Sunday Morning

Opening Greetings and Travel Banter

I'm privileged to be with you, and yes, I did manage to dodge the rain showers yesterday. And today's looking good, but something tells me what's going to happen is sometime within the next few moments, a deluge is going to come down upon us.

Thank you, sir. And that's okay. If that happens, we'll live. Actually, tomorrow I'm supposed to be trying to hold the wheel of Dan there as we go up Tantalus, so if any of you are going up that way, please watch out for the old slow guy.

That'll be me. And actually, someone in the congregation who remained nameless asked me to crush him, but I'm not really sure why they would ask me to do that. I just can't believe that anyone would ask me to crush such a beloved person in your congregation, but they did ask me to do that, so I don't think I can do that, but we'll see.

It has been great to be here. It is, of course, beautiful. The only time I had been to Hawaii was on a cruise where we just sort of went island hopping, and that's really not the same thing as being stuck in Honolulu traffic, which is just a great privilege, truly.

But I've had a great time getting to know Shane. Shane has been very kind to us. He's sort of given himself to us for a few days now and is probably counting the seconds until my flight leaves on Monday, and he'll be very, very pleased when that happens and have his life back.

But we've had a great time and looking forward to this evening as well. Of course, my wife has to go home this evening, and so she's not going to be able to. I was noticing she was playing with someone's baby back there earlier.

You've got to understand, we're empty nesters now, and I performed my daughter's wedding ceremony back in July, and so my son's been married for four years, and we're just waiting. Just waiting for that call, you know, because for some odd, strange reason, even though Kelly continues to say she's only 29, she also wants to be a grandmother all at the same time.

So I'm not sure how those fit together well, but that's what we're working on. So it'll be exciting when it happens. It really will be. But it'll be a very strange thing, because all I can say is I remember so clearly when my firstborn.

That was only a little while ago, and actually he's almost 26, so time does pass us by. And what we do at that time, of course, is the most important, important thing. On the screen I have provided you with the text we'll be looking at.

Walking in Christ from Colossians 2:6-10

We'll be looking at Colossians chapter 2. You can either just use that or turn in your Bibles if you'd like to follow along. But I would like this morning to, just in the brief time that we have together, to remind us once again of some basic truths found here in Paul's letter to the Colossians, beginning at verse 6.

Colossians chapter 2, verse 6. Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in Him, being firmly rooted and being built up in Him, and firmly established in the faith, just as you have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.

And look carefully, see to it that no one takes you captive through the philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to the Messiah, the Christ.

Because in Him is dwelling all the fullness of that which makes God God, deity, in bodily form. And you have been made complete in Him, who is the head of all authority, all rulership, and power. Colossians chapter 2, verses 6 through 10.

The Church's Roots in Ephesus and the Need for Stability

Now, these words were penned long, long ago. They were penned to a church that the Apostle Paul himself had not founded. It had been founded by those who, in the Spirit's wisdom, Paul had gone to Ephesus.

Ephesus was the chief city in the Lycus River Valley, and when you establish a church in a place like that, then naturally the faith is going to spread upriver from there, because there would be a lot of communication, a lot of travel going on.

So, we see here almost the second generation of Christians developing, as far as a church, there in Colossae. And Paul had spent quite some time in Ephesus, building that church, making sure it was a very strong church.

Even in the book of Revelation, when the seven letters are written to the churches, Ephesus is one of those. And Ephesus is seen as a mature church, even though they needed to have some exhortation in regards to some areas where apathy had snuck in.

It was a mature church, because Paul, of course, you remember, as he was going to Jerusalem, he met with the Ephesian elders, and you have that tremendously touching narrative found in Acts chapter 20.

And so, that had been the origin of the founding of this church, and so now Paul is seeing in essence his grandchildren churches. He's got his children, now his grandchildren churches, and of course he has great desire that they are going to be established and built up.

And we must realize that it must have been such a fascinating time. We can look back on church history. We can look back and realize that there have been churches planted and built and established literally for thousands of years now.

But they didn't have that. And in fact, these churches would soon be going through fiery trials and tribulations. And so, it would be an exciting time, but it would be a very difficult time. And Paul knew these days were coming.

He told the Ephesian elders, after I leave, ravenous wolves will arise from among your own number, not sparing the flock. He knew that there was going to be division within the church, and he knew there was going to be persecution outside of the church.

I don't know if even Paul himself could have had any idea of the literally hundreds of years of persecution that the church was going to be facing until the peace of the church in 313. And even then, that was just the external persecution.

There was still much that would be happening at that time. And so, he is concerned that the Christians be firmly established. We live in a day where things in our culture are changing so quickly, so rapidly, so swiftly that it's difficult for us to even keep track of what's going on.

The next generation, the generation, the young generation today, what is normal for them is change. For folks that have this much white on their chin, I can't really say much about here, but on their chin, change was not the norm.

If there was change, at least it took place slowly. You could sort of see it coming. You could discuss it. You could become accustomed to it. That's not the case anymore. Things are coming at us, no matter where we are, at a tremendously rapid speed.

And either we as Christians are going to be able to stand firm for the truth of Jesus Christ, we are going to be firmly rooted, or we are going to be torn up, and we're going to be like those who today call themselves Christians, or maybe they're part of denominations that were once Christian, but they're just going along with the flow.

And whatever the society deems is right, well, now they go along with that. And their message is always a changing message. My hope and prayer for your leadership here at Central Baptist is that one of the things you think about is that when someone comes through that door, that whether it be this year, or the next year, or a decade from now, or 20 years from now, what they will hear first and foremost will be the unashamed proclamation of God's truth from God's Word.

And that you will not be like those who are blown about by every wind of doctrine. You will not be those who are firmly rooted in nothing at all. Feet firmly planted in mid-air. I know that our society is changing, and I know that when you stand for Christ's truth, tremendous pressure can come against you.

And there are going to be many people who might come in, and they hear what you're saying, they hear the handling of the Word of God, and they go elsewhere. You have to make a decision. Do you want to be a Colossians-type church, an Ephesians-type church, or do you want to be like, well, the churches that are so common in our land today, that literally pander to the society, rather than being a light calling the society to God's truth.

And of course, each one of us individually, likewise, has to look at ourselves and consider these things. Listen to what this text says. I just want to work through it with you, and once again consider what it says.

Receiving Christ Jesus the Lord and the Meaning of Lordship

As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord. Now just stop right there. It's so easy for us to just go spinning past that, and not realize the tremendous weight that it carries. As you have received as your Kurios, as your Lord, the Messiah, Jesus.

Now everyone here, I'm sure, unless you have not yet bowed the knee in repentance and faith to Jesus Christ, would say, yes, Jesus Christ is Lord, but what does that mean? What does that mean in your life?

What did that mean yesterday to you? What does that mean in your family? What does that mean in your business? Young people, what does that mean in your school? What is the Lord? What does Lordship mean?

For many today, given the way that they were introduced to the faith, Jesus is sort of a self-help methodology. The Jenny Craig of spiritual things. Why don't you sort of attack Jesus? Try Jesus for a while.

That's not what it means to receive Christ Jesus as Kurios, as Lord. Lordship speaks of authority. Lordship speaks of power. And the only ones who will really be able to understand what Paul is saying here in the Scripture, are those who recognize that they are under authority.

That they have bowed the knee. In Western society, there is such an emphasis upon individualism. We got rid of our, in the mainland anyways, we got rid of our king a long time ago. The biblical parameters and categories of royalty and power and kingship, sometimes difficult for us because we're so focused upon the individual.

And yet, for the Christian, it is our joy to have a Lord, a risen Lord. And one of the greatest terms that can be used of a Christian is a doulos, a slave. Yeah, some of our modern translations say servant.

It certainly refers to one who serves. But in reality, it's a slave. We have been bought, we have been purchased with a price. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, your life is not your own. You do not get to rule over your life.

You have been purchased with a great price. That's why we partake in the Lord's Supper. To remember the great price that was paid for our redemption. And if, in point of fact, Jesus Christ is Lord in our lives, then He must be Lord over every aspect of our lives.

And even today, as so much of the world is pressing upon us, and the world is beginning to say to us Christians, you cannot follow what that man Jesus taught you to believe and to act. You cannot. No, that's wrong.

Now, certainly, they don't want to say that out loud, right? Right now, we're still in a stage where they've paid off enough people that you have false teachers, not just in the sense of liberal denominations, but especially false teachers in seminaries and places like that, where they can actually make the argument, well, Jesus never said anything about what marriage really is, or Jesus never said anything about homosexuality, or Jesus never said anything about the value of life.

Jesus never said anything about marriage and family and morality and sexuality and the role of the state. He never said anything about all that stuff. You can always find some professor somewhere, doctor somebody who will deny some element of God's truth.

But eventually, it's just going to be straightforward. It's going to be, look, it doesn't matter what you think Jesus said. That's no longer appropriate in our society, and we are going to have to count the cost.

Right now, we have to count the cost, but we still have the freedom to give an answer for the hope that's within us. How long will we have that? I don't know. I used to think this would be something my children, my grandchildren would be dealing with.

No, it's going to be in my lifetime. It's going to be in my lifetime. It already is in Europe and places like that. We have to be thinking about these things. Have you received the Messiah, Jesus, as Lord?

Do you have a Lord? Do you live as if you have a Lord? If you have a Lord, if you have one who rules over you and determines what is right and wrong for you, determines the direction of your life, each and every day, do you consider His will for your life?

Or is that only something on a Sunday? Maybe on a Wednesday night, if you're really spiritual. If Jesus is truly Lord, then each and every day, His Lordship should be making itself evident in the way that we think and how we react to the world around us, how we react to our fellow believers, unbelievers, in every aspect of our lives.

Jesus must be Lord. So as you have received Christ Jesus, the Lord, walk in Him. That means every aspect of your life, every bit of your behavior. Back then, you pretty much walked everywhere. Rich people might have slaves to carry them around or a chariot or a horse or something like that.

But to walk was just simply to be engaged in the affairs of life. And so when the Scriptures say for us to walk in Him, what it means is your life, your everyday activity, not just externally, though that needs to be included as well, but every aspect of your life, what you say, how you speak, how you think.

The Lordship of Christ touches every aspect of human existence. And the world knows when we take this seriously. The world knows when we're serious about the Lordship of Christ. The world knows when we're serious about actually submitting ourselves to His will in our life.

They can tell who the serious Christians are and the ones who are not. They laugh at liberalism. That's why it's so accepted in the culture. They know those people have given in. They're not following the Lordship of Christ.

They're religious people who follow the Lordship of the world. They know that. That's why they accept them. That's why they don't find them to be in any way offensive, because they've given in. But they also know, on the other side, the evangelicals, who are just in it for the money, they're in it for the entertainment, they're in it for the me, me, me.

And they know there are people who, if their life becomes difficult, and their circumstances become difficult, and they have difficulties in trials, they know they're the ones who will be the first ones complaining.

If you really walk under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, is there really any room for complaint against what He brings you through in your life? If we really recognize that we have eternal life solely because of what He's done for us, that we were completely unworthy of anything He did, His mercy and grace is the only reason we have anything, do we have any grounds for complaint about anything, no matter how difficult our circumstances might be?

We have brothers and sisters this day languishing in prison in Islamic countries, who are eating bread and water, who are separated from their loved ones, and they hold in their hand the key that would open the door of their prison house.

All they'd have to say is,. And the door would open. But they will not open it. Because to say those words is to deny the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And there they suffer. Do we have anything to complain about in comparison to them?

And yet the amazing thing is, they pray for us, as we should be praying for them. Oh, think about it, my brothers and sisters. Walking in Christ, what does it mean? It means to really be a Christian, to not want to act like the world, to not want to think like the world.

Are we worried when we start saying something and we start seeing the looks of others around us? Or are we first and foremost concerned about what our Lord Jesus Christ thinks as He looks upon us? Do we want to bring Him honor and glory in our lives each and every day?

This is not something just for Sunday morning. The Christian life is an everyday experience of submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. So He says, walk in Him. And He's talking to people He knows in that culture are going to be walking, therefore, in a different direction than the mass of people.

And we, too, should not want to be going along with the crowd just because our society decides that this behavior is good or this way of speaking is good or that is good. No, we only have our eyes upon one.

You follow the leader. You don't worry about anything else. And if we bow to His Lordship, we want to walk in Him, having been firmly rooted. I was looking out from my hotel room today down in Waikiki, and I don't know what it is about being down there.

I mean, it's pretty breezy here. But it wasn't breezy there. It was windy there. I think the buildings funnel the wind in between them or something, and it really becomes very, very windy. And we walked out to wait for Shane to come by.

I just walked out the door and kept going because I don't have bad hair days. I can stand in a hurricane, and it just really doesn't bother much of anything at all. But it didn't take me long to realize that my wife was sitting in the lobby because standing in a hurricane, for some reason, she didn't really want to do that.

And I'm looking at the trees, and they are bending and they are moving. And the thought is, you're looking at a big palm tree, and you go, I hope it's firmly rooted, especially if it's on that side of the wind of me.

And we'll have storms in Arizona and Phoenix during the monsoon. And then afterwards, all along the streets, you'll find these trees that have just been, they weren't firmly rooted. I remember on the route that Kelly and I ride along the Arizona Canal after the last big storm last year.

Here was this big tree, and there was too much up here and not enough down here. And there it was on its side. And the roots up in the air, and it's dead. It's all over. They're going to come along eventually and cut it up and use it for something, I suppose, or just throw it away, I don't know.

But it was not firmly rooted. And when the hard winds came, it was gone. Paul's exhortation to believers is, you need to be firmly rooted. And the only reason that is is because Paul knows the storms of life are going to come your direction.

The storms of life are going to come your direction. Paul is not one of these prosperity teachers. He never promises anyone an easy life. And he knows that there are going to be trials and difficulties that are going to come your way that are going to test your rootage.

They're going to test how deeply you have fed upon the Word of God. And the scary thing about a lot of evangelicals, we're much more concerned about what our limbs and our leaves look like than how deep our roots are set.

If there's anything J .I. Packer described at once about North American Christianity, it's a mile wide and half an inch deep. It's real easy to see it. There's lots of folks who will talk about it. But when persecution comes, when difficult times come, does it have any depth?

Does it have any root? Fellow believers, how deep is your root system? What are you doing to increase the firmness of your roots? Not only in the attending of the stated meetings of the church and focusing upon the ministry of the Word and asking in-depth questions.

But what else are you doing? When the storms of life come along, how deep will your roots be? It may be something personal in yourself. It might be disease. It might be difficulty. It might be the loss of employment.

It might be sickness in the family. There's all sorts of things that come along in this life. God has not put us as believers in hermetically sealed bottles. How deep is your root? What are you doing to increase it?

Because I can guarantee you, the winds of opposition in our society are blowing strong and they're going to be blowing much more strongly in the not-too-distant future. Unless God grants repentance to this culture and this nation, that's what's coming our way.

Built Up in Christ, Established in the Faith, and Overflowing with Gratitude

Having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him. See, it's a continued process. You're rooted in Him. And if you're a true believer, He's not going to let go of you. I love the illustration that a pastor I had once used when he was talking about another text here in Colossians.

Colossians 3. For you have died and your life has been hidden with Christ in God. That rooting is done by God. God puts us in Christ. We don't put ourselves in Christ. But then there is a being built up in Him.

And one of the saddest things to see are believers who start off with a zeal. And then they sort of think they've arrived. And they become apathetic. And you think of that terminology that Jesus uses in speaking to the churches in Revelation.

He talks about those who are lukewarm. Not cold. They're sort of lukewarm. They keep doing what they're supposed to do. But they're satisfied with where they are. None of us should ever be satisfied with where we are in our spiritual lives.

If we become satisfied, that means we really have lost sight of the high calling that is ours. We've adopted a lesser calling. One that, well, I think I've gotten there. I think I do pretty good. No. Rooted.

Being built up in Him. And established in the faith. Established in the faith. Ignorant Christians find it difficult to dig down deep into the truths of God because they haven't valued those truths enough to plumb their depths.

To challenge themselves. To know. None of us. None of us. No matter what intellectual gifts God might give to us could ever plumb the depths of everything God has given to us in Scripture. We couldn't.

The more I study this Word, the more I am convinced that its greater beauty is found in the harmony of the themes that are found throughout the text of Scripture. It's not a surface-level, simplistic kind of harmony.

But it's found at a much deeper level that very few of us ever even touch upon. Established in the faith. Do you know the faith? Do you know why you believe what you believe? When we talk about things like the Trinity, which we had to talk about a good bit this weekend and talking about denials of it, it has been well said that most evangelicals in Western society are not really Trinitarians.

They're monotheists. They tend toward modalism. They tend toward a confusion of Father, Son, and Spirit. But in our more honest moments, would we not have to admit that we can go through our lives pretty easily without ever even giving thought to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?

Certainly as we pray, we consider who we're addressing and how we're addressing. And that comes up. But do we even see how the Gospel is Trinitarian? That it finds its origin in the Father? It's working out in its provision in the Son, its application in the Spirit?

Do we recognize how important all that is? Do we take time to ponder Jesus' words? He says in John chapter 14 that He and the Father would make their abode with us by the Spirit. How does that work? How does that function?

Or do we find our favorite TV programs more important than a contemplation of something such as the Trinity? Where's our heart? As we find ourselves daydreaming, if we even have time to do that these days, but if you find yourself daydreaming, what are you daydreaming about?

Where does your mind naturally go? Are you being built up in Him and established in your faith? If you're not being built up, you are being torn down. The world is not neutral to the Christian faith. When you leave this place, it's like acid rain.

It's constantly seeking to tear you down. If you're not being built up, you're going to be torn down. You know, I've been so thankful. I hope that I'm wrong in thinking that Shane's looking forward to tomorrow night greatly.

But, you know, I contacted both churches when I came out, and I said, is there anybody in the congregation that has a bike I could borrow? Is there any way I could do some riding? Why is that? Well, because you're an addict, that's why.

Well, maybe, in a sense. But I have some goals. This July, I want to ride in a race called the Triple Bypass. No, it's not for cardiac patients, though I happen to be one of them. It's called Triple Bypass because it goes from Evergreen to Avon, Colorado.

And there are three huge passes you have to go over to get between those two places. One of them is called Loveland Pass. I rode Loveland. Anybody ever been over Loveland Pass? A couple of you know what I'm talking about.

Ever driven over Loveland Pass, Shane? Two-lane road, no guardrails, and they won't let the fuel tankers go through the big, was that the George Washington Tunnel or something along... Eisenhower. I knew it was the president.

On the 70s. So the fuel tankers have to take Loveland Pass. And there I am on my bike. And it tops out at 11 ,990 feet above sea level. There'll be three of those we get to do in one day. 120 miles, 10 ,500 feet of climbing, you're never lower than 7 ,400 feet above sea level.

So I've got something I'm training for. And because that is so much there in my thinking, I'm really excited that I got to do 6 ,000 feet of climbing on Hilo. And yesterday afternoon, I got on that bike and I went up St. Louis over here.

Y 'all know St. Louis? Ever driven up there? There's one road. I don't remember what it is. But my computer tells me, and I'm sitting at the bottom of it going, Really? I'm afraid of heights. What am I doing?

24 grade up this thing. And I got to the top. And coming down, it's like, Whoa! But I've got a goal. I've got something I'm working to. That's why I go out there. I've got a goal in mind and that means I want to do these things.

I want to Hey, like I said on my blog, I was three heartbeats speed away from, Lord, I'm coming home. Going up that hill. I mean, I was just pushing myself all the way. Why did I do that? Because I have a goal.

As Christians, our goal is what? To glorify the Trinity. To glorify Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who has given us eternal life. Well then, what do I need to be doing each and every day to be moving toward that goal?

Because if I'm not moving toward that goal, I'm not going to get there. I mean, I sat at the bottom of that hill yesterday for a moment and looked at it and said, You know, there's probably another way up here.

Is there a way it goes like this a little bit, you know, instead of just going straight up like that? A lot of us are that way. Can I find an easier way? There often isn't an easier way. Being built up in Him, established in your faith, just as you were instructed, as you were taught.

It's vitally important to hear what God is teaching us. We need to learn so much. Do you desire not just to be able to say, Well, I know this and I know that, but do you desire to know more about the One who loved you and gave Himself for you?

How could we ever become satisfied with how much we know? And if we are, what does it tell us about ourselves? Just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. Now, I'm running out of time, so let me just very briefly touch on a few of these things.

Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving. We have lost this beautiful word. It's Eucharistia. It's been stolen from us by the perversion of it within Roman Catholicism. Turned into a representation of the sacrifice of the Mass.

The Eucharist. But Eucharistia is a beautiful word. It's Thanksgiving. And there should be one constant refrain upon the lips of any mature Christian, and that are words of thanksgiving for everything that God does for us because we have been given eyes to be able to see all that He does for us each and every day.

We have so many physical blessings that honestly, they normally get in the way of our being able to see our true spiritual blessings. A true, mature Christian overflows with gratitude. And then in four minutes, a word of warning.

Warning Against Philosophy, Empty Deception, and Human Tradition

See to it that no one takes you captive. No one puts you in chains by the means of the world. What do I mean by the means of the world? Well, through philosophy. Oh, the world and its wisdom. As Paul said to the Corinthians, it was God's will that the world not come to know Him by its own wisdom, but by the foolishness of preaching.

Philosophy and empty deception, it's all around us. If we are not preparing our young people before they go off to university, to be grounded firmly in the Word of God and to recognize the errors of man's thinking and man's thought, we will continue to lose the next generation.

We must be thinking about these things. We must be warning about these things. Not by saying, oh, we shouldn't study philosophy, but we need to recognize what the true roots and foundations of real God-honoring philosophy are.

And they're found in Jesus Christ. Think about the amazing statement that is made here. Warning against philosophy, warning against empty deception, warning against the traditions of men, the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.

We say to the world, our Savior is the standard of human wisdom. And you know what? If He really was who He claimed to be, if He truly was God incarnate, if He was at what verse 8 says, go back here, because in Him is dwelling all the fullness of deity and bodily form.

Do we really believe that? I know when the Jehovah's Witnesses are at the door, we don't mind defending the deity of Christ and arguing the deity of Christ. But do we really believe that the One who created all of this universe, this vast universe, the One who holds it all together, the One who has a purpose in all of it, do we really believe that He became flesh on this little pale blue dot, spinning around an insignificant star, in an insignificant galaxy?

It boggles our mind. We are actually saying that God entered into His own creation. But if He did, then would He not be the very standard, the very touchstone, the rule by which everything else must be judged?

So often we present Jesus, and we present Him as if He can be judged by us. No. We will be judged by Him. And the people of this world who think themselves so wise, their wisdom will be judged by the One who created them.

It is in Jesus Christ that all the fullness of deity, that term there, theatetos, means that which makes God God. And it dwells in Him in bodily form, and that's why He can be the perfect judge and the standard of all wisdom.

For all time, not just back in the days when, well, yeah, we know those folks, they were ancient men, they didn't really do it as smart as us. Oh, I think they were a lot smarter in many ways. They managed to get through life without an iPhone.

Most of us can't figure out the tip on our restaurant check without pulling our phones out, for crying out loud. They built the pyramids. I mean, really? We have such modern arrogance toward those of the past.

The reality is, it doesn't matter when, modern, medieval, however long the Lord tarries, the standard of truth, the standard of wisdom, the standard of knowledge will always be Jesus Christ, because He is God incarnate.

That's a radical claim we must own up to the radical nature of our faith. We must understand how it is that we can be rooted in this truth. We need to know what the truth is first to be rooted in it. So many believers today, they're quite simply embarrassed by how radical our message is.

My prayer for us today is that as we sing, as we pray, as the Spirit of God ministers to us, that we will be convicted and we will be convinced that we have bowed the knee to the true Lord, the one who died and rose again.

He demonstrated His power over life and death. And that as we go out this week to serve in His name and to be used by Him, not to make ourselves Lord of our own lives, but to look to His Lordship and seek to be used by Him, that we will do so with love in our hearts for Him, a true understanding of who He is, and as a result no embarrassment as we speak His truth to the world around us.

We know, we know how they will respond. What's more important to us? How the world will respond, the world that is suppressing the knowledge of God. What's more important to us? How our Lord looks upon our hearts and how we bring honor and glory to His name.

I think the answer to that is obvious. I pray that God by His Spirit would cause us all to truly be lights in this world, in this coming week. Let's pray together.