Shownotes
Why do so many believers split over ideas, styles, or political differences when Scripture calls believers to be united in love? Our tendency to split over beliefs and short-term matters shows that we often forget the importance of unity. Colossians 2 says love is the base of the Christian community.
Pastor Ronnie draws out the deep wisdom of Paul’s words to the Colossians, exposing the ways that legalism, tradition, and rigid positions can supplant Christ at the center, robbing the body of true blessing and power. The true mystery is revealed in Christ, who forgives all our sins and calls us to unity rooted in love, where the blessings of real understanding and freedom flourish.
Scriptures Referenced
Colossians 2:1-23 (NIV), 1 John 4:7-8, 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, Psalm 133, John 2:25, John 5, Philippians 1:6
Key Insights
- Unity in Love: Genuine Christian unity is grounded in love, not agreement on every doctrine, political view, or mission focus.
- The Danger of Legalism and Hollow Tradition: Rules and forms, when disconnected from Christ, cannot restrain sin or bring true blessing—only life in Him does.
- Humility and Freedom in Christ: Growth and transformation require humility, face-to-face engagement with difference, and confidence in God’s ongoing work in us.
Key Sections
00:00:00 | One String on My Guitar
Ronnie Meek opens with a tribute to servanthood and a confession that love is the string he plays.
00:01:10 | United in Love
Colossians 2 is unpacked: Paul’s emphasis on unity in love, not mere doctrine or mission.
00:03:00 | Weak Unity
Churches often unite around doctrines or politics, leading to division and a lack of genuine community.
00:07:00 | The Only Center
Unity is found in love, the living reflection of Christ in our fellowship, not just shared beliefs or causes.
00:09:18 | When Christians Don’t Love...
The world notices how believers treat each other, impacting witness and credibility.
00:13:11 | Unity’s Power, Division's Folly
Psalm 133 and Colossians both promise blessing when believers dwell together in love; rejecting unity is equated with selling our birthright for stew.
00:20:23 | The Greater Good
Paul’s example: flexible to win people, holding fast to Christ—evaluating what matters most.
00:28:21 | The Mind of Christ
True knowledge and wisdom unfold as we see others with Christ’s eyes through loving community.
00:34:37 | Breaking Free from Legalism, Embracing Freedom
Empty religion and human rules cannot save—the cross and Christ’s work bring true freedom and lasting transformation.
https://springhousemidweek.captivate.fm/episode/foundations-colossians-2
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- Sundays, 11:00 AM
- Wednesdays, 6:00 PM
Contact Info
Springhouse Church
14119 Old Nashville Highway
Smyrna TN 37167
CCLI License 2070006
Transcripts
I've got just one move, one
Speaker:response. So I had a friend
Speaker:named Gail Irwin. And I say I had a friend named Gail
Speaker:Irwin. He went home to be with the Lord. But he would
Speaker:often say, I've only got one string on my guitar, so I'm going to
Speaker:play that string. And he had written a book called The Jesus Style, and
Speaker:his string was about servanthood and Jesus style. And
Speaker:I've got basically one string on my guitar,
Speaker:and you're going to hear a little bit about love whether you want to or
Speaker:not. It's just the way it is. We're in
Speaker:Colossians chapter 2 tonight. And
Speaker:I've got— I'm going to— I have some scripture verses that are going to be
Speaker:put up there, but I don't have that chapter. So
Speaker:hopefully you brought your Bible or something resembling a
Speaker:Bible and you can read, read along with me here.
Speaker:Yeah, let's read the first 5 verses.
Speaker:I want you to know how hard I am contending for you
Speaker:and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not met me
Speaker:personally. My goal is that they may be
Speaker:encouraged in heart and united in love,
Speaker:So that they may have the full riches of complete
Speaker:understanding, in order that they may know the mystery
Speaker:of God, namely Christ, in whom are
Speaker:hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Speaker:I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding
Speaker:arguments. For though I am absent from you in
Speaker:body, I am present with you in spirit, And delight to
Speaker:see how disciplined you are and how firm your faith
Speaker:in Christ is. I guess
Speaker:it was 3 weeks ago when Wayne taught
Speaker:in Ephesians, and he said, I got hung up
Speaker:early on in the chapter. He said, I don't know if I'm going to finish
Speaker:the chapter or not. If not, you can read it
Speaker:yourself, and you and the Holy Ghost can finish it together.
Speaker:And I got hung up
Speaker:and I'm prepared to finish the chapter and maybe we will
Speaker:and maybe we won't.
Speaker:But— and what I got hung up on was I got hung up on this,
Speaker:on Paul's goal. He said, the goal I
Speaker:have in writing this is I want you to
Speaker:be encouraged in heart and united in
Speaker:love.
Speaker:And, you know, I got to thinking, I
Speaker:wonder why he didn't say united in doctrine. Yeah.
Speaker:Because that's the way that a lot of
Speaker:Christians roll. That's the way a lot of churches roll, being
Speaker:united in doctrine. I was brought up in a united-in-doctrine
Speaker:kind of church. And we were also quite
Speaker:judgmental of those people who were united in doctrine down the road.
Speaker:But we happened to be united in doctrine ourselves. We
Speaker:called it our Pentecostal distinctive.
Speaker:And if you, if you didn't speak in tongues, you probably weren't
Speaker:one of us yet, but we'll get you there.
Speaker:All we got to do is get you down on the altar
Speaker:for a long time. You know, and you got
Speaker:one on one side going, fill him, Lord, fill him. And you got
Speaker:one on the other side going, empty him, Lord, empty him out.
Speaker:And you just finally didn't— you just spoke in tongues.
Speaker:That's what you finally did.
Speaker:But, and really, I also, Was
Speaker:of a mindset that, you know, there are, there are 2 kinds of Christians in
Speaker:the world, those who believe in miracles and those who
Speaker:believe that miracles ended with the age of the apostles.
Speaker:And I know which ones were riding in first class.
Speaker:That was us. But that's not the only thing. I mean, you know, when it
Speaker:comes to being united in doctrine,
Speaker:baptisms, baptismal formulas,
Speaker:predestination versus free will. Oh, please, Lord, help me.
Speaker:Let me explain this to you. You know
Speaker:what I mean by predestination, right? Basically, it's the
Speaker:sovereignty of God. And then free
Speaker:will is— I heard someone say, it's interesting that
Speaker:you get to choose whether or not to believe in free will. But if you've
Speaker:been predestined to believe it, maybe you don't. I don't know.
Speaker:But here's the thing. I mean, the Bible supports both. So somehow they
Speaker:work. It's just Far beyond my
Speaker:understanding that they work together.
Speaker:Apostolic succession,
Speaker:eschatology. That's how it's all going to end. Worship styles,
Speaker:you know, whether or not to allow drums in the church or
Speaker:cellos or whatever.
Speaker:I'm glad we allow cellos in the church. Yes, very much
Speaker:so. But he didn't
Speaker:say united in doctrine, though that's often what we are
Speaker:united in or feel that we're united in. He,
Speaker:he also didn't say united in politics.
Speaker:Can you imagine
Speaker:Paul and John? Paul
Speaker:some of his writings. Paul, Paul could be a Republican.
Speaker:John's definitely a Democrat. Can you imagine the
Speaker:two of them in the first century getting
Speaker:together and arguing about that or going, well,
Speaker:we just can't go to the same church together anymore? You know,
Speaker:because, you know, you— y'all don't care
Speaker:anything about the poor and y'all don't care anything about the
Speaker:laws. I mean, Can you imagine? That's silly to
Speaker:imagine them doing it. It was silly in the first century. And you know
Speaker:what? It's silly in the 21st century. Just
Speaker:as silly. I love
Speaker:having a church where we have people who disagree with each other.
Speaker:That's been one of my goals as a pastor. Amen.
Speaker:Is to have a church where people disagree with each other, but they're going to
Speaker:stay together.
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah, because we're not united in politics. We're united in love.
Speaker:We're not even united in mission.
Speaker:You know, it's not our mission that unites us.
Speaker:As important as mission is, it's not our
Speaker:foundation for unity. You know, for some, the
Speaker:focus is on we're feeding the hungry and taking care of the homeless. That's really
Speaker:what we're called to do. And, you know, For others, it's, well, we're
Speaker:going out and we're winning the lost. And that's really what we're supposed to do.
Speaker:And I guess for some the mission is we're taking over the culture or something.
Speaker:I don't know, whatever. But that's not
Speaker:the basis for our unity. We are to be united
Speaker:in love. And to be united in love
Speaker:is to be united in Christ.
Speaker:It's for him to be the center. 1 John
Speaker:4. 7 and 8. I do have this one up. Dear
Speaker:friends, let us love one another, for love comes from
Speaker:God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and
Speaker:knows God. Whoever does not love does
Speaker:not know God, because God is love. When I was younger, I had a
Speaker:lot of trouble with this passage because it just
Speaker:messed with my theology. And now
Speaker:I don't care. I mean, that's what he wrote. Everyone who
Speaker:loves has been born of God. That's what it says.
Speaker:So, well, you know, I mean, I want to know what love is.
Speaker:Well, everyone who loves has been born of God,
Speaker:and everyone who doesn't love does not know God. Doesn't say that they haven't
Speaker:been born of God. Says they don't know him.
Speaker:Because he is love.
Speaker:Jesus told his disciples, the way
Speaker:everyone's going to know you're a disciple of mine is if you have love for
Speaker:one another. It's
Speaker:not going to be by how you vote or how you
Speaker:worship or who you hang out with.
Speaker:Oh. One of the reasons why it is so difficult
Speaker:to win people to Christ in our culture
Speaker:is because they look at the way Christians treat each other
Speaker:and go, I don't want any of that. I can
Speaker:get that at home, and my home is messed up.
Speaker:But if we loved each other, You know, if we
Speaker:really, if we really loved each other,
Speaker:people would look and go, wow,
Speaker:what is that? I need some of that.
Speaker:I want to be a part of that. And the results of us doing that,
Speaker:of us being united in love, are pretty
Speaker:spectacular. The full riches of complete
Speaker:understanding. In order to know the mystery of God, namely
Speaker:Christ. Does that sound
Speaker:like something that's worth having? Something that's worth—
Speaker:that's worth doing? I know that y'all are contemplating, but you
Speaker:can look at me and go, yeah, yeah, that's
Speaker:right. Yeah, that's making— that's making a lot of sense.
Speaker:The more we become united in love, the more we
Speaker:understand the incomprehensible
Speaker:The more we understand what can't be understood.
Speaker:We may not understand all of His reasons. In fact, we won't
Speaker:understand all of His reasons. That's a promise from Isaiah.
Speaker:And we won't understand all of His ways. That's another
Speaker:promise. But we understand 2 things.
Speaker:We understand that He created us,
Speaker:and we understand that He loves us.
Speaker:On the mission field, most mission fields, and I'm talking about
Speaker:foreign mission fields, it's, it's usually
Speaker:not really hard to win people to
Speaker:Christ. And the reason is
Speaker:First of all, most of the places you go into
Speaker:believe in God, believe there's God. They just, they just don't know
Speaker:about him. They know other
Speaker:gods and they know other things. And for
Speaker:them to hear the message, God
Speaker:loves you, is like,
Speaker:what?
Speaker:Really? He loves me. And so when you say, would you like to meet him?
Speaker:Yes. Yes.
Speaker:Here, here, here they come. That is,
Speaker:that is a revolutionary message. The fact
Speaker:that, that he, that he loves us.
Speaker:And we've, we've become so accustomed to the words. We've become so
Speaker:accustomed to, to the thoughts that You know, it's just—
Speaker:it doesn't rattle us the way that it should. It doesn't
Speaker:overwhelm us the way that it should, that
Speaker:God loves us.
Speaker:He didn't just create us and now He's really mad at us.
Speaker:He loves us.
Speaker:In Him are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. So, you know,
Speaker:all right. Talked a little bit about love. My
Speaker:question now is, why are
Speaker:we so cavalier
Speaker:about unity?
Speaker:I was thinking about this as I was, as I was going through
Speaker:the preparing for
Speaker:tonight, and I was thinking,
Speaker:Unity is very underestimated. And then
Speaker:I thought, that is such a pathetic modifier.
Speaker:Very. No, I mean, you only use that when you can't think of
Speaker:anything else to use. And good
Speaker:writers don't ever use it, you know? So I was thinking, what else can I
Speaker:use? And I was thinking extremely.
Speaker:Extremely. And I thought, no, that's just as
Speaker:bad. And then it
Speaker:hit me foolishly,
Speaker:foolishly underrated,
Speaker:foolishly underestimated,
Speaker:because
Speaker:the psalmist— and if you've come to this church very long, you know, you're
Speaker:familiar with Psalm 133 because we talk about it quite a bit, how
Speaker:good Good and pleasant it is when God's
Speaker:people live together in unity, for there
Speaker:the Lord bestows His blessing, even life forevermore.
Speaker:And some translations say there He commands a blessing to
Speaker:reside. Now, how many things do you do,
Speaker:or do we do, over which God has commanded a
Speaker:blessing to reside, where He said eternal
Speaker:life is going to reside here?
Speaker:Where God's people live together in unity, he
Speaker:commands a blessing to reside.
Speaker:Who doesn't want that? Who doesn't
Speaker:want eternal life?
Speaker:And Paul says, says here that
Speaker:he calls it a key ingredient in knowing Christ.
Speaker:I want you to come to be united in love so that you'll
Speaker:know the mystery of God, which is Christ.
Speaker:It's a key ingredient in that. This is, this is pretty potent
Speaker:stuff. This, this, this unity is.
Speaker:And let me just say that a blessing is not commanded to
Speaker:reside over just any kind of unity.
Speaker:Because there are all kinds of things that we can be unified about. I—
Speaker:who's with me? Come on, baby. We're
Speaker:2-0. We're going to Super Bowl this year.
Speaker:Of course, that's kind of silly. But there are things— there are many
Speaker:things that we can be in unity about that
Speaker:God doesn't command a blessing to reside there, but he commands a
Speaker:blessing to reside Where we're unified
Speaker:in love, unified around his Son, unified
Speaker:around Jesus. And yet we will kind of toss
Speaker:that away. Why? Why do
Speaker:we not consider it necessarily
Speaker:important? What keeps us from
Speaker:unity? Well, in this
Speaker:culture, in
Speaker:our culture, period. There's a dirty word,
Speaker:or what has become a dirty word, called compromise.
Speaker:I mean, seriously, don't you just get the heebie-jeebies when you hear
Speaker:that word, especially as a Christian? I don't
Speaker:compromise. I'm not, I'm not supposed to compromise
Speaker:about anything. I'm— I
Speaker:believe what I believe and I'm standing on it. And I'm not
Speaker:telling you not to believe what you believe and not stand on it.
Speaker:But unless you're perfect in all your ways,
Speaker:unless you're perfect in all of your thoughts, there may
Speaker:be some times when a little bit of compromise might be wisdom.
Speaker:You might learn something.
Speaker:We compromise. Well, and let me, let me
Speaker:just also say this. We all
Speaker:pretty much make compromises every day. I mean, we
Speaker:do. You may go, well, I don't. Yeah, you do. You just
Speaker:aren't bright enough to know it. When, when you see it
Speaker:happen, you hadn't thought about it enough. But
Speaker:unity is one of the first things that is sacrificed
Speaker:so that we don't have to compromise.
Speaker:I can't walk in unity with them because, you know,
Speaker:I can't walk in unity with that one because—
Speaker:Because why?
Speaker:We compromise unity for taking a position on certain
Speaker:theological debates. We
Speaker:compromise unity because of our position on,
Speaker:for worse, issues, for crying out loud, things that
Speaker:pass away. Because, you know, when I'm
Speaker:You know, I was— this is an older group, but there's some young people in
Speaker:here, and I don't know how y'all got in here.
Speaker:You do know this is Wednesday night, right?
Speaker:Yeah. Security. But,
Speaker:but the issues that were big issues
Speaker:in the '50s were not big issues in the '60s,
Speaker:and a lot of those were not big issues in the '70s. And then the
Speaker:issues changed again. And they changed again and they
Speaker:changed again. But we will get an issue
Speaker:and we will compri— we will do away with unity because of our issue,
Speaker:where we stand on it. Hey, you can stand there. That's fine.
Speaker:But was Paul a man of compromise? Let me
Speaker:just say this.
Speaker:Compromising unity for an issue or
Speaker:even a theological issue that you have, compromising
Speaker:unity
Speaker:is a lot like Esau
Speaker:coming to Jacob and going, I want some of that stew. And Jacob going, well,
Speaker:sell me your birthright. And he goes, well, what good's a birthright to me? I
Speaker:can't see that thing. I'm hungry. Give me some stew.
Speaker:It's, it's a very carnal
Speaker:position to be in.
Speaker:Was Paul a man of compromise? That's, that's
Speaker:my question. And anybody can shout out an answer if they
Speaker:want to, but I've got the right one.
Speaker:Yeah. And in fact, a lot of the things that we are—
Speaker:would not compromise on because what Paul wrote,
Speaker:But let me read what he wrote in 1 Corinthians
Speaker:9:19-23. If you want to turn there, you're more than welcome to.
Speaker:I'll bide some time while you do.
Speaker:Yeah. 1 Corinthians chapter 9, verses
Speaker:19 through 23. I'm going to drink a water while y'all are looking that up.
Speaker:Though I am free and belong to no one,
Speaker:I have made myself a slave to everyone to win as many
Speaker:as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew;
Speaker:to those under the law I became like one under the law, though I
Speaker:myself am not under the law, so as to win those under the
Speaker:law. To those not having the law I became like one not
Speaker:having the law, Though I'm not free from God's law,
Speaker:but am under Christ's law, so as to win those not having the law.
Speaker:To the weak I became weak to win the weak. I
Speaker:have become all things to all people
Speaker:so that by all possible means I might save some.
Speaker:I do this for the sake of the gospel, that I
Speaker:might share in its blessing.
Speaker:Now, I'm not saying— and Paul's
Speaker:not saying, you know, hey, I'll, I'll do anything.
Speaker:No, no, there certainly were things he couldn't do. Certainly were things that he
Speaker:wouldn't do. But when it came to being
Speaker:able to relate,
Speaker:when it came to sharing the gospel, you know, he
Speaker:said, I'm not putting these walls up.
Speaker:between, between you and me, because I don't want to put any walls up between
Speaker:you and him. And
Speaker:is that compromise? Well,
Speaker:kind of sounds to me like he was a little
Speaker:different in some places than he was in other places.
Speaker:He wasn't different in that he was a
Speaker:slave to Christ and belonged to God. He
Speaker:wasn't— I don't think he would step over the line and go,
Speaker:well, God has told me not to do this and I've got convictions about this,
Speaker:but I'm going to do it anyway to try and win something. He's not
Speaker:saying that. That's not what he's saying.
Speaker:But he's saying, I'm not going to put anything on you
Speaker:That's going to prevent you from coming to Christ
Speaker:because
Speaker:he's weighing 2 things here
Speaker:and he's going, which one has the most weight?
Speaker:Which one is the most important?
Speaker:That I do this and maybe you slip
Speaker:away into eternity, or that I don't do this
Speaker:And you come to Christ. Which one is the most important?
Speaker:He had to evaluate which things were important, and he was willing
Speaker:to compromise the lesser for the greater
Speaker:to a degree. It's like Mary and Martha. You know, when
Speaker:Jesus went to visit Mary and Martha, what Martha was
Speaker:doing was important. What Martha was doing
Speaker:needed doing.
Speaker:And,
Speaker:you know, it wasn't that it was— she was doing anything wrong, but
Speaker:Mary was sitting at Jesus' feet and Martha's going, why isn't she
Speaker:helping me? And Jesus went,
Speaker:because, Martha, you see, really, I mean, you're, you're worried about so
Speaker:many things. You are concerned about so
Speaker:many things. But there's really only one that's important.
Speaker:There's really only one that truly matters. And Mary's chosen
Speaker:what's best, and it will not be taken away from her.
Speaker:Our fellowship is in
Speaker:Christ.
Speaker:Well, let's go back there. Well, I said it.
Speaker:Our fellowship is in Christ. We're far worse than
Speaker:compromising when we reject
Speaker:unity and fellowship because of
Speaker:issues and fine-sounding arguments
Speaker:that we're concerned about to the point
Speaker:that we reject what's best. We reject where God has
Speaker:commanded the blessing to reside.
Speaker:And What?
Speaker:Let's talk for about— well, no, I'd already done that, hadn't I? Let's talk for
Speaker:a minute about this.
Speaker:This does not work well.
Speaker:Yeah. Okay. Come on. Complete
Speaker:understanding. What's that about? Well, obviously there are many things we don't understand,
Speaker:but let me ask you this. Have you ever had a genuine
Speaker:face-to-face with someone that you
Speaker:genuinely disagreed with?
Speaker:I remember that conversation just—
Speaker:He's not
Speaker:waiting for you.
Speaker:You know, and quite frankly, Probably most of you have at some
Speaker:point in time. There's probably some of you that never have, and probably
Speaker:none of us do it as much as we should.
Speaker:But have you ever had a face-to-face
Speaker:with someone you— with whom you disagreed and
Speaker:walked away still not agreeing,
Speaker:but understanding?
Speaker:Still don't agree with you, but I understand
Speaker:some things I didn't understand before.
Speaker:As we are held together by love and learn to
Speaker:understand others, we begin to understand where
Speaker:Christ is coming from.
John 2:25 says that
John 2:Jesus didn't need any testimony about mankind, for He knew what was in each
John 2:person. Now, we don't know
John 2:what's in each person. We can't see inside
John 2:someone's heart. Jesus could. We can't. We
John 2:can't. Understand their motives. We
John 2:often think we understand their motives. We often
John 2:attribute motives to them. But, but, but we can't
John 2:actually do that. Jesus could actually do that, and he still put up with
John 2:us. And the
John 2:idea is not to know what's in another person. The idea is
John 2:to have the mind of Christ,
John 2:which involves seeing with the eyes of Christ.
John 2:When we are dealing with other people.
John 2:He considered a human soul to be of greater worth
John 2:than men's opinions or ideas, even their ideas about God's
John 2:law.
John 2:Yeah, he healed on the Sabbath. And we
John 2:don't— I don't think we can actually understand
John 2:how blasphemous that was. in his day. I
John 2:don't, I don't think we can feel the full impact
John 2:of what that meant to those people that were around.
John 2:But, you know, he goes, hey, look, every one of you will
John 2:untie your donkey and lead it to water on the Sabbath.
John 2:And shouldn't this woman, a child of Abraham
John 2:who's been bound by Satan for 18 years, shouldn't she
John 2:be loosed on the Sabbath day.
John 2:He associated with the unclean. Yeah, he went, went to
John 2:visit the Pharisee, and the Pharisee said, well, this man can't be a prophet. He
John 2:doesn't, he doesn't know what kind of woman that is. It's touching him right there.
John 2:Oh, and
John 2:Simon was the Pharisee's name. Simon didn't know what
John 2:kind of woman was touching him. Jesus did.
John 2:Because I have something to say to you, Simon.
John 2:One guy owed a man $10 and another guy owed him
John 2:$10,000, and he forgave both debts. Which one's going to love the
John 2:most? Well, I suppose the one who forgave
John 2:$10,000. Yeah, you suppose right. Yeah.
John 2:I came in here You didn't
John 2:anoint my head with oil. You didn't give
John 2:me any water to wash my feet.
John 2:She's not stopped cleaning
John 2:my feet with her tears and drying them with her hair.
John 2:Because she loves much— oh, there's that word again, love.
John 2:Because she loves much, her sins, many as
John 2:they are,
John 2:Are
John 2:forgiven. And while he did say to the woman
John 2:who was taken in adultery, go and sin no more, and it's
John 2:important to put that, you know, after it goes, neither do I condemn you. It's
John 2:important to go, go and sin no more. I got a question. You think
John 2:she did it?
John 2:You think she Never sinned again.
John 2:You say, well, she probably didn't commit adultery again. Well, she might not have committed
John 2:adultery again. I don't know. The Bible didn't tell us if she did or she
John 2:didn't. She sinned.
John 2:Is there anybody in here— and please don't raise your hand because it'll
John 2:be embarrassing to you and me both— but is there
John 2:anybody in here who didn't sin today? No.
John 2:You can laugh, but just don't raise your hand. Yeah.
John 2:Yeah.
John 2:As we grow in this understanding, we know— come to know
John 2:Christ more. And it's only in him that we
John 2:find all of the treasures, all of the treasures of
John 2:wisdom and knowledge. Everything else is just
John 2:stuff. This is truth. This
John 2:is truth.
John 2:Interesting verse of Scripture. If you've
John 2:been at this church long, and you probably have because you come on Wednesday night.
John 2:But if you've been at this church long, you know, we really encourage you to
John 2:read the Word. We really encourage you to get into the Word.
John 2:But Jesus said a very interesting thing to the, to the
John 2:Pharisees over in John chapter 5. He said, you study the
John 2:Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have
John 2:eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that
John 2:testify about me, yet you refuse to come
John 2:to me to have life.
John 2:And the next thing that Paul says in this passage
John 2:is, I think, what this means:
John 2:live rooted in Christ.
John 2:Not in your knowledge, not in your wisdom, not in your
John 2:understanding. Live rooted in him.
John 2:See people the way he sees people.
John 2:Approach life the way he approached life.
John 2:And in doing that, that's when
John 2:The true wisdom and knowledge of God begins to open up to us.
John 2:Up until then, it's words in a book. But as
John 2:we begin to live rooted in him, then it's
John 2:something else. Okay, I'm going to fly
John 2:here for a minute because I think we are
John 2:going to get through the chapter. Verse 8.
John 2:See to it that no one takes you captive
John 2:through hollow and deceptive
John 2:philosophy, which depends on human
John 2:tradition and the elemental spiritual
John 2:forces of the world rather than on Christ.
John 2:Well, that's— that sounds pretty clear.
John 2:What does that mean? What are the
John 2:elemental spiritual forces of the world?
John 2:Well, first of all, let me say hollow and
John 2:deceptive philosophy is, is anything
John 2:that bases itself on man's ideas, no
John 2:matter how impressive and fine-sounding
John 2:the arguments are, rather than basing
John 2:itself on Christ. But as far as the
John 2:elemental spiritual forces of the world,
John 2:I think there's kind of agreement that 3
John 2:basic things that that represents. And,
John 2:and the first one is the
John 2:basic components of the physical world,
John 2:not, not necessarily nature, but the physical world, the material
John 2:world that we live in. And to the basic
John 2:components of the physical world, a bowl of stew when you're
John 2:hungry is worth a whole lot more than a birthright that you can't
John 2:see and may not even live to get to have. And
John 2:yet the most important component in
John 2:faith— what is faith? It is the
John 2:evidence of things you can't see.
John 2:It enables you to go, this is very— this is where the
John 2:value is. Not here. I mean, I'll get some food
John 2:eventually or I won't.
John 2:But as far as a birthright, as far as an
John 2:inheritance, That's, that's got weight.
John 2:That's got value to it. And, and human
John 2:tradition and religion would be
John 2:also under the, the components.
John 2:You know, the Law of Moses was never intended to be a religion.
John 2:It was intended to reveal who God is
John 2:and open up a pathway to Him. have a
John 2:relationship with him. But we love—
John 2:we love our patterns. We love our
John 2:certainty. We love to know that if you do this, that
John 2:will happen and you do this and that will happen.
John 2:And serving God just isn't that way
John 2:because he's not boring.
John 2:He— just because God did it this way or does
John 2:it that way or moves that way.
John 2:When I first came back to the Lord in my mid-20s,
John 2:we had a Sunday morning where we sang
John 2:How Great Thou Art. And the
John 2:glory of God filled the place.
John 2:For the next 4 months, we sang How Great Thou
John 2:Art every Sunday morning,
John 2:and it never happened again.
John 2:We were, you know, that we pushed that button and
John 2:it happened this way, so let's keep pushing that button, you know.
John 2:And we like that. We like to know if I push this button, that's going
John 2:to happen. And that's religion.
John 2:That's religion.
John 2:But the Law of Moses was intended to reveal the nature and
John 2:character of God and to open up a pathway for us to have a
John 2:relationship. And then
John 2:finally, in terms of the elemental
John 2:spiritual forces of the world, yeah, just evil spirits.
John 2:And all I'm going to really say about that is evil spirits exist.
John 2:They're real. They're, they're just as real as
John 2:the Holy Spirit. They're not as powerful as him. They're not on the
John 2:same level as him. But they're, they're, they're very real.
John 2:This doesn't mean that everything bad can be attributed to them, but
John 2:just know that they're real and just know that Christ is the head
John 2:over every power and authority. And
John 2:so don't have to be afraid. You don't have to be
John 2:scared of them.
John 2:Verse 13 tells us,
John 2:when you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your
John 2:flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all
John 2:our sins. Yes,
John 2:all. And notice he doesn't say
John 2:He forgave us all of our past sins.
John 2:Said all of our sins. All of our sins.
John 2:Confession is important. It is. But, you know,
John 2:we all have sins that we haven't— we don't even
John 2:realize yet. How can you confess something that you don't know
John 2:what you're doing? Well, we're not far enough along
John 2:to really even see some of the sins that are happening
John 2:in our life. We don't have that kind of,
John 2:that kind of knowledge as we do see it. Confession is
John 2:the way to deal with it. Confession and repentance. And if we
John 2:confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins,
John 2:cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But I'm here to tell you the good
John 2:news is, well, it's not— I'm going to say that because it's not the good
John 2:news. But the news is you have sins
John 2:that you don't even know about yet
John 2:because you haven't been enlightened enough to see them and
John 2:to know that they're there. And as you— and as you walk— and I do
John 2:too. And as you— and as you grow in the Lord and walk along in
John 2:the Lord, you begin to see, oh yeah,
John 2:that. Hmm. When
John 2:Isaiah saw the Lord
John 2:And his reaction. I appreciated
John 2:so much your sermon on Isaiah,
John 2:Jonathan. You know, when he saw the Lord,
John 2:his, his immediate response is, woe is me,
John 2:I am unclean. And the closer we get
John 2:to God, the more we see the
John 2:uncleanness that's there. But the good news is He
John 2:forgave us all our sins, even the
John 2:ones we don't know about yet. Now, that, that is
John 2:good news for sure. And,
John 2:and the thing— and I'm going to connect this verse,
John 2:though it doesn't necessarily talk about sin or confession or anything like
John 2:that, but it, it talks about not only did he forgive
John 2:them, but Philippians— Oh, come on.
John 2:1:6 says, being confident of this, he who began a good
John 2:work in you will carry it on to completion to the day of Christ Jesus.
John 2:Because you can't do the work that's in you. You
John 2:can't. You will never be able to get rid of all
John 2:the sins and all the junk and all the stuff that keeps you from God.
John 2:But he is at work in you and he's going to complete it
John 2:because God finishes what he starts.
John 2:Verse 15. I'm almost, I'm almost done. Verse 15.
John 2:Well, I better get done. Verse 15 tells us, having disarmed
John 2:the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them
John 2:by the cross. Just let me say this. The
John 2:cross didn't look like a victory. Didn't look
John 2:like one.
John 2:But that falls under the category of deceptive philosophy.
John 2:There was a— back in the '70s, I met a young man who was
John 2:part of a group called the Children of God. And if you're old enough,
John 2:you may know who that group was and what they were.
John 2:They ended up being a really bad cult. But one of the
John 2:things that they taught, because their leader was a new prophet— anyway, one of
John 2:the things that he prophesied and taught was that the cross was a
John 2:defeat. And so now we need a little more. And here I am.
John 2:So the cross was not a
John 2:defeat. The cross was the ultimate victory.
John 2:I remember sitting down with him at the library. I was working at the library
John 2:at the time. And so we could talk. And we sat down at the
John 2:library. And I remember telling him, you know, uh-uh, it wasn't.
John 2:Let me, let me show you what it says over here in Colossians.
John 2:Says the cross was a victory.
John 2:And then let's close with this. Verses 16 through
John 2:23
John 2:says this.
John 2:And if you're still in 2 Corinthians, then you're there.
John 2:Therefore, do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or
John 2:with regard to a religious festival, a new moon celebration, or a Sabbath.
John 2:Day. These are a shadow of the things
John 2:that were to come. The reality, however, is found in Christ.
John 2:Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels
John 2:disqualify you. Such a person goes into great detail about what they have
John 2:seen. They're puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual
John 2:mind. They've lost connection with the head from whom the whole
John 2:body, supported and held together,
John 2:By its ligaments and sinews grows as God causes it to grow.
John 2:Since you died with Christ to the elemental
John 2:spiritual forces of the world, why, as though
John 2:you still belong to the world, do you submit to its rules? Do not handle,
John 2:do not taste, do not touch. These rules, which
John 2:have to do with things that are all destined to perish
John 2:with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings.
John 2:Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom
John 2:with their self-imposed worship, their false humility, and their harsh
John 2:treatment of the body. But they lack any value in restraining
John 2:sensual indulgence.
John 2:The influence of the Judaizers was not just an
John 2:issue at Galatia. We spent a lot of
John 2:time going through the book of Galatians. And a lot of
John 2:it had to do with the influence of those who were saying
John 2:these very things. And that influence is still with us today. And
John 2:it's not just— it's not Judaizers necessarily. It's not just about the Law of Moses.
John 2:It's— yeah, it's called the
John 2:Spirit of legalism. That
John 2:there is a spirit behind
John 2:such teaching. And the
John 2:point is that while
John 2:legalism looks good, it
John 2:actually has no power. It
John 2:was for freedom that Christ
John 2:has set us free, not freedom
John 2:to sin, which leads to
John 2:slavery, but freedom, true
John 2:freedom. We have next door
John 2:to us a 2-year-old
John 2:granddaughter. And when
John 2:she comes to our house, she
John 2:hits it like a category 4
John 2:hurricane. She likes
John 2:cashews. I want cashew,
John 2:cashew, cashew. Cashew.
John 2:Cashew! Cashew! You know, it just keeps getting louder. She likes to go
John 2:play in the playroom. She likes to do all kinds of things,
John 2:and her grandmother will not deny her anything.
John 2:That's freedom. That's freedom.
John 2:She's innocent. She's alive.
John 2:She moves in freedom. And that's what— now,
John 2:there is one thing that her grandmother
John 2:will deny her in. And actually, it's a
John 2:category of things. Can anybody imagine what that
John 2:category is? Anything that's going
John 2:to hurt her. And that's what freedom in
John 2:Christ is. The only
John 2:thing And he denies us of what's going to
John 2:hurt us, what's going to hurt others.
John 2:We're to be free. It's not following a bunch of
John 2:rules. It's not engaging in a religion.
John 2:And it involves being united in love with
John 2:one another. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for
John 2:the— the power of the Holy Spirit. And
John 2:thank you for the, the power that
John 2:is in our unity. We don't have to
John 2:agree. We just have to love.
John 2:Thank you. Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.
