"Christ In You, The Hope of Glory"

27To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

28Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

29For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

HOOK (Grab Attention)

Illustration

Think back at this past year and I want you to think:

What is ONE THING you would change?

What would you go back and do differently?

I'm sure there are MANY things that we could think of that we could've done differently...

You know one thing that we could do that we would NEVER REGRET??

Spending time in PRAYER, talking with God

ADORING GOD

NOTICING HIS GLORY!

No one has EVER looked back in their life and said to themselves, "Man...I REALLY shouldn't have spent so much time talking with God. Being in AWE of His Glory...

Have you ever just sat and ADORED GOD for His GLORY??

I believe many times we skip this aspect in our prayers and in life, in general.

We RUSH into His presence with a LIST

What if our wife/husband were dressed to the NINES when we come home, READY to go out on a NICE date and we don't take notice of them and say nothing about it??

On top of not noticing and NOT saying a WORD about how they look, we walk in and HAND THEM A LIST of things we WANT FROM THEM?

We do this with God...

What would happen in our lives if before we pray, we stop and consider WHOM we are about to speak with??

If we would stop and consider HIS GLORY beforehand?

BOOK

Bible Passage

Colossians 1:27 (ESV - English Standard Version)

27To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Explanation

What are the riches of His "glory"?

You are AWESOME

You are INCREDIBLE

You are SO AMAZING

You are SO GOOD

You are FAITHFUL

You are TRUTH

You are our ONLY SALVATION

Your MAJESTY supercedes all other kingdoms

And these are ONLY the title page of DEFINING the DEPTHS of HIS GLORY.

Not only is GLORY an ADORATION of HIS PERSON, but it is a PLACE and that PLACE is HISPRESENCE.

To experience His presence is to experience His GLORY...

Bible Passage

Colossians 1:27 (ESV - English Standard Version)

27To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Explanation

"Riches of the glory of this MYSTERY, which is...

THIS is the part that is SO AMAZING

THIS is the part that is MINDBLOWING

it REALLY should leave us SPEECHLESS

"Christ in you, the hope of glory"

IF you are Born Again, CHRIST IS IN YOU!!

The glory of the MOST HIGH is living in YOU...

CHRIST is in you...

DO NOT get this twisted with the NEW AGE thinking

"we all are Christ"

"we need to increase the "christ in us"

WE ARE NOT CHRIST, but if we are BORN AGAIN, CHRIST IS IN US!!

The Hope of Glory

The Hope of Majesty

The very ESSENCE of God is LIVING IN YOU...

LOOK

Application

What does this mean for us that Christ is IN YOU??

You cannot GET ANY CLOSER TO GOD.

He is living INSIDE YOU

You can enjoy His presence in EVERYTHING you do at ANYTIME of the day!

What gets in our way??

DISTRACTIONS

The things that we allow ourselves to be more in awe of that God.

The things that "cover up the light"

Paul shows us three ways the "awe" gets in our lives:

Bible Passage

Colossians 1:28-29 (ESV - English Standard Version)

28Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

29For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

Application

"We proclaim Christ"

Proclaim = preach

We declare the glory of God in the Gospel

People are under the wrath of God because of sinful rebellion

Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.

SN: if we have JESUS, we can come before the Father any time.

We preach the:

Life

Crucifixion

Resurrection

Ascension

Return of Jesus

"Warning everyone"

Why would we need to "warn everyone"?

the wrath of God is coming with Jesus upon His Return

to reward everyone for what they have done

Jesus says that His reward is with Him

wrath against sinners

testing of our works as the Family of God

The intentions of the heart

How you "built" upon the Foundation which is Christ (1 Corinthians 3)

"Teaching everyone with all wisdom"

Teaching Christ to everyone

Key phrase is "with all wisdom"

This means, "know your audience"

Don't spew KNOWLEDGE, but find where they are and use the knowledge of the Truth to bring them to the feet of Jesus.

When EVANGELIZING:

you aren't "in it to win it"

Apologetics IS NOT the GOSPEL

Your TESTIMONY is NOT the GOSPEL

Your testimony should have the Gospel IN IT, but your "Story" is not the gospel

JESUS IS THE GOSPEL

We teach sinners what sin is and help them to see where they have sinned, in LOVE

We teach sinners WHO Christ is and WHAT HE HAS DONE in:

Life, death, resurrection, ascension, and return

to the BODY:

we teach Christ

WHO He is

His Character

His Attributes

How to love Him better as His sons and daughters

How to be like our BIG BROTHER Jesus (Hebrews 2:11)

FOR WHAT REASON??

"to present everyone MATURE...INCHRIST"

Not only is CHRIST IN US

WE ARE IN CHRIST

THE VINE..."Abide in me and I in you" (John 15)

"mature" = complete

HOW do we do this??

Paul says:

Bible Passage

Colossians 1:29 (ESV - English Standard Version)

29For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

TOOK

Challenge Application

Some of you are maybe sitting here thinking:

That's all well and good, but I don't believe that is me. That's for someone more "gifted"

Questions:

Do you have a Bible?

Do you have Holy Spirit?

Do you have Christ in you, the hope of glory?

Some are maybe thinking:

I don't really have a desire to do all of that.

I don't really care to be ready to share Christ

Sharing Christ ISN'T such a chore when it is your DELIGHT.

The MORE we believe the REALITY and are in AWE that CHRIST is the HOPE OF GLORY and that He is IN YOU:

The more you will grow in HUMILITY

The more you will grow in Gospel Confidence

The more you will Talk with Him because He is not very far

The more you will talk with others ABOUT Him and Who He is.

If you want to look back at your life this next year and see less regrets, you will NEVER REGRET having ADORED CHRIST and bragged on HIM to those around you to greater and greater degrees.