I have a friend

Yeah

A philemon, yeah

I have a friend named Chad, and he owns a snake.

He's a very talented man

And someone I respect a great deal, but I don't

understand his snake ownership. That's not something I would ever do. I don't think he meant to get

the snake. I think the snake kind of happened to him. He inherited it or something. But nonetheless,

no matter how much he protests, if you see him around the snake, you can tell he just really likes that snake.

He takes care of it real well.

He feeds and waters it and cleans up its environment.

He cares about how it's doing in there.

He likes to observe its behavior and everything.

So one day, I just wanted to get a sense of how much he likes the snake.

And I was like, hey, Chad, you got these two

kids. They seem great and like you really like them. And you also got this snake. And I was just trying to catch him flat-footed, you know, just I'm just trying to hit him with something and just try to, like, get really to the heart of it before he had time to think of it. And I was like, so I got a question for you. If you could only keep two of the three,

that being your two kids and the snake, which two would you pick? And he did not even miss a beat.

He was like, my kids. What is the matter with you? And I felt real dumb for asking the question.

I should have known he was going to pick the kids. It seems like he really does like them, but he also really likes the snake. Likewise, I like all of Colossians very much.

It is a great book, one of my favorite in the whole Bible. It is so tight. It is so well organized.

The first half is full of really important big ideas, and the second half is full of

really obvious implications. It's absolutely wonderful. But if somebody came up to me, like I came

...