Most of the problems we face and about which we pray for other are related to a lack of understanding of Christ, what He did, what it means for us, and what is available to us through Him. Everything you need or should want are offered to us in Christ. They are in Christ, but they are hidden in Christ from the eyes of natural man. Do you see them? Or are they and their eternal worth hidden from you?
The treasures of truth in God's Word are best mined with the spade of meditation. If we read the Word of God hurriedly or carelessly, we will miss its deep insights. It is only this full knowledge and wisdom of Christ that is able to keep a believer from being deceived by false doctrinal arguments and debates.
Let us bow our heads in prayer.
Heavenly Father,
Our children have run amuck. And that’s not just occurring in our metropolitan cities, in the urban areas, but even in rural areas that once were thought to have much less problems. Society today has come to a place where many are willing to trade honor, truth, moral living, and commitment for depravity and self-seeking pleasure, and personal happiness.
Most people don’t have a problem today with abortion, fornication, adultery, stealing, drugs, and even murder, as long as they can live in nice houses, good jobs, lots of toys and electronic gadgets, and can take plenty of vacations—self happiness.
It is sad for the leader who dares teach and preach God’s Word amidst this mindset. Heartbreaking because it’s from out of this mindset of worldly wisdom that churches demean not only the Bible, but God’s leader, therefore stifling the power of God.
While it's definitely easier to preach "easy believism" and "Jesus loves you" messages, than it is to stand up and lead as Jesus taught His disciples to do in the Scriptures.
Church, we were challenged not to cave in, or to paddle downstream with the immoral ills of society. No, we were challenged to be faithful servants, true to the Word of God, and to lead like Jesus Christ Himself taught us to lead. We were also challenged not to become cynical, pessimistic leaders within our churches. It would be easy to just give up and quit, and to just go with the popularity of crowd. And, it would be extremely easy to become pessimistic and to just do nothing. However, that is not what we need in today's culture.
I believe that ministry must be pleasing God, with concern for the congregation and not the other way around. Teaching must be done by faithful, Spirit filled pastors who love Christ and the church, and are deeply concerned about the eternal condition of their souls. Not by those who lead as entertaining, crowd pleasing pastors, and do not those who live as Christ commands.
Therefore, it must a Holy Spirit lead and motivated thing, because it’s a very dependent thing upon a man’s own motivation. By that I mean to say, there is no one sitting behind you, looking over your shoulder, as with some situations, saying you have to do this or that. It can be very tempting to do what comes naturally and go along the lines of the path of least resistance
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that our society today is in real trouble. Truth and persuasion do not always correlate. Error can persuade, and truth can be uncompelling at times. It all depends on whether one has the full truth and a complete commitment to it.Unfortunately, it seems like there is a tendency in today’s culture to stress Jesus as Savior, but to kind of conveniently forget the part about also making Him our Lord. Maybe, it’s because we don’t really use the word "Lord" a lot today. When we think of the word lord, it seems that many often associate it with the Lord of the Rings or the lord of the Sith in the Star Wars movies, or maybe even with the House of Lords in England. But the word simply means the one who is in charge the master or the boss.
When we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord, and Master, it means that we accept His Sovereign rule and Authority over our lives. We make a decision to let Him determine the priorities for our lives. We agree to submit our own desires to His desires for us.
The readers of Paul’s letter had made such a decision and Paul is commending them for it. But as we’ll see in just a moment, making the decision is just the beginning of our journey to knowing God; that’s not all there is to knowing God.
Paul uses two illustrations to describe the necessity of depending on Christ’s power. First, he says that we are to be "rooted in Jesus." In Greek, the word "rooted" is what is known as a perfect participle. That means that it is an action that was completed in the past, but has continuing results.
Verse 7, "having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude."
I’m sure that most of you have probably planted a tree at one time or another. When you first plant the tree, it is important to dig a hole large enough so that the roots are all underground. The tree is rooted in the soil. Hopefully, that is something I only have to do once. But when that tree is first planted, it can be knocked over pretty easily. And as I water the tree and it grows, it becomes more firmly anchored. That is what Paul wants us to do with Jesus. We put our roots into Him and then as He nourishes us and supplies us with His power we become more and more firmly anchored in him. And in the process, we get to know God better and better.
The second illustration that Paul uses is the picture of a building. We are to be "built up" in Jesus. Here Paul uses a present participle, which indicates a present and continuing action. It could accurately be translated: "being continuously built up."When we accept Jesus as Savior and Lord, He becomes the foundation for our life. And as we learn to depend on His power, He continues the work of building on that foundation.
Philippians 1:6 says "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus."So, I have frequently been asked, "What practical steps can I take to depend on Christ’s power?" Beloved, we need to look no further than to the life of Jesus. Every time He got in a tight spot, every time He needed strength, what did He do? He went to his Father in prayer. He went to his Father in prayer.
And that is exactly how you and I rely on Christ’s power. We go to God in prayer and admit our weakness and ask God to pour His power into our life. We ask him to deepen my roots and to build upon the foundation He has already laid in our life.
The first strategy to follow in doing whatever it takes to know God is to choose to accept Christ's priorities for our life. The second strategy, we must depend on Christs' power as we spend time in prayer with Him.
Now, if it wasn’t clear to you from the first two strategies, getting to know God is not a one time effort. It is a continuous process that will continue for all of our lives. That’s why Paul writes in verse 6, thatHowever, there are some people, who go on to college and earn an associate’s or bachelor’s degree. And a portion of those people will go on to get an advanced degree, a master’s or doctor’s degree. But for everyone, there is a final goal and once we reach it, we conclude at least the formal part of our education.
However, in Christianity, the process of getting to know God never ends. We never graduate with a degree in knowing God. In fact, for many Christians that I know, the more they get to know God, the more they realize they have just reached the tip of the iceberg, and how far they have yet to go in their understanding of God."More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you;"
Also in verse 7, Paul says "in your faith, just as you were instructed," again Paul uses a present participle which indicates that we are to be continually strengthened in the faith. Based on the context and the grammatical construction, the faith that Paul is writing about here is body of revealed truth which had been taught to Paul’s readers rather than their own personal faith and trust.Here, Paul is addressing a problem that faced the Colossian church. If you go back to the beginning of Colossians 2, it is obvious there were some false teachers who were trying to deceive the Colossian believers. And although Paul had commended those believers for remaining strong in their faith, he also wanted to make sure that they remained firm.
I believe there is a great lesson for us here, too. We need to consistently go back to those basic truths that we were once taught as the basis for accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord and to be constantly strengthened in our understanding of those crucial principles. And the way that I do that is very simple and practical, spend time in God’s word on a daily basis. That is the only place I can go to find the truth that is the basis for my faith and where my faith can be constantly and consistently strengthened.
"Therefore as y'all have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as y'all were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude."
I know that’s likely grammatically a little over the top, but that’s the way Paul wrote it. And I believe he did it for a reason. As I’ve said before, God never intended Christians to be Lone Rangers. We were created to be in community with other believers, and God intended for us to grow in our knowledge of Him in within that community.
We can get to know God better as we read the Bible and pray on our own, in fact, we need to do that. But if we really want to do whatever it takes to know God, that’s not enough by itself. We need the insight, encouragement and accountability that can only come from interacting with other believers. That’s why God created local bodies of believers. That's why we have the local church.the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen