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Guest (Male): with the ultimate solution to any issue and the key to every problem. Here's Pastor Tom Keller.

Pastor Thom Keller: When you see posters or when people offer this philosophy or that slogan or another form of government to fix discrimination, remember this. It's all about Jesus. And Jesus is all about love. And so like everything else, the ultimate solution to discrimination is found in Christ. It's been said Christ is the key that unlocks every door.

Guest (Male): Saying that Jesus is the answer is quite an assertion and not meant to minimize any problem or question you're facing. Still, it's quite a claim. But the scripture backs it up. As we'll hear on today's study the word with Pastor Tom Keller. We're making our way through Colossians and in chapter three, we'll not only discover the truth about Jesus, but also about you that God can use you to make a difference in this world. Here's Pastor Tom.

Pastor Thom Keller: One day, a group of friars decided to open a flower shop as a way to raise money for their monastery. Because they are men of God and pillars in the community, the locals start to buy all of their flowers from them. This draws the anger of another local florist who sees the holy men as having an unfair advantage due to their association with the church. After making countless attempts to put them out of business, the florist decides to enlist the hope of a local thug named Hugh to chase him off. Hugh successfully scares the friars in closing their shop and fleeing town.

Once again, proving that only Hugh can prevent florist friars. Who's who's clapping? I love you. I love you. And in today's lesson is entitled can God really use me? And the answer is yes, God really can use Hugh. Okay. All right. Colossians 3 verse 11 is where we start. In this new life, it doesn't matter if you are a Jew or Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave or free. Christ is all that matters and he lives in us all. Now here Paul discusses the discrimination that existed in the church of his day. And discrimination was a constant theme during Jesus's three years of ministry as well.

Think about the Samaritan woman. And the group who were separated from one another, the groups that were separated from one another 2,000 years ago, Paul lists for us. The Greeks were separated from the Jews, the Jews, the circumcised, the uncircumcised, the Greeks, the barbarians, and the Scythians, slave and free. Now the Greeks of Paul's day were the aristocracy of that day. In our day, these would be the wealthy humanists, the atheists, the agnostics who look down upon we simple-minded Christians. The Jews of Paul's day looked down on everyone else. They had come to despise Gentiles, despise.

In fact, the rabbis taught that if a Jew came upon a Gentile woman who was in childbirth, they were ordered not to stop and help her because they would be aiding and bringing one more Gentile into the world. The official position of the Jews concerning Gentiles of Paul's day was that Gentiles were fit only to be the fuel for the fires of hell. That speaks to the Gentiles, to the to the Gentiles. Now the Scythians were considered by everyone as the absolute lowest form of life upon the earth. You can see the Scythians there above the Black Sea.

These people who lived in the north and northeast of the Black and Caspian Seas, there it gives a better idea of where that was located, a huge area. And uh the Scythians found only here in the Bible. This is the only reference to them in the whole Bible. Were regarded as a wild and savage race of uncivilized people. Josephus, the trusted Jewish historian, called them wild beasts. And Paul closes out his list by mentioning slave and free. In Paul's day under Roman law, the slave was not even classified as a human being, simply as a living tool like a shovel or a wheelbarrow.

A slave owner could legally beat his slave, brand them, maim them, or even kill them on a whim with absolutely no legal recourse for doing so. And in verse 11, Paul also mentions the barbarian. And this was actually a term coined by the stuck-up Greeks referring to any people group who did not speak their beautiful advanced Greek language. In fact, the Greeks mocked non-Greek speaking groups by saying that the only thing these simple, uncivilized people seem to be able to say was bar bar bar bar bar. And that's the root of the word barbarian. Bar bar bar.

It makes me think of the French who claim that their language is so lovely, so graceful compared to German. You know, they're all the and then you get to German and you know. And so it's the same kind of thing. There's always a pecking order in the world. And God has a simple remedy regarding discrimination. In fact, it is incredibly simple. Colossians 3:11 says this. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free. Here it is. But Christ is all and in all. Here's the solution. Christ is all and in all.

You know, if you distill the Christian faith down to find its one basic elementary truth, here it is. It's all about Jesus and Jesus is all about love. It 's all about Jesus and Jesus is all about love. Can you come up with a truer, more all-encompassing statement than that? It's all about Jesus. That's what the book of Colossians is about. It's all about Jesus and Jesus is all about love. And if it is all about Jesus, then none of my life is about me or my social status or my skin color or my bank account or my nationality or my ethnicity.

Jesus is the great leveler. And then Paul gives us another huge benefit to living the exchanged life, that idea that I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. Again, in verse 11, it says here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free. But Christ is all and in all. Christ is all and in all. So if you take 10 Christians, all different ethnic groups, different languages, different cultures, some wealthy, some poor, some educated, some not. And if at one given moment all 10 of them, all 10 of them have crucified their flesh and are allowing Christ to live in them instead, then what has just happened to all those ethnic and class distinctions?

They're gone. They're gone. So when Christ lives in you, you don't have to work at being all-inclusive because you have a room filled with 10 human bodies, but Christ living in each of those 10 bodies. That's the simple solution. So what's the takeaway? Practical takeaway today on discrimination justice. When you see posters like this or when people offer this philosophy or that slogan or another form of government to fix discrimination, remember this. It's all about Jesus. And Jesus is all about love. And so like everything else, the ultimate solution to discrimination is found in Christ.

It's been said Christ is the key that unlocks every door. The ultimate solution to discrimination is found in Christ and specifically Christ in you because as you well know, Jesus loves everyone exactly the same. When he's in you, so will you. Going on to verse 12 to 14. Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourself with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other's faults and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourself with love which binds us all together in perfect harmony.

You know, a good little nugget to tuck away is to remember that in nearly all of Paul's letters, he begins his letters, usually a minimum of one half of his letters deal with theological issues. And once he deals with that, once he gets that out of the way, he then moves on to practical issues of life, the second half of his letters. And that's the case here. Colossians chapter 1 and 2 is on theology. Chapters 3 verse 5 to 9, Paul begins in practical issues. And we saw last week he begins by listing sins to give up, sins to put off.

And our verses today, Paul lists virtues to pick up, to put on. And again, there's a very practical application on this. Please don't be one of those who focuses on what we must give up when we become a Christian. Are there things we must give up when we become a Christian? Of course. Things that we should want to give up because they will hold us back, tie us down. But more importantly, there is so much more that we gain when we become Christians. Forgiveness, eternal life, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the fruits of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control.

And here Paul expands upon the fruits of the Spirit, adding a group of virtues that every single one of us should long to add to our lives. Listen. In earlier in chapter 3, he says give up, take off sexual sin, impurity, lust, shameful desires, greed, anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, dirty language. But here he says, but now put on put up, take on, pick up, take on tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience. Make allowance for each other's faults. Forgive those who offend you. In fact, he says forgive all others. And most importantly, most importantly, in verse 14 says this.

Above all, clothe yourself with love which binds all of us together in perfect harmony. So let's look at what we are to put on. First is tenderhearted mercy. Some translations say compassion. In Paul's day, there was very little compassion in that Greco and Roman world. The maimed and the sickly were put out and left to die. There was no provision for the elderly who had lost their family. Those with disabilities were put out and left to die. Unwanted children were simply placed on the streets to die. History bounds in the record of that. It was Christianity that brought mercy into the world.

It is Christianity that launched hospitals, feeding centers, orphanages, and retirement homes. This world would be a very cruel and uncaring world if it were not for the tenderhearted mercy of committed Christians. Think Taliban. In Hinduism, for example, the poor and maimed are left to die in the gutters as swamis drive by them in their Rolls-Royces. And this is all justified by their faith. They believe that these people in the gutters are working off their bad karma because of a former life. And if they intercede in their behalf and try to help them out of the gutter, they're actually interrupting the karma that they need to work off and they will, as a result, not come back in the next life in as high a form as they would if you let them suffer.

How diabolical is that? All justified. The next virtue is kindness. In Greek, the word is crestos. It was defined as the virtue of a man who cared as much about his neighbor as he cared about himself. It is described of the virtue of a man who cared as much about his neighbor as himself. Josephus uses it as a descriptive word of Isaac who would dig wells and then give them to others because he would not fight over them to keep them. The word is used of wine, which has grown mellow with age and lost its harshness.

It's the same word used when Jesus said my yoke is easy, crestos. Kindness. Are you a kind person? Would your family say you're a kind person? The next virtue is humility. This is actually a virtue created by early Christians. In classical Greek, there is no word for humility except in a negative sense. Definition I like for humility is seeing myself as God sees me, seeing myself as God sees me. Can this be set of you? Are you a humble person? The next virtue is gentleness. The best definition I've heard for this is that it's used to define a man who is so God-controlled.

Listen. He is so God-controlled that he's always stirred up at the right time and never stirred up at the wrong time. That's pretty admirable, who's always stirred up at the right time and never at the wrong time. By that definition, are you a gentle person? And the next virtue is patience. Anybody here need help with patience? Yeah, you saying get done quick Tom. The next virtue is patience and this speaks of a person who never loses his cool with another. Human patience is treating others as Jesus treats us whose patience bears with us through all of our sins and shortcomings.

Yet he never casts us off. He never gives up on us. Can this be set of you? Are you patient? Are you long-suffering when others fail you? And verse 13 says you must make allowances for each other's faults and forgive the person who offends you. Now a question, do you make allowances for the faults of others, for their shortcomings, for their failures, for their sins against you? It has been said we are never as close to being like Christ as when we forgive another. We are never as close to being like Christ as when we forgive another.

And we all need forgiveness. There's a Spanish story of a father and son who had become estranged. The son ran away and the father set off to find him. He searched for months but to no avail. Finally, in a last desperate effort to find him, he put an ad in a Madrid newspaper. The ad simply read dear Paco, meet me in front of the newspaper office at noon this Saturday. All is forgiven. I love you, your father. On Saturday, 800 Pacos showed up looking for forgiveness and love from their fathers. Find it hard to believe?

You know, I remember years ago I read an article and it said it talked about men who had lost their fathers. And it said of the number one regret, the number one regret from that group of men was that they never reconciled with their fathers before their father died. There are a lot of Pacos out there. And yet true forgiveness, true forgiveness is a rare commodity outside of Christianity. I told you this before. I love this story. I went into A&M Pizza one time to order pizza and I I get mixed up between what's Sicilian and uh what's the other one?

The thick and the thin, Sicilian and Neapolitan. And I ordered one and I meant the other and I got it wrong. And I said to the guy, 21 22 year old guy, good-looking tall guy at the counter. You know how they lean over when they take your order. And I said uh I said he said no that you want Neapolitan. I said oh I I said I'm sorry. He said you're sorry. Sorry. You don't know me an apology. My girlfriend knows me apology. You don't owe me an apology. And I thought you know when he said that like you know the world really doesn't.

This whole thing about forgiving apology, you know, a weak person does that. No, a forgiven person does that. Mara Giacometti, a well-known secular humanist and novelist, said listen, what I envy most about you Christians is your forgiveness. I have nobody to forgive me. Listen. What I envy most about you Christians is your forgiveness. I have nobody to forgive me. Hey, think of that when you're witnessing to somebody. Carl Menninger, the famed psychiatrist, once said that if he could convince the patients in psychiatric hospitals that their sins were forgiven, 75% of them would walk out the next day, the next day.

And folks, my experience, just my experience has been that in dealing with people's stuff, their baggage, ongoing hurts and wounds from the past, 90% of that cure centers around forgiveness. 90% We're also going to talk about how to tolerate and even love difficult people. Don't look left or right. They might be sitting next to you. I'm going to talk about that next. You know, I like to close by looking at this verse and considering this question, verse 12. Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourself with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

And the question is can God really use me if I simply clothe myself with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience? Listen, can God really use me if I simply clothe myself with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience? Some people say I don't know how God could use me as a municipal worker, as a nurse or factory worker or a cafeteria worker. In fact, I'm not even allowed to talk about Christ in those settings. But folks, with a life-changing message direct from the Holy Spirit, using a human instrument who said just four words, four words, can I help you?

Just four words, but said in the power of the Holy Spirit, said with love in that heart, wanting to communicate. And so folks, if you think God can't use you, listen, when Christ is living in you, when you're expressing the love of God him through you, he can take the foremost innocuous words and use them to drive home his love to that person you're talking to for spoken words in love. Think about that and ask Christ to live in you and ask Christ to express his love through you to those people that he brings to your counter, to your cafeteria line, to your factory work, to your workbench, to your desk in a school setting.

Now when by reading this, I am a Christian. When I say that I am a Christian, I'm not shouting that I am clean living. I'm whispering I was lost, but now I'm found and forgiven. When I say I am a Christian, I don't speak of this with pride. I'm confessing that I stumble and need Christ to be my guide. When I say I am a Christian, I'm not trying to be strong. I'm professing that I'm weak and need his strength to carry on. When I say I'm a Christian, I'm not bragging of success. I'm admitting I have failed and need God to clean my mess.

When I say I am a Christian, I'm not claiming to be perfect. My flaws are far too visible. But God believes I'm worth it. When I say I am a Christian, I still feel the sting of pain. I have my share of heartaches. So I call upon his name. When I say I am a Christian, I'm not holier than now. I'm just a simple sinner who received God's good grace somehow.

Guest (Male): May you receive God's good grace if you yet to do so. And then share it too. You want to join us next time when Pastor Tom Keller returns to Colossians chapter 3 and we'll again study the word. Would you like to give this a second listen? Either go to our website at ccleb.com or visit our YouTube page. Simply subscribe to our channel at Calvary Chapel Lebanon and you can watch our services live or on demand. That includes this series in Colossians. For those interested in a CD copy, call 717 273 5633. Once again, that's 717 273 5633.

Study the word is listener supported. With your help, we're able to reach thousands of people all over the world. Please consider sending in a gift today and you can give online at ccleb.com or call 717 273 5633. Or if you prefer to write, jot down this address. Study the word 740 Willow Street, Lebanon, Pennsylvania 17046. And we also want to invite you to join us for a Sunday service, either in person or online. For more information or to watch the live stream, visit ccleb.com or again go to our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel Lebanon. There's much more to come in Colossians.

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