back to index2019-02-20: Wed Bible Study Lesson 6
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Alright, we're looking at Colossians chapter 2, 1 through 8. And, you know, I've had some 00:00:11.000 |
conversations with people in this Bible study, and I know for some of you who've never done 00:00:15.800 |
inductive Bible study, this is a lot. Alright, those of you who've never, you know, if you 00:00:21.560 |
haven't been in the habit of reading the Bible, and all of a sudden you jump in asking questions, 00:00:26.360 |
and cross-referencing, and it's a lot. But, it's kind of like exercising, right? If you 00:00:35.280 |
haven't exercised for a long time, your muscle hurts, and it's tiring, but in the long run, 00:00:40.360 |
it's good for you, right? And so, getting in the habit of studying the Bible is not just important, 00:00:47.560 |
it is essential. It is essential to your walk with God, because if you don't learn how to eat 00:00:53.040 |
spiritual food, you will always be dependent upon somebody else to feed you. So, if you happen to 00:01:00.720 |
be around other people who are encouraging you, strengthening you, then you're doing okay. But, 00:01:06.400 |
as soon as those people disappoint you, or something goes wrong, you're in the pits, 00:01:10.200 |
right? And so, you can't live your Christian life always hitched to somebody else feeding you. And 00:01:16.800 |
so, this is absolutely, this is not just important, it is essential for your walk with God, right? And, 00:01:22.560 |
obviously, Apostle Paul even mentions that about not being persuaded with persuasiveness of speech. 00:01:29.000 |
And so, it's constantly coming in where there's a deliberate attack for you to stray in your mind, 00:01:35.600 |
and your thinking, and your life. So, if that's where you are, you're not walking with God, 00:01:39.880 |
you probably don't even notice that that's happening. But, if you're even somewhat interested 00:01:44.000 |
in trying to pursue God, you'll probably have already noticed that there is a constant pressure 00:01:49.600 |
and attack, or even subtle, that's coming in to cause you to stray, right? And so, again, 00:01:54.600 |
I can't emphasize enough why this is so important, okay? And, I've also had some conversation with 00:02:02.320 |
you guys where, you know, you've read the Bible, and maybe you've even memorized, but you've never 00:02:07.480 |
studied the Bible in this way before. And, I'm hoping that some of you will share the same 00:02:13.000 |
sentiment. It is a world of difference between hearing a sermon and giving you insights that 00:02:19.440 |
I've received, and just kind of spoon-feeding you, and coming back saying, "Oh, I'm really 00:02:24.000 |
encouraged by that," than you searching and finding treasures for yourselves, right? So, 00:02:30.200 |
how many of you find that? It's just a completely different insight, completely different impact. 00:02:37.760 |
Just raise your hand. Show other people. Okay? World of difference, right? So, if you're able 00:02:44.200 |
to—I remember, I shared this before, but I remember the first time just in the library, 00:02:48.120 |
just starting through Thessalonians, and the insight that I was able to gain on my own. And, 00:02:53.000 |
all of a sudden, it really felt like I had three eyes, and one of my eyes got open. I wasn't using 00:02:58.000 |
it for all that time, and all of a sudden, it just—I had a completely different perspective 00:03:02.520 |
of the world, that I was able to come to the Word of God. And, it's different hearing from 00:03:07.080 |
somebody, "God said this," versus hearing from God directly, right? Because that's what it feels 00:03:13.480 |
like when you gain insight from the Word of God, and God begins to speak to you directly from God's 00:03:17.840 |
Word. Okay? So, even though it's tedious, and it may be difficult, and you do have to do some work 00:03:24.400 |
in order to gain things out of it, it is a world of difference in your walk with God to be able to 00:03:29.520 |
come to the Word and find insights on your own. Okay? So, let me pray for us, and we'll jump right 00:03:33.720 |
in. Heavenly Father, we pray for your blessing. I know that some of us here come from a full day 00:03:43.320 |
of work, and we may be physically tired, but we pray that your living Word would constantly 00:03:48.520 |
recalibrate our thoughts and our spirits, that we may have an eternal perspective, that we would 00:03:53.200 |
not live day to day in the grind, and just caught up with the rest of the world, Lord God, and 00:03:58.280 |
allowing year to year just go by. Help us to be purposeful. Help us, Lord God, live consistent 00:04:04.620 |
with the faith that we profess. Help us to gain insight from your Word, that we may know who you 00:04:10.440 |
are, and to follow you with all our hearts. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. All right. So, the first 00:04:18.320 |
thing, if you look at the questions that I gave you, and again this is just kind of help you, guide 00:04:23.680 |
you through some of the things that that I'll be going over, but the first thing every week, just 00:04:28.920 |
to kind of give you some guidance, it says look for repeated words, similar words, and ideas in 00:04:33.520 |
the immediate area to get an idea of the thought flow of the writer. Okay? So, as you are studying 00:04:38.880 |
this, before you ask questions, as you are reading this, that's probably the first thing that you 00:04:44.240 |
should be doing. Right? What are words that are repeated here? What are phrases that are repeated? 00:04:50.800 |
What are, look for words that connect ideas or conclude ideas from one thought to another. Right? 00:04:57.200 |
You should be circling these, highlighting these, connecting these, because it'll help you get the 00:05:03.160 |
thought flow of the writer. You understand what I'm saying? And that's why I divided the verses in 00:05:10.160 |
the way that I did. Right? Instead of just giving you verse by verse 1, verse 2, verse 3, verse 4, I 00:05:15.960 |
try to break it down into the thought flow, so you can clearly see that this is his main point, this 00:05:21.920 |
is his sub point, and then therefore he transitions into this, and this sentence leads to these 00:05:27.400 |
thoughts. So that while you are reading it, you clearly see the outline of what he's saying. Right? 00:05:32.880 |
What's the point, what's a sub point, and what is his supporting argument? Right? So, these are things 00:05:39.280 |
that I told you that every time if I do Bible study, prepare for sermons, I do this first, and 00:05:44.760 |
then I go back and look for repeated words or phrases or transitional phrases, and then once 00:05:50.720 |
I start circling these things, it's pretty clear what he's trying to get at. Right? And then once 00:05:56.800 |
I get the outline of his thoughts, then I can go back and start asking questions. What did he mean 00:06:01.120 |
by that? Why did he say this? And clearly he's saying this, and it concludes over here, but if 00:06:06.280 |
you, before you get all of that, and you jump in, and why did he mean this, you're asking a question 00:06:11.520 |
outside the context that you don't understand yet. You understand? Okay? So you have to understand the 00:06:19.560 |
context before you jump in to the text. That's why we do a broad study, chapter study, and then, and 00:06:27.320 |
then you have smaller divisions like one through eight, but even within the smaller divisions, 00:06:32.360 |
there are paragraphs, and there's ideas. So you want to break that down before you start to get 00:06:37.840 |
into, because it'll help you gain observations. Okay? So what are some words that are repeated 00:06:44.800 |
here? Just yell it out if you, if you notice, and it doesn't have to be the exact same words. Similar 00:06:53.060 |
words. Okay? Christ, definitely. Can you point it out to us? It doesn't just have to be you. Obviously 00:07:06.960 |
Christ is repeated. Tell us where you see it. Okay? Verse two. Where is that? Here? Keep yelling it out. 00:07:22.320 |
Five, six, and then eight. Okay? Hm? Okay. Good. Him. Keep going. Six says him. Where else? I thought 00:07:47.120 |
I did it. Okay. What are you looking at? Okay. Christ himself. In whom? Okay. Good. Anything 00:08:14.520 |
else? In? Okay. So in transition. Okay. Oh, is that what you mean? Okay. Okay. Alright. Very good. 00:08:33.720 |
So clearly, right, just, just looking at the highlights alone, you can say, I mean, this is, 00:08:40.160 |
this is like, what about Christ is something else. But obviously he's talking about Christ, right? I 00:08:46.480 |
mean, the whole Bible is talking about Christ, but it's concentrated here. Okay. What, what else? 00:08:51.440 |
Okay. Knowledge. Okay. Can you yell out where it is? No. Okay. Wait. Is there something else? I 00:09:04.240 |
only have one highlight. All right. No, there's no yellow. There's no purple. What? Wait, like 00:09:21.320 |
that? Oh. Yeah, you guys treat me like grandpa. Okay. Okay. Where else? Okay. Where's that? Okay. 00:09:47.520 |
Okay. Okay. Anywhere else? Okay. Good. Understanding. Okay. So you can see that, 00:10:09.960 |
that's kind of concentrated here in the beginning. Okay. So all of these things will help us. Is 00:10:14.880 |
there anything else? Oh. Okay. Okay. That's, that's good insight where Paul says repeatedly, 00:10:28.680 |
"I." Right? So what does that tell us when you see repeatedly he's saying, "I"? Something about 00:10:37.720 |
his ministry, about his, his goal, his desire. Okay. Good. What else? Okay. Treasures of wealth. 00:10:47.040 |
Okay. Can you tell me where they are? Okay. Did I miss something? Is that it? Or did I miss 00:11:06.800 |
something? Can you see? Okay. Anything else? Okay. All right. Good. I was waiting for that to 00:11:23.640 |
come out. All right. So. Okay. Very good. In fact, we'll see the word good discipline also fits 00:11:42.240 |
into that. Right? Even built up. So all of these are similar ideas of being stable. Right? 00:11:48.840 |
Being rooted. Okay. Okay. The opposite of that deception, delusion, being captive. Right? Okay. 00:12:01.320 |
So just from the repeated words, you can already see the thought flow. Right? And so where is this 00:12:06.920 |
division? Versus two, like one, two, and three. Right? How would you title this? Maybe Paul's 00:12:25.360 |
goal in ministry. And then five and six, instructions for the church. 00:12:52.080 |
Okay. So broadly speaking, that's how it's kind of broken down. Right? All right. So let's go 00:13:01.760 |
back and look at verse one. He starts by saying, for I want you to know. And again, these are 00:13:10.240 |
things that, like I said, if possible, do not look at commentaries. Right? Even if there might be 00:13:18.680 |
great insight in the commentary, our goal in this Bible study is not for you to learn how to use the 00:13:23.680 |
commentaries. Because if you are in the habit of going to comment to every question you have, 00:13:28.400 |
before digging, before doing the homework, you're going to just jump and say, oh, I wonder what my 00:13:33.080 |
study Bible says. Or I wonder what he says. And then whatever he says becomes your theology. And 00:13:37.760 |
then if you were asked to defend it, you can't defend it. Right? I've talked to so many people 00:13:44.120 |
who say, I'm a cessationist, I'm a Calvinist. It's like, why? And then they'll quote somebody. It's 00:13:50.520 |
like, I didn't ask you, like, they're not the final authority. Like, I didn't ask you what John 00:13:54.440 |
McCarthy thinks. I didn't ask you what some study Bible says. Like, how did you come to that 00:13:59.000 |
conclusion? So a lot of people can't defend the doctrines that they're so strong on. How can you 00:14:05.960 |
be so strong on a doctrine that you can't defend? Other than dropping names or some books that you 00:14:11.640 |
read. Right? You have to be able to defend it. So if you don't get in the habit of studying the Word 00:14:16.400 |
of God, your doctrines will always be dependent upon who influenced you the most. So if you're 00:14:22.600 |
in college and you happen to be a part of a Bible study that has certain doctrines, everything they 00:14:27.480 |
believe, you're regurgitated. They're not your convictions. They're convictions of people that 00:14:32.160 |
you respected. Right? Until they become your convictions, you're not going to be able to 00:14:36.720 |
defend it. So when somebody else comes along that you respect, that starts to contradict the 00:14:41.520 |
doctrines that you profess, you're going to get confused. You don't know what to believe. And then 00:14:46.680 |
you become open to all kinds of attack. Right? And so again, you have to get in the habit of looking 00:14:52.680 |
at the scripture and finding where you found your convictions. And you can't do that unless you're 00:14:57.360 |
in the Word of God yourself. So the word for "no" here, again, this is not something that you would 00:15:02.320 |
know unless you know the background. This is one of those things that are very, very key in 00:15:07.400 |
interpretation. Because there are different words for "no." Right? And I've mentioned it so many times 00:15:13.520 |
in sermons and Bible study. There is a two basic understandings, "Oida" and what's the other word? 00:15:18.760 |
"Gnosko." Right? "Oida" is just learning from perception, studying. Right? The word here is "Oida." 00:15:27.000 |
When he says here, "knowledge of God," guess what that is? "Gnosko." Right? So his goal in for you to 00:15:38.760 |
"Oida" is what? So that you may have "Gnosko." Okay? So just by knowing the two different words, even 00:15:48.520 |
though in English is the same word, you know that everything he's saying here, like I want you to 00:15:54.360 |
perceive and understand how much I labor for you, how much I suffered so that you may be united in 00:15:59.240 |
mind. And he says all of this for what purpose? Where does he take us to? So that you may have a 00:16:04.680 |
true knowledge of God's mystery, that you may personally know. Right? So he's not, again, as we said 00:16:12.040 |
over and over again, our goal of the study, whether it's Hebrews, Revelation, or Leviticus, or 00:16:19.080 |
Colossians, is not simply so you can say, "I, Oida." Right? That I know what it says. I can tell you and 00:16:27.400 |
give you the answer. The goal of every "Oida" in Bible study is to get you to "Gnosko." 00:16:33.560 |
Have a personal knowledge of God. Right? So again, this is not something that you would know just in 00:16:38.680 |
English, but again, as you continue to do interpretation, that's one of the first questions 00:16:42.600 |
that you will ask. Is this "Oida" or is this "Gnosko?" Because that will make a big difference in how you 00:16:47.000 |
understand this text. Okay? So he starts by saying, "How great a struggle I have for you, 00:16:52.920 |
behalf of you and Laodicea." Only one question came in today, and that is, "Why does he mention 00:16:59.240 |
Laodicea with Colossians?" It's because Colossae is right under Laodicea. Colossae could have easily 00:17:07.080 |
been one of the seven letters of the Asia Minor churches in Book of Revelation, because it literally 00:17:14.280 |
is right underneath. The very next city is Colossae. If you remember, remember Asia Minor, that whole 00:17:21.880 |
area, Church of Smyrna, Philadelphia, Laodicea, like all those churches right there, they're all in Asia 00:17:27.880 |
Minor. If you remember, Asia Minor was a place where the Holy Spirit tells Paul not to go. 00:17:32.360 |
And then he has a vision, and he ends up going into Macedonia because of a vision to come over. 00:17:40.120 |
During that period, there was heavy persecution that was going on in Asia Minor. Right? So if you 00:17:45.080 |
remember, there's very significant things that are happening in this place, because one, persecution 00:17:50.920 |
is happening where the Holy Spirit tells him to avoid it for a period. Right? Later on, Church of 00:17:56.120 |
Ephesus is also in that area, where Paul spends the most number of time, or amount of time, in 00:18:02.200 |
planting a church. And so Paul had a deep personal connection to this area. The whole Book of Galatians, 00:18:09.320 |
right, is also written. And then he writes Galatians because there was a very urgent matter of the 00:18:15.400 |
Judaizers having a deep impact. So the false teachers were having a huge impact in this area. 00:18:20.920 |
So if you look at a lot of Paul's attention, much of it goes to that area. And even the seven 00:18:26.600 |
churches are located right in that area. You understand what I'm saying? Okay. So those churches 00:18:32.440 |
in Asia Minor, there's a concentration of activity that's taking place right in that area. Right? 00:18:37.720 |
So Paul is writing this church to Colossae, but his concern is not just Colossae, because 00:18:43.000 |
the influence is way, way beyond Colossae. The other churches are being affected by what he's 00:18:48.200 |
concerned about here. Okay? One of the first questions I asked in this is, "How great a 00:18:53.800 |
struggle I have for..." Why was it important that the Colossians and the others knew that Paul was 00:18:59.160 |
struggling from that? This is just a, you know, just a thought that I had. Like, why do you think 00:19:07.240 |
Paul starts out by saying, "I want you to know how much I'm struggling for you." Is it just 00:19:11.320 |
because he's trying to introduce themselves? It's like, "Yay, you know, like this is what I'm doing 00:19:16.520 |
for you. You better appreciate me when I get there." Right? "Get some good food ready, because 00:19:21.000 |
you don't know how much I struggle for you." Why is it important that they understand how much he's 00:19:28.840 |
struggling for them? Okay, to encourage them that they're important. Right? Again, you have to 00:19:40.840 |
understand that Apostle Paul wasn't an ordinary missionary. He was the apostle appointed for the 00:19:47.320 |
Gentiles. Right? So when the Apostle Paul is writing this letter, he's not just your uncle or 00:19:54.200 |
some guy that they respect. This is the appointed apostle to them. Right? So for him to say, "You 00:20:01.000 |
don't know how much I'm struggling for you." I mean, that's like almost saying, "God is bringing 00:20:05.400 |
you to my attention. You're important to God." Right? In Apostle Paul, specific revelation is 00:20:12.440 |
coming through Apostle Paul, where he's getting the mystery that was hidden for a period, and he's 00:20:17.080 |
revealing it to them. So the fact that Paul is struggling to get to them, again, it's a reminder 00:20:22.600 |
to them. He's not talking about how much I love you. Right? Of course, that is written in here, 00:20:29.560 |
but it's a reminder to them so that they may be what? Encouraged. Right? The Apostle Paul knows 00:20:37.320 |
you. Right? And he's praying for you, and he's struggling and risking his life to get this 00:20:42.120 |
message to you. So be encouraged. God has not forgotten you. He's not simply speaking on his 00:20:48.120 |
behalf. He's speaking on behalf of Christ. Right? When he says, "I'm personally see me in front of 00:20:56.760 |
that their hearts may be encouraged." What do you think was the source of their encouragement? 00:21:01.960 |
This is where we get into trouble, because we want to encourage people. Like Apostle Paul says, 00:21:09.000 |
his goal is to encourage them. So we want to encourage you. Right? So if encouragement is 00:21:15.800 |
the goal, how do I encourage you? God loves you just the way you are. There's nothing you can do 00:21:23.960 |
for God to love you any more than the way he loves you now. There's nothing you can do where God's 00:21:29.160 |
going to be disappointed in you. You're salvaged, you're secure. Right? Now, none of this is wrong, 00:21:34.120 |
but we have to understand when he says, "I'm coming, I'm suffering, 00:21:39.960 |
so that you may be encouraged." What was the content of his encouragement? 00:21:44.360 |
Right? Well, he spells it out. Right? That you may have the attaining to the all the wealth 00:21:53.080 |
that comes from the full assurance of understanding. In other words, all of it. 00:21:57.480 |
He's not just talking about the things that you like. He's talking about your encouragement comes 00:22:03.560 |
from the whole truth. Right? And nothing but the truth. So the encouragement isn't just, 00:22:11.400 |
"God loves you, has a wonderful plan for your life," but the whole encouragement is the gospel 00:22:15.640 |
itself. All of it. That you may come to a true knowledge of God's mystery, that is Christ himself, 00:22:21.480 |
in whom are hidden the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Right? So we have to be careful that 00:22:27.080 |
we don't make encouragement our goal. Encouragement is the byproduct of truth. 00:22:31.800 |
Okay? Encouragement is not the end goal. It's just something that we get when we pursue the truth. 00:22:39.960 |
Right? And if you also notice, he said, "The encouraged having been knit together in love 00:22:47.480 |
and attaining to all the wealth that comes from him, the full assurance of understanding." So 00:22:52.360 |
all of these things are things that we pursue together. So truth and practice of love and being 00:22:59.880 |
encouraged, they're all tied together. Right? You don't have pursuit of truth and unity as two 00:23:06.600 |
separate things. You can't have one without the other. You can't have a heart that's filled with 00:23:12.200 |
bitterness and disunited and says, "But when it comes to truth, I'm right." Because your ability 00:23:17.480 |
to understand the truth is directly linked to the condition of your heart. Right? Even justification, 00:23:27.320 |
it says, "They suppress the truth because they prefer the darkness rather than the light." 00:23:33.800 |
So they reject the truth. Do you think that doesn't happen as Christians? 00:23:37.000 |
If you reject the truth in one arena of your life, do you think that doesn't affect your ability 00:23:44.360 |
to understand the heart of God? What is intended? Yeah, of course it does. Right? 00:23:49.960 |
So that's why when the scripture says, "Before you bring a gift to the altar, if you know that 00:23:54.120 |
somebody has something against you, go and deal with that first." Right? "Forgive my debts as I 00:23:59.960 |
have forgiven my debtors." Right? And so that's why every time we have communion, he says to 00:24:06.760 |
examine. "He who eats and drinks without acknowledging the body of Christ eats and 00:24:11.080 |
drinks judgment upon himself." So every time we have communion, it forces us to examine. 00:24:15.640 |
Is my relationship with God separate from my relationship with one another? They're together. 00:24:24.200 |
Right? You can't be right with God if you're wrong with your brothers and sisters. 00:24:30.200 |
If you're not walking right with God, your ability to discern the truth is affected. Right? 00:24:36.360 |
It is. So if you haven't been praying, if you haven't been living a holy life and life with 00:24:43.320 |
integrity, whether it's with your time and with your money, and then you somehow separate that 00:24:48.600 |
from being able to discern the truth, they go hand in hand. Because we discern the truth by our 00:24:55.720 |
mind, we also discern the truth by our spirit. So if your spirit is not right, it also affects 00:25:01.880 |
your ability to understand. So he says, "Encourage, knit together, that we may attain the wealth that 00:25:07.480 |
comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in the knowledge of the mystery, 00:25:11.320 |
which is Christ himself." Right? Ultimately, it's not simply about the gospel. The gospel is Jesus. 00:25:17.160 |
Right? Again, I mentioned that the celebration of the gospel is not celebrating the open door, 00:25:24.040 |
but what the open door leads to. Right? The gospel isn't access to God. It's God himself. 00:25:30.680 |
Access is just a road. Right? To celebrate that we have access to God and not actually taking 00:25:37.080 |
the access, you miss the whole point of salvation. The goal is Christ. Okay? He says all of this 00:25:44.280 |
because I say this so that no one will delete you in persuasive arguments. And then he says it again 00:25:48.920 |
later on in verse 8, "See to it that no one takes you captive." And so you could already tell, 00:25:53.160 |
right, that this is on his mind. There's something urgent going on in Colossae and Laodicea and 00:26:00.360 |
Galatians and Ephesus. False teaching has penetrated into the church and he's trying to combat that. 00:26:06.440 |
Right? And that's the reason why he's telling them to commit to the truth, to commit to one another. 00:26:12.280 |
Right? Because as soon as your heart is filled with division, there's a crack where Satan can 00:26:18.760 |
attack even in the way that you think, even the way that you perceive things, 00:26:22.760 |
can be perverted by allowing that to permeate in your heart. Right? So we'll get back to verse 4, 00:26:31.480 |
"For even though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your 00:26:38.520 |
good discipline," and simply some of your translations will say "orderly." Right? And 00:26:44.360 |
that's why I said this good discipline, stability, they all are similar words. So Paul's concern here, 00:26:50.120 |
verses 5 and 6, is instructions for the church for nothing fancy. It's not taking over the world and 00:26:57.080 |
making sure the gospel goes and risking your life for Christ. Paul's concern for them is to remain 00:27:02.680 |
stable because they're being attacked. Right? So there are periods in our life where we need to 00:27:10.440 |
bear arms, basically spiritually, and be ready to run into darkness. But the stage that they're in 00:27:17.080 |
now is they're being provoked. Right? And just like the book of Hebrews, they're kind of 00:27:23.960 |
starting to drift maybe because of persuasive arguments. Right? So he's saying to be orderly, 00:27:30.920 |
to stay stable in your faith. "Therefore, as you have received Christ, so walk in him." Right? 00:27:38.200 |
It's not enough to just say you receive Christ. Like are you applying it in your life? What is, 00:27:43.160 |
what does your faith look like in your life outside of Wednesday Bible study and Sunday 00:27:47.640 |
worship? Right? "Walk in him, having been firmly rooted, being built up in him, 00:27:54.760 |
establishing your faith." Right? And so much of our Christian faith is about this. 00:28:06.280 |
So much of our Christian faith is learning to be strong. Right? Being rooted in Christ is not 00:28:11.720 |
something that happens in one time. It's something that happens because of godly habit. You know, 00:28:17.720 |
I want to say something. I know that ever since Pastor Peter Chung came to our church, there's 00:28:21.480 |
this revival of Bible memory. Right? And I knew that was going to happen because he was, he had 00:28:27.720 |
influence. You know, we were like Bible memory was like a thing in our church, mainly because of 00:28:32.360 |
Pastor Peter Chung. Now we always, I always say, you know, I'm amazed by his memory because he's, 00:28:38.200 |
he's, he's like, he amazes me. Right? About how much he remembers. And so if he ever says, 00:28:45.080 |
"Hey, in 2014 this happened." Even if I don't remember, it's like, it probably happened. 00:28:50.680 |
Right? Because he's good. He's good at that. But as great as his memory is, 00:28:58.520 |
the reason why he's so, so good at memorizing, and I don't mean to embarrass him, is because he 00:29:03.080 |
devotes himself to that. He doesn't just read it and as he gets it, it's not like that. He, 00:29:09.320 |
every day, two, three hours a day, he's in front of, he's in front of his, his cards, he's 00:29:13.880 |
memorizing. So he's utilizing the gift that he has, he's maximizing it. And that's why he's so 00:29:20.120 |
good at it. Right? It's not simply because, yes, God has given him a gift of good memory. But he 00:29:25.320 |
wouldn't, he would, he would remember a lot of random things for no, no good purpose. Like what 00:29:30.760 |
kind of tie I wore 15 years ago. I mean, useless information. Right? But the reason why he's good 00:29:37.560 |
at it is because he, he really is devoted. And that's challenging to all of us. Right? So, 00:29:43.000 |
so much of our walk with God isn't something like, "Oh, I go to retreats or heard a great sermon, or 00:29:49.320 |
I joined a good Bible study." So much of our walk with God and our health in our, in our walk with 00:29:54.920 |
God is your daily routines. Or what you do on a day to day basis have far more effect in your walk 00:30:02.360 |
with God than what retreat you went to and what speaker you heard, what book you read, you know, 00:30:09.880 |
what small group or who, who's mentoring you. All of these things are helpful, but nothing will 00:30:16.200 |
impact you as much of a, as much as a daily discipline that you value and you do on a daily 00:30:23.080 |
basis. Right? So Paul talking about all of this, all of these things, he says, talking about being 00:30:28.600 |
stable, being rooted, being built up, being established. Right? And that's what we're trying 00:30:33.160 |
to work on in our Bible studies, right? In our daily routines. See to it that no one takes you 00:30:39.160 |
captive. Right? Captive basically means to be carried off. Right? In fact, some of your 00:30:47.960 |
translations, it may actually even say, take, take you hostage involuntarily. And he says, 00:30:54.440 |
it's because he's using, just like he says in verse four, persuasive arguments. 00:31:00.200 |
With these arguments, if they weren't persuasive, it wouldn't be tempting. No one would be deceived. 00:31:05.960 |
It's because it's coming through very articulate men who seem to be representing God, who seem to 00:31:13.000 |
know the scripture, but they're twisting it. Right? So he says, the reason why they're in danger is 00:31:19.720 |
because these arguments are persuasive. They're persuasive because they're philosophical. You know, 00:31:25.960 |
they have the ability to deceive. It's in accord with tradition of men. In other words, this is 00:31:31.080 |
around us all the time, according to elementary principles of the world. So the basic principles 00:31:37.640 |
that surround us and tempt us every single day. So these false teachings are tapping into that. 00:31:43.240 |
Why is the health and wealth gospel so popular? Because it's tapping into the worldly principle. 00:31:49.880 |
Right? That if you work hard, you're going to make money. If you go to get the right job, 00:31:56.520 |
and if you connect with the right people, and the health and wealth gospel basically is tapping into 00:32:01.400 |
those worldly principles and saying, well, all these things may not work. If you tap into God, 00:32:05.800 |
you can get that. Right? So nothing has changed. Only your means to get the world has changed. 00:32:11.960 |
And that's why it's so popular because they haven't abandoned anything. They've never picked 00:32:18.040 |
up their cross. They've never denied themselves. They're still pursuing the world. They're just 00:32:22.920 |
doing it in the name of Jesus. And that's why it's popular. And that's why it says it's persuasive 00:32:27.480 |
arguments in accord with traditions of men, in elementary principles of the world. And it's very 00:32:33.800 |
deceptive because you don't know you're being deceived. Because you're doing it in the name 00:32:40.440 |
of Christ. And because you're in the church, because you're reading the Bible, and you're 00:32:44.280 |
actually praying that you automatically think you're safe. But the only thing that has changed 00:32:50.600 |
is the means to get what you want. You're still pursuing your own life. You're still pursuing 00:32:55.800 |
your flesh. You're still pursuing your own glory. It's just you're hoping that God will give it to 00:32:59.960 |
you instead of you working hard for it. Right? And that's why that theology is so pervasive. And why 00:33:09.080 |
it carries us away. That's why you can be in the church all your life. You call me Lord, Lord, but 00:33:14.600 |
say your heart is far from me. Why did they call him Lord, Lord? It wasn't for me. It wasn't because 00:33:20.760 |
you were you were wanting me to be your Lord. It's Lord, Lord, give me something. Right? Everything 00:33:26.760 |
that they did, they did it for themselves. They didn't do it for God. That's what Jesus meant. 00:33:30.280 |
Right? So he said that that's why it's so pervasive. That's why we need to watch out. 00:33:36.200 |
Right? But in the end, ultimately, his goal is to get us to Christ. Because what's going to 00:33:41.160 |
deliver us from these things that are so powerful in our lives? Right? Because all the wealth and 00:33:47.640 |
wisdom and understanding is where? In Christ. That's how we keep saying over and over again 00:33:54.040 |
to fix your eyes on Christ. Right? Because then you begin to distinguish. Right? When you fix your 00:34:03.160 |
eyes upon Christ, like along with that, the fruit of that, you'll be able to distinguish what is not 00:34:08.840 |
Christ. But when your eyes are not fixed on Christ, sometimes you're very confused. Because 00:34:14.200 |
sometimes it comes from the pulpit. Sometimes it comes from books and conferences and other 00:34:19.400 |
Christians that you respect. And you don't discern. Because when your eyes are not fixated 00:34:24.360 |
on Christ, you're not able to discern the difference. Okay? So in the end, that's his 00:34:30.680 |
main goal. To get us to be fixated on that and not to be carried away. Okay? All right. 00:34:37.640 |
The next week's passage is in Colossians chapter 2, 9 through 15. And discussion questions are on 00:34:44.840 |
the bottom. Okay? Let me pray for us and then I'll have you guys get into your small groups. 00:34:49.640 |
Heavenly Father, we pray for your blessing over this time. We pray for our small group leaders 00:34:55.960 |
that you give them wisdom in how to lead. And I pray that in our discussions that we may be 00:35:00.840 |
open and honest. That we truly may be a community that is united together as one. 00:35:06.040 |
Help us, Lord God, to know what it means to be encouraged and to be united to pursue you. 00:35:12.200 |
That we may gain Christ and to know the riches, Lord God, that is found in him and him alone. 00:35:20.520 |
So for that end, we pray for your blessing. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.