Back to the Root Colossians 2:6-7

Good morning to everyone We're glad for the regular and faithful to be here and we're glad to welcome any who are visiting today

We hope you feel at home and welcome here today As I was thinking of just a word to encourage it.

I was thinking of Psalm 34 and it says Oh Magnify the

Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. I Thought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears

They looked on him and were radiant and their faces were not ashamed

And as I read thought Psalm 34 Do you ever feel like sometimes you?

Want to know the Lord's there and you're just not sure it feels like your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling If you read on in that chapter in verses 17

It says the righteous cry out and the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles

The Lord is near to those who have a broken and saves such as has a contrite heart

And I think when I was a young man, I was a wise guy. Oh, you wouldn't believe that right?

No, and I thought I knew everything And it was

I was really a young adult before I realized I couldn't do anything of any

Help to the Lord unless I had a broken heart and the Lord had to break me and a contrite heart

Means it crushed, you know He saves such but he wants a person that comes to him with a broken heart and says

Lord. You're everything and I'm nothing And then he can use you and he can use me

So I pray today that as we come together and as it says we sought the Lord and he heard me

We pray that this is the day that we all hear the word of the Lord and it's encouragement to each one of us

Lift up your hearts with me as we pray to the Lord Heavenly Father we come before you today

Thanking you for your blessings that you shower upon us continually Thank thankful Lord for the word that you give to us to tell us how that we can approach you and How you can use us and desire to use us

We pray Heavenly Father to each one that we would realize that we need to be broken before we can be used and We would just thank you

Lord for showing us that in your word We would pray for everyone that is here today

Pray that you would give us open hearts and open ears to hear what you have for us And we look forward to a blessing from you we pray that you would be with the songs that we sing those that play the instruments pray that it might be a

Sweet odor to you in heaven and we'll thank you and pray in Jesus name.

Amen Jesus Christ is Lord Neither is there salvation in any other for there is done under none other name than Jesus Under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved

Thank you, please be seated and pastor Iljin Please turn with me to the book of Colossians chapter 2

Verses 6 through 7 Colossians 2 verses 6 through 7 as You therefore have received

Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him rooted and built up in him and Established in the faith as you have been taught

Abounding in it with thanksgiving This is the word of the Lord Let us pray

Father we thank you that Our foundation is in Christ and God we thank you that that foundation is immovable unchangeable firm

Father we pray that your spirit would work in our hearts To Help us know

What that means? To be rooted in Christ and may our actions and words and thoughts reflect

Those who are rooted in Christ in Jesus name When I say the word tradition

For some of us it leaves a bitter taste in our mouths This may be due to some

Catholic influence in our lives Because they hold human tradition and scripture on the same level oftentimes human traditions trumping scripture

Or it could be the Pharisees in the Gospels Who broke

God's Word and held traditions of elders at the same level? or even higher

However The importance of the correct tradition is highlighted here The tradition that the church received from Christ After all we are all standing on the shoulders of the previous

Giants where would we be if the early church did not fight against the heretics and Clarify what it means to worship the triune

God Where would we be if the early church did not fight off the

Gnostics who said that Christ didn't come in the flesh? Where would we be if the fundamentalists and evangelicals of the 20th century did not debate the modernists

Who believe that there were no miracles? Without them we would be worshiping a totally different God Without them we would have lost

Jesus complete and sufficient work on the cross for our sin and without them we would be doubting every miracle from the

Bible even the resurrection as Christians we are not against all traditions

After all we have received Christ from scripture, which was passed down to us faithfully and accurately for millennia

We are against traditions of men that contradict the tradition of Christ Hence as Christians we firmly hold to the tradition that has been passed down to us through scripture

Scripture is the ultimate standard that we use to verify the historical doctrines and Positions held by the church

Scripture is how we know that the gospel of Jesus is true for the

Bible tells me so Scripture has been passed down to us faithfully for thousands of years and In the same way

Paul urges the church in Colossae to hold on to Christ that they have received from the

Apostles or people who know the Apostles Don't try to add anything else

You don't need to add worship of angels. You don't need to add

Certain foods you need to eat Certain drinks you have to drink certain days.

You have to not work Or certain festivals you have to keep Don't add those things to Christ today

The text moves from the introduction of Paul's interaction with introduction of Paul and his ministry to his interaction with the philosophy of the false teachers

This is the beginning of his attack against the false teaching in Colossae Now before Paul deals with the false teachers he starts with an exhortation an encouragement he urges the church to continue with the traditional teaching that the church has received of Christ the one who rules supremely over creation and new creation and He's the revealed mystery of God for the redemptive plan

The question that this text asks is how do we continue in our faith?

despite the false teaching How do we continue in our faith despite the false teaching which leads to my main point as We have been first taught we walk rooted in Christ a bounding and thanksgiving as We have been first taught we walk rooted in Christ Abounding in thanksgiving

First we walk in Christ as we received him as Lord We walk in Christ as we received him as Lord For the

Colossian Church Paul encourages them to continue in their faith as how as how they've started in their faith

When they received Christ as Lord Verse 6 as you therefore have received

Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him The word for receive here means the

Colossian Church did not inherently did not in the beginning have Christ But someone introduced

Christ to them by proclaiming the gospel Someone came and preached the gospel of Jesus to them

The reality of Christ's work on the cross To purchase our forgiveness was delivered to them.

They weren't born with this. They weren't born into this Christianity The Lord The word the

Lord shows that Christ cannot be received any other way Christ is not some life coach

To help you live successfully Christ is not your political activist whom you can refer to for your own agenda

Well, Jesus would have voted this way Jesus would have supported this bill.

This is on Christian No Christ is

Lord Lord means master When you receive

Christ you're no longer in charge But he is the ruler of your life

Christ is Lord means Caesar is not Christ is

Lord Means the government is not there is no other way to receive

Christ Jesus other than as Lord if What Christ did is true on the cross and you and and believe and you believe the true

Christ He reigns from the thrones of our hearts Even your minds and hearts belong under his authority

We have to dethrone ourselves To make way for the true King We put off our wicked desires daily to put on Godly desires and surrender to Christ the

King. We're no longer the king We forego our agenda we give up our agenda and pursue at full force our

Lord's agenda We're no longer in charge, but Christ is

So Paul urges them to continue walking in him as they have received Christ as Lord The metaphor of walking is the totality of our lives

Reflecting and aligning God's will for us which we learn in Scripture When we walk in the

Lord It is not some boring and lonely path But rather a delightful and relational experience with God the

Living God You are doing what you are made to do

You are with you're in a relationship with the ultimate being whom you were made for that's the fulfillment of your purpose and Hence for Christians, there is an utmost joy in living for Christ There's comfort

Knowing that you're walking with God in Christ Here means the realm of Christ You're in Christ when we hear and believe the gospel of Jesus and we repent of our sinful ways

God transfers us from the realm of darkness, which we're born into and into his beloved son's kingdom in Christ denotes our new identity our new allegiance to Christ the

King our new kingdom as Citizens of Christ's kingdom.

We naturally walk according to his will in Everything we do we seek to represent

Christ. Well in Everything we say we desire to please

Jesus in Every thought we meditate on what God Is pleased by the most

Paul commends the church in Colossae to walk in Christ as they received

Christ as Lord because the Colossian heresy threatened this

Christian living The false teachers tried to sway the church away from Christ The church has begun with their faith in Christ, but the deceivers the false teachers

They taught that they were not complete just with Christ They planted lies that Christ was insufficient.

You need something else for Christ Christian living This is why

Paul's exhortation Encouragement to the Colossian Church is to continue in Christ as they have since the beginning of their faith

What does that look like It's the year AD 155

Polycarp the Bishop of Smyrna, which is in modern -day, Turkey is

Forcibly taken to a smaller town nearby to escape persecution

Although he wished to remain in the city His followers urged him made him go to that small town now polycarp is 86 years old and he's a feeble old man and he and What special is he is one of the last disciples of the

Apostle John the Apostle John? Who was at the feet of the cross?

the Apostle John Who leaned against Christ? chest on the

Last Supper the Apostle John who wrote the last gospel we have and Polycarp has taught and proclaimed the gospel of Christ faithfully all his life

However when one of the slaves after being tortured Discloses where polycarp is

The Roman government arrests him to take him to the sheriff

He asked to pray for an hour and they actually allow it When he arrives the sheriff and others try to persuade him to recant to to say that Christ is

Not God to deny Christ This is what they said now what harm is there in saying

Lord Caesar and in offering incense and So on and thus saving yourself

These people people who arrested him actually really want to keep this old man alive

But his mouth is sealed after more persuasion he finally opens his mouth

I Do not intend to do what you advise Then the impatient crowd gets more violent and they start threatening him to worship the

Emperor of Rome and They take him to the stadium to execute him publicly the government officials at the stadium

They even give him another chance Swear by the genius of Caesar or swear an oath to Caesar Swear, and I will release you curse the

Christ then polycarp says Eighty and six years have

I served him and he had done me no wrong How then can

I bless theme my king who saved me? Then the official threatens to kill him with wild beasts and after a while he changes my his mind execution by fire then polycarp says

You threaten the fire that burns for an hour and in a little while is quenched for you know not the fire of the judgment to come and The fire of the eternal punishment

Reserved for the ungodly, but why are you delaying bring what you will?

Polycarp is then burned to death polycarp is a great example of someone who received

Christ Jesus as Lord and Continued to live his life even if it meant facing death by fire

To him he has only one Lord To whom he will bow and worship

And he'd rather burn to death than to add another Lord to the list

To Christians there can be no other Lords beside Christ There is no other path that you follow other than Christ as Christians we only bow to Christ No other

Lords for Christians There is always the temptation to seek practices and excitement apart from or in addition to Christ Maybe you have read the

Bible from cover to cover already and you desire some higher level teaching maybe you have prayed every day for decades, and you want to spice up your spiritual life and You're itching to discover something more exciting something new about the faith that no one else in church history has ever held a

Heavenly interaction with the angelic beings if you pray a certain way Prophetic words from God to tell you what will happen in the future when the judgment day is

Who the main do who the man of lawlessness will be? There are many false teachers in the church putting so much extra demands on Christians already

They claim if you don't speak in some gibberish tongue Angelic tongues you are not saved or are a lower level

Christian Where do we see that in Scripture? It's been added by the conman of the past Paul tells us however

Continue with Christ as you received him. This is how the church can prevent drifting into heresies

We continue in Christ as we have received him since the beginning We continue with Christ proclaimed to us in Scripture Which has been faithfully and securely passed down to us

How could we possibly? graduate from the gospel How could the good news of Christ loving sacrifice on the cross ever get boring?

The gospel story is something even the angels in heaven marvel at Because it is so Incredible the

God of the universe would become a man to die for sinners like us

The perfect being would die for wicked folks like us

For Christians, we must never lose the wonder of the cross We must never get tired of the old gospel story

We must never drift from the starting point of our faith as we continue to walk in Christ How do we do that We walk in Christ steadfastly with thanks giving

We walk in Christ steadfastly with thanksgiving Paul tells us four ways in which we walk in Christ as we received him and He emphasizes the steadfast nature of our faith using three different metaphors rooted and built up in him and Established in the faith as you have been taught

The first metaphor that depicts our walk with Christ is being rooted

Being rooted in Christ is a botanical metaphor. It's a plant metaphor

Just as a plant is rooted in the soil Christians are rooted in Christ First the plants root the function is it holds the plant in place

That's why you don't see trees moving around Second roots have another function.

They bring nutrients and water from the soil So the plant gets all it needs

From where it is rooted as a plant derives its nutrients and water from the soil

Christ is the source of life for Christians In order for us to continue in the faith we must be rooted in Christ The second metaphor is architectural

Christians are to be built up in Christ the architectural language points to the temple the most important architecture in the

Old Testament The most important building perhaps even in the ancient world

What does it mean for Christians to be built up in Christ It signifies that Christ Christians are the temple of God The temple is no longer in architecture, but the people of God in ancient times people met

God in the temple on Special days after rigorous rituals and only for certain people

But now God resides in his people

Christians when we gather We encounter the Living God Christians when you read scripture you hear from the

Living God You don't have to go to a temple to hear from God And in that same sense we are built up in Christ Christ is the foundation on which we're built up Christians grow on a solid foundation that does not shake

This is very nicely captured in my hope is built on nothing less On Christ the solid rock

I stand all other ground is sinking sand All other ground is sinking sand

We cannot possibly be founded on anything but Christ he is the only solid rock we are built on as You can see the focus of remaining in the faith is

Jesus Christ not us Not our experience not our emotional high

Jesus Christ Whether we are rooted or built up we must start with Jesus and remain in Jesus Abide in him and if we start trying to root ourselves or build ourselves anywhere else

We're built up in sinking sand We will be built only to be destroyed

This means our daily life needs to reflect that a Plant doesn't decide to root itself on the day.

It needs water But rather it is always rooted in the soil that provides water a

Building isn't built in one day from scratch This means we must daily read the

Bible as our source of sustenance Where we learn and encounter Christ?

We rely on the Word of God to sustain us It is price precisely

Christ's Word that protects us from inching away into the heresy land

Whether you have read the Bible 30 times or three times

It is vital that we see Christ in his word daily until we see him face to face

Even Jesus chose God's Word over bread After fasting for 40 days.

He did not eat anything for 40 days Satan tempts him and tells him turn the stone into bread so you may eat

But what does Jesus say? It is written Man shall not live on bread alone, but On every word that comes from the mouth of God Jesus is saying that food alone is not sufficient to live on But we absolutely need the

Word of God There's one pastor who tweeted this a few years ago if you must choose between Bible and breakfast choose

Bible Then and grab an energy bar

Then plan better Men shall not live by bread alone Consider the

Word of God more important than your first meal of the day hunger

For scripture more than for food the third metaphor that Paul uses

To describe the reality of our faith is a legal metaphor Established in the faith as you have been taught

We're confirmed in the faith that we received from the Apostles through scripture

We are set on what scripture teaches us about God and his nature and we do not stray from it

It is official like a court document Just a few years ago

There was a series of lawsuits revolving around one man named Jack Phillips a

Christian baker in Colorado He's been serving his in his community since 1993

It's before I was born however in 2012 a

Gay couple asked Jack to design their wedding cake Because of his

Christian faith and what scripture taught him he refused to do so But offered any other baked goods in the shop but the couple

Wanted him to bake them a wedding cake But he's firmly stood his ground

Because scripture told him homosexuality Homosexual relationship are sinful

Soon Jack started receiving threats via phone calls Even the

Colorado State Government charged him with Discrimination even though he only refused one type of service based upon his religious conviction

He was more than happy to serve them in any other way he just could not go against the

Word of God which clearly says that homosexuality is an abomination and marriages between one man and one woman

The state ordered Jack to Re -educate his staff for being wrong and stop baking wedding cakes for straight couples

Which would drastically cut his business? However Jack was firmly established in his faith and After every threatening phone call he prayed for the caller and did not cave

Because he was strengthened established in the faith That he was taught

How firmly established are you in the faith? When your friends disrespect

God in the Bible Will you stand your ground? even at the cost of ridicule and isolation

If your family criticizes you for your allegiance to Christ Will you try will you choose

Christ over your family? When it becomes socially unacceptable to gather on Sunday mornings as church

What are you willing to give up to be with the body of Christ? Considering where this culture is headed

Will you stand your ground on how the Bible defines marriage? gender and life

To stand strongly with Christ instead of the culture Paul tells us today to stay rooted in Christ and Christ does not move

Neither should you Lastly Paul tells us we must be overflowing with thankfulness

Paul reminds us that in order to continue in the faith as we walk in Christ is thanksgiving

This is similar to his previous exhortation of giving thanks in chapter 1 and The repetition would tell us how important it is for Christians to be thankful to God First being thankful shows that we did not earn what

Christ did on the cross for us It was purely by grace

That's because we cannot be overflowing with thanksgiving for something we have earned

Second the word overflowing really shows the abundance of thankfulness

This means gratitude characterizes Christian life It is not about what we have done for God But what

God has done for us It is the constant continual acknowledgement of God's gracious and merciful role in our daily lives for everything and We also acknowledge that God is the one holding us firmly in the faith

We are rooted we are built up in Christ we're established in the faith because God is

The one who is working in us If it were up to my strength alone to remain in the faith

I Would have left the faith a long time ago But thanks be to God That he is the one who holds me fast

When you come to our corporate prayer meeting 6 p .m.

On Sundays You'll notice that we start with praises and Thanksgiving This is because when we start our prayers with Thanksgiving it places us in the right mindset and posture before God Thanksgiving prayer is a

Calibrating prayer to set our wandering minds to the reality of approaching an

Omnipotent and merciful God When we give thanks to God our hearts are warmed by the by acknowledging how much

God has done in our lives our ministry and In our family already before we even ask a thing

When we are abounding in thanksgiving to God our hearts are stirred By the fact that God has been so graciously providing for us

Even when we did not ask for it We give thanks to God because he

Often keeps us out of sin And because God has established us in Christ We walk in him

Overflowing with thanksgiving Let us pray Father we are so thankful that you are our father and we are your children

It is not That anything we've done That you adopted us, but purely by your grace and mercy that you would

Pick us to be your sons and daughters in Christ And that you would keep us that way