Sunday Morning

Privilege to be to be with you. And yes I did manage to dodge the 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 that's okay. If that happens we'll we'll live. Actually tomorrow I'm supposed to be trying to hold the wheel of 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 remained nameless asked me to crush him but I'm really not very 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 we'll see.

It has been great to be here. It is of course beautiful. I've the only time I had been to Hawaii was 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 had a great time and looking forward to this evening as well. And of course my wife has to go home this evening and so she's not gonna be able to. I was noticing she was playing with someone's baby back there earlier.

You got to understand we're empty nesters now and I perform my daughter's wedding ceremony back in July and so my son's 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 I'm not sure how those fit together.

Well but that's 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 does pass us by and what we do at that time of course is the most important thing on the screen I have provided you with the text will be looking at will 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 in the 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.

The Lordship of Christ in Everyday Life

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. Now these words were penned long long ago. They were penned to a church that the Apostle Paul himself had not founded had been founded by those who in the 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 up river 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 Colossi. And Paul had spent quite some time in Ephesus building that church making sure is 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 seeing in essence his grandchildren churches. He's 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 it 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 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 these days were coming. He told the Ephesian elders after I leave ravenous wolves will rise from among your own number not sparing the flock. He knew that there is gonna be division within the church and he knew there's gonna 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 piece 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 on their chin. I can't really say much about here but on on their chin change was not the norm. If there was change at least it took place slowly.

You can sort of see it coming you can discuss it you can 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 is right. Well now they go along with that and their message is always a changing message.

I 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 who are firmly rooted in nothing at all feet firmly planted in midair. 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 they're gonna be many people who might come in and they hear what you you're saying. They hear the 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 in 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 to 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 with it work through it with you and once again consider what it says as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord and just stop right there 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 kudios as your Lord the Messiah Jesus.

Now everyone here I'm sure unless you have not yet bowed the knee in repentance and faith 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 is Lordship mean. For many today given the way that they were introduced to the faith Jesus is sort of a help a self-help methodology the the Jenny Craig of spiritual things.

Why don't you start attack Jesus on try Jesus for a while. That's not what it means to receive Christ Jesus as kudios 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. You know we got rid of our in the in the mainland anyways we got rid of our our king a long time ago. We don't 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 while the greatest terms that can be used of a Christian is a doulas a slave yeah some of our modern translations say servant it certainly refers to one who serves.

But in reality it's a slave. Ah 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 in 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 know. That's wrong.

Certainly they don't want to say that out loud. Right. Right now we're still in the stage where they they've paid off enough people that you have false teachers. Not just in the sense of of liberal denominations but especially false teachers and seminaries in places like that where they can actually make the argument what.

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 and family and morality and sexuality and and the role 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're 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 we have that I don't know. I used to think this would be something my children my grandchildren be dealing with. No it's going to be in my lifetime. It could be in my life. 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 that you know. Back then you pretty much walked everywhere. I mean rich but rich people might have a you know slaves to carry them around or a chariot or a horse or something like that.

But to walk was just simply to to be engaged in the 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. Their 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 and 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 la ilaha illallah wa muhammadan rasoolallah the shahada of Islam. And the door would open. But they will not open 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 we start seeing the looks of others around us. Or we first and foremost concern 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.

It's I mean it's 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 walked out. I just walked out 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 is for some reason you know she didn't really want to do that.

And I'm looking at the trees and they are bending and they're moving. And you know 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 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 they weren't firmly rooted. I remember on the on the route that Kelly and I ride along the Arizona Canal after the last big storm last year here this big tree and it just it was.

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 it's it's all over there. You 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 you 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 have come your way.

They're going to test your rootage. They're going to test how deeply you have fed upon the Word of God. 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 it's it's really 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 the church and and focusing upon the ministry of the Word and asking in-depth questions. And 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 her medically 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 in this nation.

That's what's coming our way 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 gonna 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 3.

For you have died in 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 our 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 life. 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 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 it's 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 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.

I mean 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 the Son its application the Spirit.

Do we recognize how important all that is. Do we do we take time to ponder Jesus's words. We says in John chapter 14 that that 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. Where's 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 going to be torn down. You know I've I've been so thankful.

I hope that I hope that I'm wrong and thinking that Shane's looking forward to tomorrow night greatly. But you know I contacted both churches when I came out and I says anyway that I could. Anybody in the congregation has a bike I can borrow anyway.

I could do some riding. Why is that. Because you're an addict. That's why. Well maybe in a sense. But I have some goals this July. I want to ride 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. Yeah 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 is the president on the 70s.

So the the fuel tankers have to take Loveland Pass and there I am on my bike and it tops out eleven thousand nine hundred ninety feet above sea level. There'll be three of those we get to do in one day 120 miles ten thousand five hundred feet of climbing.

You never lower than seven thousand four hundred 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 six thousand 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 but I've got a goal. I've got something I'm working to. That's why I'm 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 I'm not moving toward that goal I'm not gonna get there. I mean I sat the bottom that hill yesterday for a moment looked at and said you know there's probably another way up here. Is there is there 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 establishing 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 Eucharist. Yeah 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 Eucharist is a beautiful word. Is Thanksgiving. And there should be one constant refrain upon the 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 see to it that no one takes you captive no one puts you in chains.

By the means the world. What do I mean by the means the world. Well through philosophy all the world and its wisdom. As Paul said of 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 as philosophy. Warned against empty deception warn against the traditions of men the elementary principles of 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. 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 means that which makes God God 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 say you know they were ancient man. They didn't really really smart as us.

I think they're 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 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 know he need to know what the truth is first to be rooted in it.

And 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.