The Jewish Passover was near, and so Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling oxen, sheep, and doves, and he also found the money changers sitting there. After making a whip out of cords, he drove everyone out of the temple with their sheep and oxen. He also poured out the money changers’ coins and overturned the tables. He told those who were selling doves, “Get these things out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!” And his disciples remembered that it is written: Zeal for your house will consume me.
John 2:13-17 (CSB)
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
1 Peter 2:9-10 (CSB)
1. I’m Chosen
But you are a chosen race…
1Peter 2:9 (CSB)
Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people.
1 Peter 2:10 (CSB)
2. I’m Called
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood.
1 Peter 2:9 (CSB)
But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people.
1 Peter 2:9 (Mess)
3. I’m Set Apart
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession.
1 Peter 2:9 (CSB)
4. I’m Valuable
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession.
1 Peter 2:9 (CSB)
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
1 Peter 2:9 (CSB)
But you are the chosen race, the King’s priests, the holy nation, God’s own people, chosen to proclaim the wonderful acts of God, who called you out of darkness into his own marvelous light.
1 Peter 2:9-10 (GN)
…to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted.
1 Peter 2:9-10 (Mess)
Based on the gift they have received, everyone should use it to serve others, as good managers of the varied grace of God.
1 Peter 4:10 (CSB)
Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name.
Hebrews 13:5 (NLT)
For by the grace given to me, I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think. Instead, think sensibly, as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one.
Romans 12:3 (CSB)
According to the grace given to us, we have different gifts: If prophecy, use it according to the proportion of one’s faith…
Romans 12:6 (CSB)
2. Your Gifts Differ From Others
Now as we have many parts in one body, and all the parts do not have the same function…
Romans 12:4 (CSB)
3. Your Gifts Connect Your Church
…in the same way we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another.
Romans 12:5 (CSB)
4. Your Gifts Empower Ministry
According to the grace given to us, we have different gifts: If prophecy, use it according to the proportion of one’s faith; if service, use it in service; if teaching, in teaching; if exhorting, in exhortation; giving, with generosity; leading, with diligence; showing mercy, with cheerfulness.
Romans 12:6-8 (CSB)
Therefore don’t let anyone judge you in regard to food and drink or in the matter of a festival or a new moon or a sabbath day. These are a shadow of what was to come; the substance is the Messiah.
Colossians 2:16-17 (CSB)
2. The Mirage of Mysticism
Let no one disqualify you, insisting on ascetic practices and the worship of angels, claiming access to a visionary realm and inflated without cause by his fleshly mind. He doesn’t hold on to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and tendons, develops with growth from God.
Colossians 2:18-19 (CSB)
3. The Abyss of Asceticism
If you died with Christ to the elemental forces of this world, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations: “Don’t handle, don’t taste, don’t touch”? All these [regulations] refer to what is destroyed by being used up; they are human commands and doctrines. Although these have a reputation of wisdom by promoting ascetic practices, humility, and severe treatment of the body, they are not of any value against fleshly indulgence.
Colossians 2:20-23 (CSB)
For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ, and you have been filled by him, who is the head over every ruler and authority.
Colossians 2:9-10 (CSB)
2. I Am New
You were also circumcised in him with a circumcision not done with hands, by putting off the body of flesh, in the circumcision of Christ.
Colossians 2:11 (CSB)
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
Ezekiel 36:26 (CSB)
3. I Am Alive
…when you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him and forgave us all our trespasses.
Colossians 2:12-13 (CSB)
4. I Am Free
He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; he triumphed over them in him.
Colossians 2:14-15 (CSB)
5. I Am Victorious
He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; he triumphed over them in him.
Colossians 2:15 (CSB)
I want their hearts to be encouraged and joined together in love, so that they may have all the riches of complete understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery—Christ. In Him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.
Colossians 2:2-3 (CSB)
2.AccessYour Spiritual Treasure
So then, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him…
Colossians 2:6 (CSB)
3.Guard Your Spiritual Treasure
Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elements of the world, rather than Christ.
Colossians 2:8 (CSB)
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I am completing in my flesh what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for his body, that is, the church.
Colossians 1:24 (CSB)
Three Reasons to Rejoice in Suffering
A. WHEN YOU SUFFER, JESUS SUFFERS.
As he traveled and was nearing Damascus, a light from heaven suddenly flashed around him. Falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”
Acts 9:3-4 (CSB)
B. WHEN YOU SUFFER THERE IS A PURPOSE
But the Lord said to him, “Go, for this man is my chosen instrument to take my name to Gentiles, kings, and Israelites. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”
Acts 9:15-16 (CSB)
C. WHEN YOU SUFFER YOU MATURE SPIRITUALLY
…so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.
Colossians 1:28 (CSB)
And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
1 Peter 5:10 (CSB)
2) I CAN STAY PURPOSEFUL WHEN I’M STRUGGLING
I have become its minister, according to God’s administration that was given to me for you, to make God’s message fully known…
Colossians 1:25 (CSB)
The mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. God wanted to make known among the Gentiles the glorious wealth of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Colossians 1:26-27 (CSB)
We proclaim him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.
Colossians 1:28 (CSB)
3) I CAN STAY STRONG WHEN I’M AGONIZING
To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.
Colossians 1:29 (NIV)
