Walk In Him

Good morning Mission Hill church, my name is Collin and I am honored to be able to minister the word this morning. If you have been with us over the past few weeks you’ll know we have been going through the book of Colossians, and our pray as pastoral staff is that God would do a deep work in our hearts as we encounter Jesus in the book of Colossians. This morning, Paul is going to make a slight turn in his letter. Up until now Pastor Chase and Joel have shown us how Jesus is over everything. He’s over creation, rulers, authorities, our suffering, the message has been Jesus is Lord of all. But now Paul begins to address this question: now what? Since Jesus is Lord how should we live? If you’re able please stand for the reading of God’s word

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.

Several months ago we received the newest addition to our family. A bearded dragon named Kylo Ren. For months, my son had been asking for a pet. I grew up with pets, and like animals, but I wanted to start with something low maintenance, so when he mentioned a lizard I thought great. I grew up catching grass snakes, and lizards, these things only last a few months at best. Let’s do it. You can tell I did zero research. On the way to PetsMart I talked to Joel since they had a bearded dragon, and I found out these things can live up to 14 years! Not only that, but I have to buy a cage for this lizard. Then we get to the store and I find out that in order to keep Kylo alive, we have to buy crickets. Then I get home and discover, all our crickets are dying! We go back to the store and find out I have to get the crickets a cage, and I have to feed the crickets, in order to keep them alive so Kylo will live. So not only do I have one high maintenance pet, we now have two! I thought I could just buy the pet, get dad of the year and be done. Many times this is how we approach Christianity. I’ve said yes to Jesus, that’s all I need to do. I have my ticket to heaven, what else do I need to do? Paul says this to that way of thinking this morning: “as you have received Christ, you must still walk in Him!” You have to continue to walk in him.

Here is the main question we will tackle this morning: How do we remain faithful to Christ, while live in a culture that is not. How do we remain faithful to Christ while living in a culture that is not. Much like the Colossians we are living in a culture that is increasingly antogonistic towards Christianity and faith in general, we are being faced with cultural issues many of us have never faced before. And here are Paul’s instructions for the Colossians and for us this morning:

To remain faithful to Jesus we must continue to walk in these three truths: You belong to Christ, You are being built up by Christ, and you are made complete IN Christ.

You Belong To Christ

To remain faithful to Christ while living in a world that is not we must remember that we belong to Christ.

“received”

someone or something as authoritatively in your life

difference between IRS and advertisement

Christ Jesus the Lord

all of chapter 1 and puts in the title and name of Jesus.

When you came to Christ you did not just come to the Savior of your sins, but the Lord of your life.

You belong to someone else Colossians. You don’t belong to the culture around you, your past social groups, but now you must continue to walk under the Lordship of Christ.

What does this mean? It means Jesus is our Lord.

Doing what He says. Living our lives for what He wants us to do and not what we ultimately want to do.

Yet as a Western Christian, particularly American, I love my independence. We love our freedom don’t we. We don’t like people telling us what to do, when to do it, how to do something. We like being our own masters and being in control.

This is what people are telling us all the time. That true happiness is found not in being under authority, but by getting rid of anyone who keeps you from doing what makes you happy.

One author Alan Noble who writes the book “You Are Not You’re Own” says this:

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

Paul says here that faithfulness means we must continue to live out the truth that we belong to Jesus.

It’s fall right now(subscribtion, don’t want it to cost me anything,etc)

How many of us approach the Lordship of Christ that way. We want a free trial relationship with Jesus. We want something that won’t cost us anything. We want the benefits of the kingdom, but we do not want the King.

There are questions we must ask ourselves: do we believe that we belong to Christ? Does my life reflect the Lordship of Jesus? If other people look at my life would they see that I live differently because I belong to Jesus? Do we trust that since we belong to Christ, He knows how to care for us, lead us, and guide us?

Remember you don’t ultimately belong to a political party, a job, a social circle, a school, even our ethnic backgrounds, ultimately we belong to Christ.

Remembering this truth is one way we remain faithful to Christ while living in a culture that is not.

You Are Being Built Up By Christ

Here is the second point: to remain faithful to Christ while living in a culture that is not we must walk out this truth: “we are being built up by Christ”

“verse 7 read it”

There are a lot of words here: built up

something God does continually here, not something we do(we are involved yes!), but Paul is referring specifically to the work God will continue to do in your life.

The Colossians needed to be reminded that even in seasons where it was difficult God was still working and building in their lives. It may not look like it, but Paul makes it clear, whether we are in seasons that are fruitful and can see the work of God, or seasons that are dark and we can’t even sense God’s presence, since we belong to Him, He is faithful to continue to form us and work in us.

Last year at this time I was in a completely different country on the other side of the world and in a completely different state of mind. For over two years my family and I, Allison Hurley, had planted a church and by God’s grace it had gone very well. However I hit a wall. Complete burnout. I was stuck with an anxiety disorder. I was on the couch in the fetal position for days and couldn’t think, couldn’t eat, couldn’t even pray. My number one prayer was that God would just somehow let me function as husband and a dad again. I couldn’t see God working, I couldn’t sense His presence, I had so much fear and doubts. But one year later, not that I would ever want to experience that again, but I would never change that, because of this truth: God did something in my life and was faithfully building in me what I could never have done for myself. This is what Paul is referring to here church

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.

Notice how Paul says we are being built up: “established in the faith”. God’s truth. The truth of the Gospel, God build you up by His Word.

John 17:17 ESV

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

Truth matters. And the Colossians church had been hit by a flurry of attacks from the enemy. There were people who were preaching false ideas about who Jesus was. They were preaching and wanting them to believe that they had the secret to life and not Jesus. Paul says, Colossians, in these moments, it is not the time to doubt who God is, he tells them to “go back to the truth they were taught”. Go back and believe what you know to be true about who God is.

My wife and I are very different. And thank God. I am an extrovert, optimist, jump all in kind of person. She is more introverted, she would say she is a “Realist”, not pessimist but a “realist”, and thankfully more calculated in her decision. There have been many times in our marriage where we would meet a new family and I would tell Allison, “oh they are going to be our best friends, I’ve literally said “we are gonna vacation together”. Allison would be much more hesitant, and in those moments I question her character! “What do you not like these people?” “What’s wrong? don’t you want to have friends???” But my wife is usually right. Not that there is anything wrong with these people, but usually because of life stage, or something else, and sometimes just because my wife is discerning, she is right. But I question her character because of my understanding and my circumstance. How many times are we guilty of this before the Lord? We question His character because of our circumstances. Paul says here, what the best thing to do is go back to the truth of who we know God to be, go back and believe the truth of His word and walk in that. The truth that God in every season is faithful to build you up, in His truth.

This truth is important, because look at Paul’s warning here. This is where Paul is going to remind us that we are living in a culture that is not faithful to Jesus. He warns the Colossians:

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.

“no one”. Doesn’t matter who it is, what they sound like, how nice they look, how much money they offer you, what kind of promises they make, do not let them take you captive by empty philosophy.

This word “captive” means to be taken away like the spoils of war. This a serious warning! And we must remember church, please let’s pay close attention here, Paul is talking to the church. A church who in chapter 1 is identified as being a fruitful gospel driven church, a church in chapter 2 who Paul praises for their firmness in the faith, and if he has to warn that kind of church, then we also should be aware that there is a real danger here for us as well.

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: