Established in our Lord

Introduction

Good morning. If you have your Bible, please open it up to Colossians chapter 2, we’ll be in verses 6 and 7 today.

You know, in the last year, I’ve noticed of a bunch of people move homes. It’s exciting, but also very stressful.

And the process of buying a house is hard. Not only do you have the financial responsibilities, the realtor, and the paperwork to deal with, you also have the task of picking a good house that doesn’t have too many problems.

The inspector will sometimes come in and give you a laundry list of things to fix, and you just kind of hope those things won’t end up being major problems in the future. Maybe that’s abnormal, but that’s kind of how I live my life - duct taping it together and hoping for the best.

At our first house Emily and I bought, there was certainly a laundry list, but we took it on as a project. Nothing was egregiously wrong. As they say, it had good bones.

So, one day we decided to completely remodel the bathroom. Don’t worry babe, I said, I can handle it. Although I don’t know how to plumb, tile, grout, install a tub, or drywall, I’m really good at YouTube.

So, we rip out the tub, take out the tile, and the last part of the demo is one part of the wall that needed the drywall replaced. So, I hit the wall with my sledge hammer, and I start to hear buzzing. Weird, but I kept going.

Second hit, I start to see something fly out of the wall. I rip off part of the drywall, and as it turns out, a hive of bees had taken up residence in the wall on the insulation. NOT what I ever expected.

So for the next hour or so, I’m standing behind a cracked door coating the entire bathroom in wasp and bee killer, and the project ended up taking WAY more time than we expected. There were a bunch of other problems in that bathroom, and the entire house, that I just on’t have time this morning to list.

It turns out, as we started removing the construction materials that covered the structure of the house, it was obvious there was a ton of work to do.

As we lifted the facade, we uncovered imperfections, mistakes, and things that weren’t supposed to be there. The foundation of the house just wasn’t quite up to par.

In our passage this morning, Colossians 2:6-7, with the underlying conclusion Paul makes about Jesus being Lord, the church is exhorted to continue building our lives around Jesus. He wants our foundation to be solid, and our faith to be actively pursuing the Lord.

So, as a church, let’s read the anchor passage of Colossians together for our current series as a benediction and proclamation to the lordship of Jesus. Please stand if you are able for the reading of God’s word.

Colossians 1:15–20 CSB

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and by him all things hold together. 18 He is also the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile everything to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Thank you, you may be seated.

Sermon Body

Now, that section of Scripture is essential to our passage today, which again is Colossians 2:6-7. Let me read that for you.

Colossians 2:6–7 CSB

6 So then, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in him, 7 being rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing with gratitude.

So, the first thing we encounter as we read the passage is Paul’s underlying assumption that the recipients have “received Christ”.

You Received Christ Jesus as Lord

In order for Paul to continue his argument for the lordship of Jesus, and the actual implications to the believers in Colosse, Paul has to sort of draw this line in the sand. He’s essentially saying that the rest of this letter really won’t make sense if you haven’t accepted Jesus as Lord.

Now, I know receiving Jesus is a common Christian catchphrase. Oftentimes, our first question to someone asking questions about faith is “have you accepted Jesus into your heart?”

And I get the heart behind that question, I really do. But to me, that question opens up other questions. What does that mean? How do I accept Jesus into my heart? Is it an emotional thing? Intellectual? What does that mean in my day to day life?

Well, let’s run it back to the time of Jesus.

John 1:10–12 CSB

10 He was in the world, and the world was created through him, and yet the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name,

So, two things we really need to pinpoint here. First is the created world didn’t recognize Jesus.

Jesus, who is the creator of literally everything, stood in His creation as a man, and was unrecognizable. That’s a testament to the fallen world - creation is so corrupted that it’s Creator was foreign.

Two, getting more specific, Jesus’ own people (Israel) didn’t receive Him. This group of Jews, doing their best to be pious and religious, rejected Jesus as the Messiah.

When you come into your own house, you expect to be recognized and greeted by your family, even the dog comes to the door. Imagine the feeling of coming home after a long day, to the house you built and to the family you’ve supported and raised, and suddenly none of them even know who you are, and then they kill you. That’s what happened to Jesus.

But the story doesn’t end there, because we see that some did receive Jesus. And to those people, God gave them the right to be children. To be family. What a beautiful and undeserved end to the story.

They didn’t earn it, they didn’t manage to follow every single law, they weren’t good enough. They simply received the Word, the incarnated Lord, Jesus Christ.

Now, Jesus Himself says in the gospel of Matthew:

Matthew 7:8 CSB

8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

This lines up with John’s vision in Revelation where Jesus again says:

Revelation 3:20 CSB

20 See! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

Jesus is waiting, patiently, for you to knock. There is no exclusivity, anyone and everyone who asks Jesus for salvation will be saved.

However, receiving Jesus is action. And Paul specifies further in our passage today in Colossians that he’s assuming Jesus was received as LORD.

See, a huge problem in the church of Colosse was something called polytheism. Many new Christians still worshipped several gods, especially Greek gods. They had their pantheon. A god for fertility, a god for rain, a god for your home.

And Jesus was simply added to that pantheon in their mind. They accepted Jesus as a god, and even worshipped Him. But Paul’s language in Colossians leaves no room for other gods.

Jesus is Lord. Not a lord. Not a god. He is God almighty.

So before we get any further in our study today, I need to challenge you with this.

Have you received Jesus as Lord? Or, have you added Jesus to your pantheon?

Don’t get me wrong, I assume no one in this room still prays to Aphrodite or Zeus, or make sacrifices to random deities.

But, have you received Jesus Christ as a lord, and put Him on the shelf next to your other gods and idols?

I read a shocking statistic that Americans currently have a total of $23 billion in unspent gift cards, which is around $187 per person. I can relate, generally when I receive a gift card, I store it away for a special occasion. Mostly, I just want to go out to eat without a child dumping salsa on me, so I wait to get a babysitter. But, I get the gift card, and I throw it in a drawer for a convenient time later.

I’m wondering if that’s how we view Jesus at Valley Church. He’s on the shelf next to our other idols to be taken down when needed. He gets thrown in a drawer and taken out when convenient. Out of sight, out of mind.

What I want you to do this morning is really evaluate whether or not you’ve received Jesus, actively. I’m not talking about a feel good emotion of starting something new. I’m talking about removing everything else in your life that competes with Jesus.

Don’t assume just because you’re here that you have received Christ. There are FAR too many people in the American church that continually show up week after week, after week thinking they’ve bought into all this Jesus stuff, yet they’ve never actually been confronted with their own sin. They’ve never actually repented. They haven’t given their entire being to Christ.

I think A.W. Tozer sums it up extremely well in his book “The Pursuit of God”:

Christ may be “received” without creating any special love for Him in the soul of the receiver. The man is “saved”, but he is not hungry nor thirsty after God. In fact, he is specifically taught to be satisfied and encouraged to be content with little.

Now, please understand, I don’t say all this to scare you, or to make anyone feel bad. I say it because it’s the reality of our Americanized, consumeristic shift in the church as a whole.

We need to be aware of this problem, and restate it, and stop assuming people are okay. As the prophet Samuel essentially sums up the sins of Israel in the same way, we forget about the Lord.

So, if you haven’t received Jesus as Lord, ask seek and knock, because He’s there to receive you.

If you have received Jesus, make sure he’s not just a statue in your pantheon that you use when convenient.

Along with receiving Christ, the next step is continuing to walk in Him.

Continue to Walk in Him

Again, Paul makes an underlying assumption that the church members are already walking in Christ, and he wants them to continue doing so.

But, this is still a curious statement. Continue to walk in Jesus.

Usually we talk about walking WITH someone. Or, we have the sign on the wall that says “there was only one set of footprints, and I thought I was walking alone, but He was carrying me”. No judgement if you actually have that sign, by the way.

Continuing to walk in Christ has an implicit association with the concept of loyalty. Let’s bring up two Old Testament passages that use this language.

First:

Joshua 22:5 CSB

5 Only carefully obey the command and instruction that Moses the Lord’s servant gave you: to love the Lord your God, walk in all his ways, keep his commands, be loyal to him, and serve him with all your heart and all your soul.”

So, as Joshua sends these soldiers away to their homes after being completley loyal to God and the Israelites, Joshua reminds them that they need to continue in God’s commands. They could easily go home, put their gods and false idols back up, and forget about God in the spoils of victory. It was clearly a choice.

To counter that, the writer of Psalm 1 writes about walking in the world:

Psalm 1:1 CSB

1 How happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked or stand in the pathway with sinners or sit in the company of mockers!

So, there are two options as you continue on the path we call life. 1-you walk in the way of the wicked, of the world, and of the people you know aren’t God.

2-You walk in the way of Christ.

There is no in between, even complacency is taking a step in the wrong direction.

Walking in Jesus takes grit and it takes commitment to follow Jesus. It takes careful adherence to God’s commands. It takes believing loyalty.

It literally takes all your heart and soul.

And I know it may sound like I’m saying it’s our works get us to God. If we’re loyal enough, if we walk in Christ enough, then we’ll be good enough. So let me be crystal clear - our salvation is a result of God reaching down to humanity and bestowing a gift on humanity for no other reason than love alone. We cannot earn it.

But, we’re way too worried about salvation. And before you draft your email to me, let me clarify that statement.

As followers of Christ, we are so worried about our own salvation. Even more so than the salvation of unbelievers.

In fact, one of the biggest questions in Christianity today is “can we lose our salvation?”.

And may I suggest this morning that is an extremely narrow-minded and selfish question when asked the wrong way. Not because if you have wondered that, you’re a bad person. Not what I’m saying.

I’m saying that the point of our Christian experience in the typical christian church is for me to get to heaven. And that’s not the point, it’s merely a beautiful byproduct.

See, generally we ask for the bare minimum. What are the minimum requirements so I don’t have to worry about myself? What is the minimum I can do to get to heaven?

And I think that’s selling the gospel short, and it’s setting the bar extremely low compared to what God has called us too.

The point of following Jesus, the point of believing in God is to please our creator. To glorify His name.

Paul argues this point just a few verses earlier.

Colossians 1:9–10 CSB

9 For this reason also, since the day we heard this, we haven’t stopped praying for you. We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, 10 so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God,

1 Thessalonians 4:1 CSB

1 Additionally then, brothers and sisters, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus, that as you have received instruction from us on how you should live and please God—as you are doing—do this even more.

Hebrews 11:6 CSB

6 Now without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Church, we must orient our lives to please God. We have to stop asking what is permissible, and start asking what honors God.

Because our natural instincts want to toe the line. Our questions must transform from “can I do this without sinning” or “is xyz a sin” to “would this action be pleasing to God?” and “how can I use this situation to further God’s kingdom”

That’s how we walk in Christ, by aiming to please our Lord.

Of course, none of this will come easily or naturally, especially if we aren’t rooted, built up, and established in the faith.

Rooted, Built Up, Established

I think Paul uses this language very intentionally, and in order.

Rooted is used the same way a foundation is used. Roots go down into the earth. They’re the source of water and nutrients. They draw life-giving materials, and they maintain the base of the tree so it doesn’t fall over.

Christian Standard Bible Psalm 1

He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams

The man who walks in the Lord and delights in His instruction has his roots in the flowing streams, which are the source of abundant life.

Then, they are to be built up. After the roots take hold, the tree can start to grow upwards toward the light. It grows bark, branches, leaves, and starts to photosynthesize. It grows at the pace the roots allow.

Finally, the people are to be established. At maturity, the tree starts producing fruit. An ecosystem develops underneath its shade.

Pretty soon, the tree multiplies, and after some time, there’s a thick forest that’s is unmovable.

You see, there are two aspects to Christianity: individual and communal. One can’t exist without the other.

The reason Paul is writing this letter, and specifically this passage, is because Paul can’t make it to the church in Colosse. Paul wants these people, in spite of his absence, to continue in the faith themselves with him.

In fact, one of Paul’s friends also set the church up, so Paul has never even been there.

Do you know why? Because Paul was in jail. Now, it would’ve been much easier for Paul to sit in jail and sulk about the Romans being unfair. Jail wasn’t exactly a pleasant experience back then. BUT, Paul knew his work wasn’t finished. Until the day he dies, Paul would continue working for Christ because he was fully convinced that Jesus was the Messiah.

Paul didn’t see his suffering as a weakness. Instead, it was a chance to suffer as Jesus did, which was an honor and a win. Being in jail wasn’t defeat, it was victory.

Paul was rooted, built up, and established. BUT, he knew Christ’s bride wasn’t himself alone. It was the Church.

And sure enough, Paul’s friend Epaphras, who evangelized Colosse and probably started the church, visited Paul in jail with information about struggles in the church. So Paul sought out to correct and encourage.

We are the church, and the church is us. If an individual is not rooted, build up, and established in faith, the body suffers and the mission stifles. Likewise, if the body doesn’t provide Godly support, the individual suffers. The health of both are essential.

So, receiving Christ, walking in Him, being rooted, built, and established in the faith results in

Overflowing with Gratitude

This is something that is unfortunately lost in our day. I’m sure you feel it.

Every inconvenience is met with grumbling. Our entire world is set on faster is better. We want the summary, give me the bullet points. We don’t even want to wait on the internet to load.

Paul, however, is a prime example of overflowing. He writes, again from a prison cell:

Colossians 1:24 CSB

24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I am completing in my flesh what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for his body, that is, the church.

This isn’t something that’s mustered up from inside. It’s not a tough guy, nothing will bring me down mentality. Paul is able to rejoice because his strength rests in Christ alone. There is nothing else that can produce this type of joy and gratitude.

In fact, I’m reminded about one of my favorite stories in the Bible found in Acts. To recap the story, Paul and Silas are arrested. They’re stripped naked, and beaten with rods. The term used is “severely flogged”.

Then, they put them in the inner prison, where all the sewage ran to in the basement, and they shackeled their feet.

Then this happened:

Acts 16:25 CSB

25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.

Overflowing with gratitude. If you’re truly in Christ, if you’re walking in Him, you are overflowing with gratitude.

You don’t have to muster up a facade, or pretend to be happy. You’re innate being is joyful, so much so that you can’t contain it.

And accepting Jesus as Lord of your life means you’ve recognized your own sin, and your gratitude is the result of a God who shouldn’t have anything to do with you, a sinner on the way to hell, yet He came to earth and suffered on your behalf and defeated death once and for all.

That’s where our thanksgiving comes from.

Conclusion

So, as a church as as individuals, we all need to make an assessment of our faith.

Have you received Christ as Lord? Or is He simply another item on your shelf of idols? Is Jesus thrown in the drawer until you really need Him for something?

And, are you continuing to walk in Him? Have you assessed your own loyalty to God and His commands?

Are you rooted, built up, and established in Jesus?

These are hard questions, and the answers aren’t always comfortable. But, when we start remodeling, when we start peeling back the layers of our own foundations and walls, we know there are problems. We know there are issues, things not pleasing to God that we would rather hide.

I’m again going to quote A.W. Tozer, because I think he sums it up wonderfully.

I want deliberately to encourage this mighty longing after God. The lack of it has brought us to our present low estate. The stiff and wooden quality about our religious lives is a result of our lack of holy desire. Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present, or there will be no manifestation of Christ to His people. He waits to be wanted. Too bad that with many of us He waits so long, so very long in vain.

It’s my prayer that us, here at Valley Church, pursue Jesus as if He is Lord. I want the longing of our hearts to be to please our creator. We can’t afford to sit on the sidelines, we must orient our lives toward the one who sits on the throne, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Just lay your imperfections down at the feet of Jesus, because He is the only one powerful enough to fix you. And although uncomfortable, we’re promised that

the proven character of your faith—more valuable than gold which, though perishable, is refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Let’s take the next few minutes to pray about these things, and listen to God for action. There are three Psalms on the screen for guidance. This time is yours.