Colossians 2:6-15 - Rooted In Christ and Go To Sleep If It's 1 AM

Welcome to Strength for the Day.

And looking forward to this morning, or whenever you might be listening to this. If they listen to it when it comes out, they might listen to this at like 1.15 in the morning.

Why? I don't know. Like work maybe?

You need to go to bed.

Unless you're working, don't go to bed.

Yes, don't go to sleep unless...

You're driving.

Yeah.

You're driving, you're working. Maybe you're up with your kid.

Go to sleep, they'll cry.

Go to sleep.

They'll be fine.

You'll have a great night if you go to sleep.

Yeah, let them cry.

Don't stay up.

Yeah. People always thought it was mean that we took Dennis and when he was first born and literally he had his own bedroom. Like he slept in our bedroom, I think the first week.

And then I was like, we were both like, we can't do this. And he stopped crying.

He turned out to be okay. He stopped crying when he was like, I mean, he has the...

He has the twitch, but he's fine.

Yeah, yeah, he's good. He's good. I feel like everyone that's just listening to the audio version misses out on something.

Miss out on some things.

Yeah.

But not a lot.

No. Let's be honest. Who wants to look at Bryon?

Exactly. Me and Bryon.

The best part is Pastor Dennis' low voice just coming through that microphone to you at 1:15 a.m. And I'm just gonna say... You can just...

Exactly. Exactly. So we're continuing our study in Colossians and really been enjoying it over the past, man, about a month now or so that we've been in it.

What is this recording?

Eight, seven?

Six. Six? This was only six?

We've recorded a lot lately.

We have. I'm losing my brain.

We are collectively losing our minds. So we've been in the Book of Colossians. It's written from Paul and Timothy to the believers at Colossi.

And it's written to encourage them to continue in their walk with the Lord, to help bolster some of their faith and their confidence in those that were rightly teaching the word to them and those that had many of them had been taught by Paul and

Timothy and had continued teaching the true gospel. And there was in the city of Colossi and some of the nearby areas, some false teachers that were bringing in some false religions and things.

You had asceticism and Gnosticism and pantheism and polytheism and legalism. And as all of these isms were coming in, you had eloquent speakers that were trying to entice and beguile and trick people with persuasive words. Yeah.

And that was in the culture.

Yep.

That's not just Colossi.

Like, one thing that we need to understand, and I think we've already eluded to this before, but the idea that if you could win a speech, regardless of if you were arguing truth or not, and even if people knew it was a lie, if you could convince them

it was true, it was a big deal. You were seen as a great speaker.

Yes.

And so I think that's a lot of the reason Paul wrote this. We'll talk about that more.

Yeah. And so last week we began Chapter 2, and we were looking at Paul's kind of description of, hey, here's why I'm writing to you.

I want all of the believers there to be able to be steadfast and connected to Christ and understand that Jesus is God's full revelation. He is God himself, and knowing that truth, then being able to secure the believers hearts and minds together.

Think even of verse 2, we want their hearts to be encouraged, joined together in love. And that happens as they focus on the one true God and on the gospel. And so, Pastor, we are in verses 5, is it 5?

No, we're in verses 6 through 15 today. Do you want to read that? Do you want to start off with any other thoughts as well?

No, why don't you read it?

Okay.

I'm going to start in verse number 6.

Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus, the Lord, walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith just as you were taught, overflowing, abounding therein with gratitude, with thanksgiving.

Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty or vain deceit based on human tradition, based on the elemental forces of the world and not based on Christ.

For the entire fullness of God's nature dwells bodily in Christ, and you have been filled by him who is the head over every ruler and authority.

You were also circumcised in him with a circumcision not done with hands by putting off the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ or the Messiah.

Having been buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead.

And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him and forgave us all trespasses.

He erased the certificate of debt with its obligations that was against us and opposed to us and has taken it out of the way by nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly. He triumphed over them in it.

And man, it is a great passage of scripture. We were talking beforehand. There is way too much that we could ever do in the next 14 minutes.

But we want to look at just a couple of thoughts from this passage and how it can apply to our lives, how we can be encouraged and warned and built up in the faith. So Pastor, what do you see in this chapter?

Well, I'll just say this first, excuse me, as I glass you. I think that, and for those of you watching, kind of look at you and tell you this, that sometimes when we read scripture, we forget who it's written to, who it was written to.

So Bryon, you just walked us through all the isms that we've been talking about. But when we read this, like we need to know, Paul is addressing like very current events. Yes.

Right?

Like he is saying, and they knew, they knew when he was using words, if he's using a phrase of saying, beware lest any man spoil you or take advantage of you.

When he says in verse number 10, you are complete in him or you are made right and matured in him. Like they would know, they knew exactly what he was talking about.

But something that stands out to me, and I mentioned it a minute ago, and I just want to kind of talk to it real quick is, we didn't read it, but verse number four, it says this, and this I say, so here's why I'm writing this to you.

Lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. The phrase beguile, to take advantage of, to twist. Lest anyone does that with enticing words, convincing words that are lies.

That was the lawyer's phrase. That's that phrase that he uses. It's a phrase that it describes a defense lawyer who's defending a convicted person.

Like they are at fault.

But they're so eloquent with their speech, they get you to believe that their client is not guilty.

That's what Paul says. And then verse number 8, he says, beware or hey, look out, stand up, pay attention to this. Lest any man spoil you or beguile or turn you or ruin you through, here's one of the isms, philosophy.

That was an ism of the day. The more you know, the better you are.

Someone's going to spoil you or ruin you through philosophy and deception, vain deceit, just lies, after the tradition of man, after the rudiments or the depths of the world and not after Christ.

And so the reason I want to bring that up is to say that our, in this quick application maybe, you know our culture, Christian culture is, well, wait, our culture as a whole, we're just enamored by the new and by something convincing and by people

who are passionate. Like I am, I'm enamored by that. I love, I mean, there's certain actors I love because they just, they portray their roles so well. And we talk about it all the time with the kids, like who's your favorite actor?

Why don't I name people maybe that they're like, well, dad, who's that, you know, or whatever. I'm just like, man, you need to watch, like they played this role so good. Yeah.

We, our culture's enamored by that, but I think Christians are too.

Sure.

So we get, I mean, I'm looking here, we're recording a podcast. You might watch this or listen to it. And we listen to people and we watch people.

Good, get influence, have it. But I think we need to be careful that we're not just enamored by someone's personality, or by their charisma, or by their ability to speak so eloquently.

Yeah.

We've got to always go back to scripture. And that's why Paul writes it, right? You need to be aware of this.

And I think we have, I know this, I don't think I know. We have a lot of Christians who get away from God, because they get so overloaded with voices that aren't Jesus.

Yeah.

And they miss what he's writing.

Can I speak to that for just a second? As kind of from a little bit different generation. I won't say older or younger, but a different generation.

You have the full beard.

It's true.

It means you're older.

I am the old man.

Not the old man of Roman 6, though. Don't kill me.

But many people in my generation below, so Generation Z and Generation Alpha, we get a lot of talk, both from any of us that go to public school or to public colleges, if we're on any social media platform, especially anything that has short form

video content, like a TikTok or Instagram or YouTube, or even Facebook Reels, if you're particularly old. But I didn't mean to come for you there. I didn't mean to.

But any of those situations in which we have interaction with those that do not have belief in God, do not hold to scripture as the basis and foundation of their life, and many people can be tricked because a person has maybe some worldly accolades,

and so people listen to that person. You mentioned some actors earlier.

Sometimes there are people that because they have expertise in some field, people listen to all of their views about maybe religion, and someone can be a great actor and know absolutely nothing about scripture or the Bible.

Someone can have done a lot of historical research and know a lot about ancient cultures, but be incredibly wrong when it comes to scripture.

So just because a person, I can think of one guy on TikTok, very, very knowledgeable, has done a ton of work on learning about ancient cultures, but rejects the Bible, rejects Jesus as Savior, and strictly because of his work in ancient cultures and

history, a lot of people listen to him and go, Oh, well, I'm just going to follow his way, his path. I'm not going to listen to scripture.

And we need to be like the Bereans who, when they heard a new thing by an exciting, knowledgeable preacher in Paul, they didn't immediately say, Hey, we believe you. But they went and they searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

And everything that comes across in our life, as far as influence goes, whether it's a particular philosophy from a person, if they say, here's how you need to do your finances. Here's how you need to order your life.

Here's what you need to do politically. Anything we ever hear, we need to go back to scripture and say, what does God say about this topic? And I think that's important.

Yeah.

And that's where I think all of this ties back into verse number six.

Yes.

Right. So verse number six, as you've received him, walk in him. So here's.

And honestly, maybe we will do this someday, where we really get into the isms of what they taught and what they believe, because it is so prevalent in our culture.

It's just different words now.

But the idea is, here's all of this stuff that will capture your mind and capture your heart. Don't go to it. Continue in him.

And then, I think I told you, I preached through the series in 2018, the whole Chapter 2 is everything. If you look at it, the word complete is used a lot of times. And that's what he's getting at.

Like, hey, you're complete in Christ. Why are you going anywhere else? It reminds me of John Chapter 6, when Jesus preached that message, right?

And said, you know, that he's the bread of life, and if you don't eat of him, you're going to go to hell. And they got up and left. Jesus looked at the disciples and said, well, you also go away.

And they said, Lord, to whom shall we go? They asked the words of eternal life. You are the only one speaking these truths.

And they got it. And not all the time did they get it, but they got it there. And I think in your life and my life, we need to, for those listening and watching, like we need to ask God to help us to get it.

Like, I don't need to turn to a bunch of other stuff. I love, you know, I have my leadership business. I love leadership.

I was challenged this week because I was listening to a leadership podcast, and I thought, Lord, help me, help me to invest more of you into my life than just the things that I appreciate. And someone might even enjoy religion.

Like, I know you love Bible study. And I would even say this to you, and I know you would receive it, is, you know, just because you love Bible study, don't just study the Bible and miss Jesus.

Yeah.

Like, it doesn't say just walk in study. Yeah. It's continue in Him.

Like, what is this saying to me about Him?

Yeah.

Search the scriptures. For in them you think you have eternal life, but they are they which testify of me, John 539.

Yeah.

So I think there's just a really good challenge there. But I don't know, Bryon, how do we apply this into everyday life? Here we are.

Monday morning, this is going to drop. 1 15 a.m. 1 15 a.m.

You know, and seriously, how Monday, Tuesday, this Wednesday, like, what do I do? How do I keep walking in Him?

Yeah. I'd say from the passage, there are a couple of things that it tells us to do. One, we are to walk in Him rooted and built up just as we have been taught.

So, realize that it's not meant to simply be you and the Bible. And some people have done that completely devoid of any church, any help, any anything, and come up with weird things because, you know, they're not the original audience.

And so, they misunderstand some things, and they don't have anyone else speaking into their life, going, that's a little goofy, that's not what it's saying. So, be faithful as you have been taught the Word to continue in that.

So, listen to good Bible preaching, and I know a person that has some great Bible preaching, and you can visit mobc.churchfordslash sermons to be able to hear some of that great preaching. Another thing you can do is be in God's Word every day.

You don't really have the opportunity to silence all other voices that will be speaking into your life.

So, you will have influence from outside things this week, but you have to make the choice to whether or not you're going to be influenced by God's Word.

You can't just shut everyone else's voices up and go, okay, well, I'm just not going to have any influences, good or bad this week, but you do get to choose whether or not you're going to listen to God's influence this week.

So, make that choice because it's important. Then I think the other thing is don't intentionally or don't passively listen to incorrect voices. So, all of the isms and stuff that they were dealing with, he's saying, don't listen to them.

Don't be tricked by their philosophy of being deceit. Don't listen to them. So, I think those would be important.

That have good Bible teaching that you're under, that would help you to be able to see the Bible in the right light.

Intentionally have influence from God in your life every day, because there are going to be other voices, and we've got to decide if we're also going to have God's voice in that mix. And then thirdly, whatever the last thing.

Oh yeah, don't go out looking for philosophy in vain deceit. Don't do it. And I think that would be important.

Yeah, I think I would add to that, just kind of some practical thought is this.

I think walking in him, number one, like you said, word of God, hands down, word of God. But I think in the week, you used one word that I wanted to connect with the word I want to use, intentional influence.

You used intentional, the word I was thinking of was influence. Being intentional about Jesus' influence in my life. So maybe this week, if you're listening, if you're watching, here's kind of my challenge I would give.

Number one, spend time in the word of God. Bryon just talked about that. But number two, every day this week, I'd encourage you, every day this week, intentionally find ways to influence your heart toward Jesus.

Whether that's a godly podcast that you know lines up with scripture, or some music that you know lines up with the word of God. Maybe it's a friend or a good conversation or a text message that you can text thread.

You can get going with somebody just about... And it doesn't have to be this, you know, hey, what did you get out of your Bible today? Respond to me so I can have some encouraging influence.

You know, but just being able to say, okay, God, I know that this person is godly. I'm going to have an intentional conversation with them this week because I know that they'll speak good into me.

And it may not be what they got out of their devotions, but it will be godly influence.

And so I think the continual walk in him has to do with continually putting his influence intentionally into my life through his word, through people, through all those influences that impact us. So, anyway.

I want to take just one little section because we've been mainly just verses six through eight.

I want to take one quick look at some of what is said in nine through 15, and then we'll dive more into some practical aspects of that in our next episode because Paul's specifically dealing with some of those out working.

So, verses nine through 15, he is kind of highlighting this one central thought of Jesus is the best.

Right.

He says, in Jesus was all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Everything that God is, Jesus is. So, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, all of the fancy theological terms, Jesus is all of that.

He is not a lesser God, any of that. So, he is fully God, and so in that is a wonderful knowledge and comfort of that, that we would know even some of the doctrine of the Trinity, that Paul is somewhat highlighting there of Jesus isn't a lesser God.

He then kind of goes into Jesus has done the best, he has done perfectly, and there he's going against some of what the Judaizers would say, and here are these list of things that we want you as believers to do, to kind of prove that you really are

saved or that you really know Jesus. If you are really saved, then you are going to follow all of these Old Testament things. And Paul kind of highlights, okay, well, we are identified with Christ now.

We are Christians, and so just as our sins were crucified when he was crucified, and just as we have the righteousness of Christ that was placed on our behalf, he highlights, okay, well, you want these people to, to the false teachers, you want these

people to be circumcised so that they can be following all of the Old Testament religion. Well, Jesus and his righteousness, Jesus was circumcised, and so just as he told John at his baptism that, so it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness, and

so as he's doing that, he was circumcised on our behalf, and he was baptized, he was put to death at the cross, everything that was ever good, Jesus did, and that gives us kind of a comfort in tying in with the rest of what we've talked about today,

that as we walk in him, we walk in him not in a maybe fear-filled way, that says, I'm scared that maybe I'm not really Christian, I believe in Jesus, but maybe I haven't done enough things, maybe I haven't given up enough, maybe I don't know enough,

and Paul gives this comfort of, hey, as you are doing these things, Because as you are having that influence in your life, as you are seeing through the gospel, everything that Jesus has done for you, you can have a rooted, grounded, settled, secure

faith that isn't constantly alarmed or turned topsy-turvy by all of these isms, because Jesus is the best, Jesus has done the best. And so through His righteousness, through His actions on the cross, through sacrifice for us, because of who He is,

you can be settled and secure in your faith. And you can, as it says, abounding therein with thanksgiving, overflowing with gratitude is how you can live your Christian life. Not scared of, am I enough? Do I know enough? Have I given up enough?

Am I doing enough? Instead, it is a life that is lived in the faith of Christ, walking in Him.

Okay, yeah. That's what I honestly the last two words I was going to say. Just go read the entire Book of Colossians and highlight in Him.

Yep. And you will find dozens of times like, A, it is in Him. And so I think it's cool because I'm going to tie right back to our thought that we had from verse 6.

Since you are complete in Him, you're already in Him, stay there, walk there, live there, abide there. That's where it's fulfillment is found, completely in Him. Not the law, not all that stuff, it's in Him.

So I want to say we're out of time, but I will say this. Verse 7, when it says to be rooted and built up in Him, at the end of it, it says, abounding therein with thanksgiving.

Like Paul wrote this to let them know, like it is complete in him, and you can be thankful for it. He's a good God, good Savior to us. So good reason to follow him this week is he's all good to me.

I keep following him and be thankful about it.

I think a position of thanksgiving and gratitude puts our whole week in a different light.

Completely.

If we're going into the week going, I've got to achieve, I've got to whatever, we're going to have a very different week than if we go into it going, God, thank you for being so good to me. This week, I want to be rooted and built up in you.

I'm walking in you because I know everything settled, everything's secure. And so let me show you to others this week so they can have that same life.

That's good. Well, thank you for being with us today on Strength for the Day. Hope it will be a blessing to you this week as you walk in him.

And we will see you next week as we pick up. I think the rest of Chapter number two is where we'll finish out. So have a great week.