Colossians 2:6-15 - standing strong on the Lord

On this veterans day weekend I am reminded of a truth.

Veterans stood strong in face of opposition.

Many have stood in the line of battle, risking their life but not moving.

Where is that rooted?

The simple truth is for anyone to stand strong against the opposition and be immovable they must come to a place where the fear of what they are facing is of less significance than giving into the pressures.

In other words they stand strong because they care

The False teachers and false prophets have been leading people astray since the Old Testament days and scriptural authors have been encouraging their readers how to avoid being deceived for many years

It goes as far back as to some of the old testament prophets.

Accounts in Isiah, Ezekiel, Malachi, Jeremiah just to name a few all have accounts of false teachers leading people astray.

In Isaiah 3:12 the word says

Isaiah 3:12 KJV 1900

As for my people, children are their oppressors, And women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, And destroy the way of thy paths.

Isaiah was saying people are led to the wrong path and the correct path for their life is destroyed.

This was no different than the situation Colosse and Paul found themselves in

We can remember from early in this sermon series when Paul was encouraging Colosse that they were a people who lived lives for Christ.

Their paths were correct and good but Paul had a concern.

The false teachers were coming.

In essence the entire book of Colossians is an encouragement and a warning helping to direct them to a place where they may not be led astray

Before we get into our scripture many of you may feel you could not be led astray.

I ask the question do you not think the Colosse people who Paul described as people who were living appropriate lives for christ , do you not think if these people could be led astray you certainly could.

Being strong in your faith means that you can combat this but it also means the enemy is more likely to attempt it and cause your path to be changed.

After all imagine the ripple effect which could be caused if the devil could cause God’s people to stumble.

Paul says this in

Colossians 2:6–15 KJV 1900

As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. 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. 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: In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

There was an obligation of the Colossians as disciples of the Lord.

They had an obligation to keep themselves strong so they may not be moved.

Imagine a soldier on the battlefield.

If a soldier neglects their hygiene, there diet, their workout regimen they would be a lousy soldier.

They would be unable to fight in the face of opposition because they would be weak.

perhaps they could still be considered a soldier, but could they fight?

Would they have the strengthen to fight back.?

The endurance to stand strong a length of time?

The health to remain healthy in the worst of places?

The reality is you can call a soldier a soldier as long as they have the uniform but it takes training to be a warrior.

This is so because...

A Good Soldier is Well Trained

In a lot of ways I feel what Paul was saying is a reminder to us also.

“remember your salvation, now walk in the Lord”

In essence look what he has done for you and do not be deceived.

See Paul has given us something really good when it comes to combating false teachers.

In Paul’s writing we can learn that aside from the Lords protection itself, the best tool we may have to combat false teachers is our own self-understanding of the truth of the Word of God.

In other words when we know the truth we aren’t shaken

They can talk all day long but we know we truth, we know why the truth is real, we know why we believe what we believe.

now Paul has set us up and prepared us for the reason for this letter.

He has given us little hints about false prophets but the meat of the word is found in verse 8

Colossians 2:8 KJV 1900

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.

He tells colossi this church who is supposed to be after the heart of God “Beware of the ones leading you in vain deceit an philosophy.”

Beware of those leading you to things not of Christ

In short Christ has made a way for us to salvation, he is the one who makes our world complete. Apart from him we were flesh living in the body of sin doing no good thing for nobody.

According to Paul the best tool to combat the enemy is being firmly rooted in the word.

Which naturally is also what draws the enemy to us.

Now lets try to make this personal

A big issue with Appalachian Christianity is this false belief that you are christian if your grandfather or daddy was a deacon or a preacher.

This mentality that because you've been raised in church your going to heaven

Or that you were saved because you were baptized after the week of bible school yet fail to have a testimony where you have actually given yourself to the Lord

Let me explain salvation and then we will explain being rooted in it

When you are saved you are literally giving yourself to the Lord.

You are acknowledging that you are nothing apart from Him and you are committing to live a life where he is your Lord.

You see all this is so because one day after creation Adam and Eve sinned, they disobeyed God bring corruption and separation from God into this world.

You see, it was God’s Design that they would live for him and have a personal relationship with him.

So how could this be achieved now that sin had separated us from God.

God the Father sent God the Son Jesus Christ to dwell on this earth for 33 years, leading a perfect sinless life.

He then became the sacrifice for not only Adam’s sin but for every sin committed by man past present and future.

Now what is required of you is simple.

Once you see that you are a sinner in need of God’s grace you must ask for repentance.

Repentance is the act of asking for forgiveness and then turning from the sin you have done wrong.

Upon true repentance Christ has came to dwell within your life.

But this means there is a change in your life a new beginning

Let me tell you no one else will be standing at the judgement seat with you.

You can’t say I know my life wasn’t great but my dad was a church or my mom was a Sunday school teacher or I was baptized but you never changed.

I'm not gonna ask you to question your salvation but certainly go to the scripture understand what salvation is and assure yourself that you are truly saved.

Now if you are saved a new challenge arises.

When you become rooted in the word and rooted in your salvation that means you know what you believe and why you believe

Make sure you know what you believe and you can give an answer for the hope that is in you.

False teachers are as alive and well.

They are roaming this earth seeking to indoctrinate false truth so that even the strongest of soldiers become at the very least distracted.

If the strongest of Christian soldiers aren't really that strong how much has the devil really won in that battle?

You see as the world around you begins to shake you.

As it begins to push you over and it tries to get you to compromise.

If weak in the spirit we soon will become more in the world than we are in the Kingdom of God.

This means just like Colosse we have to be firm in our faith and rooted in the Lord

I feel one of the most prominent problems with this world is that many want to be part of Christianity but they do not want to be a soldier for it.

As we honor those who have fought for our freedom, we must remember that though we are not in a physical war we find ourselves in a spiritual one.

Fighting the fight for the truth of Christ’s word

Fighting for the Christian values of this world.

Fighting for the hope that is within us.

I simply want us to understand that if we do not find our self strong in our faith we are of little use as a soldier for the greatest commander our God.

Paul's message in the verses to Colossi is the same as mine today

Stand firm on the one who has done so much for you and when the enemy comes you will be prepared to win the battle.