and even says bodily.

Jesus, even in his incarnate bodily form, it’s all consolidated in one place and in one place only.

And he says in the next verse, and ye are complete in him.

The word complete, super interesting.

It’s related to the word fullness.

You have complete access to the fullness of the Godhead because Jesus is in you.

But get back to verse 8 again.

Beware.

Listen, the treasures of God are yours through Jesus Christ.

The good things that God has prepared for them who love him, those things that we can’t understand except by the illumination of the Holy Spirit, those things that eye hasn’t seen, ear hasn’t heard, mind hasn’t comprehended.

Listen, those things you can be robbed of, young people.

You can be robbed of experiencing the amazing, unbelievable, cosmic blessings of Jesus Christ.

How do we get deceived?

Oh, it’s subtle.

It’s subtle, young people.

Well, it says in verse 8, Beware lest any man spoil you through.

We’ve got a two-fold description of this that are really wrapped into one concept through philosophy and vain deceit.

I can’t necessarily go into all the Greek here, but that’s kind of all bundled together into one package, those words philosophy and vain deceit.

And the idea of this is there are philosophies, there are ways of looking at the world, there are ways of understanding reality and yourself and other people and how you relate to those things that are in effect actually, vain, they’re empty, they’re worthless deceptions.

Remember earlier he said through enticing words, right?

Listen, young people, I want you to know not everything that people say is actually the answer.

Just because somebody gets excited about some new fad or some new method or some new technique does not mean it’s the answer.

It may sound good.

It may be enticing.

It may make sense, but a lot of these things are nothing but philosophical, empty garbage, and they can rob you of the treasures of Jesus Christ.

It may not be obvious.

It may be subtle, but he’s saying, beware lest you get robbed.

He goes on and he talks more about this, this philosophy in vain to see the problem is, is thereafter or according to the tradition of men.

These are earthly, human-focused solutions.

These things may be things that people came up with generations ago.

These things may be things that long lines of people have held as the solution for mankind or whatever it might be.

They think they’re the solution for society.

They think these things are the solution for education.

They think these things are the solution for personal growth and development.

They may think these things are the solution for the church or the solution for relationships or the solution for whatever it is, you name it.

But here’s the thing.

Here’s the problem with these traditions, these things that have been handed down to you.

They are of men.

They are man-focused.

They are of man’s origin.

They came out of man’s heads.

And man cannot find the solution.

They cannot give the solution.

If it’s not from Jesus, it’s not the solution.

Oh, it’s so easy to get caught up in this stuff.

You know, you hear something about relationships and, oh, you know, this is the solution here.

I’m grappling through with that right now and some things I’m praying through and thinking through.

And like man says this is the solution, but I’m thinking, I don’t know that that’s the solution.

I want to get up my face and find the solution from God.

After the traditions of men.

This next phrase is a little bit more contested as far as what it means.

He says, after the rudiments of the world.

And the idea of that word rudiments is like the basic principles that underlie the nature of something.

I saw one commentator that said it’s like rows and columns.

It’s like data, like the foundational data that everything is built on.

And some people think it’s talking about like the earthly elements, like wind, fire, water, whatever those things are, and the spiritual beings that are associated with them.

And I could be wrong, but I’m not really sure that’s the point here.

I think when I think about this in terms of like building blocks, it makes a lot of sense to me.

And again, I could be wrong here.

But in other words, there are, there’s data, there are foundational principles that appear to be really solid and make a lot of sense.

There are things that when you put them in an Excel spreadsheet, it seems to pan out.

It seems to work.

It seems to pan out, you know.

But here’s the problem.

Whether it’s man’s solutions that they’ve come up with, whether it’s foundational principles that seem like they work, the last phrase tells you what the problem is.

And not after Christ.

In other words, the problem, the things that spoil you, these hollow man-made philosophies, they point you to things other than Jesus.

Can I say this, young people?

Beware of any philosophy or any pattern of thinking or any technique or solution that causes you to look inside of yourself for the answer.

That is not the answer.

That is humanism, young person.

Beware of any method or way of looking at the world that makes you think that if you can just pull yourself up by your bootstraps and eke it out a little more or just tweak your brain just a little bit more or hack your thinking so that you can get it all figured out.

Beware lest you look inside of yourself for the solution, even though this seems subtle.

But if you look inside of yourself for the solution and not to Jesus, you are getting robbed, young person.

Don’t let yourself get robbed.

I think there’s a lot of people who are very well-intentioned in this stuff.

And even in our Christianity, there is such a temptation to find solutions in human psychology.

There’s such a temptation to find solutions in human methods and pragmatism.

There’s such a temptation to find solutions to these things that are not the solution.

God has made it easy to find the solution.

He’s consolidated all solutions into one singularity, and that singularity is Jesus.

Listen, the solution isn’t an app.

The solution is not a technique.

The solution isn’t an accountability partner.

The solution is not a class that you go through.

The solution is not a Bible college education.

The solution is not being in a certain environment or in a certain city or being in a certain church.

The solution isn’t being under a specific mentor.

The solution is Jesus.

And if the stuff I’m saying sounds overly simplistic to you, you need to study the book of Colossians.

Frankly, if I can say this a little bit straightforwardly and frankly, if you think that what I’m saying is oversimplified, you’re off.

You’re wrong.

Because Jesus is the solution in any philosophy, any tradition, any set of principles, tactics, techniques or methods that points you to yourself and not to Jesus for the answer is unbiblical.

It is wrong.

It will rob you.

If it’s not pointing you to Jesus, it’s just going to get you off.

Oh man, in Jesus we have everything we need.

In him is all the fullness of the Godhead, right? and you are complete in him.

There’s a lot more that could be said from this book.

There’s a lot more that he has to say.

This is not to say that our earthly behavior doesn’t matter.

He makes it clear.

There’s some things you need to put to death in your life.

There’s some things you need to implement into your life.

But even in the midst of all of those things, even in the midst of looking at how human relationships ought to work, whether it’s in the home, in the workplace, whatever it might be, Jesus is the answer.

Jesus is the answer.

Beware, young people, beware.

Lest anything subtly shifts your focus away from Jesus.

This is what we’re all about at Thee Generation.

It’s total surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Total dependence on his power to bring the fullness of the Godhead flowing through you to reach the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Thanks so much for listening.