Perseverance in Christ

INTRO

Colossians 2:6–10 ESV

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. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.

Kylo story, really tease it out, calling Joel, got to get a second job to take care of my crickets. We have Kylo, now what. I have to keep this hting alive. Colossian church, Jesus is lord, now what? How do I keep my faith alive? How do I grow? Here is the main idea we are going to tackle:

Main Idea: How do we continue to remain faithful to Jesus while living in a culture that is not?

Paul says this: by walking out these three truths: You belong to Christ, You are being built up by Christ, You are made complete IN Christ.

You Belong to Christ

We remain faithful Christ by walking out the truth that we belong to Him.

Continuing to walk His Lordship

In verse 6 Paul says that as the Colossian church had “received Christ Jesus the Lord” so walk in Him.

The word received means receiving something as being authoritative in your life.

It’s the difference between receiving a letter from the IRS in the mail and an advertisement from Fudruckers. One you can throw away, but the other, even though you might want to throw it away, it hold authority in your life.

Paul continues to make this first point clear, look at the titles he uses for Jesus.

Christ Jesus the Lord

This is like Paul is summarizing all of chapter 1 in these three titles for Jesus. Paul is reminding the Colossian church that when they came to Christ, they did not just come to Him as a Savior for their sins, but as Lord over the lives.

What does this mean to continue to walk in the Lordship of Christ

Simply it means we are ready to obey Jesus. Do what He says. doing what He says.

Doing what Jesus wants us to do, not doing what we want to do. Example of Jesus in wedding at Cana( do what He says). Not that God exists to serve us but that we exist to serve Him. Remember that Jesus wants our obedience not because He needs it. Everything is already submitted to Him, He says obey me so that your joy may be full. He’s after our joy.

John 15:10–11 ESV

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

Yet when it comes to the Lordship of Christ, if I’m honest, as a western particularly American, I have been conditioned by my culture, by upbringing, to value and guard my independence. Right, we love our freedom. Rightly so. We don’t like someone telling us what to do, when to do it, where to do it, how to do it. I love the idea of being in control of my life, but Paul says if we want to persevere and remain faithful to Christ, we must die to that, die to our desire to control our lives, and walk in joyful submission to Jesus’ Lordship.

“This is the fundamental lie of modernity: that we are our own.” Alan Noble

Right now it’s Fall, and I really enjoy fall, not because the weather, but because of the sports. Confession, I am not an NFL fan, only because growing up in Oklahoma we did not have an NFL team, so I grew up watching America’s Team: the Dallas Cowboys. We did have college football, and it’s college football season. Also in a couple of months the World Cup is coming, so I’m really pumped for this season. However, we don’t have cable. So full confession here, I am one of those people who will try and use and create all different emails in order to get as many free trials as I can. I don’t want to pay 50 to 60 bucks if I don’t have to. I’d rather not fully commit, I’ll just try to do the free trial thing as long as I can. I wonder if that’s how many of us treat the Lordship of Christ. We just want a free trial, we want to enjoy the benefits of the kingdom, but not fully submitting to the King.

We have to subscribe. WE have to go all in. Ways we don’t do this? Application

Questions we have to ask ourselves: do we believe that we belong to Jesus? That we are not our own? Does my life reflect the Lordship of Jesus?

Being Built Up By Christ

We belong to Christ, but we are also being continually built up by Christ.

Colossians 2:7 ESV

rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

Paul says that God is building you up. That word means a continual process that God does in the life of every believer. Paul isn’t referring to something you do here, but rather what God is doing in you. Because you belong to Him, He continues to build upon the foundation of your life. Even in seasons that are difficult that are hard, God never stops forming and building you,

Ephesians 2:10 ESV

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

How does God continue to build us? “in the faith”. In truth. Truth is important.

The Colossian church was a young growing church. It began to influence in the communities around them. But, Satan, like he always does, began to attack this young and growing church by opposing and false views of Christ. Satan always will attack where God is moving, we should not be surprised. And so the Colossian church, young and vibrant as they are, begin to be confused and are tempted to fall for a lie about who Jesus is.

Paul speaking into this context reminds the Colossian church, moments of temptation or when they are feeling confused is not the time to begin to doubt about who Jesus is. The way forward is not “questioning God’s character”, but by walking in conviction of what they know to be true.

Look here: Paul says Go back Colossians to what you were taught. As Joel said last week, the mystery has already been revealed, the secret is out, God has revealed Himself through Jesus. Instead of wading through confusion, go back and walk in conviction of the truth you already know to be true.

This word “established” means to have conviction.

G.K. Chesterton said that “a man was meant to be doubtful about himself but undoubting about the truth. This has been exactly reversed.”

We are living in a time where we are seeing Christians deconstruct their faith.

When Allison and I experience rough seasons in marriage the worst thing I can do is to begin doubting her character. That takes us no where. The best thing for me to do, is to go back to our covenant, the reasons why I know I married her, what is true about her. For many of us we have had some very difficult years. As I’ve sat with many of you and listened it’s been rough. And it’s natural for us as humans in seasons of confusion or temptation to question God’s character because of our circumstance. But Paul says that is not the way forward. We can ask questions like “why” “how long’ “bring our doubts before Him” “use the language of the Psalms”, but what will take us through these seasons is going back, and living our lives based upon what we know to be true of God’s character, seen most clearly in the person and work of Jesus.

Even though we are being built up by God, Paul says we still have to be watchful here.

Paul makes a warning:

Colossians 2:8 ESV

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

See to it that “no one” doesn’t matter who comes at you, don’t let anybody deceive you. Paul says this in Galatians 1:8

Galatians 1:8 ESV

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

This word captive uses the imagery of something being the spoils of war. Paul says that truth is important because there is a real danger of you and me being carried away and held captive by these empty and vain philosophies. In our growth as Christians we need to be aware of ideas that will hold us captive.

One of our favorite things to do in Taiwan was go to the beach. We want every chance we could. Allison and I love the beach, and I think our kids could be part fish. We would go when the beach opened up and we would stay until it closed down. One day we went to a surfing beach with some of our friends. As I was sitting there on the beach talking to a friend next to me, I saw Hudson take a boogie board out, which was normal. I’m not a surfer but my buddy is. All of the sudden I saw him get a look of concern on his face and told me that Hudson was being taken out and drifting further. I immediately ran into the water and began to swim out to him, which if you know anything about surfing, is a horrible idea. Halfway there, I realized I’m not going to be able to make it to him, and I don’t know if I’m going to be able to make it back, the current was so strong. Thankfully our friend paddled out on her surfboard got hudson and also got me and took us back to shore. I won’t repeat what I said to Hudson, but I will share what my friend told me. I had no idea that you could identify a riptide but how the water looks. He explained to me that when you look at the ocean you can tell by what’s happening on top if there is a strong undercurrent that is dangerous. From that moment on, I was vigilant at making sure when were at the ocean I looked for those riptides and made sure that my kids weren’t swimming anywhere near them.

I tell you this story because what Paul is saying here is that there are dangerous and deceitful undercurrents in our culture that are dangerous, deadly, and have the ability to draw us away from Christ.

Now in the Roman Empire philosophers were a dime a dozen, they would be on the street corner, in the marketplace, in the halls, they would be preaching their “secret to life” their “truth of enlightenment”. Now we don’t see people doing this today do we? We don’t have philosophers going on the street corners and preaching, instead we are bombarded continually by these empty and vain philosophies by our social media, new, and entertainment. We are being preached at all the time.

Paul tells us how to identify them: make much of man, and belittle Christ. “rooted in human wisdom” and they are “against Christ”.

Carl Trueman in his book Strange New World defines this cultural lie as this:

“There is a focus on the inwardness, the inner psychological life as being decisive for who we think we are.” Basically that true happiness is found in being your authentic true self and living out your truth. This is the message of our culture.

A questions we have to ask ourselves is: are we playing in dangerous water? Are we dipping our toes into these dangerous riptides? Are we believing things that put us at the center of our world, and and not Christ? Are we buying into lies that tell us that true happiness is not found in living in Christ’s truth, but by living your own truth?

The end of the road for those lies, is emptiness and vanity.(example if helpful)

Paul says we don’t need those empty philosophies because, instead of looking inside for meaning, or thinking we will only be complete if we are our authentic selves. He says to the Christian, you’ve been made complete in Christ.

MADE COMPLETE IN CHRIST

Colossians 2:9–10 ESV

For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.

Paul is reminding the Colossian church that Jesus is not some lesser god, He is not just a moral teacher, not just a healer, but He is God incarnate, the fullness of God dwells bodily in Jesus. God has made Himself known to us in the person of Jesus.

That would be amazing enough, that God comes to us. But it’s not just that God has come to us, but in Christ, we have come to partake in His divine nature. Made us complete in Him.

This word “you have been filled in Him” means to be made complete. Colossian church, if you have you Christ, you have everything. Jesus is not a insufficient Savior, He is not a Lord who lacks, you have been made complete in Him.

This is so important church because there will be people who come to you and say “you’re life isn’t complete until you have child” “Your life isn’t complete until you find a spouse” “your life isn’t complete until you have the perfect body” You’re not complete until you are the perfect parent” “you’re life isn’t complete until you have done something significant in your life”, Paul outright rejects that with this claim: if you and I died right now, if we had nothing else in this life, and yet we still had Christ, Paul says, you have been made complete.

Are you still searching? Are you still looking for your fullness outside of Christ?

“For those united to him, the heart of Jesus is not a rental; it is your new permanent residence. You are not a tenant; you are a child. His heart is not a ticking time bomb; his heart is the green pastures and still waters of endless reassurances of his presence and comfort, whatever our present spiritual accomplishments. It is who he is.” Dane Ortlund

How do we walk in this truth? (quote from gentle and lowly)

some of us don’t feel like we’ve been made complete in Christ. The last thing we would use to describe our relationship with Jesus is “complete” but Paul says here that our completeness in Christ is not dependent upon our feelings, it rests on what Christ has done for us:

He’s done two things for you:

Made alive

You’ve been forgiven

the very things that should cancel us, Jesus cancels for us on the cross.

Story of the pilots: flying by the gauges, these markers. Here are your markers: Jesus is Your Lord, He is the truth, and He is YOUR fullness.

Apply these to each person: