Sermon par le Ps Philip Tse

Who and what I am – It starts with the Son of God

Lecture: Colossiens 1:12-20

Introduction:

Who and What I am
Many complex factors:
1. Personality: Extrovert/Introvert, Logic/Emotion, Plan/Improvise, External information/Intuition.
2. Parental upbringing: Strict (Cold & Firm)/ Authoritative (Warm & Firm)/Neglectful.
3. Where we live, its environment and culture.
4. Education system.
5. Peer pressure/ Friends influence.
6. Personal experience + Other complex factors.

Who and What I am →  Values or Priorities or Worldview

Non-Christian Values:
1. Career/ Business/Money.
2. Family.
3. Leisure/Friends.
OR
1. Leisure/Friends.
2. Family.
3. Career/Business/Money.
Values can change over time.

Values or Priorities →  Behaviour Habits

• A person normally expresses his values/life priorities in action by a set of behaviours.
• A study by Phillippa Lally (2009) that behaviours can turn into a habit between 18 to 254 days, with an average of 66 days to incorporate a new daily habit.
• The greater the motivation or urgency, the shorter number of days for a behaviour to turn into a habit.

Behaviour Habits → Lifestyle
• Lifestyle: The way in which the person lives in accordance with his behaviour and habits.
• According to the Bible, if our lifestyle is from the flesh (without God), we shall die in our sins.
Romans 8:13 : For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

• When a person believes in Jesus Christ, he has to juggle with many complex factors + Jesus Christ factor:
He now understands that he is A child of God and destined for good works.
Ephesians 2:10 : For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Many complex factors + Jesus Christ factor:
1. Personality: Personal transformation to love, control his extremism & accommodate with others.
2. Parental upbringing: Forgive, Love, Obey parents.
3. Where we live, its environment and culture: Past sins forgiven. Overcome any stronghold with the power of the Holy Spirit.
4. Friends influence: Now influenced by Christians
5. Personal experience: Encounter with God.

Who and What I am →  Values or Priorities or Worldview
→  Behaviour Habits →  Christian Lifestyle

Christian values

1. Faith in Jesus Christ.
2. Family.
3. Career/Business/Money.
4. Leisure/Friends.

Christian Faith v/s Money/Career/Business

Proverbs 11:28 : Those who trust in their riches will fall, but the righteous (trust in God first) will thrive (prosper) like a green leaf.
Jeremiah 17 : ⁷ But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. ⁸ They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.

Why put Jesus Christ Priority No. 1?
Because everything in the Universe starts with Jesus – Colossians 1.
¹⁵ The Son is the (1) image of the invisible God, (2) the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶ (3) For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷ (4) He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸ And he is (5) the head of the body, the church; (6) he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy (No 1). ¹⁹ (7) For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, ²⁰ (8) and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

What happens when we put Jesus first?
Matthew 6: 31-34 : ³¹ Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
→ Jesus is the provider of all our needs, visible and invisible.