Built Up in Jesus

Introduction

Last week, we began this two-part message introducing the new thing rooted and built up in Jesus.

For a brief moment, I want to revisit last week's message as it ties in to today's. We began in v6:

I. A Reception Necessary

Ye Must be Born Again; It’s A Gift to be Received

II. A Reasonable Response

Walk in Christ; Walk Consistently; Walk Circumspectly

III. A Rooting Examined

It’s Function; To Anchor

It’s the Foundation

What All Else is Built Upon; Determines the Structure

It’s Fortitude

Lies in It’s: Health, Longevity, Soil, Sustenance

It’s Fuel

It’s the Source that Sustains

Today, we are going to continue the introduction to our theme and preach a message based on the remainder of verse 7 and 8.

As we go through this, I pray that you pay attention and take this message to heart, as I believe it will prepare you and get you in the right mindset for what is to come.

The first thing that we'll speak about is being built up in Jesus.

I. Built Up in Jesus

<Our Manner of Life>

In this point, I want to focus upon what type of life we should be seeking to lead as Christians in this world.

Growing in Jesus

‘Built Up’ Speaks to this point. As Christians, it should be of importance and priority to grow in Jesus.

This sounds trivial, but I find it to be profound. Entirely too many Christians are stagnant. Most, I would say. I say that for a few reasons.

First: If you went at 11 o'clock to most doors in our community, you would find a multitude of people at home, and if you asked them if they were Christian, they would say yes.

Now, some may be, and some may not. But the point of the matter is this: If they are at home most of them are there by choice, and that means they are not choosing to grow in knowledge of the things of God.

Secondly: I could use any congregation, but I'll use this one. Come tonight, one-third to one-half of you will not be here. And most of you will not be here for no other reason than choice. Why? Because other things take Precedence in your life, and you're not concerned about growing in Christ.

Church, know this: There is not one of us that does not need to grow in Christ. Not me, you, or anybody.

Let's consider for a moment things we need to grow in.

Growing in Grace & Growing in Knowledge: The last statement the Apostle Peter would write is found in 2 Peter 3:18 “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.”

We must grow in Grace: What does this mean if we’ve experienced the saving Grace of God?

Demonstrating Grace

Wherever you have people, you have problems. We are all fallible, make mistakes, speak out of turn, and get hateful for no reason. And because of that, we need as Christians to learn to demonstrate grace unto others.

This is not something that happens overnight. It is most assuredly a learned behavior.

Demonstrating grace

Resting in Grace

What I mean by this is that life will throw us tragedies and calamities left and right. You and I will suffer wrongs and ills, some of our own making, some just because that's the way it goes. Amen.

Paul suffered in this life, and we're told of an encounter he had with Christ. (Read 2Cor. 12:7-10)

The more we rest in the grace of God that he gives us, the greater calamities and trials we can face. For we know that all things work to the good of them that love God and called according to his purpose.

Resting in grace.

We must Grow also in Knowledge

(Ill.) Show of hands, how many of you here know everything there is to know about Jesus and the Word of God? Do you know what that means? We all have something to learn!

And the only way you will ever learn is by implementation and effort.

(Ill.) I was talking to my daughter last night about learning guitar. And I've had several people that I have tried to help learn guitar. The way you learn is someone can teach you a little, but then you have to take that and exert the effort to learn to play. A teacher can set you on a course, but whether you arrive at a destination is all upon the effort you put into it.

The truth is, there is a great misconception on the Jesus of the Bible and the Jesus that is presented in the minds of so many people today. They see Jesus as a long-haired, hippie, peacenik, when in fact, he's far different than that.

The more we learn about Jesus, the more we love and respect Him.

We must grow in knowledge.

Grounded in Faith

‘Stablished in the Faith’. stablished (def) To fix; to settle in a state for permanence; to make firm - it’s where we get our word ‘established’.

We've spoken about being rooted in Jesus. Once we gain knowledge and understanding of Him, we must be grounded in that by faith.

I submit to you today that the manner in which you live your life is derived solely from your faith - or lack thereof.

Some have faith that because they are saved, they are not under any obligation to serve or live any certain way because of what they've been told. So they just live however they want because they believe that once they die, they'll go to heaven and that's it. They have no knowledge of the Judgment Seat of Christ.

There are those that believe that as long as they are good outweighs their bad, they'll get to heaven, and everything will be fine. So in their mind, they do a little good here and there, and then they always have an excuse for the bad in which they do.

Church, we need to be established. We need to be fixed. Our faith must be in something true, not simply the way we see things. We'll get to that in a little bit.

We need to be grounded in faith.

As You’ve Been Guided

I believe many people have the wrong idea about church altogether.

One of the reasons why the church is so superficial is because you have these mega churches that focus their messages on salvation to the detriment of the body of Christ.

The church is not where we bring them to get them saved. The church is the training ground. It's the supply station. Christ did not say "bring them in." He said, "Go ye therefore."

The majority of messages you'll hear at this church are instructions for you, Christian. That's why it's needful for you to be here. This is the 10% of teaching, But the other 90% is upon you.

I am here to guide, to help, to explain, to lead, and to warn. That's my job. God has established me here as your pastor for a reason. And I ask you this: Are you taking advantage of this resource that God has provided you? Are you taking in the instruction and allowing it to guide you through the storms of life?

We must be built up in Jesus, growing in Jesus, grounded in the faith, as we have been guided.

Built Up In Jesus

II. Living Bountifully in Jesus

Colossians 2:7 “…abounding therein with thanksgiving.”

Our Attitude for life

Now that we have looked at the manner of life and how we should go about living as a Christian, here we are going to look at the attitude in which we should be carrying as a Christian.

Superabounding in Christ

Abounding (def) to superabound (in quantity or quality), be in excess, be superfluous;

Follow the reasoning:

Rooted and Built up in Him (the object - in Him)

Stablished in the faith (Grounded - placed in permanence)

Now we’re to abound therein. What does that mean? Simply put, that means ‘All In’.

We're not just dipping our toe in.

We are not to have one foot in Christ and one foot out - As the Laodiceans

We're to super abound. Everything in, nothing remaining. All our:

Hopes, dreams, wants, wishes, desires expectations… Everything about us should be all in Him.

We should seek to invest our time in the LORD

We should seek to invest our talents in the LORD

We should be investing our tithes / treasures in the LORD

I say invest, because you don’t ‘give’ God anything - and certainly nothing that He hasn’t given you already. But when you give you invest, for the LORD will use that here on this earth and make a deposit TO YOUR ACCOUNT in Heaven!

We should have the mind of superabounding Christ - NOTHING HELD BACK!

Being Satisfied with Christ

And then, when we do all of this, the attitude that we should have is one of thanksgiving. Finding our satisfaction in what we do for Christ instead of ourselves.

Church, do you know how much better life would be if we just sought to find our satisfaction in Christ alone?

People try to find satisfaction in money, and they come away unfulfilled.

They try to find satisfaction in cars, but there's always the latest and greatest right around the corner.

They try to find their satisfaction in things or people, but things fade away and people die.

Solomon said: Ecclesiastes 5:10 “He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.”

But church, if we would just seek to find our satisfaction in the Lord, we will never be wanting! Look at just a few verses later: Colossians 2:9–10 “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:”

We need to abound in HIM WITH THANKSGIVING. This should be our attitude for life.

Built Up In Jesus; Living Bountifully in Jesus

III. Beware of Spoiling

Our Concern for our Spiritual Walk

Now we get to the warning - we must Beware of being spoiled

Many things can be spoiled:

Milk, children - but importantly, do you know that your Spiritual Walk can be spoiled?

Just like spoiled milk - it stinks

Just like spoiled children - they’re unbearable, unreasonable and cause more aggravation than joy.

Paul gives a few things here that can spoil your Spiritual Walk

By Human Reasoning

(Ill.) We used to sell farm equipment, and a handful of times a year, I would go with other representatives across the nation to farm shows. There was a big one in Iowa, Ohio, Illinois, North Carolina, various different places. At the end of the day, we would all get together and go out to eat supper. One time I was able to steer the conversation to spiritual matters and began witnessing to these men. And I'll never forget three words like a refrain in my ear that kept playing with every point I would make. “Well, I think…”

I would tell these men what thus saith the Lord. And this one fellow's response in particular was, "Well, I think." What is this? This was his philosophy. He and God both had opinions on something, and he felt his was as valid as God's.

Philosophy (def) an explanation of the reasons of things

You've heard the term “opinions are like elbows" - everybody's got them, right? What are their opinions? They are their philosophy on how things should be.

People have various philosophies and reasons behind them.

The philosophy of Oprah is that all paths lead to God.

Many hold the philosophy that every religion is valid.

Others hold the philosophy that no religion is valid.

Many believe that the Bible is a work of fiction, while others, like myself, believe it is the very Word of God.

How can a man be spoiled by philosophy? By giving ear and credence to the wisdom of men instead of the wisdom of God.

I tell you a truth: if your philosophy is one thing, yet God's is something else, you're wrong, and you will be spoiled if you hold on to that vain philosophy - or ‘human reasoning’.

Human reasoning can spoil you. Which leads us to the next point - a Haughty Spirit

By a Haughty Spirit

Another thing that will spoil a man is his pride.

Vain Deceit (def) prideful delusions

(Ill.) There's a man who goes through and holds Q&A sessions on college campuses and churches by the name of Frank Turek. He asks the question to many people and simply says, "If Christianity were true, would you become a Christian?" The reason he asks that is because he has discovered that there is a lot of people that are not on what he calls a "truth quest." They are on a "pleasure quest" in life.

This is important because many have convinced themselves with prideful delusions and live by a set of standards life that are not God's. Their lives are spoiled. They stink in the nostrils of God because of their vanity and self-indulgent make-believe world in which they live.

You can be spoiled by a haughty spirit, by the vain, prideful delusions you choose to live by instead of by the word of God.

Through Heritage with Heretical Foundations

Then Paul tells us where these teachings originate from.

He says, “after the tradition of men”

In other words, this is pass-down-learn behavior from generation to generation.

Do you know why there's a multitude of men that die and go to hell? Because they learned from their daddy.

Do you know why there's a multitude of lukewarm Christians? Because they learned it from their parents.

They were spoiled children, just not in the sense that we think of it. They may not have been spoiled by things, but rather by an ungodly lifestyle demonstrated from the closest people to them.

Then he says: “after the rudiments of the world”

The behavior that was learned from parents was ultimately learned from them of the world and the influences outside.

We are given so much warning about the influence of the world and the destructive nature it can be, and yet it surprises me that so many welcome it in their homes, lifestyles, and music.

1 John 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.”

Your heritage can spoil you. The world can spoil you - teach you things that are not, yet you hold to them because it’s the way you want it to be!

But lastly, we must understand that these things are Anti-Christ

With Understanding that these are Anti-Christ

Human reasoning that lines not up with the Bible is not to be taken lightly, it’s Anti-Christ

A haughty, prideful spirit is not simply a feeling or emotion. It is anti-Christ.

We'd do well as Christians if we would stop watering down our sin and start calling it for what it is—anti-Christ.

How about we do this: Whenever we are choosing to ignore the Word of God and go about things how we feel about them, let’s just be honest and say we’re choosing to live Anti-Christ.

We must beware of spoiling our Spiritual walk, by listening to the heathen or the world and living anti-Christ.

Conclusion

I mentioned that the main function of the church house is not that souls might be saved but that saints might be trained. That being said, if you are here today and you are lost, it is the perfect place for you to be saved today.

Christian, now is a decision time for you. It's time to stop riding the fence and commit yourself unto Jesus Christ. To abound in him and find your satisfaction through him? Will you commit to that today? Or will you choose to reject truth for human reasoning, vain delusions, and to live as antichrist?

The decision is up to you.