Sermons About Karma
Finding Freedom
The Colossians were being told how to deal with the demands of deity: be spiritual, do this, don't do that, don't eat this, don't touch that, be this kind of person, follow the rules. One thing religion does is try to offer a way to get free of the things that bring us guilt and shame for the things we did or shouldn't have done or things we didn't do that we should have, or things that were done to us that make us feel fearful and inferior and ashamed. Religion is about rules to follow, or ways to get on God's good side or to feel good about yourself as a person. Some religions tell you that you have nothing really to feel guilty or ashamed of because God is such a nice guy and always just understands that boys will be boys and girls will be girls. Religion almost always involves guilt and shame management. In this message from Colossians 2 we show you that Jesus can free you from guilt and shame from the things in your past.
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Finding Jesus
We all have a religion of some kind, even if we're atheists. And we want people to lose whatever their religion is, not because religion is bad and not because religion never does any good, but because religions are all the same: what do I have to do to shift the cosmic balance of power in my favor when it comes to my own pleasure and pain in life (and the next if your religion has an afterlife). All religions boil down to what do I have to do to get the “karmic edge” I need to get what I want out of life. This message centers on Colossians 1 where the focus is not on religion but on a person who is reconciling all things to himself and what it means for Him to be “in you, the hope of glory” We will challenge you to lose your religion so you can find Jesus.
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Freedom from Pressure
We are probably more like Jason Lee's title character in the sitcom "My Name is Earl" than we would like to admit. Much like Earl spends each episode of the show trying to do enough good to make up for all of his mistakes, part of each of us believes that everything is riding on our virtuous behavior: our good fortune, our future, our status with other people, our standing before God. We believe that when we do good, good will return to us and when we do bad, bad will return to us. This makes for a high-pressure life. And the pressure does not let up. We try our best to be good, then when we fail we feel guilty, then we try even harder to be good in order to make up for our guilt. The cycle is a vicious one, and many of us make ourselves slaves to it. Our culture makes it very easy for us to become slaves to the pressure to perform. Is there freedom from this pressure? Listen in as we read more of Paul's letter to the Galatians and discover that the problem of pressure is not a new one.
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