Sunday Sermon Colossians 2:8-10
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Introduction
Introduction
Good morning and welcome to First Community Church, where we worship the Lord in Spirit and in Truth one verse at a time.
Thank you for that message of music.
If this is your first time here, we give a a double welcome. We hope that you enjoy your time with us and that the Lord speaks to you heart!
It is our prayer that each and every time we gather that we become more like Jesus in all we do and say! That the Lord always does a transforming work in our hearts and that we are encouraged where we need encouraged, exhorted where we need exhorted , and corrected as the Holy Spirit leads for only God knows our hearts!
Winter time is back as the mornings are chilly. Have you seen the beauty of the mountains the last fee days? I just love when they get a dusting of snow and how the snow really draws out the beauty.
Praise God his love endures forever!
Prayer
Prayer
Read Colossians 2:8-10
Read Colossians 2:8-10
Review
Review
In looking back over the last few weeks of our study, I am reminded that God desires to encourage us and knit us together in love. He does this much of the time through the one another ministry.
If you are discouraged, down, and depressed right now. Maybe even caught up in some sinful habit. Take a moment and ask yourself the question:
Am I in fellowship right now?
Much of the time when we are struggling you will find that our fellowship begins to wane and we are susceptible to the Devils attacks.
Think about it, most of our sin happens when we are alone and not in the company of our brothers and sisters.
Remember Church, the Holy Spirit works through others. God encourages and loves us through each other. And besides the gifts, talents, and abilities God has given you are for others. If you want to be strengthened, if you want to be encouraged, step out in faith and use your God given gifts to glorify the Lord.
So if your isolating, full of fear, and thus yourself, “STOP IT!”
A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire; He rages against all wise judgment.
I am hitting this one because this is a real problem in the church.
For we need each other! Amen!
2. We had learned that all the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Jesus Christ.
This does not mean they cannot be found, but rather they are not on the surface, but must be searched out.
Remember, all treasures take time to find!
3. Third, we learned that if we are rooted and grounded like a tree, if we are being built up in Christ and a student of God’s Word, then we ill be overflowing with thankfulness like a river running over it banks.
If these thing are abounding in our lives, then guess what?
We will be established in the faith and will not fall victim to the false teaching all around us.
Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.
Colossians and Philemon—The Supremacy of Christ The Safeguard Against Seduction ( Colossians 2:8-10 )
COLOSSIANS 2:8–10
We do not have to live very long to know that it is easy to fool people, and that it is very easy to be fooled ourselves. Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse, the great preacher and writer, used to illustrate this by telling of a practical joke which he and his teenaged friends played on some unsuspecting passersby in a large city. His group stood on a busy street corner and stared intently into the air. One of them pointed, while another said (loudly enough to be overheard), “It is not.” A third friend argued, “It is so!” At this, one or two people stopped and began to look up in the same direction as Barnhouse and his friends. As the argument grew more heated, others stopped to gaze fixedly at the point his group discussed. Then, one by one, Barnhouse and his friends quietly slipped out of the crowd and gathered a few yards away to watch the results. By this time, some fifteen people were looking into the air. The crowd changed as new passersby came along and joined the group and those who had been staring longest left. Twenty minutes later several people were still looking upward. Several others had gone off to the side and were leaning against a building, looking up for something that was not there and never had been. About his childhood trick, Barnhouse observed:
That little incident is a good illustration of all the earth-born religions. People talk about having faith; they tell you to look in a direction where there is absolutely nothing. Some people are so desperately in need of seeing something that they will look till they are almost blind, yet they never catch a glimpse of anything real.
His point is so true. Over my years of ministry, I have seen those who were once perfectly healthy Christians set their sight on and their faith in something which was absolutely nothing!
Dr Barnhouse was the pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia from 1927-1960
This illustration is so, so, true and even more true today in a world that is built on technology.
In case you don’r know, DO NOT believe everything your read, watch, or hear church.
We are right in the middle of Paul teaching the Colossians about what to be on the look out for.
He taught us how to be grounded and guard the precious faith of our Lord Jesus, but here he gives us a BEWARE!
Beware of what???
Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.
Beware- ble-po- to watch carefully v. — to be vigilant, be on the lookout or be careful. To discern mentally, to observe, to weigh carefully or to examine. To guard yourself: metaph. to see with the mind's eye.
This is written as a present, perfect, continual tense, and it is an imperative.
What does all this mean?
It means that this is something that we as disciples of Jesus Christ are commanded to do continually!
You might be thinking it is judge-mental if you call out false teaching as you see it?
Jesus said this:
“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.
Jesus is not saying just turn your head on everything here.
He is saying do not have a critical, censorious attitude.
Truth without love is hypocrisy, while love without truth is brutality.
Truth without love is hypocrisy, while love without truth is brutality.
If you saw someone running toward a cliff would you say anything or just let them jump? Do you see the brutality.
Even Jesus gave this warning church:
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.
Then Jesus said to them, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.”
This verse comes right after when Jesus feeds the 4000 in Matthew with 7 loaves and 2 fish.
Here the Lord is letting the disciples to know that He has plenty of bread for them to eat, therefore do not eat the bread of the Pharisees.
Had rained down manna on them to eat, And given them of the bread of heaven.
Do you see that the Lord had given Israel Angel Food Cake, but they still wanted what the pagans had to offer. Why?
It is because they failed to yield the bewares of the Bible. There are 28 of them in the Word and it would do us well to study them so we can BE WARE Church!
Going back to verse 8 we see that Paul tells his readers to beware lest anyone cheat you.
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
Spoil/ Cheat/ Deceive - sylagōgeō to take control ⇔ loot v. — to become able to completely manipulate a person; conceived of as carrying someone away as plunder.
Paul continues to use military terms here
The Word picture is that of an army carrying off someone as plunder.
But did you notice that Paul said lest any man?
The devil uses men to capture you
And what is interesting is that lest any man is written in the future tense.
What does that mean?
It means that there will be men and women in our future that the devil will send to attempt to decieve us and carry us away as plunder or as spoil.
Knock, knock, who is there? Hi, we are Christians and we would like to pray with you?
Can we come back next week? Yes
So they come back next week and offer Bible studies so they say.
And they are really nice people, I mean really really nice.
And guess what? Christians that are not rooted and grounded in Christ along with non-believers are taken captive.
They are caught and brain washed.
It will take the Lord to deliver the victim that has been captured
Did you know that Satan is warring for our souls?
Through this study, I have come to realize that those that come to us whom attempt to decieve us and carry us away as a captive are very intelligent and often very kind and even loving.
Think about it????
Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.
There are five things Paul mentions here to beware of church:
Philosophy- philiosophia- philosophical system n. — a belief or system of philosophical beliefs accepted as authoritative by some group or school.
Phileo, like Philadelphia, means love or the city of brotherly love church
Sophia- means wisdom
Therefore, philosophy is the love of wisdom.
This is not talking about the wisdom of God church, but rather loving the wisdom of the world
Bertrand Russell at the end of his life, 90 years of age, the vast majority of his life, at least 70 of those years, being spent as a philosopher, his last words were, “Philosophy has proved a washout to me.” That’s a long washout, 90 years.
Thomas Hobbs, the famous English atheistic philosopher who fostered materialistic psychology and what is called utilitarian morality, when he was drawing near his death said this, “I’m about to take a leap into the dark. I shall be glad to find a hole to creep out of this world.”
Philosophy is an exercise in the frustration of a degenerate mind trying to determine ultimate truth without the help of God.
But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Six: Saints Alive—And Alert (Colossians 2:4–15)
How is it possible for false teachers to capture people? The answer is simple: These “captives” are ignorant of the truths of the Word of God
They become fascinated by the philosophy and empty delusion of the false teachers. (This is not to say that all philosophy is wrong, because there is a Christian philosophy of life.
The word simply means “to love wisdom.”) When a person does not know the doctrines of the Christian faith, he can easily be captured by false religions and false teachers.
I have found in my ministry and christian experience that those that are being taken captive do not know their Bibles.
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.
J. B. Lightfoot paraphrases verse 8
Be on your guard; do not suffer yourselves to fall a prey to certain persons who would lead you captive by a hollow and deceitful system, which they call philosophy. They substitute the traditions of men for the truth of God. They enforce an elementary discipline of mundane ordinances fit only for children. Theirs is not the Gospel of Christ.
Church, we have come to an important section of scripture that I do not want to just run through, but rather slow our roll.
Next week, we will dive right back in and discuss the other 4 things Paul was warning us to be on guard against.
Let us remember that all the false systems of religions and cults seek to attack the Deity of Jesus Christ.
One way you know this is by what people focus on the most.
Jesus must be Preeminent in our lives
A Christ-centered church is a Bible-centered church
I have found that those who attack the Deity of Jesus Christ usually place their focus on other things other than Jesus.
It is like a scale: Jesus and the Gospel on one side, other things on the other side like you must do this or keep this.
Whatever one weighs more is what matters most to these people Paul is talking about.
Beware, is a command, and we should be doing this continuously. They are coming to attempt to capture you. Are you ready??
Prayer
Prayer
Announcements
Announcements
Are there any announcements?
Todd left the mission, please pray for him!!!
Church Directory- Emily Childers is currently building our church our church directory. Please be checking your emails from Instant Church directory.com
The email will ask you to upload a picture
So please do this so we can get this out to everyone
You can download the app at the app store
Yes, we will have a directory app
Or go online
But guess what, we can print hard copies for those that are not into this technology
More will come
Love offering and tithe box on the wall
Benediction
Benediction
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord Bless you!
Your Mission Starts now!