Alive in Christ
Notes
Transcript
What are you asking the Lord for this week?
Remember - sometimes we need to remind ourselves of just who this is who has called us to this life, empowered this life and lives in us!
6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him,
7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
8 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.
9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,
10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.
11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,
12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.
13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,
14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
Preparing for what is coming: Sit still. Be silent.
Subtitled “A little teaching, a little correcting, a little rebuke.”
Teaching: In the same way you received Him, continue.
I received Him surrendered. Can't receive Him any other way. If I wasn't surrendered, I didn't receive Him.
I received Him in child-like faith, believing everything He says is true.
I received Him on His terms, not mine. My life must be lived out on those same terms. If I am calling the shots, He is not Lord. And Paul says as much in the specific way he phrases ‘Christ Jesus as/the Lord’. The office of Lord is accentuated in the Greek. Literally, you received Christ Jesus, the one who is the Lord. Keep receiving Him. Keep acting like He is Lord.
As we move from teaching to correcting, let me go ahead and ask: Have you taken over control of parts of your life? Maybe your livelihood? Maybe your plan for the future? Give it back to Him. His plan is better. He can see all the way to the end. You can only guess. You can only know what your experience has told you and He has ‘experience’ you know nothing about!
Correcting: In v.8 Paul is talking about people. The people we listen to. The message and influence they have. Our acceptance of their words. Because he knew when we accept their words the natural progression is to eventually accept what they stand for. And if they stand against Christ, we cant do that. Pay attention to who you have allowed to be the influencers in your life. (will we cause a little one to stumble?)
The enemy of my enemy is my friend. NOT SO. If your enemy is opposed to Christ, he cannot be your friend. He may be the object of ministry. You may be trying to build a personal relationship with him in order to be an influencer in his life, but you cannot let him be the influencer in your life. Not if he is opposed to Christ.
Here are the arguments: Nobody else is saying it. No one else could do what he has done. If I just used your words then receive your pastor’s correction. You have stopped listening to those who are proclaiming the truth of God’s word and started listening to the voice of the enemy. The accuser. The deceiver.
You may even be listening to it right now. When we find ourselves refusing the exhortations found in the word, we are listening to the wrong voice.
It may even be possible you have stopped proclaiming His truth as well.
Rebuke: In order to get to the rebuke we’re gonna have to be specific. And since we’re talking about the voices we listen to, that’ll be our jumping in point.
Rebuke:
Sometimes the voice we listen to is saying things that are true, but it is not the Voice of Truth. Think David and Goliath: His brother told him he was only a shepherd. Saul told him he was only a boy and Goliath was an experienced warrior. A champion. Do you see it? Those things were true, but the Voice of Truth was telling David something different.
45 Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.
46 This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel,
47 and that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hand.”
So what voices are we listening to contrary to Jesus? Do you remember when Ricky Gervias blasted the Hollywood elite? Thousands, maybe millions, of christians trumpeted his ‘victory’. But Ricky Gervais is an atheist. Diametrically opposed to God, Jesus and the Gospel we love and serve. He cannot be our voice so we cannot listen to his voice. Here’s the danger in that: Let’s say your granddaughter is coming to visit...
Ben Shapiro...
When the rebuke reveals error in us, what do we do? We repent. We admit we are wrong. We admit He is right. We commit to surrendering to Him, no matter what comes next. Can you embrace that today? I am trying with all my heart to do just that! And I’m about to pray that we all will. Join me?