Enough in the Noise

Scripture

Colossians 2:8–10 NIV

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.

Message

There’s a woman named Florence Nightingale, who died in 1910, and she’s considered to be the founder of modern nursing — and she has a little quote that I think about from time to time.

She said, “Unnecessary noise is the most cruel abuse of care which can be inflicted on either the sick or the well.”

Florence was convinced that “noise” doesn’t help anybody. She believed that noise prevented her patients from healing.

When I think of noise, I think of “empty sound,” meaning that I can hear it, but it’s hard to distinguish what it is.

Where I live, if I drive about 20 minutes, I can find all sorts of noise: traffic, people, car engines.

But that’s not worth listening to!

Now, I can find lots of noise if I drive that far, but at my house, it’s quiet.

Sometimes it’s so quiet and dark at my house, that it’s kind of scary.

The town where I live is a place where lots of people want to live because it’s so quiet — because it’s where you can hear the things that matter.

I can hear my kids playing outside.

I can talk to my neighbors.

I can hear people cheering on Friday nights.

Those sounds aren’t empty — they’re full, they’re important.

I want to take us back to Colossians again this morning where Paul compares something that’s empty to something that’s full.

To be clear, Paul is talking about a kind of living that can be empty, or it can be full.

Almost two thousand years ago, the people in Colossae were susceptible to believing a lie.

At it’s core, the lie is like this:

There’s some kind of belief, some system of thought, that elevates something of higher value than Jesus.

We don’t know what this was, not exactly… but we do know it was a lot like noise. Paul says in verse 8 of Colossians 2, that it was a “hollow and deceptive philosophy.”

It was empty.

The concern for Paul was that noise can wind up taking you as a prisoner.

He says in verse 8, “See to it that no one takes you captive,”

Language. Ideas. They can all take you prisoner.

There is a battle going on for the human heart.

At war with our desires.

At war with the very core of who we are.

Paul’s concern is that you can become a casualty of this war, a prison of war — if you’re not careful.

Passages like this aren’t meant to scare us. They’re meant to sober us.

There’s something serious that’s going on here.

The serious thing is that people could, and probably were, turning from Jesus — to something else.

Now… what they turn towards is probably way different from what we might end up worshipping over Jesus, but I think the threat is still the same.

There will be an emptiness that promises fullness — that you can be enslaved to.

I think for most of us… and by us, I mean, you., the emptiest — and the most tempting of deception — is your identity.

Who are you apart from your achievements?

Why is my home life so different from my school life which is so different from my church life?

Why do I act differently around this group of people from this other group of people?

Who will I be when I leave home and go to college?

What if I don’t know that Jesus, or this whole Christian faith thing, is real? What if it doesn’t feel good? What if it isn’t helping people — what do I do?

How many of you just identified, at least part of you, with one of those statements?

But aren’t there a lot of things coming your way that want to speak into that? At some point, it’s all just noise.

Empty sound but we can’t tell what it is.

Paul knows that life with Jesus, it’s not empty, it’s full.

And Paul compares the two.

He says in verse 8, “Empty living — that depends on human tradition and what Paul calls the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.”

There’s an emptiness to the noise we hear — and it’s not from God, it’s from humans, and it doesn’t depend on Jesus.

I’m less concerned about who you are in comparison to your achievements, as much as I am concerned about who you are when no one is watching.

I’m less concerned about the gap between home, church, and school as I am than who you are to others when you are in those places. Who are you to your parents and siblings? To your peers at school? To those who show up at your church? Do you reflect Jesus?

I’m less concerned about trying to explain all of the bad ways that we trash the name of Jesus and defending it to you, than I am reminding you who you are in Christ.

Are we starting to see the difference yet? What’s empty vs what is full?

It’s not a part of the passage we’re reading today, but it’s important, nonetheless… it’s what Paul says in verses 6-7.

Just as you received King Jesus, continue to live your lives in him. Rooted and built up — Paul says.

Make the choice to put your roots down into Christ, and you’ll grow. You’ll grow far beyond your wildest expectations and imagination. Not only that, but your faith will be firm, you’ll be overflowing with gratitude at what God is doing in your life.

That’s what you get when stick with Jesus, when you wake up every day, knowing that Jesus is enough for you. Your life becomes full, not empty.

Paul explains it like this in verses 9 and 10. Colossians 2:9-10

Colossians 2:9–10 (NIV)

For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.

We talked about this on Monday.

If Jesus is everything that God is, and He was God’s response to everything wrong, that in His death, everything would be made right.

And we live for Him, because of Him…

Then your life isn’t empty.

Your life is full.

We’ve moved from indistinguishable noise, to clarity… where we began to see, hear, and understand what matters.

Look…

Your grades matter.

Your sports matter.

Your questions — they matter.

Who you date, that matters.

But I don’t think anything matters more than Jesus.

And unless you can hear that first, where that becomes the clearest thing to us, where it’s the most amplified sound in our lives — then I think we’re always going to get sucked into the noise.

Paul doesn’t want you to forget though… this is the best part about our identities after we come to Jesus.

“And in Christ you have been brought to fullness.”

You’re not empty. There’s no space that needs to be filled. There’s nothing lacking.

When you’ve got Jesus, you’re full.

Let me give this to you another way…

Let’s think about Psalm 23 in light of Jesus.

You all help me out with this. How does it start, “The Lord is my shepherd, I _____ (lack nothing).”

The Psalm keeps going. “He anoints my head with oil. My cup runs ______ (over).”

With Jesus, there is nothing lacking. We are not just full, but we’re spilling over.

You are full in that your identity is a Son or a Daughter, and you are completely loved — no matter what your accomplishments are.

You are full in that the scriptures say you are set apart, you’re a Holy person, you’re royalty, you’ve been chosen — you’ve been set apart for Jesus in whatever moment you’re in: whether at home, or at school, or at church.

You are full in that the Bible says you are God’s workmanship — you’re a unique, one-of-a-kind, work-of-art — and you don’t have to be anything different with other groups of people.

You are full in that when we feel like we’re not sure what to do, or think, about Jesus — it’s to know that Jesus hasn’t stopped thinking about you. Every moment is with you in mind.

Did you know that Jesus is praying for you right now?

That’s what Hebrews 7:25 says

Hebrews 7:25 (NIV)

Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

Every moment at the cross.

Every moment in the resurrection.

Every moment at the right hand of the Father.

Every moment in His return.

With Jesus we’re finally able to hear what matters.

And what we hear, is what because of what Jesus has done, we matter.

This is where I think other forms of noise in the world get this wrong, because they want us to believe that we matter when we do something, but Jesus says that we matter because He did something.

I think there’s a bit of hopelessness surrounding all of this good, though.

Maybe because the noise, something other than Jesus, has got us under lock and key.

Not today, satan… Not today.

Right at the end of verse 10, Paul says that (Colossians 2:10)

Colossians 2:10 (NIV)

He is the head over every power and authority.

Not even the forces of the world that hold you hostage, have power over you when Jesus is involved.

He is over every power and authority.

This is where Paul makes this serious.

Noise isn’t just noise.

Noise is vile. It’s vindictive. It’s mean spirited. It will manipulate you into believing that there’s no freedom possible.

This is the battle that we can’t see. This is the battle for our hearts. Some other force that’s not good, that’s not Jesus, but that’s at work against us.

Paul tells us a few verses later that these forces can’t hold us prisoner.

Colossians 2:15 (NIV)

And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

They’ve been beaten, made a laughing stock of, they’ve been disarmed — and so the enemy of our emptiness is gone. Fullness is ours.

I want to do something with you this morning that I think is going to be helpful for your longterm spiritual growth.

It’s cultivating the rhythm of silence in a world of noise.

I think noise is a good metaphor for empty promises the world gives… but sometimes noise is just unnecessary and lifeless things.

Maybe the noise you’re facing is actually just real noise. You’re so dang busy. You’re so dang distracted. Being you is hard. I get it. I have three kids.

Sometimes I have to remind myself, and my children, that we’re human beings, not human doings.

So what I do, to help me learn that Jesus is enough, hat the noise of my life can’t be louder than what Jesus has said or done, is I refuse to be noisy, myself.

I take moments in silence. To not think. To not shake my body. To not tap my feet. To not look around the room. To close my eyes and refuse every other voice except the voice of the Lord’s… the same One who has filled me, who did not leave me empty, but who knows me, desires me, has kept me on His mind.

I just practice being with Him.

So here’s what we’re going to do. It’s going to be crazy.

We’re going to do 5 minutes of silence.

5 minutes of no noise. Of no sounds, no worldly promises, no opportunity to let the powers of the world try to hold us down… but 5 minutes living in the freedom of Jesus, where we just get to be full.

Here’s what I want you to do.

I want you to sit up straight. Put your feet on the floor.

Put your hands on your knees and hold them up and open like this.

I want you to close your eyes. Take a deep breath.

We’re going to enter silence together.

Before we do. Let me pray to start us out and I’ll close in prayer so we know it’s time to be done.

5 MINUTES IN COMPLETE SILENCE

How was it?

Was it hard?

We’ve got to stop living like prisoners, and start living like Jesus is enough in all the noise.

Let me challenge you. In addition to fasting something this week. Do this as well. It’s a maximum of 15 minutes until you get to Sunday.

Try me on it!

I think that what you’ll find is that you won’t want the noise anymore. You won’t want empty promises, you’ll find that you’ve developed a hunger for the real thing, for Jesus.

PRAYER