Hope Church LV Sermons
Colossians 2 :: A LIFE OF FAITH AND GRACE
In his book, Transforming Children into Spiritual Champions, I don't know how many of you have read that book before, but George Barna revealed the results of a nationwide survey he conducted among American 13-year-olds, and here are the results. I want to lose you here. I want you to listen closely to these results. I want you to see where we are in our American culture today. Believe it or not, more than 9 out of 10 young adults surveyed, in fact, 93 percent consider themselves to be Christian by age 13. That astounded me a little bit. 93 percent. But of that 93 percent, listen to their belief system. Listen to what they believed. Three quarters, three out of every four 13-year-olds in America at that time, believe that the devil didn't exist, that Satan is only a symbol of evil. Now, I'm not talking about the seven percent, I'm talking about the 93 percent that said they were Christian. Three out of every four also believe that a good person earned entry into heaven by doing good enough works. Three out of every four believe that people are born morally neutral and make a choice as to become good or bad. Three out of every four believe that all the sacred books are merely different expressions of the same spiritual truths and principles. Three out of four also believe the spiritual and moral truth can only be discovered through logic, human reason, and personal experience. It gets a little bit worse. Two out of every three, he said, believe the following, praying to deceased saints has a positive effect on your life. Two out of every three also believe that the Bible discourages sin but never describes it as an innate behavior. Listen to this. First, half or more than half contend to the following, two things. Number one, there are no absolute standards for morals or ethics. Here's the worst one, in my opinion. Half or more than half believe that when Jesus lived on earth, he committed sins. We're dumbfounded by those stats, we're hurt, we're a little scared. But the truth is the Bible speaks in principle to every one of those statistics. The Bible is the very truth of the Word of God. There is no other truth, yet those are the statistics. How can this be? Let me just say too that this book, how many 23-year-olds are in the room today? Maybe you don't raise your hand, but who's 22, 23, 24-year-old because here's the deal. This book is 10 years old. These statistics that I just read you are from 10 years ago. Guess what? Today, right now in front of me, I know that we have adults sitting in the room, some married, some unmarried. These were the beliefs of a cross-section, a huge cross-section of America about what truth really is. I stand before you today as not just a pastor, but as a Christian, as a Jesus follower, looking at what I believe or probably the majority here are Jesus followers, or at least I want to believe that. How do we not know truth? To be honest, you're saying time you're coming off a little bit angry this morning, you know? You need to calm her down, man. I am a little bit. I mean, I know that a lot of what we believe has happened not just because we haven't spent the time with God on our own, which I know is true, but from what has been preached from the pulpits of America. This is the Bible. This is the Word of God. This is what Jesus followers look at and don't just say those are some good things to follow. Those are some great proverbs. Those are some neat things to know to help me in my life. No, this is our very life. We believe these things, Jesus, the Son of God, the Word of God. Why do we believe like that when we have the Bible? Last week, Pastor Rance talked about the importance of truth and knowing the truth. He reminded us that it's not an uplifting experience, it's not a great sermon, it's not inspiring music, or it's not even great spiritual discipline that you may have personally that will set you free. Do you remember that? John 832, John wrote, "The truth will set you free. The truth." Today, as we dive back into Colossians, man, that's what we're looking at. Remember from last week, Pastor Rance, and last year when we talked about Colossians chapter 1, the context here is there's a church. And this church has been infiltrated, this church has people who are not teaching truth. That's a problem, amen? There's some different beliefs that are happening within the church. There's some people who are trying to come in from outside to teach some things that aren't just a little bit wrong, they are totally wrong, especially about Jesus. Most teachers, and the false teaching, Paul was afraid and a pastor who had written hundreds of miles to get to Paul to tell him, "Paul, listen, man, what you taught me, I've been teaching them, but somehow there's some things that are going on now that aren't right. There's some false teaching, especially about Jesus, that's hurting the fellowship. And I know will hurt them greater in their personal lives as well. And listen, we're not the Colossian church, but we're hope church. And can I tell you, these things are still happening. Let's look at Colossians chapter 2, if you have your Bible, if not, it should be on the screen for you today. I'm going to go back and pick up a little bit of what Pastor Rance taught us last week preached because I believe that it leads well into what we're going to look. We're only going to look at two verses today. Some of you are going, "Yes, chickens coming," to go eat, but we'll see, huh? Chapter 2 verse 1, the Bible says this, "For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf, and for those who have not personally seen my face, that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love and attaining to wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery. That is Christ Himself in whom are hidden, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this so that no one will delude you with persuasive argument for even though I am absent in body. Nevertheless, I am with you in spirit rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ." Remember last week, Pastor Rance said there was this inward struggle, there was this fight going on because he knew that they were going to struggle more because they didn't know truth. And I just want to say this to you today. We don't know enough truth. We need to know more truth. And where is that truth going to come from? It's going to come from the Word of God. Paul knew that. But these people who were young in their faith were going to struggle. And when I realized that many in this room today are not young in the faith, you didn't give your life to Christ this year or this past year or two years ago or even three or five years ago. Some of you have been walking with God for 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years. Can I just say this? Or can I ask you this? Do you know truth? Do you know the truth? But now he says in verse 6 and 7, "Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk in him, having been firmly rooted in now being built up in him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed and overflowing with gratitude. As you have received Christ, there are really just two things I want you to see today, and it's about the salvation that we've been given. The first thing is this, following Jesus is a life of faith. You see, there's something God does to us when we accept him, listen, not just as Savior, but also as Lord. This man who is the Christ is the Savior. This man who is the Messiah is also the Lord. How do we know how to live? How do we know how to behave? See, the truth is, following Jesus is truly a life of faith. Look there in verse 6, the Bible says, "As you therefore, therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord." Paul says here, "You were taught the truth. You believed the truth," and can I tell you today that this man is down some of you, for those of you who have been close to us before, this service, we have an agenda. I promise you, every week there's an agenda. We don't come in here and shoot from the hip and think of, well, maybe it'll happen when we get up on the stage, maybe Teddy and Scott and the guys, you know, maybe Hano, you know, I don't know, maybe Pastor Vance or Travis, no, here's the deal. The agenda is, is to lift Jesus high, to glorify God, the Son of God that we just did. But can I say this too? Inside of that, the agenda is to teach you the truth. We stand and we bring the Bible, not just a black book with some notes. This is the Bible, and can I just say this too, you today? You need this. And so do I. Here's what Paul knew. You have received this. This word received is a word that has to do with, with taking in, with receiving a message or a lesson or something is being taught from a teacher. You heard it. Listen to me, but you did more than hear it. You took it in. You received it. Here's what you said. This is right. I believe it. It's something that God did in me. He illumined my mind to what the truth was. I heard the truth. Now I believe the truth, right? Here's what he said. You have received the truth. What we know is that we've received it by faith. Tom, you can't prove that to me. I see what it says. Yeah. And you know you're right. God quickens our hearts and our minds, but here's the deal. You must receive it. Paul was emphatic. He knew just as, in fact, how he writes this here is, as you have, in other words, in the manner that, in the way that you were taught, how you received this, you have received the Lord Jesus Christ. They had accepted what they had been taught. And can I say this today, a lot of you in this room have done that. Amen? I mean, isn't that why you're sitting here today? Your followers are the one true God, the agenda that we set forth every week in our meetings about lifting high the name of Jesus. You've come to worship Jesus today here. Listen, you don't come to worship Jesus just for your experience. I hope there's a world that don't know Christ. We want them to know that he's alive. And what was the teaching that Jesus is God? Did you hear me? Jesus is God. That we are sinners. That without him, we will spend eternity separated from him. We will have no relationship now or in the future in eternity. And that Jesus fixed all that with that last song that we just sang. The cross was enough. That was the teaching. That's what they had accepted. That's what they had brought in. It was apparent. And as pastors, we have a great responsibility to you. Great. And you know what it is? Not to get up here and give you our commentary on our opinion. We have, in fact, in seminary, they told us the very first day in my preaching class, they said, "You will never do anything better than take the Word of God and read it to the people." We have a great responsibility. But you have a great responsibility, too. And that's to take it in. To receive it. And listen, the other responsibility happens the other, 167 hours of the week. If we can give it to you here, you can receive it. But what happens when you leave this place? He's reminding them just as you have received Jesus Christ, or excuse me, Christ Jesus the Lord, just as you have done that. You say, "Tom, I'm here today, and to be honest with you, I haven't received Christ Jesus the Lord. I'm not even sure if what you're saying is true. I'm not even sure if Jesus Christ really is God, and even if I did, did he really die for sin? And even if he did that, did he really die for my sin?" Yes. How do you know? This is truth. This is it. You say, "Tom, what you believe, that's great and fine, but I don't believe that. That's your choice." But somebody's wrong. I absolutely want to be sensitive to the fact that today, I know that there are people here who haven't accepted Christ, but I want you to hear this with all my heart today. This is all true. Ephesians 2.89 says this, "For it is by grace you have been saved through faith." And that, not of yourselves, is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. This life of a Jesus follower is a life of faith. Jesus did it for us. God has secured what we've needed. It's a life of faith. But secondly, following Jesus is a life of grace. Look at the rest of that verse in verse 6. Look at it there. "Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord," look what he says. So walk in him. This is where we miss it. I almost started running the house when you said that, that was good. So walk in him. You know, unlike the first verb that we looked at received, it's a totally different kind of verb. What Paul was saying here wasn't, here's a reality, here's a truism, here's a truth that you need to know. You've received him, praise the Lord, here's the next step. Walk in him, live, exist. Change your behavior to that. As he changes you from the inside out, listen, you still get to choose what you do and don't do and say. So walk in him. It's a command, it's an imperative verb. Here's what it means. It's not a good idea, it's not a great proverb, it's not a suggestion and it's not good advice. All of you who claim Jesus Christ, walk in him. He goes on to tell us what receiving and walking looks like by describing verse, or by writing verse seven. He says this, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith as you've been taught or instructed, overflowing with thanksgiving, rooted, built up, established just as you've been instructed, as you've been taught on what you've received. And every one of these verbs, rooted, built up and established, every one of them, they do something really weird in the Greek language, and I don't want to, listen, I'm not the Greek scholar, we'll call him Neil Crecian for that to wax eloquent there. But when I'm studying, these things are huge for me. I'm kind of a cut and dried kind of guy. Like I'm a rule follower, man. You tell me it's like this, that's what we're going to do and anybody gets outside the line and Greek does such a great job at that for me. Every one of these verbs, every one of them, these last three are passive verbs. You say, Tom, what does that mean? Pastor Vance has described it to you before and I'll describe it to you again so you can understand it a little bit better. Active verbs are like this, I hit the ball, right? The subject does the action. Middle verbs is, when we actually don't have these in our language, but Greek, the Greek language did, would be saying, I did it to myself, so the subject actually performed whatever the action was on himself. But passive verbs says that somebody did it to me, that the action was performed by someone else on the subject. They're all passive. I'll look at it again, rooted, who did the rooting? God. You say, Tom, it says, I've received it. You received the truth, but only God could do what he did. He's the one that is set in the stage. It's the picture of a tree, right, of a plant. Most rooms in Florida, we were a much different climate than we are here. And in Florida and Orlando, Florida, the temperature would go under freezing two hours per year. I was asleep both hours. I literally cut my grass every week of the year, Christmas, New Year's. And the most dreaded plant was the mushroom in very moisture-ridden areas of our country where there is actually moisture in the air. Mushrooms thrive and they love it. And here's what I could do. I could mow my yard one day. I could get up the next morning. And as soon as I looked out my window, there would be 20 mushrooms in my yard. It was like a joke the first time I saw it. Who did that? Somebody's playing a joke on me. The mushrooms just take six hours to grow. I grew up in Tennessee, though. Lots of hardwood trees in Tennessee. Oak trees, man. It took forever for those things to grow. You plant those little things and it would just take years. In fact, full maturity, 60 years. But guess what? When a hard rain would come. When a strong wind would blow, the mushrooms would topple over, but the tree would stay. Do you see the picture? Here's the question. How firmly rooted are you in the Word of God? Are you like a mushroom or are you like a oak tree? Rooted. Rooted. Firm. Keeping the ground not going to move and listen, here's what Paul knew. When the false teachers came, those who weren't rooted were going to be plucked right out. Those who were rooted though, and he's reminding them, listen, you've been rooted and rooted plants don't move under duress. The second thing he said right here, not just rooted, but built up, being built up. Again, passive. Now, the thing I didn't tell you as well about all three of these verbs, they're all exactly the same. They're all present, passive, participles, all three of them. Somebody else did it. It's happening right now. Listen, you weren't just rooted in the past, you're rooted now. You are being rooted. You are continuing to be rooted and here's the thing. You're also continuing to be built up. Here he kind of switches the picture from a plant or a tree to a building. You're being encouraged. Listen, you're being encouraged to grow in your walk with God. You're being built up. A pathris is doing the teaching. A pathris is teaching the word of God to you, but you as well are spending time with God. You as well are being built up in the faith, because that's what happens in salvation. I was saved, I am saved, and I will be saved. There's a process. You say, I thought we were saved. We are. I thought I am, I am. So I'm going to be yes. There's a process. You're building up and he said, you are being built up in him. One commentator said it like this, rooted to stay so, great, great foundation rooted to stay so. And then the last thing he says is established in your faith, to be made firm, to be made strengthened, to be strengthened, to be stable, established. So you see the picture rooted, being built up, but now established in your faith. And let me just remind us again, God is the one who roots. He is the one who builds up and he's the one who establishes us. He says, established in your faith. And he wasn't talking about just what you believe. But now he's talking about the whole of F, faith itself, what the scripture teaches, what the truth really is. This is kind of an overarching theme here of true faith, believing, being rooted, built up, and now established. And then he says something very interesting, overflowing with thanksgiving, with gratitude. And when we look at that word overflowing, we like to put it with the gratitude part, with the thanksgiving. Oh, overflowing with, no, no, actually the way it's written, check this out. Overflowing goes with the three part of sipples. Think about it, overflowing, and being rooted, and built up, and established. Overflowing with walking in him. I want you to go back for just a second and think about those stats I read you when we first started. What I didn't tell you was 4% of the 93% who said they were Christian were actually born again evangelical. I know that there are many different thoughts in this room today on what truth looks like. I know because I've spoken to many of you, maybe most. When we're not here to bash or to pick out or set aside some faith or lack of that disagrees with me, but I am here to say this, if what we believe doesn't line up with this, then we aren't rooted, we're not being built up, and we're never going to be established. I don't know who's coming your way today this week, but what we've been asked to do is to walk. We've been asked to walk in the faith that God gave us. Yes, He did the saving. I didn't do any of it. I couldn't. We've been asked to walk as we've been rooted, as we've been built up, and as we were being established, but He said He would do it in us. Walk, live, exist as a Jesus follower in a life of faith and a life of grace, but there are two things I want to take away today that I want you to take away as you leave. The first thing is this, a Jesus follower believes and follows the teachings of the Bible. I know that's simple. Tom, duh, really, yes. I don't stand here and tell you all the counseling sessions that most of us pastors have been through, that's not what we do, but I've learned a lot from counseling sessions. I've learned a lot about myself. I wonder, do we really know the truth? Tom, you don't understand, I know what the Bible says, but this is not how I feel. A Jesus follower believes and follows the teachings of the Bible. No other book, no other teaching is revered and respected as much as the Bible and the life of a true follower of Jesus, here's the question, how well do you know it? Do you know what it says? Secondly, take away number two. Truth is only found in the Bible. Are you telling me that there's no other truth in the world? Listen, I'll be honest with you. This is the only one I trust. Listen, lots of people got lots of thoughts. What are you basing what you've believed on? How are we going to reach this world if the truth that we believe is not right from here? How? Only the teaching of Scripture. So I want to exhort you today because I don't know if I've made this as clear as possible or as need be. This is where we're hurting. In the church worldwide, but even here at Hope, we teach the truth and we want you to believe the truth, but I truly believe, as Paul stated here, so walk in him, as you have received so walk in him, as you receive Christ Jesus, our Lord, the Lord, so walk in him. You will not be able to walk without the truth. I don't know how many 23-year-olds are in this room today and I don't even know if you were in the survey. You could have been, but it's not getting better, it's getting worse. Peace what you believe on the Scripture. That's what God's ask us to do. [BLANK_AUDIO]