Are you Spoiled?

Introduction

Tonight we’re going to ask the question… Are you Spoiled?

(Ill.) Question: What is the first thing that you think of when you hear the word ‘Spoiled’?

I think of two things: Children & Milk.

Children: Whiny, malcontent, aggravating & in need of a good whooping

Milk: Sour, Stinky, not fit for use (consumption).

Today I’m going to ask you are you Spoiled? In other words, are you whiny, malcontent aggravating, sour, stinky not fit for use & in need of a good whooping!

In actuality, the word ‘spoil’ has a few different usages.

Spoil (def) To plunder, strip by violence to rob

Spoil (def2) To corrupt, to cause to decay & perish.

Spoil (def3) To ruin or destroy

Spoil (def4) To render useless by injury

So when we’re talking about being ‘Spoiled’, in actuality, we’re talking about:

Being plundered, corrupted, ruined & rendered useless.

God doesn’t want us to be spoiled. He desires for us to be healthy & fruitful. But being spoiled is a danger that we all face. This church at Colosse was a good church, but Paul wanted to warn them of the possibility that they could be spoiled. (Note: the inference is that is something is spoiled, then it must have been good at one time.)

First we’ll examine ‘How to be Spoiled’ - how does this happen.

I. How to Be Spoiled

How do you spoil a child? By giving them what they want.

Through Philosophy

Philosophy (historical def) the love of wisdom

Historically, philosophy is not necessarily a bad thing. It’s not bad to love wisdom - to be able to hear, understand and articulate a things is not bad. The only time to which that type philosophy is bad is if that love of understanding and base knowledge lifts us up w/ pride and we instead of love knowledge, we love & covet for others to see us as wise or knowledgeable.

The philosophy that Paul is eluding to is a little different. It’s not so much the love of wisdom, but rather man-centric beliefs:

Philosophy (practical def) Hypothesis or systemic beliefs; or Reasoning; argumentation

Philosophy therefore in this sense can be any form of systemic beliefs or reasoning of mankind. Let me demonstrate:

(Ill.) Scientology is a set of beliefs. From the Scientology website:

Developed by L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology is a religion that offers a precise path leading to a complete and certain understanding of one’s true spiritual nature and one’s relationship to self, family, groups, Mankind, all life forms, the material universe, the spiritual universe and the Supreme Being.

Scientology addresses the spirit—not the body or mind—and believes that Man is far more than a product of his environment, or his genes.

Scientology comprises a body of knowledge which extends from certain fundamental truths. Prime among these are:

Man is an immortal spiritual being.

His experience extends well beyond a single lifetime.

His capabilities are unlimited, even if not presently realized.

Scientology further holds Man to be basically good, and that his spiritual salvation depends upon himself, his fellows and his attainment of brotherhood with the universe.

Scientology is not a dogmatic religion in which one is asked to accept anything on faith alone. On the contrary, one discovers for oneself that the principles of Scientology are true by applying its principles and observing or experiencing the results.

The ultimate goal of Scientology is true spiritual enlightenment and freedom for all.

Scientologist have a set of beliefs. They hold to a hypothesis & have reasoning for it (as ignorant as it is)

How Christians are spoiled by Philosophy:

The Bible says: Lev. 20:13 “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.”

Btw, God didn’t change His mind in the NT: Rom. 1:27 “And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.”

But more and more Christians instead of taking the Bible to mean what it says, take a different approach and come up with their own philosophy (set of beliefs) concerning the subject. It goes something like this:

God is the creator of everything, right? (Gen. 1)

God loves everybody right? (Joh. 3:16)

Well, if God created everyone and God loves everyone then God must have created them gay and God loves them that way, so shouldn’t we too? I mean who are we to judge? (Mat. 7:1)

A man-centric philosophy is when we take what is clear in Scripture and then we try to take other Scripture to work around and come to a different conclusion on a matter that God has already given a conclusion for.

We see man’s philosophy working in many denominational beliefs:

Some philosophize that there is no Hell, though Jesus Himself testified of it in Luk. 16.

Some philosophize that women are qualified to be preachers & pastors, though the Bible is clear that they cannot: 1Tim. 2:12 “But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.”

Some philosophize that we must earn salvation, though the Bible is clear that it’s by Grace: Eph. 2:8-9 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

Some philosophize that God understands & is ok with you being slack in your church attendance - though the Scripture demands otherwise in Heb. 10.

We see this mindset in many - and it spoils them!

Have you been spoiled by Philosophy?

Vain Deceit

Some are spoiled by Vain Deceit - but what is meant by that. Let’s break it down.

Vain (def) empty; worthless; having no value or substance and conceit. Elated with high opinion of one’s own accomplishments

Vain is vanity. It’s being nothing but thinks they’re something

Deceit (def) delusion; the misleading of a person

So when you put them together, you have ‘empty w/o value but deceived into thinking they are something’.

There was a man who was in the right state in heart & life with God but was spoiled by vain deceit.

(Read Ecc. 2:4-11)

Solomon allowed himself to become puffed up. He sat God on a shelf and lived his life as though he knew best. Then when it was all said and done, He said ‘It’s all vanity’.

Solomon was the wisest man upon the earth save Jesus, yet he was spoiled with Vain Deceit. The best person to direct your life is not you - it’s the LORD. And you can sit God on a shelf and ignore His wisdom, but you do so at your own peril. If you do, when your life is said & done you’ll look back at your spoiled life and say ‘It was all vanity!’

Have you been spoiled by Vain Deceit?

By Tradition

Make no mistake - Tradition can spoil you.

Tradition is not bad if it’s not important. But if tradition morphs into doctrine you’ve got problems, and you’re likely to be spoiled.

This was a great problem with the Pharisees - the religious men who were far from God.

Read Jesus’ interaction in Mar. 7:1-13.

People get spoiled over the silliest things!

I had people leave the church because of tradition. (Treasurer ill - w/out being specific)

I’ve had people ticked off at me (Ms. Dorothy for one - ‘You came changing things’)

‘We’ve always done it this way’ is not sufficient reason to keep doing it that way...

If you’re not careful, tradition will spoil you.

By the Ways of the World

Rudiment (def) the order; that which is taught

The rudiments of the world is the ways, order of the world or by which way the world teaches.

There’s a lot of good people with good intentions that are being spoiled by the Rudiments of the world.

We see this much in the Contemporary Church movement.

As we look at the ways of the Contemporary Church we see that they are willing to take elements of the world in order to attract people.

In their Music

They take the instrumentation, the manipulation thereof (distortion, etc) the same beats, the same melodies the same vocal stylings as pop culture does.

The Bible rebukes that mindset: 1Jo. 2:15-17 “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”

But not only in their music, but in their message

In their Message

The message is watered down as to make it palatable in both to speak & to receive. They often steer clear from taking a stand due to societal pressures of the world.

In their Coveting's

They seek the same dress, desire to be seen as ‘hip & cool’.

All the while ignorant that they are being spoiled by the Rudiments of the World!

Church all these things will spoil you. They’ll make you stink. They’ll corrupt. They’ll make you worthless.

How to be Spoiled. Next we’ll look at How to Stay Sweet

II. How to Stay Sweet

Many of you probably wonder ‘Pastor, how do you stay so sweet’, well, here’s how.

A Cautious Reminder (v6)

Paul is reminding the church of something before the instruction begins. He says ‘As ye have therefore received...’ Paul was saying ‘Hey, you placed your faith in Jesus, that’s great - but now you’re expected to walk in Him as well’.

Consider for a minute what Jesus did so you could be saved!

He left the glory of Heaven

He suffered broken fellowship with His Father

He endured rejection by those He came to save, humiliation at the hands of his enemies, suffering at the whipping post, suffocation on the Cross - and He did that so we could be saved.

And salvation is so easy! We simply receive gift by placing faith in the Giver.

But now Paul is giving what would be an initial ‘call-to-action’ ‘As ye have therefore recieved… ‘ SO WALK YE IN HIM.

Church, for someone who did so much for us willingly, we morally & Spiritually are OBLIGATED to ‘walk in Him’. How awful it is to receive so great a gift just to trample it underfoot!

We see a Cautious Reminder

A Consistency in Christ (v7a)

‘Being Rooted in Him’ means to be planted in Him.

When something is ‘planted’, that means that they are covered and immersed in a thing. (Ill.) When you plant a seed, you take the seed maybe dig a little hole, place the seed therein and cover it up.

To be planted / Rooted in Christ would be to immerse ourselves in Him. Be completely covered and surrounded by Him.

Jesus can’t just be something in our lives, He must be everything.

He must be before our face in all manner of conversation.

He should be consulted with every decision.

He must be considered in every action of our hands and subject of our eyes.

His Will must be covering our own.

(Ill.) Church let me ask you this: If I take a seed and plant it in the ground today. In a few days, it might begin to sprout. Let’s say that after a few days I take it back out of the dirt and sit it on my porch. Then a few days later, I put it back in the dirt. Then (and so on it goes…). Let me ask you this: How’s the seed going to fare? (Not good!)

In like manner, we Christians need to understand that we need to have consistency in Christ. We need to be ROOTED in Him, not in one day & out the other!

Not only Rooted, but ‘Built up’ as well.

Continual Growth in Christ (v7b)

We not only need to stay Rooted in the foundation, but allow Christ to build us up as well.

Church, there’s not a one of us that doesn’t have room to grow! We need to be growing in Christ!

So how do we grow?

We Pray

This grows our Fellowship with Him

We Study

This grows our Understanding of Him, His Ways & Desires

We Witness

This grows our Desires like unto His

We Fellowship

This grows our Love for man like unto His

We all have room to grow in image of Christ. If we’re continually growing, then we’re not losing ground - for either we’re going forward or sliding back! No one stays stagnant.

Continual Growth in Christ

Carefully Abounding in His Teachings (v7c)

Satan will try to pull you away

This world will try to pull you away

Your flesh will try to pull you away

We just need to abound in His teachings

Abounding (def) super-abound; be in excess; excel

The idea is that we’re not there with one foot in and another out - but that we’re fully committed in this cause that He’s spoken of.

Carefully Abounding in His Teachings

Conclusion