Ready Set Grow # 4 Don't Take a Knife to a Gunfight
ready set grow # 4
Don’t take a knife to a gunfight
20 July 2008
BIG IDEA grow as a believer into a successful person
WHAT’S YOUR CURRENT GUNFIGHT?
What has you on the back foot? What is overwhelming you?
You – attitude, habit Family – marriage, raising kids
Finances – mortgage, bills, investments Work – deadlines, getting ahead
Future – confusion, lack of clarity Decisions – choices School – bully, fitting in
Uni/TAFE – Semester Two, essays undone
COLOSSIAN CHURCH HAD A GUNFIGHT – Christ’s place in their thinking
Paul writes to give them bazookas to replace their puny knifes! He wants them to win this fight!
look up … JESUS CHRIST – king of kings
· Col 2:9-10 When you go into a battle you need to know who has the best firepower, smartest strategists, high ground, highest morale – who holds all the advantages.
o Jesus Christ is THE HEAD over ALL power & authority
o In prayer place Christ over your gunfight’s authority & power
o EG work/study place gunfight – place Jesus over your circumstance
· Don’t look elsewhere for spiritual power
o Peter Bell spiritual leader of the Dockers
o Anthony Robbins – self help guru, human capacity
o Occult power - astrology charts, tarot cards, palm readings, psychic shows
look in … access the fire power
Sometimes it’s the enemy within that can defeat us – our attitudes, fears, anxieties,
Col 2:11 When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature.
SINFUL NATURE = disposition to miss the mark & fall short of God’s glory
CUT OFF = Christ performs an operation by His Spirit, winning a crucial battle within us
(BAPTISM = outwardly declares this inward change)
RESULT = you get Holy Spirit firepower – new nature, new desires
EG family/relational gunfight – what do you need – courage, patience, strength to resist, love, forgiveness, kindness
look in … cleanse your heart
Col 2:13-14 forgiveness is available for all our sins!
HOW DOES THIS WORK?
You want to move forward in your finances
· You see some one moving further &/or quicker than you
· Jealousy grows … envy their success (rarely jealous of failure – I wish I was bankrupt!)
· We could celebrate their success, connect with them but we envy them
· Jealousy rots our bones, saps our energy, clouds our view – robs us of learning from them
1 John 1:9 confess your sins – expose them – get cleansed – a dirty heart is devil’s playground
look again … devil is defeated
HIS NATURE HIS WORK Matt 4:3,5,10
a) SATAN = adversary, oppose & resist your growth
b) DEVIL = slanderer, slander God’s Word, nature & people
c) TEMPTER = tempt, tempt you to settle for tantalising alternatives
Col 2:15 Roman victory parade - Satan has been neutralised – like ¾ time in last weekends Eagles/Dockers games – they could come back & win but in reality they are gone!
EG Scarborough destruction … take authority thru the name of Jesus Christ over the attacks of the devil … command him to depart!