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Well, good morning. Go ahead and dismiss the ten and 11 year olds for for their class. I’m going to invite you to turn to the book of Colossians, which if you’d like to know where that’s at. If you start in the New Testament, it’s 12 books into the New Testament, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians are the books that just precede it. It’s a letter written by the Apostle Paul, and we’re going to start on a new series together. The book of Colossians is a beautiful book, and I’m thankful for you and being here to start this journey with us as we go through this book, because there is no greater book that we can look at that points to the significance of who Christ is. And so when it comes to our worship, our faith and everything that we are, it’s wrapped up in the identity of who Christ is. And this book is highly important for us and our understanding to our faith as it relates to how we we worship and live our lives. In fact, when we study this book of Colossians together, what we’re going to discover these first couple of chapters, Paul starts with the idea of truth as it relates to Jesus, and then he gets to the back half of this book, the last couple of chapters, and then draws the application. And the point is this, that when you look at the identity of who Christ is, the truth of who Jesus is determines for us then how we should respond to it. And it’s not the other way around. Sometimes we like to place our determine our faith by our feelings and then judge our God that way. Well, the book of Colossians starts with the identity and the truth of who God is. And then from that being the creator of all things, we determine who we are and how to respond in light of that. And so Colossians is very important. I’m glad you’re here with us this morning as we start this series together. Out of all the places you could be spending today, I’m thankful that that it’s here with us as we dive into this book. When Paul writes the book of Colossians, he writes it from an interesting place. Have you ever read the Book of Acts? At the end of Acts? It sort of gives us this idea that Paul is now in jail in Rome, and the book kind of ends from there. It’s sort of like this. It gets to this climactic point and you’re like, Where do you go? Paul’s in jail. All right. And that’s it. And he writes some great works of of the Bible in jail during this time, one of which is the book of Colossians. Now, we know history tells us at the end of Acts, Paul is freed from from the Roman prison. He goes on another missionary journey, From what we can tell, at least one more journey before he loses his life or gives up his life for the sake of Christ. He’s he’s martyred. But he writes this book from jail in the early 60s ad, and he’s writing it to the city of or the people of Colossae in the city of Colossians. What’s interesting about this city is that while Paul is writing this letter to the Christians of this area, Paul himself, from what we can determine, has never visited this area. In fact, it’s believed that the city of Ephesus was where Paul went on his missionary journeys. He spent some some years there, and it was from Ephesus that individuals went out to the city of Colossae and started the Colossian Church. In fact, a verse which we’ll see in just a moment was was pointed in this letter as being one who started this city. The city of Ephesus during this time was a very large, prominent city. It was considered the gateway into Asia minor. It was one of the largest cities in the Roman Empire. And this this thought of starting a church in Ephesus was appealing to the early church. Many of Christians went there. The apostle Paul, the apostle John spent time there. Mary is believed to have been in Ephesus. And so from Ephesus, you see churches launched within those regions. And it’s an encouragement to us as Christians today to to set and study how the early church navigated through the Roman Empire, establishing itself and becoming such a prominent influence within the first few centuries. It started in the larger cities and from the cities out. From there, they went into the countryside and established other works like Colossians. If we were to make the application to us here in Lehigh, it would say, Here we are starting a church in the city of Lehigh, and by God’s grace, may he grant us the privilege of expanding beyond our borders to the surrounding cities, that we could go forth and proclaim the gospel. The city of of Ephesus was the prominent hub. The city of Colossians was established. Colossians was more of a in a rural setting. It was 120 miles east of the city of Ephesus. What you find interesting as we study this book of Colossians is that Paul, as he’s addressing the the recipients in this letter, he is defining for them the idea of who Jesus is, because what’s been introduced into this church is this this sort of paganistic thinking towards Christianity. When you study the city of of Colossae, you can’t really tell what religion is prominently influencing this city. Scholars have studied it for years and they’ve sort of come up with this hodgepodge way of thinking as to what might be influencing these Christians in an ungodly unbiblical truth and and the thing. Thinking is somewhat Judeo Jewish in its background, somewhat Gnosticism. Gnosticism in its background. And it’s led to this angelic worship. And because of this angelic worship, they are demeaning the identity of who Jesus is. And so he he writes this book to set the precedent, to set the identity straight of who Christ is for the Colossians. An interesting thing when you study rural settings, there is this thought of of paganism that’s often established there. In fact, the word pagan literally means out of the country. So I don’t know how you feel whether or not you’re you would dub yourself as one of them city folk or not or or one of the country folk. But but the Bible’s picture of paganism is crazy. Things tend to happen in the country. And and I know if you’re from the country, you’re like, no, that’s not true. It’s the city people that are crazy. Okay? And that battle has been going on since since the beginning of time. But but because the book of Colossians was founded in the city of Ephesus, Scripture is right written in in prominent areas. They point to the country people as the crazy people. Right? And so this this twisted way of religious thinking has has established itself in the Colossian church. And, you know, if you’ve ever visited in rural towns or you’re from a rural town, there’s just a way about living life there that’s sometimes just different in other places. You know, you got the the neighbors sometimes that just do things a little different than the rest of the group. And and in the city of of Colossians is like that this this sort of tailored religious way of thinking introducing itself into the church. And Paul writes this letter to to set the story straight. If you were to visit the city of the Colossians today in Colossae, what you would discover is that now it rests in ruins. In the 12th century, the the Turks invaded this area and decimated it. And so today it’s just an area of ruins that is really buried under the ground. And most of it has yet to be excavated. But the city had an important piece in Christian history, this work of literature, the book of Colossians. I would say there when you read the New Testament especially, there is no book quite as concise that makes such a tremendous impact in the identity of who Jesus is and what it means for us as believers. I think there are a number of places within Scripture that do that. The Book of Hebrews is another important book that identifies the significance of who Christ is for us. The book of Colossians, though in just its short chapters here, really it’s just Paul packing a power punch and understanding the identity of who Christ is. The tendency for us when we come to such a book like this, when the outline of Jesus is really portrayed for us, it really starts in chapter one and verse 15, when he starts to identify for us who Christ is. The tendency within Christianity is to sort of play this game of whack a mole. You know how it goes, where you’ve been there, where you’re in front of the game at at Chuck E Cheese or in the East Coast. It’s Billy Bob’s. But but you you grabbed this, you grabbed this stick. You wait for them to just pop their head out and you just beat the snot out of them as fast as you can, over and over and over. And so you win, right? And so when you when you understand the idea of who Jesus is and you approach that into a religious mentality, the tendency within us sometimes is to prove I’m right and you’re wrong. And and what I’d like to approach with this passage in thinking is this No one is 100% correct in their theology, right? All of us every day need to refine ourselves in the identity of who God is. To draw closer to him. To understand him more. And hopefully this this stands true for you where you are today in your relationship with God and your understanding of him. It’s closer than where you were a year ago. And closer to where you were a year before that at each and every day is leading you towards a further intimacy in your walk with God and understanding of Him. Because the better you understand God. I think the deeper you can worship him in that understanding. And so when you encounter people in this world. We all have these different perspectives. We approach Scripture in some correct, some incorrect. But we don’t come to the understanding of who Jesus is for simply playing this Whack-A-Mole game of proving people I’m right and you’re wrong. It’s so that all of us can come to a better understanding of who God is. And as you engage the scriptures and walk in that understanding, it gives you an opportunity to share this with other people. You know, one of the things I’ve learned about sharing faith with people and communicating about faith with people is that if I simply just tell someone what to believe. There are a lot less likely to embrace it. But if they can discover it for themselves. And they can come to that walk in their own personal lives of identifying who Jesus is or who God is. They’re more likely to embrace it and hold on to it. And so when we look at these these texts of Scripture, especially in chapter one and starting in verse 15, I can tell you one of the most important things you can do for people is you understand who Jesus is or come to. This understanding of how Colossians communicates. Christ isn’t simply to read this text and go whack a mole and show people that you’re right, they’re wrong, and this is how you prove it. But to simply understand where the passages of Scripture are that point to the significance of who Jesus is, so that when you encounter people, you can just simply open up to a text and just spin it around before someone and say, Hey, what does this verse say about Jesus? Help them discover what a passage of Scripture says. Help them to identify with it and to embrace it and outline who Christ is. I mean, this is why Paul wrote this letter so that believers could grab hold of it and and immerse themselves in the identity of who Jesus is. Now, I see there’s significance to the proclamation of who Christ is. I mean, we’re doing that this morning. We’re introducing this text, I’m proclaiming this text. There’s not all of this interaction where we’re going to talk back. I mean, if you want to say something, go ahead and say something. But I’m going to be sharing with you from this passage of scripture. And so it’s important to proclaim, especially to God’s people, but it’s equally important to help people discover it on their own. And understanding where these passages of Scripture are is important to sharing this truth with people. And so this is what I’m going to do for us as we engage this passage this morning. I’m just going to open up and read the first few verses from verse three to verse eight so that we have an understanding of what Paul is writing here as he opens up to this to this church. These first two verses are the typical introduction that Paul gives in his letters and saying who he is and who he’s writing to. And then verse three, he starts this way We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Praying always for you. Since we since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the Word of Truth the Gospel which has come to you. Just as in all the world. Also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God. In truth, just as you learned it from Apophis, our beloved fellow bond servant who was a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf. And he also informed us of your love in the Spirit. Paul writes this letter in verse seven. He’s acknowledging the individual who took the message of the gospel from Ephesus to the Colossians, which was a papyrus. And when he’s writing this letter, notice in verse three, verse four, the thing that Paul starts to highlight here, he begins to identify Jesus. He says, We give thanks to our God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Since we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus. In verse six, he says it this way that you would grow in the grace of God, in truth. So Paul’s emphasis as he starts this letter is to remind the believers and reorient the believers of the city of where they were in their identity in Christ, where they should be, in their identity, in Christ, and hopefully where they are in their identity in Christ. I think one of the important things when life presents to us a challenge and when the foundations maybe starting to rock a little bit and you’re trying to reorient yourself as to how things should move forward in the midst of adversity. It is good, it is godly, and it is worthwhile to start on the foundation of where everything begins. And that’s how Paul starts Colossians Chapter one and two. This is the foundation. Remember where you were as Colossians? You received this message in Christ, and I want you to continue to grow in this message of God, in grace and truth. The grace of God has been good to you. And the truth of who God is is important for you. The biblical Jesus is significant to us. We’re always tempted, I think, as people, to undermine the superiority of who Christ is. And can I tell you? I don’t think it is possible. To make as much of Jesus as Jesus deserves. I mean, this book of Colossians is going to sum it up for us like this. Jesus. He’s everything. He is. He is everything for us. And the beauty of what Christ says as we come to our understanding of Him truthfully, this is what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 11, verse 29, Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am gentle and humble in heart. And you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. So when your soul finds the biblical Jesus. The truth of who Jesus really is, not what religion makes him to be. I mean, Jesus himself said his yoke is easy, his burden is light. It’s the place for your soul to find rest. And Christ said in Matthew 11, When he’s giving this statement, he’s saying it to a religious world. In fact, as we go through the book of Colossians, one of the things that you’re going to find is as Paul starts to talk about the identity of who Jesus is, he, he then quickly turns the idea against now against religion. You’ll recognize as we go through this book that religious people, they they pervert or change the identity of Jesus and the city of Colossae and then they start to insert religious thinking. The superiority of Christ. Once you diminish the superiority of Christ, the tendency of people is to think that because Jesus isn’t everything that He claims to be, I need to start doing things to then validate myself before God, because what Jesus accomplished wasn’t sufficient enough. And who Jesus is isn’t sufficient enough. And so Paul starts this letter by recognizing to the Colossians, listen, reorient yourself in this truth, the grace of God that’s come to your life, the truth of who God is in Jesus and Jesus Himself says, Take upon me my yoke. It’s easy to find rest for your soul. You know, one of the greatest joys that we can delight in in our relationship with God is this. This might scare you for a minute, but. But just think through this. God doesn’t need you. Whatever you think is important that you have to accomplish for God. He doesn’t need you to do that. Let me say it like this. There’s nothing you’re going to do for God. That he can’t do for himself. Right? Well, if God doesn’t need you, then why did he create you? He doesn’t need you. But he wants you. He loves you. There is no there is no part of God that you you kind of replace or fulfill because there’s this emptiness in him, this void. But. But there is a God who created you for his purposes because he loves you. And so in the things that you do in life, it’s not because God needs you to do them, but rather because this is a God who has no needs. When when you experience God in this world and you live for God in this world, the things that you do for God are simply in response to love. For him to lavish the glory of who he is in this world, not because he’s a God that needs anything, but because He is a God who is complete, who has created you to reflect His glory in the world, in the lives of people around you. And so when Paul starts this letter, he points to the significance of who Jesus is. He points to to us in our need to grow and continue to grow in the grace of and truth of who God is. In verse six. And He does this in the context of prayer. Verse three and verse nine. Paul shares prayer toward the Colossian people, the prayer that he has been praying on their behalf. The things that are important to you. You pray for. Or you should pray for at least. In fact, if what Paul is going to say to us about Jesus is true within these passages of Scripture, the superiority of Christ. When you see Jesus as the source of everything. When you see the strength of who Christ is and the identity of who God is. When you understand just how significant Christ is in this world for us. As God. That should encourage us deeper and further into prayer and recognizing that we have the opportunity to tap into the one who is, above all things. Hudson Taylor was an individual who who did missionary work in China for over 40 years. He was considered one of the great missionaries into the area of China. And his son wrote about his his father and what he saw his his dad do. And he said this. For 40 years in China, the sun never rose where God did not find my father on his knees praying. Prayer in the life of the Apostle Paul in the beginning of this chapter is. Is paramount to the Christian faith and tapping into the identity of who Christ is. And the power that he presents to us as believers following after him. And then as you go further into this text in verse nine, as he starts into into this prayer, let me just read this passage for you because I want to take verse nine, 1011 this morning. I want to really highlight as to what Paul is saying, because it gives us the background into how he he sets the precedent really for Jesus and his identification for us. And so he says this in verse nine for this reason also. Since the day we heard of it. We have not ceased to pray for you. And to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will. And all spiritual wisdom. And understanding. If I were to. Give you the argumentation for what’s happening in the Colossian Church. I believe that the people that are coming into the church that are not believers. Or at least are confused on who Jesus is. The argument their argument would go like this. They see Jesus as a being but not God. And so they have taken away from his deification and lessened him into some sort of angelic being. And we’ll read into this in chapters ahead. But the argument in the church at Colossae would go like this. There are those that come from Paul’s background and understanding his teaching and starting now to question and to dive deeper and wanting more security in who Jesus is and to hear this other alternative being taught now within their church and the argumentation for those that aren’t necessarily a part of the theology of the church would go like this. Well, I’m a Christian too, right? I mean, I believe in a Jesus. It’s just he’s not who you think he is. He’s. He’s more of an angelic being than the way that you have presented to him. But. But I’m a Christian, too, because I believe in Jesus. How would you respond to that? Presented in this city. People coming into the church. Teaching of Jesus. Contrary to what you’ve heard the Apostle Paul share with you. And yet they call themselves Christian. You think about in a context of today. When you study world religions. You know, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists. They all teach about Jesus. I mean, Buddhism thinks that Jesus and the silent years of his life and scripture Buddhism teaches that Jesus traveled east into Southeast Asia and became a guru and came back and. Tot Israel. They all have teachings about Jesus. And does that make them Christian? No. Why? It’s not based on if you believe in a Jesus that makes you a Christian. But rather it’s what you believe about Jesus that identifies what a Christian is. Just because you say you believe in a Jesus isn’t the marker for Christianity. In fact, across world religions, they proclaim a Jesus. Muslims think that Jesus was a prophet who never died on the cross. Right? And you think that someone substituted him, that God had him substituted for someone else when Jesus was supposed to be crucified? Hinduism teaches that Jesus was a great teacher. But. But when Jesus died, something better even happened. Because. Because he was such a good teacher and such a good person, he was reincarnated into something better. Just because you believe in a Jesus, that’s not what makes you Christian. It’s what you believe about Christ that signifies your identity to him, the understanding of who Christ is in truth. And so Paul says this in verse nine, For this reason, since the day we’ve heard it, we’ve not ceased to pray for you. Asking that you be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Look, there is a truth and it is important. And Paul wants to outline this for us. And our understanding not not simply to just just embrace whatever you want to think about Jesus, but but the identity of Jesus is important to the Christian faith. In fact, when you read the New Testament, there is multiple warnings that that the purity of who Christ is remain what we stand for as people. And the apostle Paul in Second Corinthians Chapter 11 said this, But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. And this is how Paul started his letter, right? Verse three. It’s about Jesus, verse four. It’s about Jesus. And so for if one comes and preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully. Look, Paul is saying, look, there’s people that are going to come in. They’re going to try to diminish Jesus. And it’s important that you stay to the purity of who Christ is. Jesus even said this at that time. If anyone says to you, Look, here is the Messiah, or look, there he is, do not believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. Important of who Christ is. Is the significance. Of the Christian life. And Paul goes on in verse ten. He says, So that you will walk. In a manner worthy of the Lord. The identification of Jesus. So that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please him in all respects. Bearing fruit in every good work. And increasing in the knowledge of God. I don’t think anyone here likes to be misrepresented. Especially if it maligns and diminishes the character of who you are. Now, I wouldn’t mind if my wife sometimes when when we interact and she tells me, you know, you’re hot, you know, well, your muscles are looking good today. You know, those type of embellishments, you know, you feel a little bit better about it. Look at you strut around the house. You’re so tough carrying that stuff around. We just moved this week. I got to impress her with all of my lifting of stuff. So. So when she gets to embellish the truth a little bit to make me feel good, you know, I know it’s not true, but flatter me, right? Nothing wrong with that. Well, on my book, anyway. But if somewhere to go the opposite direction. Diminish who you are, right? And to tear you down, to take away from your character. To malign against you. And I can’t think in our lives any of us are like, Yeah, please do that. That would be awesome. It makes me feel great on the inside. I’m excited that you think so little of me. I think the same is true at Jesus. You consider the significance of what he’s accomplished for us? God. Coming flesh. Paying for our sin. Giving his life so that we can connect to him. And to diminish from the significance of who he is or the work that he has accomplished for us. The insult that would be. It’s a beautiful, wonderful, and it’s a gift in which God has given to us. And so he’s saying, Listen, do you want to walk with God? The intimacy of who he is walking, understanding of that walk worthy of the Lord to please him in all respects, bearing fruit and increasing in the knowledge of who God is. Charles Spurgeon said this, But if I am asked what is my creed, I reply, It is Jesus Christ, the legacy to which I would pin and bind myself forever. God helping me is Jesus Christ, who is the arm and substance of the Gospel, who is in himself. All of theology, the incarnation of every precious truth. I heard a story shared once where the devil was walking along with one of his cohorts. And the story goes that a solemn man ahead of him and he picked up something shiny. And what did he find? Asked the cohort. And the devil replied. A piece of the truth. And the cohort then asked, Doesn’t it bother you that he found a piece of the truth? No, said the devil. I will see to it that he makes a religion out of it. Jesus. My yoke is easy. My burden is light. Find rest for your souls. And what you’ll see in Colossians and diminishing the significance of who Christ is. They began to establish religion. Which leads to the oppression of people. His identity and walking with him is what sets us free. And so in verse 11, it says this then strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience joyously to God the Father. It tells us the rest of this phrase in verse 12. So Paul is now an identifying Jesus to us and and sharing with us who Christ is. The significance of that and walking in him. He then says in verse 11, Listen, this is where the strength comes from. This is where the power comes from. According to his glorious mind. For the attaining of steadfastness and patience. Look the strength of what you need in life. Isn’t in you. It’s in Christ. This word for power is this word for dynamite. This explosion. It’s in Jesus. And he goes on for the attaining of steadfastness and patience. Let me explain this to you. This idea of how you get from strength to might to steadfastness and patience. I heard someone share this illustration once and I’ve not stopped thinking about it since. It’s actually I heard it on the men’s retreat, so pretend like I said it though, because I liked it. If we were to. Have to walk out on some ice. Let’s say you could have 1 to 2in of ice and all the faith in the world, or you could have 20in of ice and just a little bit of faith. What would you prefer? Would you rather have just two inches of ice and and lots of faith, or would you rather have 22in of ice? There you go. Lots of faith. Or would you have 20in of ice and just a little bit of faith? Now, I’ll tell you this. When I heard this illustration, the person said there is a right answer, which I was like, Oh, Lord, I hope I pick the right one. Know So. So what would you prefer all this faith, a couple inches of ice or 20in of ice? A little bit of faith. And I said this feeling like, Man, I’m a pastor. I’m about to say this, but I want 20in of ice and just a little bit of faith. If I have to walk out of this, just make sure it’s really deep. I’ll just take a little bit of faith. And he said, you know, I’ve shared this with a few people before and everyone always picks just a couple inches of ice and all this faith. But the answer is. 20in of ice and just a little bit of faith. Here’s the point. When we talk about faith. We tend to, as people, make faith all about us. We tend to make it about our gumption to really believe. It’s like it doesn’t matter what you’re trusting in, if it’s really secure. What really matters is how hard you believe and what you trust in. And for some reason we apply it to faith. We’re like, okay with that. But I can tell you in everything else in life that that will not work, right? I mean, you try it with your math teacher in school, you get the wrong answer. You’re like, But I was really faithful. I really wanted it. I was willing it to be the right answer. They’re like, It doesn’t matter how hard you tried there, it’s still the wrong answer, right? The truth is, when you walk out on a thin layer of ice, no matter how optimistic you may be. You hit a weak spot. And your world turns upside down, right? But when you take just a little bit of faith. And you walk out of 20in of ice. You know what you began to learn. How secure the foundation is below you. And that little bit of faith. Starts to grow. When Paul comes to verse 11. The importance of faith is this. It’s not how great your optimistically hoping what you’re believing in is true. It’s really founded upon the magnitude of what you believe in. Is that foundation secure? Because if that foundation is secure and it’s not just wishful thinking on your part when you examine the magnitude of what it is. Your faith grows. And when your faith grows, it begins to transform you in how you live your life because you see that that foundation is secure. When Paul starts the book of Colossians, he’s saying, Listen, Jesus, it’s Jesus, man. Get in Jesus, root yourself in Jesus, reorient yourself. And where you’re seeing this challenge, because this is 20in of ice that you need to be walking on this. This is the foundation that keeps you secure. It’s not in your wishful thinking. It’s not in how much you think it’s great that you have this depth of believing in the effort that you have. Listen in verse 11, Strengthen with power according to his glorious might. It’s him that is the security of all things. And this is the result for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience. Look when you know your foundation is secure. Steadfast. You’re not having to get all nervous about walking on this inch or two of ice. But now you can be patient in where you are, not hoping that you’re in the wrong spot at the wrong time. But but you are secure in every step that you take. The magnitude of who God is. I think. Jesus. Shared this with us beautifully in the Gospels. He said this to his disciples. He said to them. Truly, I say to you. If you have faith the size of a mustard seed. You’ll say to this mountain, move from here to there. And it will move. I mean, just to give you a perspective here, and I know that’s gotta need some lotion or something there, but to kind of back away and look at it, I mustard seed. What’s it saying about us in our faith? I mean, it’s just small. But man, if you can really just look at the magnitude of your God. Stop trusting in yourself and wishful thinking. Stop thinking that’s where the power comes from. Look at the magnitude of your God. He doesn’t need you. But man, he loves you and he wants you to be a part of him. Connected to him and enjoying him for eternity. When you see the security of who he is. Resting in that. Not in your religious performance, but the identity of who your God is. The security one feels in this world and being able to put one foot in front of the other, knowing that God has already been there. When Jesus makes a statement like this, come to me. You who are weary and heavy laden, I will give you rest. Those statements. Are not wrapped up in the magnitude of how hard you try. But in the glory of who he is. And when we place faith in that God and trust in that God. That is what transforms our life. And so in the weeks ahead, starting in verse 15 next week, we’re we’re going to hit sort of the whack a mole verses the power of who Jesus is. So the US and our faith aren’t resting in self. But the foundation of who Jesus is.