This message unpacks the battle believers face in their minds—where thoughts, emotions, and beliefs collide. Rather than being condemned by intrusive or negative thoughts, we are invited to set our minds on truth, not being led by feelings, and trusting God’s finished work. The ultimate encouragement is that the battle belongs to the Lord, and our freedom comes not from managing thoughts, but from renewing our thinking with the truth of who we are in Christ.

and good morning, Grace Life. We're so glad you've joined us this morning, whether it's in person or online. We're just so thankful you're here. And I want to wish you all a merry Christmas. I know it's only December what, 20th. It's not quite it's a Christmas season. And I I got to tell you, one of the great gifts at Christmas for me is that when I got married, um, and I think I may have even put this in my wedding vows, I stopped Christmas shopping. That became somebody else's obligation. Katherine does all of it. So, I don't have that hustle and bustle for this week of trying to find gifts for people and all of that. Um, I try to just remind Katherine, tell me what you got anybody so I don't look surprised also. Um, because it's coming from us. So, I'm very thankful. But I know that we enter a busy season. And for many of you, you know, like you may enjoy Christmas, but it brings on a whole different set of things where we're hurrying and our calendars are full and emotions can run high. Um, I I love Christmas. I I I don't apologize for that, but I do recognize that it means or people have different experiences at Christmas time. And so before we rush any further, I just want to slow down a minute and remember remember the beauty and the power of what Christmas really brings because when we think about it, it really is remarkable. You know, God did not come in majesty. Just consider that if you were God and your presence had been void on the earth, at least for a permanence, and you wanted to reappear, how would you do it? How would you invade planet earth that had been infested by sin and death, rejection and rebellion? And yet God doesn't come in the grander of majesty. He comes in the humility of a manger. He doesn't come with dominance. He will one day. But he didn't come with dominance. He came in total dependence. His announcement wasn't given to statesmen. It was through shepherds. See, Christmas is proof that God doesn't wait for us to get it all together, to figure everything out. God isn't waiting for you and for me to elevate to his position to meet with us. Christmas is the reminder that the the divine one comes into our dust. He comes into our mess, our real lives. Emmanuel, the name itself means God with us. This may be a comfortable thought even for us at Grace Life Fellowship in 2025. This would have been almost an irreverent thought for the people of that time in Israel. God with us, like us, among us. He is with us right here, right now. And that matters because many of you entered today and I don't know what you're carrying. Maybe it's joy. Maybe it's anticipation. Maybe it's grief. Maybe it's a confident faith. Maybe it's a fragile faith. Maybe maybe you're tired. You're you're numb. Maybe you're just unsure. Christmas speaks to all of that for all of us. So whatever you're experiencing this this season of Christmas is a reminder that God does actually more than speak to that. He does more than speak to us, doesn't he? He showed up. He didn't just send a message. He sent his son. Think about that. He He didn't send a bunch of rules and lists and commandments and say, "Get this stuff done and then we'll be good." He sent himself. He shows up because he knows this world cannot lift you up. So God did the most humbling thing. He bent down. He met us where we are. And it may sound cliche, but it's true. Christmas is more than a season. It's more than a day to celebrate. It's a a lens to see every day through when we know Jesus, when we know God and his in incredible love for us. Christmas is more than just December 25th. It's an attitude and it fits really well with what we've been looking at in these these I am statements of Jesus. these present tense realities where the divine declares who he is not just for us one day but who he is to us today and every day. So this God with us, Emmanuel, is the great I am. And we've seen already he's the bread of life. He's the light of the world. He's the true vine. He's the good shepherd. And as we wrap up this series today, we're going to look again at one of the most powerful statements he ever made. I mean, all of those are pretty powerful. Bread of life, light of the world, true vine, good shepherd. And today, we're going to look at another powerful statement that he makes. When he says in John 11, he says, "I am the resurrection and the life." Like all of these I am declarations, it reminds us that Christianity is not about managing behavior. It's not about knowing what to do and what not to do. And and I I know you hear this, but I've said this before. We're not really saying 10,000 different things. We're saying the same thing 10,000 different ways. Christianity is about a person. It's not about principles to live by, but a savior who lives in us. It's not about a God who is distant and we need to appease him, but a present God who meets us right where we are. So, wherever you find yourself today, whether it's full of faith or full of questions, Jesus speaks these words. I am. This is his heart. It tells us that God's heart is in relationships right now. Please don't defer this to some future idea when you finally get to heaven in a very real and spiritual sense. The scripture says that those of us who have received Jesus, we are in the heavenly places seated with him right now. You don't have to figure that out or even really understand all of that, but you can believe it. His heart is in relationship with a person, not principles, with a ruler, not rules. And that's for right now. right where you find yourself, however you feel, whatever you're going through, the good, the bad, and the ugly, he is the resurrection and the life. This morning, Father, we pray that you would speak to us. For those of us that this is simply reminder, may it not lose its power in repetition. May we see it fresh for those of us, Father, that given the season of life we're in, it's more than a reminder. It's a revelation. Father, may it transform, may this truth transform our perspective. We thank you for the power in your word and the truth revealed through your son in Jesus name. Amen. This phrase where Jesus says this is found in John chap 11. Jesus, you you probably know the story, right? You remember the context. This is the the raising of Lazarus. So Mary and Martha have a brother Lazarus and Jesus loves them. It says so in the text. And Lazarus is sick. And so Mary and Martha send word back to Jesus. Hey Lazarus is sick. And and I love the phrase that he says the one whom you love. like they appeal to the relationship, but they know Jesus can do something. And so they appeal to Jesus, the one whom you love is sick. And I love Jesus's response. He he kind of reframes it. And in in verse four, he says, when Jesus heard this, he said, "This sickness is not to end in death." Here's the reason. It's as if we get a divine hint into a specific situation. All of our situations can be different, but we know that this last part is God's purpose in any situation. That the glory of God so that the son of God may be glorified by it. Like whatever the situation, this one for Lazarus was that he's sick and Jesus says it's not going to end in death. But we know something. What happens to Lazarus? He does die. Jesus didn't say he wouldn't die. Jesus says this wouldn't end in death and it doesn't. We see here even in this rethinking of a situation that God is revealing something. We don't go through things because we're being punished. Lazarus is sick, but there's a purpose that will be revealed through this sickness. It's about God revealing life and glory and and then there's this incredible surprise that happens. You you know the story, right? Jesus upon hearing this, what does he do? He rushes right to to Bethany to go meet with him. Is that what he does? No. It's clear. It says he waits two more days. We know this is not indifference because the scripture says he loves Lazarus and Mary and Martha and yet he waits two more days. He has a greater purpose than the immediacy of our situation is the point. He doesn't do this to create pain. He He does this to make room for something deeper, a revelation. It's this simple. Jesus is not after healing a sick man. He's after resurrecting a dead one. He is the resurrection and the life. This doesn't make light or diminish any of Jesus's healings throughout the gospels. Of course, we know he healed people. But when Jesus makes the declaration, I am the resurrection and the life. He's telling us something deeper than a circumstantial, a symptom being healed. He's telling us where the source is found. And it's found in him as life in in him. He waits because he's not healing somebody who's sick. He's going to raise somebody who's dead. He's the lifegiver. Even in the best healing, I I find that the church today is enamored with signs and wonders and and healings. But even in the best healing, it's temporary. And Jesus is after more than temporary. He's after something eternal. He's after the source. He This may be hard for us to reconcile. This may be hard for us to grasp because we live in such such domination of our own emotions at times. We just want them reconciled. We want them consoled. We want them relieved. We want rescue from how we feel because of what's going on. But Jesus proves here he's after more than rescue or relief or reprieve. He's after life. And something eternal is happening. and and Jesus's offer is greater than a temporary reprieve. That's hard. When I'm suffering, when I'm hurting, I want it to end at any cost. I could care less about tomorrow when today hurts like that. That's how I think about that. That's how I feel about that. And and yet we see that even in the declaration I am. It's not that Jesus is dismissing the here and now. He's actually he's actually engaging it here and now with a different perspective. He's offering something that outlasts sickness, that transcends death, that doesn't necessar necessarily deliver us from circumstances, but delivers to us in any circumstance his very life where we find rest and joy, compassion, comfort. It says in Corinthians, he is the God of all comfort, able to comfort us in any affliction. And not only that, we would be so comforted by his life in any affliction that he then can comfort others through us in any of their affliction. You know what that tells me? There's no affliction that can happen to humanity by which God can't use it to be their comfort. There's nothing that happens to us that is beyond his ability to comfort us in it. I kind of wish sometimes that verse read, "He will rescue you from any affliction." But it doesn't say that. I can't give you a false promise. You would sniff it out by the reality of your own experiences in life. But what we need to hold on to is that the I am is present no matter what's happening. So when Jesus arrives, Lazarus has already been dead four days. Four days from every human perspective, from anything anybody could figure out, from anything they could analyze or diagnose, the story's over. Jesus is too late. Not not four hours, four days. So much so that when he approaches the tomb, you remember what Martha tells him? Hey, you open that thing up, it's going to stink. It's a corpse rotten in there. Martha approached Jesus. We saw it in the passage. Let's see if I'm in the right verse. Yeah. Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, if you had been here, you wouldn't have died. I If if you had been here, think about that phrase question. Where is he now?" You you see we often live in this idea God if you had been there if only sometimes that that's for the past sometimes it's it's projected into the future God what if you are not there I love Jesus's response to this question if you had been here, he wouldn't have died. Even now, I know that whatever you ask, look at her faith. She knows who he is. Whatever you ask of God, God will give you. Jesus says to her, "Your brother will rise again." There's the stated fact. Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life, and he who believes in me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die." Do you do you believe this? In a room full of Martha's, do do we believe this? I quote this passage at every memorial service to bring a hope to the to the the false idea that whatever we are visually seeing in physical death is the end of any story. Physical death is not the last door closing. It's the final door opening. And when Jesus says, "I am the resurrection and the life," he is offering something beyond our understanding but not beyond our belief. See, he changes her focus from what might have been to what is. If only you had been here. I am the resurrection. What you were asking for me then, thinking I had to be present then, I'm present now. and I am the life. Martha responds with pretty good theology. Oh, I know there's going to be a resurrection one day, right? That's good theology. Do you know that you're going to experience a resurrection one day physically? The Bible says so. When we see him, we will be like him. We're going to inherit a new glorified body, resurrection body. You're getting one of those. You can look in the mirror all you want and regret what's happening to the one you have now, but that's not the only one you're getting. That day is coming. But until that day, do you know that you have already been resurrected spiritually? You're a brand new creation, righteous, accepted, and holy in him. That's a reality. Just because you don't see it, just because you can't necessarily fathom it, I can't either. It doesn't mean it's not true. Aren't you glad that our faith in Jesus isn't limited to our own finite understanding of Jesus? So Jesus takes her good theology and he shifts her focus from doctrine, what to believe, to dependence, who to trust. That's really what Jesus is doing. Let me tell you what you are believing. Let me show you who to trust. You know what makes any doctrine good? It's that it ends in trusting Jesus. I am the resurrection and the life. He doesn't say I was, I can be, I might be, I will be, hopefully I might. He says I am. So resurrection now is not just some future event on a calendar. It's a present reality. It's a person that we are invited to trust. So he's not offering something that he will do one day. He's revealing who he is right now. Please hear this. So much Christian teaching punts what Jesus is offering in the here and now to some future idea. In the sweet by and by. Jesus says, "I've come in John chapter 10, he says, I've come that you might have life and have it to the fullest, have it abundantly." And that life is, we we looked at this in the in this series, that life is Zoe life. It's God life. The moment you received him, you received a quality, not just a quantity, a quality of life that's impossible for you to achieve. It can only be received because it's not manufactured. It's received. It's God's life. You have that life. If you receive Jesus, it's right now. It's for the circumstance you find yourself in, good or bad. If if whatever you're you're going through right this moment, and and if you think, well, when this moment ends or when this changes, then then I then I'll experience life. We we've kind of been conditioned to believe that that life is not now, but it's later. It's it's like we're living like it's Christmas next week. Like like like you you know like little kids anticipate Christmas and they go like my kids would always I did this. I I still do this. Christmas is four days away. Can't wait for that day. And and we're always like chasing life someday. like it's in the next season. You know, when I was a young person, well, when when I start driving, then then I'll then I'll really live life. Then I started driving. That wasn't the answer. Not for anybody. Well, the next the next thing is maybe when I go off to college, get away from home a little bit and get some freedom and not everybody telling me what to do and I can decide for myself and get off to college and and you do that for a little while and then you go, "Well, no, that that's not really it. Maybe maybe when I get get out of college and I get a job and I start making money and then I start saving some money and doing some things, that's when I Oh, and then you do that for a little while and you go, "Well, that that's not that's not really it either." Oh, it's it's when I find a wife, a a husband, a spouse. Well, when that happens and and and then then I'll really come into the life or or no, when then that happens and the reality hits and you go, "Oh, this isn't maybe it's when I have kids." And do you see how we're always ch and if we're really honest? If we're really honest, it's not when I have. We we might ask this in the in the fear of if I have. Well, if I get married, then this would change. And then I'll And then we we have those sweet kids. And then we go, I know. I know. It's when they leave and on and on. And we're always looking at life in the forward position like it's it's about to come. It's it's it's behind this next milestone season. And and the idea is that unless something changes now, I will not experience life. And here's what needs to change in that. It's it's the mindset. It's not life. It's not it's not the mess. It's the mindset that needs to change. It's not the circumstance. See Jesus is your life. He is the life. So life is not found in the next season of your life. Life is not found in different circumstances or even better circumstances. Life is found in him. It's not like locked behind some door next year. It's not in you're not living in some spiritual waiting room hoping that the great physician comes in and tells you you're healed, you're good, you're life is not that. All of that, any of that better circumstances, better anything, all of that is okay to desire. All of that is okay is is normal as humans to want. But none of that is where life is found. I I am not preaching to a congregation. I am reminding myself. Life is found in him. It's not found in what's next, but in who is present. No matter what is next. You hear that? Life is not found when you graduate, when you move to this next thing. It's found in him. no matter what happens next. Because when we believe life will finally happen later, something really subtle but significant begins to happen in our belief system. We start assigning lifegiving power to things and to people that were never meant to carry it. We begin to make idols out of outcomes and we worship that. We we make idols out of relationships, out of seasons, out of out of achievements. Maybe maybe in some twisted way we make idols out of failures and and these things we find as our objects of worship because we don't know really where life is found. And we're looking for it in anybody or anything else. So, we look for life in our kids, hoping they'll give us meaning or validation or in our spouse, hoping hoping they'll fill something only God can fill or or in our job, our success, our bank account, our reputation, our health, our feelings, our failures, our regrets, our emotions, you name it. We are destined to seek after life. But when we seek after it in anything other than Jesus, we won't find it. See, all those things, they can be gifts or responsibilities or even experiences, but they were never meant to carry the weight of being your source, being your life. That's only Jesus's job and desire. He is your life. In the book of Jonah, there's an interesting verse. You know the story of Jonah. We don't have to recap that, do we? But there's a there's an obscure verse found in chapter 2. It says, "Those who cling to worthless idols turn away from God's love for them." See, when we when we chase after life thinking it's in anything other than Jesus, and I know that even as I said that, that sounds so super spiritual. Oh, just trust Jesus as your life. No, it's it's really super practical. It's it's the things we hear week after week. Life is in a person who has gifted to you not because you can feel it all the time, but because you have it no matter what. Love and joy and peace and righteousness and forgiveness and and purpose and compassion. These these are the realities that we have in the one who is our life no matter what this life throws at us. So when I say that that we we just find life only in him, it's the practicality of changing our mindset to what's true because of him. But when when we look at at these other things as though they're going to bring us life, when Jesus alone is our life, this is what it does. It puts too much pressure on you and it puts too much pressure on whatever we're idolizing. I've done this. too much pressure on my wife or my kids because I thought if if finally they met the need that I have for love and security and acceptance and belonging and value and purpose, if if I found that need met in them, then I would be satisfied. I would be content. And it puts pressure on them to be unto me what only God can be. That's what an idol is. And remember when he says in the commandments that no idols before me, no gods before me. We make idols out of life situations, out of conveniences, out of people, out of circumstances in order to try to get our needs met for love and security and peace and and joy and all of that. And none of it's found in those things because all of those things are roller coaster rides. Try to find life out of your kids and and be on a roller coaster without a seat belt. They're not God. My son never came to me. My daughters never came to me and said, "I am the resurrection and the life." Jesus says that I would tell students, "Your grades aren't your life." Now, don't tell your parents I said that. We are looking in others and in things what only God provides for us. Those who cling to worthless idols, they turn away from God's love. It doesn't mean God doesn't love them. God God doesn't love you less when you idolize something other than him. He doesn't. But you reject the love he has for you. When that happens, when we look at anything other than Jesus's life, those things, those people, those experiences, they inevitably end up disappointing us. Have you ever noticed that? Have you ever noticed if you're trying to get your purpose and worth and value and significance out of your job, have you ever noticed how your job disappoints you? It's not that those things are bad. Please don't take away from here. Oh, Tim thinks kids and family and job. None of these things are bad. They're good things. They're just not life. They're they're the opportunities where life can be expressed, but they are not the source of life. Jesus is so many of us go through life and we're we're we're white knuckling it. You know what I mean? Like we're holding on. I got to hold on to this situation, to this person, to this reality. I've got to hold on to it and we're white knuckling life trying to control everything. And and there's a there's a grace dynamic. There's a gospel dynamic that that says, "Hey, loosen. Give up the control. You don't have to white knuckle this. Jesus did all the white knuckling so that you could receive. So that you could let go. And I know it's scary. It's it's a fearful thing when we let go of what we think is supposed to bring us life. We're holding on to it so desperately. And yet that the whole the whole posture of Christianity is that we would humble ourselves and receive which means I stop white knuckling it and I release it unto God. Cast all your cares on him. Why? Cast all your burdens on him. Why? He cares for you. It's relational. It's not even telling us to cast it all on God because he's so strong and powerful. Though strong and powerful he absolutely is. It's saying cast it onto him because he he likes you because he cares about the story of Lazarus. You know, you know the the one verse you've all memorized. Jesus wept. It comes from this story. He he's already he's already told us, "Hey, this is this is a sickness not unto death. He's going to be raised." And yet when he shows up and he sees the grief of Martha and Mary and and other people and then he approaches the tomb, it says that he was moved and Jesus wept. God is telling us, I get it. Even when he knows what he's about to do, it didn't change human emotions of grief and sorrow. When you see people grieving around you, mourn with those who mourn. It's not like some stoic approach where Jesus comes in and goes, "I robotically I this is going to happen. What are y'all doing crying?" I I believe as real humanity, it is okay to feel everything that you feel. It's okay to feel what you're feeling. Your feelings don't have to be right. Feelings are to be real. But when you let your feelings cause you to white knuckle it through life, there's there's a there's something you can do. You can let it remind you that I don't have to do that and I can release this. When we live like this, as much as we don't think this is the case, it is we are rejecting the experience of the blessings we already have in Jesus. When we do this, we are accepting those experiences of how blessed we are and we reinterpret how we think about this. So, we find freedom when we loosen our grip. Isn't that contrary to the world? The world says, "Get a grip. Take control. That's how you're going to man up." And God goes, "You want to get a grip? Loosen it." Because here's the truth. He will never loosen his grip on you. He will never loosen it. And we are not to let any circumstance, anything that we experience lie to us and accuse us that we are going through this because God has loosened his grip, because God is not present, because God is not pleased, because God is distant. All of that is a satanic lie from the accuser. Because the truth is, no matter what you go through, God's declaration stands true. He is the resurrection and the life. And in Romans chapter 8, at the end of the chapter, it's as though Paul writes a doxology and he says, "No matter what, no matter what happens, there is nothing, not death, famine, peril, sword." You could read the whole list and it says nothing created, nothing can separate you from the love of God. Because everything that we go through, God can use to show his love in and through it to us so that we stop idolizing perfect circumstances and we worship a perfect God. So we release the things we've been holding on to for life, things we've been trying to get from people, from outcomes, from seasons, and instead we receive it from Jesus. Paul says it this way. Since then you have been raised with Christ. Set your heart on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. before you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. For you died. Do you see the reality of a spiritual death? So the old us died. We've been raised brand new. We are a new creation. And now our life is hidden with Christ. And look what verse four says. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Christ who is your life. [clears throat] It's not a backup plan. Jesus is not a He's not plan B. Oh, try to make life work. God helps those who help themselves, but when you can't help yourself, then backup plan. God will help you. No. Just in case you don't know, that's not a scripture verse. It doesn't say God helps those who helps themselves. It says God helps those who are helpless. What we find is that when we stop white knuckling it through life and just receive, we realize those who are helpless is everybody. It's everybody. So Jesus isn't your backup plan. He's not some addition to your life. He's not even first in your life. He is your life. And when we know this, everything else begins to find its proper place. We we can love our spouse without them being our source. We can adore our kids without idolizing them. We can know that work matters, but it doesn't define us. We can know that our feelings are something we have, but they don't have to have us. See, when we know Jesus as our life, he is the source. He defines you. He has you. And that means right now, not one day. If you've heard nothing else today, hear this. Right now, not when you hit the pearly gates. Right now, you have complete and total forgiveness for anything that haunts you of your past, maybe even the present. He's not doing that to you. He remembers your sins no more. He has removed your sin as far as the east is from the west. He's not taking an account of that. Love keeps no record of wrongs. And God is love and he loves you. So if you're tormented by the sins of your past, it's not coming from God. Right now you have complete forgiveness. Right now you have perfect peace not as a fleeting emotion, not as a convenient comfort. You have perfect peace as a godly possession. It's a fruit of the spirit. You have the prince of peace living inside of you by his spirit. So peace isn't the outcome of a circumstance. It's the presence of Jesus. You have righteousness. You're in right standing with God. You and God are totally okay, compatible. No separation, no shame, no guilt, no condemnation. Jude verse 24 chapter 1 verse 24 says we can stand before him in his presence blameless with great joy. There's not a human being that I've ever had a relationship with on this planet that I could stand before blameless but with God I can. You are blameless before him. He accepts you right where you are. Right as you are, not as you think you should be. Brendan Manning used to say that all the time. Jesus accepts you as you are, not as you think you should be. You have purpose and you can live in the wondrous freedom that he is your life. No matter what this life throws at you, I am the resurrection and the life. Jesus says, we talked about this earlier in the series in John chapter 14, telling his disciples when they're worried about him going away, he says, then Philip says, "Where what's the way? Where are you going?" And Jesus says, "I am the way. I am the truth and I am the life." So for this Christmas season, but way beyond in an attitude of what Christmas reminds us of, be encouraged. Your joy, your peace, your purpose, your everything isn't circumstantial. It's not hopefully coming in the next season of life. He's in you right now as your life. Father, this morning, would you cement the truth into our minds? A truth that you've already placed by your spirit into our heart. Would you submit it into our minds so that we may live in the freedom, in the rest, and in the joy of knowing no matter what this life throws at us, you are our life. And it's much greater than treating symptoms. You're the resurrection life. And we have moved from death to life. We celebrate that in you, because of you, and through you in Jesus name. Amen.

In this message, we discover what it means when Jesus declares, “I am the Light of the world,” and how He turns that truth toward us—calling us the light of the world in Him. More than a command to behave, this is an invitation to live from who we already are in Christ. In the midst of a dark world, we walk in the light because His life is in us.

What do we do with the “Am I enough?” questions we all wrestle with? In this message, we see how God answers our deepest insecurities not with a pep talk, but with His name: I AM. Jesus, the Bread of Life, is our daily sufficiency—our anchor, our source, and our satisfaction.

In this message, we discover that in Christ, we’re not trying to become something—we already are. Jesus declares that we are good, clean, close to God, and forever connected to Him. The old covenant brought condemnation, but the new covenant reveals our true identity: made new, joined to Jesus, and partakers of His divine nature. This is not about striving, but believing the truth that sets us free.

This message proclaims the transformative power of knowing and trusting the goodness of God, which leads to real freedom from the lies of legalism and performance-based religion. By setting our minds on truth and renewing our thoughts with God’s character, we experience healing for our emotions and the joy of resting in our identity as complete, loved, and made new in Christ.

This message draws deeply from Psalm 46 to assure believers that, despite overwhelming circumstances and internal chaos, God is both their refuge and river—a source of strength, peace, and joy. Through truth-based thinking and the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit, we are empowered to cease striving and live securely in God's unwavering commitment to us.

We often think of the Christian life as us chasing after God, but the truth of the gospel is that He is pursuing us—His goodness and mercy are following us every day. This message explores the battlefield of the mind, where intrusive thoughts, deception, and distraction seek to steal our peace. Yet God's Word invites us to actively set our minds on truth, allowing His Spirit to renew our thinking and lead us into lasting freedom through the finished work of Christ.

The Christian life is not an escape from reality but an invitation to live fully in both the physical and spiritual worlds—experiencing pain, fear, and sorrow as human beings while simultaneously drawing from the divine life of Christ within. Through the indwelling Spirit, we are empowered to engage the brokenness of this world with honesty and hope, living as clay vessels filled with the treasure of God’s presence and reflecting His strength in our weakness.

God reveals Himself through His names—Elohim, Yahweh, and Adonai—not just to display His power, but to show us His personal, intimate, and covenant-keeping nature. From Genesis to the cross and into our own lives, He is both mighty and merciful, fully able and deeply committed to keeping every promise He’s made to us in love.

In this powerful conclusion to our Colossians series, we’re reminded that the Christian life is not about adding to Jesus but trusting fully in His finished work—Christ in us, the hope of glory. We grow not by striving, but by resting in who we are: holy, blameless, and beyond reproach. Watch now and be encouraged by the truth that Jesus really is our everything.

In this section, Paul shows how knowing we’re fully loved and valued by God transforms our family and workplace relationships. Whether as children, parents, employees, or bosses, we’re free to serve one another “from the heart,” confident that Christ is our ultimate example and source of love.

This week we explore how Christ’s love transforms our homes as Pastor Tim shares God’s plan for husbands and wives. Embrace the freedom of mutual respect and sacrificial love, reflecting the beauty of His grace in every family relationship.

Because Christ dwells in us, we can let His peace rule our hearts and allow His word to reshape our attitudes and actions. Out of this fullness, we live with gratitude, doing everything in His name as a grateful expression of His grace.

In this message, we see how God’s unconditional love and forgiveness empower us to love and forgive others. Because He has canceled our sins and fully values us through Christ’s finished work, we no longer live in shame, guilt, or attempts to earn His favor. Instead, trusting in His love frees us to share that same love with those around us, demonstrating the very heart of the gospel. As God’s beloved children, we put on this new clothing—His compassion, kindness, humility, and patience—knowing our relationships flourish only when they flow from His life and love within us.

Because God has fully forgiven us in Christ and declared our infinite worth, we are free to release grudges and choose love as the unifying bond among us. Our complete forgiveness in Christ empowers us to forgive others and live in genuine, grace-filled relationships.

Because Jesus has forgiven us completely and forever, we can freely forgive others in the same way. Our new identity in Christ—securely loved, fully accepted—empowers us to release grudges, bear with one another, and choose genuine love.

Because God has already placed compassion, kindness, humility, and patience within us through Christ, we can now “put on” these qualities in daily life. As we embrace our true identity—completely forgiven and deeply loved—we find freedom to extend the same grace and love toward others.

Because believers are chosen, holy, and loved by God, we can put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Resting in our secure identity in Christ replaces striving, empowers us to love others genuinely, and reflects the unity He designed us to enjoy.

Since believers have died with Christ, they no longer need to reform or fix an “old self”—they are already a brand-new creation. Freed from past identities and empowered by the Spirit, Christians can put aside the old ways and live out of the new life hidden with Christ in God.

Since believers have been raised and seated with Christ, they no longer rely on religious or earthly means to secure life, acceptance, or approval. Real freedom and transformation come by trusting the finished work of Jesus, recognizing that the old self has died and our true life is now hidden in Christ.

In this section, Paul warns the Colossians against being taken captive by religious or mystical practices that distract from the finished work of Christ. True freedom isn’t found in visions, angelic worship, or “do not touch” rules, but in holding fast to Jesus, the head who has already made us complete in Him.

In this message, we see Paul remind the Colossian church (and us) that true freedom isn’t found in following religious rules or judging one another’s external practices. Instead, we’re free to live from a genuine relationship with Christ, who is the reality and substance behind all traditions and observances.

In this powerful conclusion to Colossians 2:13–15, Pastor Tim explores how Christ’s finished work frees us not only from the penalty of sin and the burden of the law, but also from shame, guilt, and condemnation. Discover how the enemy’s lies have been disarmed so you can truly stand firm and love others from the overflow of God’s grace in you.