What a great service it was this past Sunday, January 25, 2015, at Minooka Bible Church! Anytime a pastor can mix in Back to the Future, Titanic, the Death Star, and a Little Tikes car, AND THEN tie it all into a Biblical lesson, well…it was good stuff. But don’t take my word for it. Go listen to the podcast of the service; the title is Colossians.
But if you want my take on it…
So Pastor Arol spoke on Colossians 1:15–23. First, lets setup this passage:
Colossians was written by the Apostle Paul to the church in Colosse while Paul was imprisoned in Rome. Word had gotten to Paul that the Colossian church was in trouble; that false teachers had moved in! To paraphrase Pastor Arol, people were cool with Jesus but when in a pinch they were turning to worship angels. So Paul sets about to center them in Jesus as their Savior; that He is the firstborn and the head of the church.
Pastor Arol was so elegant in the way he presented our need to have Jesus as the center of our lives. Because if we center our lives with our spouse, significant other, kids, job, etc. then we are setting ourselves up for eventual failure. Human beings, no matter how much they care for or love us, will eventually fail us. THEY'RE ONLY HUMAN!
We are building our foundation on something shaky. It is the equivalent of standing on an empty cardboard box or climbing on top of a Little Tikes car to get something off a shelf.
But when we center our lives in Christ, then we are standing on solid foundation. Pastor Arol used the example of standing on a wooden pallet. And the great thing about that pallet is that it can not only support you, it can also support your other relationships!
The sermon really reminded me of a speaker from AA, Joe H., who spoke about being at Step Zero. It is that point where in your mind you think there is a 3rd option to either living on a spiritual basis or dying an alcoholic death. Option Three can be a better wife, better job, more money, etc. Yet you can't move on in recovery if you are building your foundation on anything but God (Higher Power for my AA brethren). And if you want to start building a healthy relationship with God then you can’t put anything between you and God.
My take away quote from the service (and I am loosely quoting Pastor Arol) is “Aren’t these Christians so hypocritical? Isn’t it great then that our faith isn’t based on them!” I think too many people (Christians included) think that Christians are these people who live nicely packaged lives and that they are better than the rest of us that muck around in the world. That is so far from the truth. Christians are as broken as anyone else; we just know that God loves all of us regardless. And when you know “God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31, ESV)
But seriously, go listen to the podcast and hear what Back to the Future, Titanic, and the Death Star have to do with Colossians.
Author’s Note: This is just MY take on the service. I'm just someone who goes to church at the Minooka Bible Church.
