South Run Baptist Church

About South Run Baptist Church

Sermons from South Run Baptist Church, Springfield VA

Publisher

South Run Baptist Church

Category

religion & spirituality

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

16 Jul 2023

Latest episode

25 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

144 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   25 Oct 2026

   Don't Judge Me

   Don't Judge Me Dr. Eric J. Gilchrest | Lead Pastor Check out the weekly sermon here or on our SRBC podcast on Apple Podcast and Spotify. While you’re at it, check us out on Facebook and Instagram too. Like what you hear? We’d love to know. At South Run, we read every message personally. Whether you have a question, want to share how God is moving in your life, or are thinking about visiting in person, this is the place to start. If you click the link below, Pastor Eric will personally reach out to you. Listening online? Let us know. Sermon Transcript Date: October 25, 2026 Sermon Title: Don’t Judge Me Passage: Matthew 7:1-5 Preacher: Dr. Eric J. Gilchrest - Lead Pastor Sermon Summary: Pastor Eric explores Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 7:1–12, explaining the difference between judgmentalism, which comes from pride and condemnation, and discernment, which begins with self-examination and seeks to help others through love, humility, and grace. He challenges us to examine our own hearts before correcting others, avoid assuming their motives, and treat people with the same mercy and compassion that God extends to us. Sermon Transcript: Good morning. So if you haven't been around here for a while, you may not know that everybody is tired of this series that we're in and we're slowly winding it down, actually. We're coming to the end of something that we've been in for a very long time, which is Actually, I hope you're not tired. I think this is some of the most important stuff I've probably ever preached on, which is that Jesus teaches us how to live a life and that he offers us two ways in life. And that the one way is the broad way. It's the easy way. It's like our human nature and we're just naturally bent toward going down that broad path. And we have to reorient our hearts and we have to intentionally walk this other path. And it is narrow, right? It is difficult to do sometimes. And the whole judging thing that we're going to talk about today is case in point. I think the broad way is to be judgmental and it's to live out of this place of judgment. The harder path in life is the one where we offer grace and where we look to the best of others, and we try to live the life as Jesus teaches us to live it. So this is what we're doing today. Before we get into it, I do want to pray over the word and the message and over you. So let's bow our heads. Father in heaven, we have gathered today to be in your presence. We have gathered, maybe for many reasons, Some of us out of habit or obligation, but some of us because we're desperate. We're desperate for something from you, something transcendent breaking into the ordinariness of our lives. My prayer this morning is whatever the reasons are that has gathered these today in your sanctuary, Lord, that you do break through. that you show them that you are at work in the world at large, but specifically in their lives today, right now, as these words are being spoken. And so, Lord, speak. We are listening. Amen. So every now and again, I come across these nuggets that really jazz me up because I had never seen it before. I didn't know they existed. And so this week is one of these where I found out that there is this, well, there's essentially these Jewish writings called the Talmud, okay, that could start in about the 1st century AD. I know, I got nerdy quick. First century AD, right? And then they get written for a while, and it's essentially the rabbis. These are the Pharisees, mind you. We have the Pharisees literature. I don't know if you know that. And they write down, the rabbis from the Pharisees, they start writing down their reflections on scripture. And one of these collections is called the Talmud. And I found one that many believe dates back to the 1st or 2nd century AD. So like about the time of Jesus and right after. And I'm going to read to you what it says. It's going to sound very similar to what Jesus says, but maybe with a few twists, okay? So it goes like this. It is taught in a barata that Rabbi Tarfan says the following. I would be surprised if there is anyone in this generation who can receive correction. So the rabbi says, I would be surprised if there's anyone who can receive correction. Why? Because if the one correcting says to him, remove the splinter from your eyes, that is, rid yourself of a minor infraction. The other says back to him, remove the beam between your eyes, which is to say you have committed far more severe sins. So this is the first rabbi. This is, again, first, second century AD. same exact imagery. There's like a speck, and then there's a beam in the eyes of these people, the splinter in the beam. But it goes on, and then it says, Rabbi Eleazer, Ben Azariah, says, I would be surprised if there is anyone in this generation who knows how to rebuke correctly without embarrassing the person he is rebuking. Here's what we got. In this very ancient Jewish piece of literature, by the way, Jesus, our Jewish rabbi who we are all following, is in this same way. They are using the same ideas and the same metaphor of the beam and the speck, but they are using it slightly differently. And they're using it a little like my title is, which is Don't judge me. That's the first one. If somebody comes and says, hey, you've got something in your eye, your immediate response is, you've got a beam in your eye, right? And you can see the defenses going up there. So this is 1 problem. The person can't receive correction. But then the other problem is what gets named next, which is that somebody can't correct another person without completely embarrassing them. In a way, this is actually what Jesus is doing, only he's then expanding upon it. And so this sermon and this passage, it is about how to correct others well. And it is also about how to receive correction well. But it is more than that, because Jesus being Jesus the prophet is often provocative. And he says things that are bold and it seems black and white until you kind of dig down a few layers and you realize, well, did he mean what he said? And so he starts off and he says, don't judge, right? Very simply, don't judge. Just don't do it. But then you have to ask yourself, you got to peel back the layers. Well, does he really mean don't judge in any scenario? And what exactly is that like? Let's go ahead and read the passage again. I'm actually going to read a little bit longer. I hope you have your scripture in front of you. I want to keep reading because there are a few things right after this passage. that tie together the passage that we're in. I will focus primarily on one through 5 for the sake of the sermon, but the rest of it is pertinent. So here again, Matthew chapter 7, we are at this point nearing the end of the Sermon on the Mount, if you know your Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus says the following, Judge not that you not be judged, for with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck in your brother's eye but do not notice the log in your own? Or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out of your eye when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. He goes on and he says, don't give dogs what is holy and do not throw your pearls before pigs lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you. I need you to keep the pigs and the dogs in your head. Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives. and the one who seeks finds, and the one who knocks, it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, we'll give him a stone. Or if he asks for a fish, we'll give him a serpent. If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, well, how much more will your good heavenly Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him? And then the passage, and maybe all of the Sermon on the Mount gets tied up in one final verse, verse 12. Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the law and the prophets. Jesus begins the passage by saying, judge not lest ye be judged. You've probably heard this before, judge not lest ye be judged. I remember when I was moving to Alabama, it must have been in 2013, on my way down there, I stopped in to see my childhood pastor. I hadn't seen him for years and years and years. I don't really keep up with him, and I hadn't at that point either, but he was living in Alabama, and so I thought I would go visit his church. I would hear him preach, and then I even got to eat with him after the service. The sermon was excellent. He was preaching from Romans. He's a gifted orator, and I always thought this as a child, and it was nice to hear him as basically a grown adult at that point. But we ate lunch together afterward. And he hadn't maybe completely kept up with me. Like he didn't really know who I was. And he kind of knew me as a kid, but he didn't really know my path thereafter. And so when he was talking to me at the table, he asked, what do you do and what's your role? And I said, oh, well, I just finished my PhD in biblical studies at Baylor, and I'm actually going to teach at this college down in Marion, Alabama. He immediately, you could almost see it on his face, got very scared. And he said, oh, no, I bet you were just picking apart my sermon and you were finding all the things wrong with the sermon. And I said to him, no, I've learned, judge not lest ye be judged. because whatever measure you judge will be measured back against you, right? And I've done enough public speaking and I've done enough teaching to know that I don't want people picking apart my sermons and I'm certainly, because of this, not going to do that to my childhood pastor. And so I told him, no, you are in safe territory here. I thought what you said was excellent and it was a joy to be with you, right? But I think we get the idea of not judging out of fear or out of maybe generosity that we too don't want to be judged in the same way, which ties, of course, to that verse 12, the end of it all, the thing that ties the whole of it together, which is we want to treat others like we would expect them to treat us. And so if we don't want someone to be judging us, then we probably should not be doing that to them. Jesus keeps going here, and in verses 3 to 5, we get the real meat of what he's trying to do. And it's this parable that I, again, find fascinating. It connects directly with these rabbis who are talking about correction and rebuking. And I think Jesus is also trying to say something about that. And so you'll notice in verse 3, it goes like this. He says, why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but you do not notice the log that is in your own eye? The see and the noticing are of vital importance here. In some ways, all of this is actually one big metaphor on vision. We all are blind in some fashion, and we need the great physician to make us see again. But one layer deeper is that one person doesn't notice, is the word here, The Greek behind this is catanoia, which means to perceive or to even study. It's to take time to look, in this case, inward. And it's to ask your own self, like, what's in my eyes right now? What's in my heart? It's introspection is what it is. And Jesus is warning us and he's teaching us that it's actually pretty easy to see the specs in other people's eyes. I'm sure we've all played the armchair quarterback and we yell at the TV screen, right, as that quarterback inevitably makes that stupid pass. And why did he do that? He should have run it this way. But it's a whole lot harder when you are the quarterback on the field and you're the one who's having to make the calls and to do the thing. And in that case, sometimes you make mistakes and you do get specks in your eye. And so what Jesus is saying here is he's saying, before you go noticing what is wrong with somebody else, what you need to do first is turn that gaze inward to do some introspection, to look and to ask yourself, well, do I have anything in my life that has caused me to have a log in my own eye. And Jesus is going to tell you there is definitely something. And until you realize what that is, well, you are not really fit to correct somebody else. I think this part of the story in verses 3 to 5, it's about a few things. It's about right judgment, It's about how to correct another person. It's about human nature and properly seeing ourselves in order that we can help someone thereafter. And until we see ourselves properly, you're actually more likely to do some damage in pulling the speck out of the other person's eye than you are to really help them. One of the questions I think Jesus is asking in this passage is who is able to correct another person? I would say like Jesus isn't actually stopping you from doing the correcting. The person with the speck in their eye probably wants that speck out of their eye. They don't want it there. They should. anyway. But the question is, who is able? Who is able to help that person? I do think Jesus offers a real answer here. He says in verse 3 and following, why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log in your own? Or how can you say to your brother, let me take the speck out when there is a log in your own, you hypocrite? First, take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. I think there's a real life lesson here. And I think it connects directly actually with what those two rabbis were saying in the 1st and 2nd century AD. What those rabbis were saying is that People are not able to receive correction easily. And surely you've been there. But also people are not good at giving correction. And they typically embarrass someone else when they do. And what I think Jesus is offering here is a third way. And the third way goes like this. Until you've wrestled with your demons that live within you, And what I mean is those failures and flaws that are deep down in and that have hurt others and hurt yourself until you found a way to recognize those deep flaws, the logs that are sitting in your life and begun to remove them. Well, once that happens, you are now a different kind of person. Once those logs are gone, you've wrestled yourself to the ground and you realize that you are who Jesus says you are here. You might be, in fact, this person in verse 11, the person who is evil in the words of Jesus, but the evil person able to give good gifts to their own kids. And once you realize the rot that has been sitting in here, and then you've allowed Jesus to do something to it, then you have a certain amount of humility and a graciousness, because the grace has been shown to you by Jesus your Savior. And then you are able to approach others, not from a place of condemnation, saying, you should do this, looking down upon them, but looking them eye to eye as a peer, as another sinner just like you are, wanting to help them because somebody has helped you. When Jesus says do not judge, I actually don't think he means like all judgment is off the table, which means that we must understand what judging is and is not. Because let's be clear, just a few verses after he says, do not judge, he goes into the dogs and the pigs, right? And he's clearly making judgment calls about the kinds of people who are fit to receive a holy message. Who are the dogs? Who are the pigs? Whatever it is, we know this much. Jesus has to make a judgment call in order to name that for what it is. In other places, Jesus will clearly say and wants you to say too, certain things are good and certain things are evil. And we should cling to the good and we should hate the evil, right? And so he's reminding us that there are judgment calls to be made in life. In fact, many. And so what it means to not judge is not those kinds of things. He's also not saying like we shouldn't rightly judge things. So if you were to turn to like Luke chapter 7, there's this really nice passage with the sinful woman. And she comes into the Pharisee's house. Jesus is in there. And Jesus tells a story to the Pharisee. His name's Simon. And he He tells a story about debt. And he then asks Simon, like, hey, do you understand this? And Simon kind of repeats it back to him. And Jesus says, you have rightly judged, same word here, rightly judged. In this case, Jesus is affirming the judgment that this man has. But he's then using it to turn the tables on him. to make him realize that he has decent judgment in his head, but terrible judgment in his heart. Because he's looking at this sinful woman in a way that Jesus is not. And he is casting her aside as someone who is lesser while Jesus is embracing her and bringing her in and trying to restore her back to health. And so while saying, Simon, you've rightly judged in this one case. He is simultaneously saying you have wrongly judged within your heart. Lastly, I'd say that not judging, it cannot mean a lack of righteous anger. We see Jesus making these kinds of judgment calls pretty regularly, almost always with the religious elite, almost always with those who are supposed to be leading the flocks and they're not doing what they should do and instead they are placing burdens on the people they should be lifting up. And so Jesus in Matthew 23, if you want some homework for after the service, has a series of woes and he is just like going after these Pharisees. Woe to you, are whitewashed tombs. Outside you look great, but inside you are deaf. Jesus is clearly making some judgment calls in that place. And sometimes he will invite us to do something similar. So then what does it mean? I think it means something like this. When Jesus tells us not to judge others, he does not want us condemning others. He does not want us to play the role of God. He is not wanting us to demean the worth of another person or to pretend like we know the standing that they have before the Almighty. Those are all God's jobs. These are not my job and it's not your job. And it's also not the job of you or me to judge the heart or the motivation of a person. We can't do that. This is God's job. God can do that. And so when Jesus tells us, do not judge lest you be judged with the same measure, right? He is telling us to avoid doing those kinds of things. So this got me thinking. There are certain things that we should do, and we'll call those discernment. And there are things we should not do, and we'll call those judgmentalism. And what does discernment look like and what does judgmentalism look like? I think it looks like this. In our hearts, discernment feels like humility and it comes from a place of love, a love for the other person. When we are correcting them is because we love them and we want the best for them. Parents, you probably know this with your children. When you correct them, you want what is best for them. And so you're teaching them a better way. But judgmentalism, well, that usually stems from a place of pride and ego and self-concern. Discernment, well, it starts, as Jesus teaches us, with introspection, the catanoia. Mind you, catanoia is closely related to another word called metanoia. Some of you may remember this one as repentance. Catanoia is the internal looking of oneself, and metanoia, repentance, is what then happens after you've properly understood yourself. And so discernment starts with this introspection, but judgmentalism starts with the wrong of the other person and the desire to fix it. Discernment knows the limits of what we can know, that we only get external observations of what other people are doing. And so we should assume the benefit of the doubt for the other person. But judgmentalism We know enough to convict the person and that is good enough. And it assumes motives and heart conditions below that you just can't know. Discernment, discernment still corrects other people. It's willing to go to somebody, but you do it privately in a way that does not embarrass them, but in a way that demonstrates honor and dignity for this person. that is loving and trying to pull them out of wherever they're in. Judgmentalism, sometimes this happens publicly and that gets messy. But oftentimes it happens behind the scenes. And rather than going to the person, you might actually talk to a bunch of other people except for that person. Discernment has certain desires. Somebody who discerns or is living out of discernment, they desire the healing and the restoration of the other person. What is best for that person and for the community as a whole. While the person who lives out of judgmentalism desires vindication. They want their pound of flesh. They may even want to harm the other person. And lastly, discernment. understands that the measure of the way you should judge another person starts with grace. And it starts with the possibility of a hopeful reuniting with that person. Somebody living out of judgmentalism understands the full weight of the law and the desire to place that upon them. Throughout this series, I've tried to occasionally bring in technology and how our technologies are changing us and shaping us in spiritual ways and trying to get you to understand that phone in your pocket, it's not just value neutral, it's doing something to you. And so if you're on social media every single day, hours a day, and what are you doing while you're on there? You're not just scrolling, but you're often doing what? You're liking or you're disapproving. or you are angry, or you are laughing, right? And in each of these cases, you're making little judgments. It's like this machine is teaching us to judge one another. My guess is you're not doing that judgment from a place of love or care. You likely don't even know this person. Instead, you are standing back and you are doing all of the things that appear on the judgmentalism list. You're probably acting out of pride or self-concern. Maybe you want the other person to be harmed in some way or at least vindicated. And so you might leave a note below and make a comment, right? The point is simple. These devices that sit in our pockets, they change us. And they have the chance, I think a pretty good chance, of making us more judgmental, not less. What one should do with a sermon like this is in some ways very simple. I do believe that Jesus teaches us to start with introspection. Before you go confronting someone, you should pause, look inward, ask yourself, what am I really looking for in this encounter? Am I trying to get my pound of flesh or am I really loving this person? and trying to make some kind of loving correction in their life. You should start with curiosity, not assuming the motive or the heart of that person, but instead asking, I saw you do this. I'm wondering why. What happened? What's going on underneath? Now they might expose to you that, yeah, there was some real heart problems, but at this point, now you have a voice in their life. You should definitely stay away from judging others' motives. And if you won't say whatever it is you want to say to their face, well, you should definitely not say that at all. To conclude, it's worth noting this, that Jesus teaches us not to judge. But he is the great judge at the end of history. And one day we will stand before the judge, and he has just told us what that judgment looks like, and how we judge others in this life is the measure he's going to use against us. But I have really good news. The judge who will judge us is deeply merciful. He is all-loving. He wants the best for you. He is offering His grace to you at every single moment, but He's drawing you into it in a way that you are supposed to look just like Him and treat the world around you just like He treats you. Let's pray. Father in heaven, Lord Jesus Christ and Holy Spirit, for this morning as we have gathered We understand who you are, the great judge, who loves us enough to send Jesus Christ as our Lord and our Savior, to die on a cross, to rescue us from our sin and death, to be raised on the third day, to defeat death and sin forever, and to invite us into abundant and eternal life. God, may we accept that gift, that grace. But Lord, may we be changed by it. May we be people who are not judgmental, but who have discerned them. May we be people who look at others the way you look at them, seeking what is best for them. Lord, in all this, we're grateful give you thanks, we give you praise, and we give you our lives this morning. In Christ's name we pray, amen.

2. 

   18 Oct 2026

   Don't Worry, Be Happy

   Don't Worry, Be Happy Dr. Eric J. Gilchrist, Pastor | October 18, 2026 Check out the weekly sermon here or on our SRBC podcast on Apple Podcast and Spotify. While you’re at it, check us out on Facebook and Instagram too. Like what you hear? We’d love to know. At South Run, we read every message personally. Whether you have a question, want to share how God is moving in your life, or are thinking about visiting in person, this is the place to start. If you click the link below, Pastor Eric will personally reach out to you. Listening online? Let us know. Sermon Transcript Date: October 18, 2026 Sermon Title: Don’t Worry, Be Happy Passage: Luke 12:22–34 Preacher: Dr. Eric J. Gilchrest - Lead Pastor Transcript Summary: Jesus teaches that worry and anxiety can keep us from experiencing the abundant life God offers. We are called to surrender the illusion of control, trust in our Heavenly Father’s care, and seek His kingdom above all else. Transcript We have been on a journey together for quite some time, on a very long journey, sometimes on the narrow road, sometimes on the wide road. The goal, of course, is to be on the narrow one, but many of us find our way over to that wide road from time to time. If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's the way Jesus teaches us to live a life. And there are ways to live a life that lead to abundance and to happiness and to joy in this life and into the next. And then there are ways to live a life that leads to death and to destruction in this life and the next. This morning we're talking about worry and anxiety. And nobody needs to tell you, not even Jesus, that a life of worry and anxiety is a road to death and destruction. It steals the joy from you. And as much as don't worry, be happy is a cavalier way of saying, just deal with your life's problems, I don't think this is what Jesus is calling us to exactly. But he is encouraging us not to be anxious and not to worry. And he's reminding us that there is a better way, and it is a narrow way, and it's actually a hard way, some of us more than others. But this morning I want to talk about how to do that and what it looks like. And so I hope you will pay attention to see the ways in which Jesus is calling us into the fullness of life. As I was getting ready for this morning, there is a man that I came across. I didn't know him, and I'm going to guess you don't either. His name is Paul Kingsnorth. He was a longtime environmentalist and a self-described pagan. But that was many years ago. He has since become an Orthodox Christian. And in 2021, he wrote a beautiful essay for a magazine called First Things. And it's called The Cross and the Machine, in which he tells of his own conversion. And in the essay, he has this quote that's on the screen up here. He says, as we see the consequences of eating the forbidden fruit, of choosing power over humility, over choosing separation over communion, the stakes become clearer each day. The choices between surrender and rebellion, the choices between sacrifice and conquest, each of these by the way could be its own Broad way, narrow way, sermon, surrender, rebellion, sacrifice, conquest, death of the self, or triumph of the will. And the options he gives us are between the cross and what he calls the machine. We have always been offered the same choice, he says. The gate is straight and the way is narrow, and maybe we will always fail to walk it. But is there any other road that leads home? The answer, of course, is no, there is not. And what he calls the machine here is another way of talking about the broad way, the fallenness of the world, the fallenness of you and of me. The machine is another name for what we call the flesh, what we call our ego. It's societal sin. It's our sin nature living deep down in. It's a churning of everything wrong with the world as it is. And as he says, and as Jesus will tell us, the only other option is the cross. That we must die to ourself and we must live to Christ because that is the only way home. For most of this year, we've been talking about transformation, and we've been talking about the narrow road that leads to abundant life, the wide road that leads to death. And one of the deep ironies of our Christian faith is that the road that leads to life is a road that has to have a cross on it. Meanwhile, the road that leads to death is the road that is you avoiding everything that might get you to the cross. It is only in relinquishing your life that you find it, but by trying to salvage it, you lose it. I believe it was Jesus who said this first. Let us pray together. Heavenly Father, as we come to study your word, As we open our hearts and our minds to what you have to teach us today, Lord, we bring to you our worry. We each have it. Every last one of us has something right now that we can name immediately that we are in fact worried about, our anxiety. And Lord, you teach us to cast our cares upon you. And so we come this morning trying to do just that. Help us have faith. Help us have the kind of faith that brings to you everything. In Christ's name we pray, amen. If this sermon is one thing, it's a sermon on dependence. It's a sermon on learning how to depend on God for just about anything and everything. But it's also a sermon about the illusions that you and I carry, Namely, the illusion that we're actually in control of our own life. And I think Jesus is trying to tell you, are not in control of your own life. And this is one of these things that must be pinned to the cross. Because it's also a sermon about the cross. The cross as the only way home. And so there are things in your life that need to die and that need to go away so that true life and abundance can in fact be born and reborn within you. Which is all to say this is a sermon about faith. It's a sermon about walking the life of faith. It's a sermon about trusting God with every last piece of who you are. And when we worry or we have anxiety, It means that there are these pieces of us that we are still trying to hold on to or that we think we can if we just grip hard enough. And my hope today is that by the end of this sermon, you have released something, even just a little bit. But as I started or in the prayer, I said, we each carry anxiety in this room with us here and right now. And I believe that. And I'm going to guess that you each can immediately think of something. So I want you to stop thinking of that thing for a second. And I want you to zip back in time. Go back a few years and try to find something that you were anxious about for a time and that is no longer causing you any anxiety. Take that trip with me. I'll give you one that I thought of. When Ezra was very little, and in fact, all of our kids were very little, We used to put them in a sleep sack every night. The sleep sack, if you don't have one, is one of these head to toe sacks so that you then zip it up and there's room for the arms to do this, but the legs don't come out. And then you lay your baby into the crib and it kind of keeps them comforted and warm, this kind of thing. And I had this thought that I think Ezra is going to get to college and we'll still be zipping him up at night every night and laying him in the crib and having to tend to every last need of his and the worry that comes with being a parent of a young child. And there's all these concerns, right, that are wrapped up in the sleep sack. And then he actually went to college and as far as I know, he's doing just fine. doesn't call as much as I'd like him to. No, he's doing quite well. He doesn't need me to tuck him in at night. He's off with friends and taking very much care of himself and whatever anxieties I had 18 years ago are long gone, right? But they were still real. It's just with a kind of a broader view of your life and of what's coming. some of what you're carrying this morning will inevitably be gone, maybe by tomorrow, maybe by next week, maybe it'll take five years, maybe 25 years. But the anxieties will change, won't they? And something new will take its place. And so the question that I'm kind of asking you this morning is, what is it and where will it be in five years? And But the real deep question, the one that's like way underneath, is do you trust God enough with that thing right now to say, God has seen me through to this point, and I trust that he's gonna see me through to that next end point as well. There is a poem that I came across again as I was kind of prepping for this. one's by a famous poet named W. H. Auden. He wrote one called The Age of Anxiety. It's a good one, worth your time. And he says in it this, he says, the noble despair of the poets, yet the noble despair of a poet is nothing of the sort. It is silly to refuse the tasks of our time. Here he means that you and I each, we come to a certain place in life. And the task hits us, and we often shrink back from it. And we refuse to engage whatever that thing is in your life right now. Maybe it is a new job that you're supposed to embrace and move into, or maybe it's the retirement that you need to lean into, or maybe it's having a child, or maybe it's the test that's coming up. And rather than leading into this, we often have anxiety, and refuse the task of the moment. And overlooking our lives, we cry, oh, miserable, wicked me, how interesting I am. And here's what he's doing in this passage. He's saying that you and I, in our anxiety, we often have this tendency not to look out to where God is and what God is doing and to look back at what God has done in my life, but instead to turn inward and to say, oh, miserable me, what's going to happen? My life is so, as he says, as interesting. But then come the really great lines. because it's in these trials and tests and moments of life where we need to show up most that he says, and I think he's echoing Jesus here, that we would rather be ruined than change. We would rather take the wide road that is easy and to just kind of slouch through life than to embrace the narrow road and to do the hard thing and to actually change. We would rather die in our dread than climb the cross of the moment and to let our illusions die. One of the greatest illusions in life, as I've said already, is that you are in control of it. All it takes is a midnight phone call from somebody telling you that something is deeply wrong to realize I don't have nearly as much control over this life as I thought I did. And all the clinging and the grabbing at it, well ultimately, what will it come to? Tomorrow, or in a week, or in a year, or in 10 years? Let's open our scriptures to our passage this morning where Jesus is teaching us what it means to live this kind of life and read from the Gospel of Luke chapter 12 starting in verse 22. Luke 12, 22 goes like this. He said to his disciples, therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. Jesus is aiming at some pretty fundamental things here, is he not? You see, you and I don't necessarily worry too much about the things that we eat or wear, except maybe to say that We like fine foods and we like to dress in our Calvin Klein jeans. And we're concerned that other people might look at our attire and think, oh, he's not dressed nice enough or she's slovenly or something. I don't know, something like this. But what Jesus is talking about is much more basic. It's Maslow's hierarchy is what he's aiming at. Do you have any food at all? Do you have any clothing to put on your body to keep you warm when the temperatures get unseasonably cold very quickly outside? And he is saying something very difficult, which is what Jesus likes to do. He likes to say hard things. And he says, do not worry about these things. For life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing. Before we get too far, I should probably say that there are different kinds of anxieties and worries in life, and some are definitely worth your time worrying about. You see, if you walk outside and you're walking in the woods and a big snake with fangs and venom in them comes across your path, you should probably worry about that. And you should step back and you should not keep going. And the worry or fear or anxiety in that moment might just actually save your life if you head in the right direction. Or maybe there's other worries or fears that come across your plate. And you should probably lean in them and even through them. To give you an example from my own life, when I was living in Alabama, there was a time that came where A friend called me and said, Eric, you need to go talk to the president of the university that you are at because I think he might fire you in the next two days. He thinks you've done something that you have not done, and I know that you've not done this, but he is very concerned. Naturally, I began to worry. I had severe anxiety over this. The anxiety could have crippled me to the point where I did nothing, but instead I chose to actually do something. And I immediately picked up the phone and I sent off an e-mail and I began to set up a meeting that very day with the president of the university to say to him, listen, I don't know what you've heard and who you've heard it from, but I assure you, I assure you, this was not me and you have nothing to worry about. I have done nothing here. And so he looks at me and he says, Eric, I am so glad that you walked in today because this week was going to end very differently for you. And he indeed believed me and we moved on and I stayed for a couple more years before I came to this lovely church. And it was one of these moments where you meet the fear of the moment or the anxiety And it's not that you should just not worry. It's that you should do something with the worry. You should move forward with it. And you should, in fact, try to find ways to resolve the conflict that is sitting there. I wonder, in fact, if this is in part what Auden had in mind by we'd rather be ruined than changed. Because changing is hard. Doing the right thing can be hard. And sometimes it's just easier to live in our dread and our ruin. Jesus continues in verse 24. He says this, he says, consider the ravens, they neither sow nor reap. They have neither storehouses nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds? And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? He moves from the animals then to the plants and the lilies. And he says, consider the lilies and how they grow. They don't toil or spin, and yet I tell you, even Solomon in all of his glory was in arrayed like one of those. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the fields today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith? And here Jesus gets personal. He really says to his disciples, and he says, the nub of it all, which is, I need more faith from you. I need trust. I need you to trust me. But more than that, he would say, I need you to trust the Heavenly Father, that he is going to provide for you, and that this too shall pass. And if you understand and you break the illusions that you are in control and you understand who is actually in control and you give your life over to the God of the universe who is in control of all the things, then you can trust that your life too will work out as it is planned to. As I, again, was preparing for this sermon, I came across one of my favorite authors is G.K. Chesterton, and he has a book on St. Francis of Assisi in which he tells a story about Francis going into a cave, and he comes out of it, this is, of course, almost nonsense, it is nonsensical, which is the purpose, but he comes out walking on his hands And he's walking on his hands, and he's seeing the world upside down. And he sees the world upside down as a place where the buildings are hanging from the skies, and the trees are hanging from the skies. And in our world, the cars and the trucks, and it's all hanging from the God's perspective, which Francis realizes is the right side up. that it is God who indeed has control over all these things. And if we just simply can trust that in his control he will care for us and he will tend to us, this is what Jesus is saying in these passages. And so he continues, And he says, do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink. Don't be worried about all these things. For all the nations of the world seek after them, and your Father knows that you need them. And so instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you. Now, this is not to say he will leave you high and dry, and you won't be clothed in life, and you won't get the food you need. It's to say those things are secondary to seeking the ways of the kingdom and that God has control over all those things. And if we just simply, simply follow the kingdom way, I say simply, the narrow way is rarely simple. But if we can follow that way, well then all of these other things indeed get added. This week I did something interesting that I want to report to you. I kept a very minimal anxiety journal. I knew I was preaching on this topic and so I thought, well every day I'll just kind of think through like what had me nervous on Monday and what had me nervous on Tuesday and on Wednesday. And now here I am at the end of the week and I'm thinking back on the things that really occupied my mind on these days and not many of them really mattered all that much. And most of them, I will say to you, had to do with yesterday's big trunk or treat, right? As you can imagine, when we have 650 people arriving at our property, that is anxiety producing. And yet here I am the day after, and that is already in the rear view. And you give it a few more weeks, and we'll all be moving on to something else. But it wasn't just that. I had to come to pull together a Sunday school lesson, and now this sermon that I'm in the middle of, and I'm thinking to myself, well, how? can it all get done in one week, right? And yet here I am, and after the service is over, I'll go home and take a long nap. I will feel much better after it all. Then I will get up tomorrow morning and We'll do it all over again. There's another week sitting in front of me. And so I think back to the anxieties of this week. And this is a luxury of being a pastor who gets to talk about these things. I get to ask myself the real question, which is, did I trust God enough in that moment? I know I'm preaching this sermon. I'm gonna have to talk to the people. I'm gonna have to tell them, like, did I trust God enough in that moment? And my answer is yes and no, right? Sometimes it gets the best of you. And then other times I set it in this big view and I think, you know what, God is in control and what comes will come. And it's going to be okay. And tomorrow will be a new day and next week will be a new week. And next year is going to be a new year. To finish up our passage, verse 32 and following goes like this. Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. I love this. The Father that is given to us on Jesus' own lips is a good Father. who takes pleasure in giving you all the things that you need in this life. Sometimes that includes the challenges that force us to grow. But often it's the good things of life, the things that bring us joy and hope. It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. So sell your possessions and give them to the needy, provide yourselves with money bags that don't grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. And so the question this morning is ultimately, where is your heart? Where have you placed your trust? Who are you hoping in? I want to end with a confession. I've given you a few quotes this morning and they all came from the same place. This summer I went to a concert and I saw a band called Mumford and Sons with my friend Ross here and our daughters. And one of the songs they sing has stuck with me for quite some time, actually. And it's one of these that sounded almost too poetic to not be. And so I looked into it and it turns out it is. And it actually weaves through it the themes that I've already given you. The song is called Conversation with My Son. And in it, The author writes the following, we are all tumblers and beggars. This is a line from G.K. Chesterton's St. Francis Assisi biography in which we are tumbling upside down, looking at this upside down world, and we are indeed beggars. And he said, the songwriter says, your mother and I will show you, my son, how to live a life that is full of being the tumblr and beggar. He says, we are gangsters and angels, and is that not true of all of us? We are the worst of beings and the best of beings. Darling, come and see. The cross or the machine. It's always the same choice. The best I ever met, and here he is definitely referring to Jesus, had nothing and then gave that all away. We'd rather be ruined than change. and we would rather die in our dread. And so here's his message to you and another W. H. Auden line. Love your crooked neighbor with all your crooked heart. This is a sermon on dependence, learning to walk on your hands to see the world right side up. It is a sermon on illusions, letting the cross do its work, dying to the illusion that we are in control and giving over our very selves to God. And it is a sermon about the cross, because this is indeed the only way home and the only way to fullness of life. Which lastly is all to say that this is a sermon about faith and trust. And it's why Jesus zings the disciples with the line that says, oh, you of little faith, because he wants them, I want you to grow in your faith, to grow dependence, to learn to see the world from God's kingdom perspective, to shatter the illusions of control and to trust and to have faith in God's ability to control the outcomes, the grand outcomes of your life. and to believe that He is enough. And because He is enough, you become enough when you center yourself in His will. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, His Son, and Holy Spirit, Lord, we have each brought in our anxieties this morning. And they often overshadow the things that we do. And they make us smaller. And they make us live lives that are indeed lives that lead to destruction. But God, you desire a better way, a way of fullness of life, a way in which we cast everything upon you, and we entrust our very lives to you. And so Lord, this morning, we bring it all. We bring it all to the altar and to the cross. And we say once again, Lord, you are our Lord. We believe you, we serve you, and we give to you all the things that are dragging us down, both our worries and anxieties, but also our sins and our failures. And Lord, we trust that you are enough. So this morning, Lord, release us from that. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.

3. 

   11 Oct 2026

   FULLNESS: The Fullness of Christ in Me

   FULLNESS: The Fullness of Christ in Me Rev. Dr. .Ken Pruitt, Guest Pastor | October 12, 2026 Check out the weekly sermon here or on our SRBC podcast on Apple Podcast and Spotify. While you’re at it, check us out on Facebook and Instagram too. Like what you hear? We’d love to know. At South Run, we read every message personally. Whether you have a question, want to share how God is moving in your life, or are thinking about visiting in person, this is the place to start. If you click the link below, Pastor Eric will personally reach out to you. Listening online? Let us know. Sermon Transcript FULLNESS: The Fullness of Christ in Me Dr. Rev. Ken Pruitt - Guest Pastor And all God's people said, I am so honored to be with you, South Run Baptist Church. Thank you for your commitment to Jesus, the love you show me and my family each time I'm here. And praise team, musicians, vocalists, thank you so much for how you're bringing honor to Jesus. In this time of worship, my dear friend Eric, man, I love you. I praise God for you. And thank you for entrusting the preaching of the word to to that which God, I believe, desires to do in this moment. I'm honored to be with you, and I invite you to join me where the scripture takes us today to Colossians chapter 1. I'll be reading from chapter 1, verses 18 through 20. Colossians chapter 1, verses 18 through 20. And he, Christ, is the head of the body of the church. He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have supremacy. For God was pleased to have all of his fullness dwell in Christ, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven. Did you hear that, church? God in Christ has a desire to reconcile all things to himself. Can you say all things with me? All things. In the Greek that means all things. He's desired to reconcile all things to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. Father in heaven, I thank you for the reading of your word. Thank you for the hearts that are receiving. and for your spirit who will instruct us. Father, I certainly desire that the words of man not be understood or any attempt of interpretation of your scripture. But Father, may your Holy Spirit quicken our hearts to hear your word. And we commit this moment to you in Jesus' name. And together we said, amen. Again, so honored to be with you. If you were to look at the screen of my cell phone, you would see a lot of apps. but you'd also see a lot of unused apps. And I'll tell you why. It's this simple phrase, add-ons. A lot of my apps no longer function because I refuse to pay for add-ons. You know what I'm talking about. The app looks promising until it tells you it is not. And I placed this 360 app on my phone recently because we all enjoy keeping up with ourselves and our household. And I wanted to advance a little bit, Eric, so I hit a button. I pushed the button and the app said, oh, no, you don't. You need an add-on. And so the app started pushing my buttons. I'm like, no, I'm not going to do that. spirit of refusing add-ons is remarkably similar to why Paul wrote this letter to the church of Colossae in 62 AD. This congregation was very young. They'd been founded not by Paul, but by one of the young men he had discipled, Epaphras. Paul writes to the church because something dangerous was afoot. There was in their century a problem with add-ons. Although the church in Colossae, the recipient of the letter of Colossians, had placed their trust in Jesus and was following the Christ and was committed to His words, there were voices from without speaking within the church, encouraging that there must be something added to the gospel. Paul said, oh no you don't. And the Holy Spirit raised him up to write this letter that is transferable as a part of God's holy inspired word into our lives today. These voices encourage the church at Colossae to add to their faith in Jesus philosophy, spiritual experiences, even the rites and rituals of the Hebraic tradition. And Paul writes to refute this, to remind them that in Jesus you have all you need. God's salvation for you stands perfect and complete exclusively, not in part, but exclusively in Jesus. And yet these voices continue to say something must be added. This is why in the second chapter of Colossians, you'll hear Paul say, see to it that no one take you captive with hollow philosophies. See to it, Paul would write, that no one deceive you with hollow philosophies that will bring in man's truth in an attempt to combine with the gospel to present something that is most assuredly not the gospel. This happens today, does it not? If we spend just a moment in some form of a media platform, we will see that there are truths that attempt to delude and to mix in with the Christian faith. This is happening in the 1st century. This was a young congregation, so Paul was quite concerned that some might buy into this early development of what is now known as Gnosticism, meaning that there are special revelations that can only come from God, not through Jesus, because matter is evil. Only spiritual things are holy. And so the incarnate God in Christ was dismissed, and many other heresies came out of this moment in history. Paul wrote to them about the fullness of Jesus. In fact, you and I can understand Paul's heart behind this letter by looking at something he prayed in chapter 1, verse 9. In that verse, Paul wrote and literally prayed, we continue to ask God to fill you with a knowledge of His will. What is that knowledge of the will of God that would keep you and me from being pulled into deceptive voices of vain philosophies and other teachings that are against the gospel. What is this full knowledge of the will of God? This is a bit more transcendent. In fact, it is way more transcendent than how you and I might think of knowing the will of God. We at times will seek God's will for where we will attend college or what career may be ours or who we will marry. Those are the big life episodes wherein we will sometimes say, God, I want to know your will. That's not at all the categories from which Paul says, oh, I pray, church of Colossae, that you will be filled with the knowledge of God's will. Here the idea of God's will is much more transcendent. And to better understand this, it's always important to allow the whole of the scripture to be our commentary for one specific scripture. And there is a partnering verse here that will help you and me to understand why of all the things Paul could have prayed for this church that was being hit by heresies, why Paul would pray, oh, that you would have full knowledge of the will of God. What is that will of God referenced here? Well, a partnering passage in Ephesians chapter 1, verse 9 and 10, Paul writes that the mystery of God's will, he has the word mystery there, the mystery of God's will has been revealed, and then Paul names it, that all things will be brought under one head, Jesus Christ. So when Paul prays for the Colossian church that they would be full of the knowledge of God's will, He's praying that they would have a deep, a full, a complete understanding of all that God has accomplished for them through Jesus. Paul writes, I pray that you'll be filled with understanding what God has done for you in Christ. Now immediately, you and I, especially those of us who've been in church since the day we were able to take our first breath, will quickly say, well, Ken, I know the gospel. I've heard the gospel. I could reiterate the gospel. So why would I need to know more, have the full knowledge of a gospel that I've already heard all my life? Well, your question, if that would be your question, makes the apostle Paul's point. And it makes the teaching of the Holy Spirit's point here very clear. Paul is not saying that you would have a recognition of the gospel so that you can recite it. Paul is not saying that you have some cerebral understanding of the gospel. Paul writes that you would have a full knowledge and experience that you would truly know the fullness and the essence of Jesus. Here lies more than simply an idea or a truth that we hear about and try to respond to. This is looking at Jesus and seeing him for the fullness of who he is so that our lives are responding to him. There is a formula of this, knowing the truth and responding as far back as Psalm chapter 89. In that Psalm, the Psalmist said, God, please teach me your ways so that I may respond to your faithfulness. Paul writes in that same formulae to the Colossian church, oh that you may know the fullness of Christ so that your lives will respond to who he is in all of his glory, in the vastness of who he is as the reigning King of Kings and as the one who died to redeem us. And so Paul does this for a specific purpose, to lead Colossians away from those deceptive philosophies. And how does Paul do that? By focusing upon the Christ. Last week as we were together in God's Word, I shared with you as many as five marks of the true essence of Jesus brought out here so that we might more fully understand the Christ and not give in to those dangerous add-ons. And what did we discover? We discovered that Jesus is indeed the exact image of God, that He is supreme over all realms, and that He's head of the church. But we pick up with that 4th mark in verse 18. He is the firstborn from among the dead. Of all of these amazing and powerful demonstrations of the true identity of Jesus, we hear The scripture pronounced powerfully, he's the firstborn from among the dead. He has power over dead. If there was any question that the heresies would bring to the minds of the Colossians, those questions should have been erased. dismiss completely learning that Jesus has actually conquered everything that would separate us from God, including the grave, including death. He is the firstborn from the dead. Now, if you and I were to walk our way through the scriptures together, we would discover in that chronological reading as many as 9 to 10 stories about people being raised from the dead. Yet each one gives the narrative of their life resurrection being followed by immediately dying again. They were resurrected because of sin or some injurious thing, and yet they would be resurrected to die again. Only one has been resurrected never to die, and his name is Jesus. That's why he is held here in all of scripture as the firstborn among the dead. This is why Revelation chapter 1, verse 18 announces clearly that he holds the keys of death and the grave. You know, someone holds the keys, they're pretty much in charge, so we think. That was the vernacular and that was the intimation of Paul's words and of the words in Revelation. He holds the keys. He controls, he has defeated death and the grave. But also look at a final mark here, emphasizing the greatness of Christ so that we look to Him and are not swayed to the need for an add-on. That we look to Christ so that we're not saying it's Jesus plus. ceremony. It's Jesus plus special revelation. It's Jesus plus ascetic behavior of denying my body certain pleasures. Or it's Jesus plus man-made ceremonies or rudimentary principles that will eventually trap us in darkness. No, it's Jesus only. And Paul concludes this amazing hymn-like paragraph from the scriptures describing the essence of Jesus in its fullness And he ends by these very powerful words in verse 19 and 20. For it was God who was pleased to have all of his fullness dwell in him. Focus on verse 19. We will find reason why these verses are so important to push away false beliefs both then and now. For God was pleased to have all the fullness dwell in him and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven. This is Paul's language, things on earth in heaven, not referencing our home heaven, but referencing every possible part of the created existence, the heavens and the earth, all things. There's nothing here that will not be touched by the power of Jesus giving us the opportunity through our faith in Him to be reconciled to God. And all of this, is done because Jesus has made peace through his blood shed on the cross. Absolute in redemption. That's our Jesus. There's nothing missing. Only in Christ can mankind truly know God. This is Paul's message. It seems simple to you and me. We've heard this The entire existence of our life, at least some of us have, and yet here it becomes so profound in the face of our tendencies to welcome add-ons to our faith. And Paul writes, it's only in Christ. It was that great preacher, Charles Spurgeon, perhaps you've heard his name quoted once or twice before, who said this when asked if he had a creed. And Spurgeon said, If I'm asked if I have a creed, the answer is I have but one, and it's Jesus Christ. And then Spurgeon went on to elaborate because he is the sum and substance of the gospel. He is all theology. And he is the incarnation of every precious truth. This becomes the heart of what Paul desired that the church at Colossae see, the fullness of the Christ. And then in this first chapter of this amazing letter, Paul gently but very pastorally carries the Colossians' attention from fullness in Christ to that great application, fullness in Christ in me. What does it look like for you and I to live in the reality of the fullness of Christ in me? We pick up at verse 21. Once you were alienated from God and you were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you, he meaning God, has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you wholly in his sight without blemish and free from accusation. Paul seems to bring into the idea of how you and I are complete in Christ and the fullness of Christ dwells in us through the Spirit, first by pointing to the past. He will in a moment point to the present and the future. But he points to the past, and I believe the focus here can be clearly in the past on the crucifixion. Notice what Paul writes here. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior, this enmity from the very beginning when sin entered this earth, can only become something that is removed because of Jesus. We know this. We know that Romans chapter 5 talks about the first Adam and sin comes in, but then compares Christ like a second Adam, not fully a man, but fully God and fully man, bringing in our salvation completely to remove the curse of sin. And Paul wrote, you were alienated from God. You were enemies in your mind, but But he's reconciled you how? Through Christ, physical body, through death. Therein lies the past tense of Paul's emphasis upon the completeness of our salvation. The past, Christ was crucified. Why would Paul add in body? Why would he mention the physical here because the heresies, particular the beginning seeds of what would become full-blown Gnosticism, held high the perfect holiness of what is spiritual, but denied that God would redeem anything physical or material. And so Paul argues that beautifully and conclusively God in Christ went to the cross to redeem us. Church, I ask you, Do you not desire that it would be your testimony in mine to be like that of Paul's when in Romans chapter 6 verse 6, in Galatians chapter 5 verse 24, in Galatians chapter 6 verse 14, Paul over and over again said, I am crucified with Christ. He articulated that in Galatians chapter 2 and verse 20. Each of those verses have something powerful in common along with the word crucified. It is the tense of the word. The grammarian in Greek would call it the aorist. It is the completed action never to be acted upon again. Paul wrote, I'm crucified with Christ. I laid my old self down and I have been raised to a new life. in Christ and I fear that today in the church at large, many are struggling to let go of the identity of a sinful past because in our minds we think we must do something. that will give us a true essence of God's being pleased with us when scripture says it is impossible for us to do that without the grace of the cross. But I fear many people are held in the clutches of that guilt where we do not feel good enough. And Paul writes, we have been crucified. That's been done in the past. What Christ did on the cross and then through the empty grave and now ascended on high, is enough. It's complete for you to be fully redeemed. This is the fullness of Christ in us. But look at the present tense. Paul writes, but now he has reconciled you. You've been brought together with him. This is present tense. The actual tense in that verse is now you are reconciled through Christ to God. Second Corinthians 5, In verse 19, that announces God in Christ reconciling the world to himself. And then future tense, from the crucifixion to reconciliation to this powerful statement, God presenting us. Do you see that? How powerful God presenting us. Free from accusation, without blemish. This is the future reference of salvation that Paul articulates here, that on that day you'll be presented to God without blemish. He's made us right with Jesus. through the death and resurrection. He's reconciled us in the present. He's making us right. And He makes us right eternally for the future as He presents us wholly before God. And on that day that our breathing stops here and our eyes awaken there, we will be presented perfect, fully as Christ has died to make us perfect. And this becomes a powerful recognition of how you and I live on these truths of the fullness of Christ in me. The fullness of Christ, the image of God, supreme over all spheres, head of the church, the fullness of Christ, in all of the glory of God, being absolute in redemption, the fullness of Christ in me. He died on the cross that I might say I'm counted as crucified with Him. He's reconciled me to God now. Nothing can break that, and He's presenting me holy and blameless when I stand with Him. in heaven what a beautiful picture of the fullness of Christ and the fullness of Christ in you and me there was a young man in 16th century Germany who wrestled significantly with the idea of being pleasing to God He read the scriptures but would see phrases like the righteousness of God as only punitive, interpreting that God's righteousness is actually that which punishes the sinner. And this young man felt the guilt as a sinner. So he attempted many acts of what he would call acts toward righteousness. He prayed relentlessly. He confessed rigorously. He fasted severely, even to the point of fainting, with a desire to somehow taste what it's like to be right with God. But nothing worked. This young man, over many series of prayer and before the scripture, saw that phrase, the righteous will live by faith. And his life became changed. He confessed Jesus as his Lord. And you have probably guessed who this young man in 16th century Germany is, Martin Luther. And this is what he said, this is actually what he wrote looking back on his conversion. It was like walking through a gate into paradise where I'm truly free in Christ. So today, from the bottom of my heart, I ask, can you say of your place with Jesus that you feel free, like you have walked through a gate and you're free in Christ to know who He is and to know who you are and what He's done for you. so that you can have a life that is free to worship, not perfect, but free to worship, free to live for Him, free to have a desire to honor Him and to fulfill what He directs us to do as we follow after Him. Oh, I pray that you will have that freedom. And I pray that in just a moment as we come to the table of observing what our Savior has done, that when you allow the observance of the Lord's table to affect your sight and your senses and your taste, as you partake of the bread and the cup, would you allow the amazing truth of Jesus to wash over you? And I desire to do the same so that we leave this place knowing full well that we are going to respond to Jesus for who He is. and for who he is in us as we desire to live for him. Amen, church. Would you pray with me? Father in heaven, thank you for your word speaking to our hearts. And now, Father, as we come to your table, we do so, Father, not tritely, not out of routine or habit. Oh, Father, forbid that we would come simply because this is just another step, but oh, Father, may we come anticipating a renewed sense of who you are and what you've accomplished as we live for you Father we pray this we offer this in the precious name of Jesus our Lord and together we said amen

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