Only Jesus

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Don Filcek; Colossians 2:6-15 Only Jesus

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You are listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Mattawan, Michigan. I'm glad that you're here.
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I hope that either you can do one of two things. Either build off the gains that you experienced this past week or really get a fresh start on your week.
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And I recognize that you're coming from different things that have happened this week and all different kinds of some chaos and some good mixed in with the bad and all of that.
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And so I hope that this is kind of like a reset button. I need reset buttons routinely in my week.
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And gathering together with God's people is one of those weekly resets for me personally.
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If you think about it in our gathering when we get together, we get an opportunity to serve others and in that service towards others realize that it's not all about us.
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How many of you by the time that maybe Friday, Thursday or Friday rolls around, you can start to kind of think it's about you?
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Anybody recognize that? And it's about your weekend and it's about what's coming up and about you getting some you time and all of that.
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And I recognize that. But as we gather together, we also get an opportunity to receive the ministry of others, realizing that we need them as well.
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And so I think there's something beautiful about the way that God calls the church together and we have this opportunity in the gathering to have a connection time here in the middle and just a moment to interact with each other.
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I pray not just, I don't just pray on Sunday mornings for my sermon, I do pray for my sermon, but I pray also for the interactions that we're going to have with one another because we need each other.
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And sometimes some of the best things that happen on a Sunday morning are the conversations that happened before, in the middle or after.
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And so I recognize that and I hope that that's reality. This morning I hope you receive that type of refreshment in serving others and also being served in the gathering this morning.
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Jesus is the answer. Have you guys ever heard that before? You ever heard that phrase? I think probably most of us have.
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Yeah, duh. And I think Christians, as Christians we have a tendency sometimes to boil down really magnificent and glorious truths down to just a few words like sound bites and expect everybody to just be in awe of our wittiness or our pithiness or just being able to bring it down succinctly.
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But I'm pretty confident that most biology teachers are not going to accept Jesus as the answer to a question about the life cycle of a butterfly, for example.
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So what do we mean when we say Jesus is the answer? Or when a history teacher is asking who was the first president of the
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United States, is Jesus the right answer to that question? I don't think you're going to get credit on an exam for that.
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But obviously we're talking about something that's more fundamental to our soul, something that's more fundamental about ultimate meaning, ultimate reasons, ultimate things when we talk about Jesus being the answer.
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And today, as we jump back into the book of Colossians, Paul is going to build a strong case that it really is all about Jesus.
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He has certainly been, Paul has certainly been strong in his statements in our text and throughout the book of Colossians so far, talking about Jesus, really strong things that he's had to say about Jesus Christ.
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But finally in our text we're going to get down to the heart of why he has even written this letter. And one of the reasons why he's been talking so much about Christ all throughout this text.
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You see, Paul knew that Christianity, churches, and particularly new
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Christians and new churches, would face opposition to their faith. And there seems to be every indication that some people in the church of Colossae were suggesting that Jesus was a great starting point.
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How many of you would agree with that statement? Jesus is a great starting point. But then they went on to say, maybe you need a little bit more.
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He's great, good job, you started with Jesus, bravo, you've got the right foundation, but let me build some things on top of that foundation to make you better, to make you stronger, to make you faster and more sleek and efficient in your
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Christian life. And so, let me tell you what you really need. Now, okay, Jesus, great, we've got that.
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Now, let's set that aside for a moment and talk about real living. Okay? And some of you recognize how shocked we ought to be at that kind of teaching, but it appears that there were people in Colossae who were saying that kind of thing.
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Maybe Jesus isn't quite enough, it's a great place to start, but boy, do you need to do a lot more.
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And I think this is an issue that is repeated down through the ages. In religious movements.
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It's repeated down through the ages in churches. It's repeated down through the ages even in the hearts of individuals like you and me.
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We can find ourselves, even in ourselves as followers of Jesus, a doubt about whether or not we have it right, whether or not we're doing right, whether or not we have a good, healthy relationship with our
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Creator, whether or not Jesus Christ truly is enough. And so, I mean, we would never say that, would we?
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We wouldn't get together with other Christians and say, you know, I'm having some doubts here. I'm not quite sure. But if we're honest, that might really be some thinking in the back of our minds when we lay awake at night trying to get to sleep.
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Do I have it right? Am I in the right place? Have I figured things out? And the reality is, the world around us bombards us with all kinds of philosophies.
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What the text identifies as philosophies or empty deceit or man -made traditions. And in our knowledge -based information age with the
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Internet, social media, 24 -7 news and talk radio, RSS feeds, podcasts, all different sources of information, do any of you ever feel like you're bombarded with information throughout your week?
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You have a lot of selection to choose from, but, man, there is stuff coming at us all of the time.
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When we find ourselves surrounded and saturated with all kinds of information, if we're careful to stop and think, we would realize that not all the information that we take in is according to Christ.
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Not all of it is beneficial. Not all of it is valuable. And certainly not all of it is true. And Paul's even going to say some of it's outright deceptive.
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Some of it comes to us with an ulterior motive to deceive. It's already got that latent and built within it that it is set forward to deceive.
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Some of it's not intentionally deceptive, but it's just wrong. Some of it's deceptive. It's got a force behind it, a personality, an intellect behind it that is trying to oppose
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God. And so Paul is going to spend our several verses this morning reminding us to walk with Jesus.
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Walk with Him. I hope this is a recentering kind of message for you this week.
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I hope it brings us back to that which ought to be center focus, center stage in our lives, and that is simply
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Jesus Christ. That God, I hope, would cut through all the chaos of information that is hitting you and me like wave after wave, and that He would calm our hearts before Him this morning and remind us all that the answer to our chaos is the peace that only
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Jesus Christ can bring to you and me. So let's open our Bibles to Colossians 2, verses 6 through 15.
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Again, that's Colossians 2, verses 6 through 15. If you don't have a Bible on your lap or a way to navigate to that, would you do me a favor, just raise your hand and Mike will bring you a
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Bible. We do want everybody to have a copy of the Word of God. I do recommend the ESV app. If you go to any of the different app stores or places you can download apps for your device, there's one called
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ESV Bible, and that's the one that I personally prefer. But that's up to you.
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But let's follow along and read Colossians 2, 6 through 15. This is what God desires for us to hear this morning, and as I march through,
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I just have a strong sense as I work through the pages of Scripture that He is guiding this process.
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Just that we take on the next chunk of Scripture as we go, and this is what He wants us to be reading. Colossians 2, 6 through 15.
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Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
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See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human traditions, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.
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For in Him, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.
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And you have been filled in Him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the flesh, the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised
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Him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
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God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.
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This He set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in Him.
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Let's pray as the band comes to lead us in worship this morning. Father, I want to start off just by thanking you, just the richness and the depth of this text that I've had the privilege of studying, that I get the privilege of preaching and proclaiming this morning, and I do,
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I count it a privilege to talk about your Son, Jesus Christ, and His salvation, and the great glory and supremacy of Him over all things.
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But Father, we recognize that, I would dare say, the majority of the things that we hear in a given week are not according to Christ.
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We have all different kinds of things that bombard us, and philosophies, and notions, and empty deceit that is out there, ranging from the songs we listen to, the shows we watch, the news that we watch, and Father, just so many things that would bombard us and would seek to take us captive.
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So Father, I thank you for your protecting hand over our church, for your guiding and directing hand in our lives of leading us to faith in you.
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And Father, I pray that our faith would be stronger because we gather together, we hear and heed the warnings from your
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Word, and that we tie our roots deeply, that we drive our roots deeply down into Christ.
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That we see Him as not just the foundation, but the entire building, that we are being built up together into His body.
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People who do His bidding, people who are His hands and feet, people who love our community and love those out in our culture, enough to bring the gospel and the good news, and warning as well that without Him, there is no hope.
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So Father, as we come to sing some songs, I pray that it would be so much more than just an exercise of our vocal cords, so much more than just singing, but it would be our hearts lifted up together as your people before you.
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And I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Yeah, you can go ahead and be seated. And just a big thanks to Dave and the band for leading us in worship this morning.
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We're grateful for what they do and that they bring us before the throne of God. Obviously, that's their goal is to kind of fade into the background and lead us to Him.
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And so I just really appreciate the heart that's in that each week. I encourage you to get comfortable.
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I know I say this. Those of you who are here, it's a broken record, but I like to say it just for everybody's sake to remember there's coffee, there's juice.
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Is there juice? There's coffee, maybe some donut holes, but they're available while supplies last.
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So feel free to get up and take advantage of that. Also, I had the privilege of sitting in these very seats a couple weeks ago at a meeting that was held here at the school.
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And I don't know if you noticed this. I don't sit there as long as you do. I'm usually up here, and I realize how uncomfortable those seats can get.
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And so I mean it sincerely. Now I know what I'm talking about when I say if you need to get up and stretch in the back, it's not going to distract me.
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And our goal over the next 30 minutes or so is to keep our focus on God's Word. So if that's a distraction, and I recognize that seat can become a distraction, then just get up and stretch out, and you're not going to bother me if you choose to do that.
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Now if everybody did that, that would be a little bit weird, but that might be a little distracting. But, you know, obviously take advantage of that.
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Restrooms, by the way, are out in the hallway. Men's upstairs, take a right upstairs at the end of the hall, and then women's are down in case you need that at any time during the message.
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And then keep your Bibles open to Colossians 2, 6 through 15. That's our outline.
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We're going to walk right through verse by verse and talk about Colossians and what God wants us to know through the
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Apostle Paul here. So Paul starts off our text this morning in verse 6 with the word, therefore, and that always ought to make us wonder, like, how is this connected to what we've read before?
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And last week we left off with him rejoicing that the church in Colossae is firm in their faith.
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They're solid in their faith. And they have embraced the gospel and have clearly received Jesus Christ as their
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King and their Savior. So he says, so now he says, in the same way you received
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Christ Jesus as Lord. He's talking to Christians. He's established that previously. So now he says, in the same way that you received him, walk in him like that.
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Follow him in that way. Well, you need to consider, and all of us need to consider, and the church in Colossae had to consider, how did they come to know the gospel?
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How did you come to know the gospel? How did you come to receive
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Christ? Think that through. Get that story in your mind. You know your own story, hopefully. And you have a time in your life where you recognize that you were not a
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Christian prior to that. You were not necessarily following Christ, and then you were turned from darkness into light and your eyes were opened.
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And you might not have the date and the time. You might not know the exact time, but you might know generally this summer or whatever or something to that effect.
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How did you receive Christ? I've recently heard several authors speak about the central focus of Christianity being good news.
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And we know that, right? We know that the word gospel means good news.
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So that's exactly what it means. And that's the heart, that's the centerpiece of what it means to be a Christian, is a follower of the gospel, a receiver of the gospel, a receiver of good news.
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But also in this book that I was reading, they were talking about how it is,
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Christianity is not a religion first and foremost about a lot of other good things that we could talk about.
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It is not first and foremost a religion of good behavior. Though that's a nice outcome of the gospel, it is not central and primary.
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We are also not merely a religion of good feelings. Though some in our culture would say, you know, that Christ secures for you all the bliss and all the money and all the wealth if you would just have enough faith in him, that is not, we are out of whack when we make that central because we are not a religion first and foremost about good feelings.
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And the central focus of our faith is not, despite what many perceive, good advice or good rules.
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Right? Have you ever heard that? Maybe you've been prone to think that way. Maybe in whatever situation you were raised in, you had some kind of a latent feeling or some sense that bled over into you that religion and that Christianity was primarily about good rules, good ethics or good actions.
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And many religions focus their attention on good rules and good behavior and so we could easily be confused.
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But Christianity is all about good news. Why am I saying this? News is something that needs to be heard.
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News is something that needs to be disseminated and spread out. And it is something that ultimately needs to be believed.
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That is the change. The change comes about in a life when the news that something has happened 2 ,000 years ago that has something to do with you and me, that news, that historical event, it is a proclamation that the price has been paid for you and me.
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It's news. It's been done. And it is a matter of receiving that.
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And that is what he's talking about here to the church in Colossae. So how did you receive
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Christ? Well, someone told you good news. How did they hear that good news?
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How did the person who shared that with you hear the good news? Someone brought it to them. But at the end of all that chain is the reality that something that is received must be given.
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And the good news traces its way back to ultimately the word of God and the way that he has revealed himself, which is a record of the historical events that occurred.
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So what did the Colossians receive? What did they receive? They received Jesus Christ and certainly the good news about him, what he had done for them, news that they believed.
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And now Paul is telling them, in that same way that you received that news, that same way that you believed it, in the same way that you trusted it, walk now, live now in that same type of faith.
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Take the word, believe the word, trust the word, and walk in him.
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And walking in Christ, by the way, is a way of life. It's not merely a mental exercise as if to say, I believe that Jesus Christ is
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Lord, I believe he walked the planet 2 ,000 years ago, I believe he died on a cross, and I receive him, and now
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I go about doing my own thing. But Paul is saying that those who claim to have received
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Christ should walk in a different way. They should look different. Our lives walk in a different way when we are embraced by Christ and when we in turn embrace him.
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And walking in Christ is this central way of life.
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Walking in him looks like sending down roots deep and growing up in him, according to this text.
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Turning to him for direction, turning to him for guidance, turning to him for growth.
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And how many of you have an area in your life you'd like to grow in? Anybody here? I think a lot of us have areas of life that we need to grow in.
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Where are we turning to try to grow? It looks, according to the text, like a building steadily being built, like a plant continually growing.
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Our lives in Christ are to be one of constant growth. We talk here in terms of maturity, looking like growing in faith, growing in community, growing in service.
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And that it's a constant process. You haven't arrived. And if you think you have arrived, you've probably started to die.
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Because you're not growing anymore when you think you've achieved it, whatever it might be as you define it.
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And so it's a constant effort, a constant growing, a constant wrestling, a constant...
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How many of you have ever noticed that fighting sin in your life is like that whack -a -mole game? I never liked that very much.
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But you know what I'm talking about? Whack -a -mole. The head comes up, you hit that one, and another one comes up. You knock that one down, and another one comes up.
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And it's like that in my life. I don't know if it's like that in yours, but you're like, totally owning this mole right here.
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And then another one pops up. And it's like, ah, bam! And then that one's back up again. And it's like that in our lives.
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It's this constant battle, but ongoing growth. Doing better at the game the more that you play it, if you will.
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Growing and growing and growing. And I want to be clear that the testimony of the New Testament is not one of merely mystical devotion to Jesus Christ.
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We live in a spirit and a time right now of what I would call growing spiritual mysticism that would encourage kind of mindless meditation.
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We live in a very dangerous era where many Christians would look skeptically at deep study and may even outright suggest that the more emotional you get in your faith, the more genuine it must be.
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Have you sensed that in our culture? Have you sensed it? It's kind of like, well, if you look, the more serious you take it, the more you're just going to be like this, this emotional mess.
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But as if we live in a culture that says like, as if studying and thinking too much will kill devotion.
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But I don't buy that, and I don't believe Paul did either. Look at verse seven. Paul says that they were taught.
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They were taught. Christianity is not a check your brain at the door kind of faith.
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A person cannot continue to grow in Christ without study. I was just talking with somebody about how people will think in terms of like, does
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God just speak directly to my heart? Will he just tell you where to go to school? Will he tell you what to buy? Will he tell you whether or not to buy the car?
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Do you guys recognize that God can speak to you that way? God can talk to you any way that he chooses, right? But the problem comes in when people say,
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God told me to fill in the blank, and it's something that is clearly opposed to his word.
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You ever had anybody tell you that? I've had people literally tell me, God has just given me a piece about divorcing my wife and sleeping with this other woman, and I just have peace about it.
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I'm good. It's all right. It's okay, because God said that, so God just told me that. Anybody have an issue with that?
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A little bit? I hope a lot. We have major issues with that kind of notion, or even the abuse that would happen at the
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Bible college that I went to where a guy goes to a girl and says, what, God told me that I'm supposed to, you guys already heard it too,
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I'm supposed to marry you. What? Well, what if he didn't tell her that? You know, it's kind of like, okay, this is not, how does that work?
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And it's like, well, I guess if I want to obey God, here we go, I do. What are we gonna do?
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Is that the way that that's supposed to work? So what I want to point out is that you might hear me at times sound like I think that God doesn't speak to you that way, and all
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I'm trying to do is just trying to correct us from what I see as a slide in our culture to go into the spiritual mysticism instead of rooting ourselves in God's word.
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Because I'm convinced that this is the place where you're gonna grow the most. This is the place. Now, does God have a concern with, does he at times say you should go to college here or you should go to college there?
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Does he at times give us some specificity about who we should marry or things like that or certainly who we shouldn't marry?
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A lot of that's found right in here, by the way, too, principles and things to live by. But man, before, you know, if you want to know where to go to school, you want to know whether to buy the car or not, how much are you in here?
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It doesn't tell you whether to buy a Ford or a Chevy, right? And you don't even want to buy one of those anyways,
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I don't know. But it doesn't tell you what car to buy here. But it does give you some principles about how you spend your money, what you do with it, all those kinds of things.
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So all that was a little bit of a caveat. But it is just, I think, very important for us to understand how does God speak to us and it is primarily through his word and what he has to say to us here.
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So we're looking at verse seven. Paul says that they were taught. And we live in a culture without mental engagement.
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We live in a culture that would actually think in terms of the more you study, it could actually interfere with your faith.
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And I would suggest to you, you're not going to overstudy this. You're not going to get too much of the word of God in you.
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That's not going to happen. Now what you do with it is important because you can get bloated, and I think that's one of the problems, you can get bloated on the information and only then get puffed up and proud that I've got so much scripture memorized when that would be an abuse of that.
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It's interesting that the grammar doesn't shine through very clearly here in English. But thanksgiving in verse seven isn't just tacked on at the end of the verse.
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Look at verse seven with me. Rooted and built up in him. These are things that it looks like to walk with Jesus. Rooted and built up in him.
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Established in the faith. Just as you were taught. Abounding in thanksgiving. And we can look at it and go, oh thanksgiving is the last one of this list.
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But the grammar is a little bit confusing here. Paul gives thanksgiving a very central role in the life of a
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Christian through this text because thanksgiving is the one in the Greek syntax here in the sentence that permeates everything.
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It is the point of the verse. As if to say we are rooted in him, built up in him, established in the faith.
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Those things were taught and those things are to be done in a way that overflows us with thanksgiving.
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The picture here is a life that is defined by thankfulness. A life defined by thankfulness.
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And in this concept of thankfulness, think about this in our culture. I believe that thankfulness is a place where I'm convinced that if we grab a hold of it and we really own it and we live it and we embody it, we can rack up some pretty quick wins in our culture.
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We can rack up some wins quickly. Not that it's a game, but if you're the one who demonstrates thankfulness in your workplace, you might just stand out.
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If you're the one who has an attitude overflowing with thankfulness in your neighborhood, you might just stand out.
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If you're overflowing in thankfulness in a culture that is constantly grumbling and complaining all around you, you might just stand out enough to have people ask you why you are so thankful.
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Why are you so positive? And at that point you have an opportunity, an open door to say,
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I'm thankful for one primary reason and that's that I've been forgiven. That I've got hope.
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That I've been set free by the blood of Jesus Christ. And that gives me thankfulness. Makes it so that when things don't go my way,
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I can still be thankful and rejoice and be glad because I've got ultimate hope in Christ.
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I also believe that thankfulness is at the end of verse seven because it bridges the gap to Paul's discussion in verse eight.
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Verses six and seven are a segue that basically say, hey, I'm gonna talk to you about how you should live your life. You should walk with Christ in the same way that you received him.
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But then in verse eight, he's gonna talk about being taken captive by empty philosophies.
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Walk with Christ so that you're not taken captive. And I would suggest to you that a person who remains thankful, he's talking about in verse seven, is thankful for the cross, is less prone to spiritual error.
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To even doctrinal error. Ever thought about that? Thankfulness is a bit of an inoculation against theological error.
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If you live a life that is thankful, think about it this way. If I as a pastor think I deserve to be up here preaching, if I think
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I have somehow earned God's favor and God's attention, then I'm in error. Rather than being thankful for the gift that God gives to me, if I take that on and I own it and I'm just like, man,
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I am pretty awesome and I'm all that, then I'm in error. But I'm also right on the cusp, right on the edge of multiplying errors to all of us.
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But if I'm thankful to God for the privilege of serving him because I recognize my own brokenness, if I recognize his great grace toward me in gratitude and thankfulness, then
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I am in a more safe place. Does that make sense? I'm safer. If all of us as a church are more gratitude -centered, then where are our eyes?
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Our eyes are fixed on who? The giver of the things for which we are thankful. Who's given you what you have?
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Who's given you your possessions? Who's given you the ability to make the money to buy the things that you have? Who's given you the family that you have?
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Who's given you everything? Who's giving you your breath? Jesus.
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So living a life that is thankful helps to inoculate us. If our eyes are fixed on him with thankfulness, we will be less prone to grumble, to complain, and equally to give ourselves too much credit.
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So in verses 6 and 7, we've seen just a general instruction to keep walking with Jesus, connecting with him through the good news that they received, that we received, and being built up with thankfulness in the faith that we received.
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But things turn at verse 8. Paul, for the first time in the letter, tries to smack us awake.
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He smacks us awake, smacks the Colossians awake with a very strong word. Beware. Caution.
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See to it. All of those are appropriate translations of that Greek phrase that's there. We see in our translation, see to it.
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Another way is beware. Another word is caution. But it's a strong word that is saying, boy, you need to slow down here over these next verses and pay special attention because he's going to ask something of us.
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And what he's asking of us is to see to it that no one takes you captive.
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What? Captive. Without warning, Paul sounds the alarm.
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You are under attack, he says. What? Wait, we were just talking about walking with Jesus. We were talking about a life with him.
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And I thought things were going well. Paul, you've been talking about Jesus. Jesus, Jesus has been really great so far in the church.
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I mean, if you're sitting and you're listening to this in the church of Colossae, you're 2 ,000 years ago, give or take, and you're sitting there and you're listening to this and it's just read to you for the first time.
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All of a sudden, you're like, what? Like, wake up words. See to it that no one takes you captive.
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What, where's the enemy? Who's taking us captive? Is somebody at the door? Is somebody breaking in? What is going on here?
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Do you hear the alarm in this? All of a sudden, everything up to this point in the letter has been calm, kind, demure, even complimentary of the church in Colossae.
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So far, his speech, his written word has been laced with epic explanations of the glory of Jesus Christ.
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Then, boom. Someone who Paul doesn't name wants to take the church captive.
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And it seems like he probably, he may very well have had someone specific in mind, but in leading it general, he keeps you and I from getting too specific.
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He leaves the caution open so that the church, down through the ages, would hear this same warning sounded over and over again.
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Beware, beware, beware. Because different church, same problem. You go around the world, visit churches, different churches, same problem.
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Somebody wants to take them captive. Everywhere. Every Christian has an enemy who wants to take them captive.
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He wants us all, to a person, to be on the alert. See to it that no one takes you captive.
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But notice, he isn't saying lock the doors, go arm yourselves, because the enemy is coming to physically attack you.
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They're going to come and carry you away. That's not what he's saying. Instead, he clearly identifies the attack, and this is a mental attack, an attack on your mind, an attack on my mind.
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The enemy is coming with cunning mental force against the church, against you and me.
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He is bringing philosophies. He is bringing empty deceit. And I wonder sometimes if Paul was given just a glimpse maybe of our modern era when he wrote some of this stuff, because it just resonates with the realities that the church faces still a couple thousand years removed from when he sat down with a pen and paper or parchment and wrote it.
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It seems pretty contemporary to say somebody is, there's deceptive thought out there, folks.
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He's saying that in the first century, and it fits in the 21st century. Somebody wants to take you captive in thought.
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Paul makes clear here what I was saying earlier. There is a battle. There's a battle for your mind.
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In the swirling chaos of life where we have a mixture of emotions, a mixture of feelings and personalities and doctrines and philosophies and all these things to measure and weigh,
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Scripture indicates that some of this is not consistent with Jesus Christ. Some of it is not according to Jesus.
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And there's an intentionally personal force behind this mental opposition to Christ. There's an intention behind it.
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In verse 8, the origin, look at verse 8 with me. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit according to human traditions, according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ.
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Two elements there, human tradition and elemental spirits. This evil philosophy and empty deceit is man -made.
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It comes out of our traditions. But the real driving force behind these empty philosophies and deceptions are personal, evil, spiritual powers.
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There are true, real, spiritual forces that are arrayed against your heart and mine, are against our minds, are against us thinking correctly about Christ.
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And I would like to make a couple of observations about this opposition that we face that would seek to take you and I captive, that we need to be cautioned about, we need to be warned about.
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Some of these things that would carry us away from Jesus are philosophies based on human tradition, they have no inherent evil intention.
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Hear me carefully, there are forces that are arrayed against the church or mindsets or systems that are against your spiritual growth that really have no evil intentions because they're not really things.
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Let me give you an illustration. Materialism or commercialism, I mean I can kind of tie those two together.
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Commercialism, you are what you buy. Materialism, you are what you own and the material world is all that really matters anyways.
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Well commercialism and the idea of consuming more, consuming more, consuming more is not hell bent on destroying your life.
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It's not. It's a human philosophy and system that just does what it does. There's nobody in charge of it.
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There's not a committee of commercialism who sets out to make you buy more. Certainly there's marketing that kind of gets in there a little bit but you know what
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I'm saying, I mean some of you are in marketing, I'm sorry, I'm not opposed to what you do but we can talk about that later.
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There is a sense in which we recognize that it's just a system, are you getting what I'm saying? It's a system that is developed over time and human tradition that really isn't insidious in and of itself.
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There's not a person in charge who's the head of commercialism that's like, well you know what, we're going to do this next year, we're going to step it up, we're going to get a new iPhone out, we're going to get new gadgets, we're going to get new stuff and we're going to really swamp them into thinking that material stuff and that it's just going to make it all better for them.
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But it really is destructive, is it not? I've seen its potential to harm me,
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I've seen the potential to harm my family, the potential to harm us as a church. So is there a real system out there called commercialism that really does have an impact on us?
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Absolutely. When it's kind of impersonal and it's forced towards us.
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Some of these things that would carry us away from Jesus are intentional deception as Paul identifies they are intentionally trying to deceive.
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I encountered this type of thing when I was debating with a friend who was a former pastor who has now turned atheist.
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He was actually a mentor of mine and it's been one of those like world rocking kind of things.
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Have any of you ever had that happen to you? Something similar to that and it's just like boom. To be honest, he's the guy who performed
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Lynn and I's wedding. We were very close and very tight. So it's very emotional for us and something that we've had to really wrestle through but on social media one time kind of going back and forth and he's debating.
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He's actually on radio shows now. Atheist radio shows and speaking as a former pastor who now doesn't believe and it's just really tough to get our minds around.
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But he used 1 Timothy 6 .12 in a media in an online social media thing that we were interacting back and forth and he used 1
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Timothy 6 .12 which says this, fight the good fight of the faith. And he used that amongst his atheist cronies to say that's an example of violent extremism in the
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New Testament. An example that Christians are called to arms. An example that Christians are dangerous.
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This is a man who I know knows better. You know what I'm saying? He knows that that has absolutely nothing to do with swords and guns.
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Fight the good fight of faith is about you ready for it? Faith.
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It's about holding tenaciously to trust in God. But what was he doing? He was deceiving.
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And who knows how many people he led captive by that line of argument. Intentional deception is a part of this.
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But there's also an important understanding of the source of this opposition before Paul brings forward the way that Christ stands as our protection.
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Fortunately, I'm spending quite a bit of time on this but man, we're going to get in just a moment to the solution to this.
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That we don't get left in fear by Paul. But we need to consider that these philosophies and deceits arise out of human traditions.
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Since the fall in the garden, humanity has always had a strong independent streak. Do you feel that? You feel that independent streak in you?
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That's coming from your roots. That's your people. That's the way that you feel that because Adam felt that the moment that he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he said, independence.
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And we've got a hunger for that. We've got an appetite for independence. Right? Since the fall in the garden we've had a strong independent streak.
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And it's gone through many cycles of deception. But there is nothing new under the sun.
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We recycle old traditions that wage war against the truth. Some of the most insidious deceits have been religiously organized.
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I actually think Paul has in mind religious human traditions because he brings up circumcision in our text and other things next week that were religious hoops to jump through.
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But if we live in a day and an age where, we do live in a day and an age where people tell us we lack the compassion of Jesus if we will not endorse two men getting married.
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They would take the way that they feel about Jesus. They would say, Jesus is kind of on this side because he just loves everyone.
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So they would take a general gut level impulse about Jesus rather than what he declares of himself in the word but take a gut level and then accuse us of not following Jesus on that basis.
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Does that get a little confusing in our culture? Where those who might be leading the charge on deception might actually be using
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Jesus' name to do so. They take the way that they feel about Jesus and they make that the standard when in fact
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Jesus himself is quoted as saying that a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the two will become one.
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Upholding verbally affirming written down affirmation of the
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Old Testament Genesis view of marriage by Jesus Christ himself. See to it that nobody takes you captive according to human tradition.
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Within the church I believe that human tradition has reared its ugly head in a deceptive philosophy of self -dependence.
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Many people think that the Christian faith is all about good things or good rules or good regulations when as I said earlier it's all about good news.
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The good things really the good news is about the good things that have been done for us.
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And I think that this type of deception is closer to the deception that was coming against the church in Colossae. I think that there were people in Colossae who were saying but you need to do more.
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And here's some hoops you need to jump through even including circumcision being a part of that that we're going to see him mention here in just a moment.
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But even that just saying you're not in with Christ unless you've had that procedure. Religious right
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I should say. And this type of deception is not according to Christ but instead it comes from spiritual forces of the world.
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We have an enemy. We have an enemy that is personal strong and cunning and is happy to see commercialism continue to roll.
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Is happy to see deception continue to roll. And he is eager to take you and I captive in our minds.
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Before we get too dark let's summarize verses 9 through 15 as Paul launches into the reasons we should walk with Jesus.
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Growing in him with gratitude and thankfulness. And give no heed to these demonically fueled human traditions.
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It's a list of five glorious accomplishments found in verses 9 through 15. The accomplishments of Jesus that sets him way over way above infinitely above all philosophies and all human traditions.
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That we get the phrase Jesus is the answer because of this type of text. Because of a text that just highlights how he is supreme over all things.
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The first thing verse 9 just straight forward Jesus is God. Why follow him?
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Jesus is the incarnated enfleshed fullness of deity in flesh bodily.
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Why should all things be measured according to Christ? Why does Paul have the audacity to say that anything is wrong and deceptive if it disagrees with Jesus?
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Because Jesus is God. So get to know
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Jesus if you want to be protected from being carried away as a captive of these false philosophies.
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Where are you going to be protected? In Jesus. In the knowledge of Jesus in the saturation of Jesus in the love of Jesus.
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But knowing him as he has revealed himself because people are eager to fill in the gaps deceptively.
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Fill in the gaps of your understanding about Jesus. They're very eager to tell you what Jesus would say to you in any given situation.
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That's why we've got opposing bumper stickers of Jesus. Well of course you've got the Jesus was a liberal Jesus was a conservative.
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Right? Well which one was it? Oh you know depends on who you ask. Right? Because people are very eager to fill in the gaps of your understanding and your knowledge of Jesus and deceive you and take you captive into a view that is not consistent with the word of God.
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We must be students of the word. Even if it's just read a couple verses a day.
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Not because I told you to. Not to smack you over the head with a two by four and say man you know you've got to feel bad about yourself if you didn't read the
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Bible today. No but you need it. You and I need it. Lest we be carried away and be taken captive by these empty deceits and philosophies.
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Jesus is God in flesh. Get to know him. Second, those in Christ have been filled in him.
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So not only is all of the fullness of deity in Christ but Christ is in you. Hallelujah. Isn't that a glorious reality?
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All the fullness is in him and you're filled up with him. Whoa. Verse 10.
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Paul says if you are in Jesus you have everything that you need.
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The word fullness there is the word complete. This is a great and general statement that Paul doesn't just leave hanging like you're just going to have to trust me on this because the fact of the matter is
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I started off kind of by saying that there are some who would say you don't have all you need. Paul says you do. Paul says if you have
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Christ you have everything that you need. You're complete in him. Christ is what you need but for now recognize that the one who is sovereign over all is the one in you.
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That's a pretty solid security guard. It can protect your mind and protect your heart. Keep rooted in him.
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The third thing. Jesus is better than human tradition because in him you died, were buried, and rose again to new life.
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Verses 11 through 13. These three verses have the potential to be crazy tough to understand and I spent a large amount of time studying them and they mention circumcision, they mention all this stuff but a wise pastor once told me the hardest part of preaching is to know what to cut out.
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Which is a bad pun when you're talking about circumcision. Is that too much?
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Sorry you guys. I'm going to get letters and emails on that one. I might bring them.
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I'll ignore them. Delete them. Let me be clear that I agree with many scholars who understand the circumcision, the reason circumcision is mentioned here.
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Remember that it's an Old Testament, Old Covenant concept. It's not just a medical procedure as we conceive of it today as we think about it but it's more than that in the
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Old Testament. But here Paul is literally, he's not being crass but he's being literal to the procedure and saying there's a putting off of flesh in circumcision and there's a putting off of flesh that Christ did.
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He says Christ was crucified in a sense. When? Well he talks about death, burial and resurrection.
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When did Christ put off his flesh? The cross. Where he died for you and I.
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That's what he's talking about here. I'm convinced that when he talks about the putting off of the body of flesh in this verse he's talking about at the cross.
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And I want to ask you when did you show that you died with him and were raised with him?
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You show that. You demonstrate that at your baptism. Who died for you?
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Jesus. Who has given you new life? Jesus. Who is our hope for future resurrection?
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Jesus. Jesus should be the standard of our spiritual life because he has given us new life in him.
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I want to give a clarifying word about baptism here. Baptism does not save.
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Notice that we were raised with him through, what does the text say? Faith.
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We were raised with him through faith. Not through holy water. Not through being dunked.
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But it's also worthy of note that the word raised, the word raising is associated with baptism and the word raising is associated with resurrection and those two concepts of raising are tied together.
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That's one of the reasons that we baptize by immersion here. To obtain this imagery and maintain, rather not obtain, but maintain this imagery that Paul so clearly ties this concept of being raised to new life and being raised out of the water as a significant example of death, burial, and resurrection with Christ.
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I want to point this out. Baptism is not some take it or leave it kind of ceremony.
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We can tend to talk it down. We can tend to dismiss it. We can push it off to the side. But everyone who would follow
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Jesus and desires the powerful working of God in resurrection through faith should take that step of baptism by faith.
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The faith is what matters most. But demonstrating that faith by baptism is not a minor thing.
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By being baptized, a person is declaring that they were once dead in their trespasses and sins, but have now, according to this verse, been made alive by God through faith and have been forgiven.
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It's a beautiful and glorious thing. And let me just say a side note. Some of you are here and your kids maybe have professed faith in Christ and they haven't been baptized yet.
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I would just encourage you to have that conversation with your kids. I encourage you as parents to be proactive about that discussion.
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Many of us will sit back as parents and say, well, we want it to be their decision. Make sure it is their decision, but don't be shy to talk about it.
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Don't be shy to bring that up to your kids out of fear that you might force it. Just don't force it, but talk about it.
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Have communication with your kids about that if that's something that they're interested in and are wanting to talk to you about.
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If they bring it back up, have that conversation. At Recast, we trust parents with that decision when it comes to your kids, so we kind of push that back off on you.
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I'm not going to make a decision whether your kids are ready. You're going to make a decision whether your kids are ready, and that's up to you. And then adults that are here who maybe haven't taken that step, and it could be a couple of different things.
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Let me just encourage you to, by faith, get over it. It could be fear of water. I haven't drowned anybody yet.
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And it could be fear of being up in front of people. It could be that, and I recognize I used to struggle with that significantly, but God by His grace can be sufficient for you and is sufficient for you, and so I'd encourage you, if that's the next step for you, come and talk with me.
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We've got baptism packets out there. We would like to get a baptism on the calendar here coming up, and so it just happens that the text talks about it.
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I wanted to bring it up and give you guys that opportunity. The fourth thing, let me recap that one because that was a big one.
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Jesus is better than human tradition because in Him you died, were buried, and rose again to new life.
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And number four, Jesus is the one who has canceled our debt. Beautiful, beautiful verse 14.
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Jesus is going to protect you and is going to keep you from those, can keep you from those captive philosophies and empty deceit, and He's so much more than that.
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He's so much more beautiful than any philosophies that the world can offer to you. We had an IOU to God written out and verified that we could not pay.
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You want to see how big the IOU was? Read the Old Testament law. That's the
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IOU. That's what we owed to God in law was like, hey, here's what it looks like.
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Here's what it looks like to really worship me as a broken human. So here's, if you want to honor me, follow and jump through these hoops, says
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God. Pretty significant stuff. Or even further, take the
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Sermon on the Mount where Jesus takes those rules and says, you've heard it said, don't murder, but I say, don't even say you fool to that guy that cut you off in traffic or whatever because that's where, you know, that can get mean, right?
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And I mean, I just murdered somebody. According to Jesus, I'm liable for murder just by that animosity that I can feel towards somebody in a rage on the road.
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The law was like an IOU. And we were not gonna get there with all those laws and all those regulations.
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But all of those were kept fully and completed by Jesus Christ. And they went to the cross with him.
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And he who fully obeyed in your place also died in your place. And he who hung there took with him, in his obedience, your
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IOU. A debt you could never pay was paid on your behalf on the cross.
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And the certificate of debt was nailed to the cross in his flesh.
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And then these four beautiful words. This he set aside.
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This he set aside. Your debt. Your certificate of debt to God.
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Immeasurable debt to God. Infinite punishment that you and I deserve.
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This he set aside. Do you feel that?
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Changes everything. My debt. My sin.
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My curse. My guilt. The pain I have caused to God. The pain
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I have caused to others. The failure to do what is right. The willful doing of what is wrong.
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The lust. The lies. The unholy rage. All of it. Every ounce of it nailed to the cross.
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Do you feel that? That you might truly cry, debt free!
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Take that Dave Ramsey. Debt free! Do you feel it?
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Glory to God that we could be declared debt free. What philosophy in the world can give you that?
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None. All of it is empty deceit and vain wanderings of the human mind in comparison to Christ who paid for you and me.
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Glory to God. Your payment has been offered.
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It is good news that I bring to you this morning. It's been done.
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All you need to do just like a present being offered to you on Christmas morning all you gotta do is just grab it.
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Open it up. And rejoice in it. Thank you. Thank you for this gift.
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I don't deserve it. Do you? We don't deserve it.
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But is it really yours? It is. If you are in Jesus Christ.
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Debt free. No philosophy can compare with that. Lastly, wrapping things up, verse 15,
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Jesus kicked tail. Says it right there. Loose translation. He defeated the enemies of his people.
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Those who would be seeking, those who would be the force and the power behind the deception that is coming against your mind and mine.
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Those forces that are going against your thoughts and your feelings have been defeated.
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And even now he is leading them in a parade of victory.
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In ancient times when an enemy was defeated they were often paraded through the capital of the victorious forces in order to shame them.
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Jesus is the one who has the power to disarm the spiritual forces who are attempting to deceive us.
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He is the hope and he is the place of victory for his church. So as I wrap this all up,
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I want to just encourage a bit of homework for each one of us this week. Now if you're in a small group and maybe you're a small group leader here
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I'd like you to listen up. I'd like everybody to listen up, but particularly small group leaders this would be a great exercise for you to encourage your people to engage in and involve in and maybe even just share some of the thoughts and feelings as they're feeling like opening.
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If you're not in a small group this is still an exercise I'd encourage you to do. Maybe grab an accountability partner, maybe a spouse or someone else and just take a minute to do this exercise.
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You might do it on your own and then share it with someone. Take a few minutes to sit down and write what is troubling you.
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I know everybody's going to have something on that piece of paper if I ask you to do it. Write something that is troubling, write down, make it as comprehensive as you can think of.
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Think in terms of relationships, feelings, thoughts, doubts, even sins.
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Maybe there's some sins that are holding you down and you're feeling entangled. You might even divide up the page. If you want to get real fancy you can divide the page up into past, present, and future because if you're anything like me there are things in the past that keep rearing up and it's hard to let go of.
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There are things in the present that you're like, I don't know where this is going, I don't know how it's going to turn out and I'm stressed about it and I'm anxious about it.
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And then there are things in the future that you're just kind of like, I don't know what's going to happen out there, right?
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And so maybe there's some specific things that you can already start thinking of filling out that column, but then I want you to do this.
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One by one, I want you to write the name of Jesus over the top of each one of those things.
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Until it's illegible. You might have to get his name on there a few times if it's a sentence long. Write the name of Jesus until you cannot read that any longer.
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Consider as you do so the way that he is the solution for each one because he is.
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Sin, is it a sin that's written down on the page? Nailed to the cross.
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Is it a relationship that's broken? He is the redeemer and reconciler. That even if you, even if it's just simply that you can be at peace with others because you recognize that it isn't all about you because Jesus leads you to that conclusion and so it really is about Jesus and it's like, if I'm at war with somebody and I don't mean, you know, guns but I mean, if you're embroiled and embattled against somebody or you constantly have animosity between you and another individual, in Christ, you can take the hit.
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You observed his humble sacrifice and maybe you might be moved to do so as well.
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Maybe you'd be the first to move towards reconciliation because of what Christ has done for you. Whatever it might be,
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I'm convinced that Christ is the answer to it and you can write his name across it and trust that he's got it.
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Jesus is the answer to all things that trouble us and every, he's the answer to every fear that plagues us.
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And as we come to communion this morning, we remember that our hope is placed in his death, burial, and resurrection.
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If you're trusting in Jesus as your king and savior, then I'd encourage you to come to one of the tables during this next song and remember his death for you as you take the cracker, take the cup to remember his body that was broken in your place, that your debt might be paid, take the cup to remember his blood that was shed for you, that he was the sacrifice, the blood atoning sacrifice that you and I needed to be made right with God.
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Let's pray. Father, I want to thank you. I want to thank you so much.
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And I really want my life to be more filled with gratitude and more oozing and pouring over with thankfulness, thankfulness that could even get annoying to those around us,
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Father, that it would be the operating system of our lives would be gratitude and thankfulness.
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Father, I do pray because I pray against the forces of evil that would seek to pluck this out of our minds even now as we're getting ready to go and we've got a week ahead of us and there's so many things that empty philosophies and empty deceit that would seek to overcome us.
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Father, I pray that we would walk out of here with a deep, deep rooting in Christ, a re -centeredness in our souls on him as the point and the focus that we would be protected as a people from the deception around us.
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And as we come to communion, may we come to the communion table with thankful hearts of the sacrifice that's been made for us.