We're going to be continuing our teaching, preaching through the book of Colossians.
Seth taught last week on Colossians 2, 1 through 6.
I'm going to pick up where he left off, 6 through 15.
So if you guys want to open your Bibles up to Colossians chapter 2, if you've got them.
And we'll look at the text here.
But before I read through 6 through 15, I kind of wanted to give a little bit of a review, kind of backdrop.
So Paul in Colossians is writing this letter likely to believers that he's never even met before.
Epaphras is likely the one who planted the church.
He preached the gospel.
And then a group of people formed into what would be the church at Colossae.
And then Paul writes two letters, one to the Colossians here, which is the letter to the Colossians.
And then one to Philemon, which is going to the church at Colossae.
And you can really feel as you read him that his heart is for these people.
And I think that's a crazy thing because he likely has never even seen them.
He says in verse 1 that he has a struggle and he wants to see them, to come to them face to face, that their hearts might be encouraged.
So from the get-go, he's affectionately aimed towards them, that their hearts may be built up and encouraged.
He says that they might be knit together in love.
And I was reading that and thinking like, man, I don't know if I've ever felt that way or been directed with an affection like that towards someone I've never met.
And he's trusting Epaphras, who planted and preached, you know, and cultivated this group of people that they're being built up.
He's hearing about them and their faith.
And his heart's starting to get in it with them.
So he's writing this letter from that place, which is a good backdrop to what we're about to read in 6 through 15.
And in Philemon, which is also a letter that will go to the church at Colossae.
It's to Philemon, but Philemon is at the church at Colossae.
He says that he's sending Onesimus, and with him he's sending his very heart.
So again, he's not really, he hasn't seen these people face to face, but he's sending Onesimus.
And with Onesimus, he's sending his very heart.
You know, that's a very apostolic kind of thing to say.
He's poured into Onesimus.
He said that he's become his father.
He was once useless, but now he's useful to you.
So you can hear Paul's earnestness to this church.
He's encouraged by what he hears about them.
And he writes this from that place.
That's the backdrop.
So Paul is zealous for them.
Let's get this square here.
So before we go into the text, I'm going to pray.
And I was praying specifically for this time last night and this morning that you guys would be refreshed.
That you would be built up.
That something would happen and be stirred up in you guys.
Like in Philemon, he says that Philemon was used to refresh the saints.
And so I pray and was praying that this morning something like that would happen today.
So I'm going to pray and then we'll go into the text.
I'll read it.
And then hopefully my aim is to walk through it, explain certain things.
And at the very end, I've got some points, but we can do that together as we go.
So, Lord, I pray that you would fill me with your spirit to speak right now.
Pray, Lord, that you would refresh us in your presence today.
Pray, Lord, that this text, Lord, as we walk through it, you would shine, Lord, your gospel.
Pray, Lord, and equip us, Lord, for what we need to do, how we need to walk.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
Okay.
So Colossians 2, verses 6 and starting.
It says,
I love this passage.
When Seth assigned it to me, it was kind of hilarious because that was like hours before he sent the text.
I was in this passage loving it.
So I was like, oh, this works out pretty good.
But there's so much here.
There's so much gospel kind of fundamentals in here that we're going to hear about.
But me in particular, especially last night as I was preparing, I was really getting affected and drawn back to the basic principles of the gospel,
which Paul, I think, is trying to encourage the church at Colossae with to keep.
Keep this at the forefront of your minds.
Keep this as something that you're standing on.
So before we start working through the text, I'd like to point out something.
In most of your Bibles, if you have an ESV, they put a title, a headline that says,
Alive in Christ.
If you have different translations, you probably won't see it or maybe it's a different title or something.
But I particularly love this title because it describes what a Christian actually is at its core.
Someone who is alive, someone who is living.
And there is, you know, you go through, you know, your Christian walk and you hear that all the time.
But how many of us have, you know, gone to meetings and gatherings and been around other Christians and felt maybe dead,
you know, or a sense of dullness, gone into different churches and had this lingering feeling.
And the truth is that a Christian is someone who is alive.
That is somebody who is alive with the life force, not of their own, but is living with someone else's life force.
And so I really felt the resonance of this title, Alive in Christ, fleshed out through this text.
I think it's appropriate.
And Seth actually spoke last week about how a Christian is someone who has Jesus living in them.
And that is felt as we read this.
So I made a note of this.
I stumbled across an article a day or two ago on LinkedIn.
I never go on LinkedIn because I'm not really a professional or have no need to be on LinkedIn.
But I read this guy's article, which caught my eye.
It said, titled, Are you living or being lived?
And I decided to read a little bit of what he meant by that.
But what he was saying is essentially like, do you have your own goals?
Are you self-motivated?
Are you self-disciplined?
Or are you just trying to accomplish your company's goals and work for somebody else?
Because if you are, my friend, you're being lived.
You know, kind of a negative.
Like, you need to get your own goals.
Although there's some truth to that, I couldn't help but feel like in the inverse, as a Christian, we are a people who are being lived.
Because our goals are now subordinated when we come to Christ.
They're subjected to the king's goals.
And we're being lived actually through God.
And our life, we don't live anymore, Paul says, but we live by faith.
And so I felt like maybe I should write an article called Living by Being Lived in response.
But then I was like, that's whatever.
So, alive in Christ, living in Christ, being lived, seeing that, is what the aim is.
And as we walk through this, I think noticing Paul's aliveness to this church, even though he hasn't even seen them, can be felt.
So, we want to start in verse 6.
We'll start to work through how Paul speaks to them.
It says,
Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
So, two things right away.
Just as they received Christ Jesus the Lord, he tells them to walk in him.
Okay?
Don't walk by yourself, walk in Christ.
And then he says how to do that.
And he's got a couple distinctives.
One, you need to walk rooted and built up.
Okay?
And this language is the language of like a tree being rooted.
And think about being built up, the language of a house or a structure, right?
Okay?
And if you think about being rooted, immediately what I went to is being secure.
It's a secure foundation underneath you.
And so, he says you've got to have some roots that can support the upper weight of the tree, the trunk going up.
Okay?
So, he wants them, just as they receive Christ, to walk in a way that's like that.
That's like rooted and being built up.
Having pieces that fit together correctly, not disjointed and kind of supported halfly, you know.
But rooted and built up and established in the faith.
Like, you know, established in the faith, I immediately just think not tossed.
You know?
Not shifting.
Like, we had a really bad storm a couple weeks ago.
We had a lot of rain recently.
But we had a storm where a ton of trees came down.
And most of them were diseased and hollowed out.
And it was pretty easy to tell why they came down.
But during the storm, you would look outside and you see all these trees bending and bowing.
And then they would just, you know, stay up there.
And it's like, well, these guys are solid.
Something about this tree is different than the tree that just crashed through my neighbor's roof.
You know?
And because the roots go down deep.
I heard somewhere that the roots of a tree are as deep as like how high the tree is.
Which I thought, man, that's crazy.
Not only that, but it says something about the necessity for what is underneath us.
And it's got to be something that's secure.
It's got to be something that's established.
And so as we are doing this church plant, we're at the beginning stages.
Sometimes it can feel like we're just a little sprout out of the ground.
You know, not really fully established by any means yet.
And a lot of times we need something like a little stake to hold us up, you know, by us.
And I think that this truth or these truths that Paul is laying out are those things that we're going to hold fast to.
That's going to be the thing that makes it solid.
So he wants them to be rooted and built up and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.
So he kind of ends it and tags it with this phrase, abounding in thanksgiving, which is important for us to know because it's easy to grow weary in giving thanks.
And it's even more easy to grumble when there's many things to grumble about.
You know, sometimes it feels like there's nothing to be thankful for, which is just really just a lie, you know.
And when we're tempted, we can remember Paul speaking to the Colossians, not just telling them to be thankful, but to abound in it.
You know, not grumbling when we get frustrated about, you know, how someone's bad at facilitating family or group things or, you know, grumbling about whatever in our life is just inconvenient, you know.
But constantly abounding, Godward, you know, not looking at our circumstances or other people by the flesh, but being thankful.
Paul says to abound in it.
With that, in verse 8, kind of leads them into a little bit of a warning or telling them to guard against something.
He says, see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.
So although Paul is speaking to believers, he's, or believers that are standing firm in their faith, he's still giving them a sober warning.
He says, watch out for the things that will sneak in, like this strange philosophy or a type of empty deceit, something that might be appealing, but its end is just emptiness.
It's not going to, it won't help you, won't aid you.
And I think the thing about, you know, this particular church and this group of people, I don't think like, okay, we're like really susceptible by these things or to like philosophy, you know, attacks or human tradition maybe.
But the thing about how one can be led astray is you're led.
You don't all of a sudden fall away or fall astray.
You're slowly led.
Things can lead us.
So Paul is warning, don't be led by different things like philosophies, humanistic ideas.
And we see how non-humanistic it gets way down in verse 13 through 15 when he kind of goes through the gospel in detail.
But he wants them to guard against it.
And, you know, the thing about Satan is he's really crafty.
You know, in Genesis, he says that the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field.
And I think in Timothy it says that he disguises himself as an angel of light.
So there's going to be things that look one way, that appear beautiful, but they're full of darkness, you know.
And in a church, we have to be on guard against those things.
Because there are many churches who are following different things, different philosophies in conjunction with the gospel.
But actually, it's distorting the gospel, and it isn't that at all.
It's being twisted.
And so Paul's warning against that.
He's saying don't be led astray by it.
You know, it seems like sometimes that when you talk about the philosophies, the empty deceit, the human tradition, it exposes them right away.
It brings them right out.
And you're just like, oh, yeah, that's wrong.
You know, like if I got up here and I was just like, you guys, adultery, that's not really that bad.
You know, or like divorce is a viable option if any problems come up in the marriage.
Like you guys would be like, I need to talk to Sam.
He's off his rocker, right?
It's like right in your face.
That's wrong, right?
But if you put a little music to it, you know, make it sound beautiful, we'll listen to it.
You know, don't we do that?
We turn the radio on, and all of a sudden you listen to the lyrics, and you're like, I think this is Satan's music.
You know, like trying to speak to me, you know.
He's crafty, and he wants to sneak in anywhere he can, and we have to be on guard against it.
So Paul warns against that.
In Proverbs 4, 23, it says, keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
Jesus himself says to watch out that no one deceives you.
In Mark 13, 5, so we've got to guard against the things and not grow lax, you know.
I think it's another proverb that says a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty comes upon you, you know.
A little relaxation, and all of a sudden, you know, after a while, you're in a place that you never thought you would be.
Going down to verse 9, 9 through 10, it says, for in him, that's in Christ, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.
I read that, and I'm like, what an incredible statement.
Like, the entire fullness of God dwells bodily.
You know, that's, I mean, it'd be one thing to see that, you know, if you were one of his disciples.
And maybe some of us, at some points, have a little bit of longing, like, man, I wish I could see the, you know, the fullness of deity dwelling in Jesus.
Well, there's a little bit of an encouragement here after that.
It says, I lost my place.
Where are we at?
It says, and you have been filled in him.
So it says, for in him the fullness of deity dwells bodily.
And then it says, and you have been filled in him.
So the guy, so the guy, so he's been filled with the whole fullness of deity bodily.
And then we also have been filled in him who is full.
It's like a trifecta of fullness.
What does it actually mean to believe that?
You know, what does it actually mean to believe that the same spirit who raised Christ from the dead dwells in us?
You know, that's what Paul is portraying.
He's saying, all of God dwelt in Jesus, and you have been filled in him.
You know, that for sure encouraged me when I read it.
Because I'd mosey on through my day thinking, like, I'm just a normal Joe Schmo.
You know, but not only in that respect.
God's fullness, his spirit has been given to me.
You know, the one who has been full completely from the Father has filled me.
That's powerful.
And so oftentimes we can forget the inheritance we've been given.
The immeasurable riches of his grace, the Bible says, that has been granted to us in Christ Jesus.
And remembering that God looked upon us with mercy and didn't just spare us, but he filled us also.
We've been filled in him.
Verse 11.
It says,
In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands,
by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,
having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him
through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.
So Paul is saying that in him you were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands,
by putting off the body, essentially saying that actually it's true that you have actual power
to say no to the flesh now.
To cut off the flesh, whereas before you didn't, you were a slave to it.
No power at all.
Even if you tried to, you could only use more flesh to try and crucify the flesh, which would never work.
So Paul says,
In him you have been given power to cut off the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.
And in what way do you get this power?
It says,
Having been buried with him, going down underneath the ground with him,
and rising up through death, rising up to life,
you now have power to say no to sin.
In Philippians 3 it says, or Paul says,
We are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God and put no confidence in the flesh.
He says we Christians are the circumcision.
It means we actually have the power.
All you people who look like you do, don't.
Because you haven't come to Christ.
You haven't been buried with him,
and have been also raised to receive power to say no to sin.
He says that we are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God
and put no confidence in the flesh.
No confidence.
This word confidence,
I was thinking about this in relationship to faith.
I watched a debate earlier this week,
and this atheist was pretty heated against these Christian guys talking.
And the Christian guys were asking him,
Do you have confidence in your view?
Like, this is your view.
God, no God, you know, only materialism.
And he's like, well, yeah, of course.
He's like, well, then you have faith.
And he's like, that's not what faith is.
You know, faith is something else, like you Christians believe.
At the very end of the debate,
the Christian was giving his closing statement,
and he defined confidence,
which has its root in Latin that actually confide,
meaning with faith.
So when we talk about faith,
it's helpful to think in terms of confidence.
You know, Hebrews 11 says that faith is the assurance,
synonym to confidence.
So in Philippians 3, Paul says that we worship by the Spirit of God
and put no confidence in the flesh.
No faith in the flesh.
You know, we put faith in the flesh, we'll die.
And so when we have confidence in God,
through the gospel, we have power to say no to sin.
Titus 2, 11 through 12 says,
for the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people,
and it teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions.
So this is the grace of God appears and gives us confidence to say no,
but no confidence in the flesh.
And Paul drives that home here in the last verses of the text,
when he kind of goes in, starting in verse 13,
explaining how a Christian went from death to life.
And it's really kind of the precipice or the peak of what it means to truly be a Christian.
It's really what we're standing on.
Here at the end of his couple verses here,
he divulges into the roots underneath us,
how I talked about earlier, a tree being built up.
You know, as Christchurch grows and Lord willing, we see more people saved.
We want to save them into not just a kind of tree above ground,
but also show them what the roots are beneath the tree
and how to be built up into a house.
And if we ourselves are not aware of those roots,
trusting in those roots, leaning on those things,
then we shouldn't believe that anyone would be caught up into that either.
We need to be fit together as being built up.
You know, I think about being built up and I work in many different houses,
a lot of new construction houses,
and there's all the structure exposed and you're just looking around,
seeing like, okay, if that wasn't there, you know, that's a problem.
You know, everything fits into its place and works together.
So for us to be built up, we have to fit together rightly
and also fellowship on the same truth.
Look at the same roots.
And so Paul in this last line gets the fundamentals of that.
This is the line between whether you have a dead church
or a living church.
Whenever Aidy and I travel,
especially long distances,
we see a bunch of different churches off the side of the highway
with a bunch of different names, different kinds of buildings.
And I always wondered to myself, I'm like,
is this a dead church or a living church?
You know, nobody didn't know,
but there's a lot of them out there.
And the ones that are alive are the ones that have their lampstands burning.
You know, they're continually being filled with this truth
that Paul is speaking to the church at Colossae about
that has heard Epaphras pouring into them.
And it needs to be the same confidence that we have at Christchurch
that will make us alive in the world.
And so I'm going to read this,
but before I do,
I want to give a quick note.
A lot of times when we read passages of Scripture,
especially like big truth gospel passages,
it can be easy to just gloss them over
and treat them as kind of every other verse and vowel.
It's like, oh yeah, I've heard that.
Yeah, it's good.
It's like, oh yeah, gospel.
Yeah, got it.
Move along, you know.
But if you guys can,
I want you to focus as I read this,
maybe in a different way,
and receive the words that Paul is speaking to the church at Colossae
as a past tense sealed promise over your life.
Meaning something that's more of like a declaration,
like this is true over your life and believe it.
Because a lot of times we just read the Bible
in a way that,
you know, is for the next guy,
or maybe that will apply to us at some point,
rather than looking to God to be filled then,
when we read it.
And so,
read it as something that's been sealed.
Ephesians 4 verse 30 says,
Do not grieve the Holy Spirit
by whom you were sealed
for the day of redemption.
You know, that's a heavy thing.
You know, you've been sealed up.
You've been snatched up from hell.
And God has sealed you for a specific day
that is already fixed.
So,
this is a declaration of the solidity of that seal,
the solidity of the roots underneath us,
of the truth that we're reading through.
And as I read this,
believe that.
So,
in verse,
starting in 13,
it says,
And you who were dead
in your trespasses
and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
God made alive together with him,
having forgiven us
all our trespasses,
by canceling the record of debt
that stood against us
with its legal demands.
This he set aside,
nailing it to the cross.
He disarmed the rulers
and the authorities
and put them to open shame
by triumphing over them
in him.
So,
this is just like hardcore,
this is how
God safely brought you
out of death
and into life.
You were dead at one point.
That's a pretty controversial thing
to say nowadays,
although
I think in former days
it probably wasn't.
Many people don't want to hear
that they were dead
or are dead,
you know,
having no hope
and without God.
You know,
that's what Ephesians says.
It says that
at one time
you were dead.
Didn't have any hope.
You know?
And then God did something.
God made you alive.
All of a sudden
you were just brought to life
and you're like,
where the heck am I?
All because of someone else.
And so,
when he says we're dead,
it directly confronts,
remember those philosophies
that Paul was born against?
It directly confronts humanism,
you know,
which has an optimistic view on man
and says that
man is just,
you know,
kind of sick in his sins.
He's really,
deep down,
he's good.
And all he needs
is just a little bit
of help from God,
a little bit of medicine
for the illness.
And,
you know,
Scripture directly confronts
these philosophies
and says that man
is not sick
in his sins.
Man is spiritually dead
in his sins.
And if it is not for God
to raise the dead man
to life,
then he would be dead
forever.
And we need to realize that.
We need to realize that
we were once that.
We were once dead
in our sins.
And had it not been
for God's resurrection power,
that we would be
still dead.
So we were dead
in our trespasses.
We broke the law.
We were dead
in the uncircumcision
of our flesh,
meaning we had no power
to keep the law.
We had no power
to say no to sin.
Excuse me.
We only could sin more.
We can only
take more flesh
and patch it on
to kind of save ourselves
and it will never do.
And so it says,
while we were dead
in that,
God made us alive
together with him.
By what means?
The means of having
forgiven us
those things.
So God demanded
righteous atonement
for our sins.
And instead,
in substitute,
he forgives us
our sins,
wipes the slate clean,
and cancels
the record of debt
that stood against us
with its legal demands.
That's one of the most
awesome parts
of this passage.
I love how
he speaks
in legal terms.
He calls it
legal demands.
You know,
we had a debt.
I'm sure many
of you guys
have had debt
before of some kind.
And the worst
is when
you forget about it
and all of a sudden
you remember it.
And you're just like,
oh,
that debt.
You know,
it's the record
that haunts you.
Record of debt.
You know,
Paul says,
the record of the debt
that stood against us.
We remember it
and it's just like
haunting us.
And so,
it has legal demands
that go to a courtroom
and stand before a judge.
And in Christ Jesus,
God met these demands
by living a perfect life.
The demands
we fell incredibly short
to meet,
God himself
met them
and then paid
the penalty
for us
breaking
the demands
that he asked of us
and satisfy them
on the cross.
And in what way
did he
meet these demands?
It says,
this he set aside
nailing it
to the cross.
So,
it was satisfied
with nailing.
It was satisfied
with his own body
being
torn apart
and during
the agonies
of hell
for us,
the cross
we should have been up on,
Jesus was up on
for our sins.
Our sins
were nailed
to him
it says
that this
he set aside.
You know,
setting aside,
I always think
of
David
and Bathsheba
and after that
whole fiasco
Nathan comes to him
and says
you know,
that there are
consequences
basically for your sin,
David.
But then Nathan
says a peculiar thing,
he says,
but the Lord
has put your sin away.
And
if I was David
I'd be like,
wait,
what?
my sin's been put away?
You know,
you kind of hear that
when Paul says
this he set aside.
You know,
and in Hebrews
it says
at the end of the age
one day
he will put away sin
for good.
And so he did this
by nailing it
to the cross
and also tricking
the rulers
and the authorities.
He triumphed
over them
in him.
It's kind of
an interesting phrase
that I haven't
really thought about much.
It says
by triumphing
over them
in him.
I would,
if I were going to say
I think I would just say
by triumphing
you know,
himself.
But
we know that there's
there's multiple people
at work here.
There's God
the Father
working
through Jesus.
So God
shows his love
for the world
by sending his son
to triumph.
You know,
God the Father
works that
through the son
and the son
accomplishes it.
Seeing kind of
the effectiveness
of the Trinity there.
And so
we were dead,
we had a debt,
it was met
and satisfied
with Jesus being
nailed to the cross.
Romans 8.3
says that
he condemns
sin in the flesh.
If you break it down
that's
your sin
in his flesh
being condemned
which is
you know,
oftentimes
what we can miss
which is
a fundamental
gospel truth
that our sin
has been taken away.
The sting of death
is removed
and that one day
we will stand
before God
blameless
the Bible says.
2 Corinthians 5.21
says that
for our sake
he made him
to be sin
who knew no sin
so that in him
we might become
the righteousness
of God.
1 Peter 2.24
says that
he himself
bore our sins
in his body
on the tree
that we might
die to sin
and live to righteousness.
So the Lord
triumphed
over these authorities
and
substituted
himself
in our place
to raise us
to life.
So
when we think
about
the gospel
when we think
about
relating to
one another
maybe sometimes
the things
that we don't
have a ton
in common
about
it's good
to constantly
be reflecting
on what's
underneath us
you know
that really
binds us
together
that really
gives nutrient
to the
trunk of this
tree
that's above
us
you know
and
it's the gospel
it's that God
did something
that still
stands today
and seals
us
and so
um
it's
in the third
chapter of
Colossians
if we haven't
got to yet
uh
Paul says
that we're
hiding in
Christ
we've been
hidden
we've been
caught away
from
uh
the uh
threat of
this world
and from
hell
we're snatched
up and we're
hidden in
Christ
which is
which is a
safe place
for us
to be
so that
the uh
the sting
of death
the haunting
of death
the haunting
of hell
won't affect
us as we
walk through
this life
and look
forward to
the very
end
in eternity
a lot of
times
one way
to solve
the issue
of kind
of just
a drudgery
in our
Christian life
is by
looking to
the rewards
at the end
looking at
the very
uh
face of
God
one day
which we
will see
you know
with our
eyes
of faith
and uh
believing
that one
day we'll
we'll
meet him
um
I was
reminded of
that when
I when
I heard
uh
Dietrich
Bonhoeffer's
last words
when he
was caught
and uh
he was
actually in
prison for
a handful
of time
uh
by the
Nazi
Gestapo
and then
eventually
he was
hung
to death
but his
last words
right before
his Nazi
executioner
delivered him
over
uh
in
Flossenburg
Germany
was
this is
the end
he says
for me
the beginning
of life
you know
man that would
be so cool
to say that
to uh
you know
your executioner
you know
for you
this might
seem like
the end
of me
but for me
it's just
the beginning
you know
that's a
picture of
eternity
you know
that's somebody
who
who's
looking past
this life
and uh
getting their
eyes set
on eternity
so um
do we have
confidence
in these
gospel truths
you know
do we have
confidence
in what God
has done
for us
in Christ
you know
to support
us
are we trusting
in that
is our
faith in
that
and um
that's what
Paul's
speaking to
the church
at
Belasi
about
encouraging
Epaphras
he's speaking
to Philemon
and saying
um
you know
hold fast
to these
these fundamental
things
and so
um
to wrap
it up
just
a couple
points
of
exhortation
that I
was thinking
about
for Christ
church
um
to not
grow weary
in doing
good
to keep
our heads
up
and just
hold fast
to the truth
you know
if
if we're
going to be
a church
that has
a burning
lamp stand
you know
we got to
have these
roots
we can't
just
jump on
to other
things
um
when these
roots
aren't
established
you know
cultivating
that
among
each
other
you know
in
regular
life
and um
and putting
our hearts
in it
you know
just like
Paul
again
like
maybe
didn't
even
know
these
people
at
Colossi
his heart
was already
for them
wanting
them to be
knit
together
you know
how often
do we go
throughout
our day
uh
you know
thinking
about
the other
people
in this
room
uh
and how
we need
to be
more
or could
be more
knit
together
wanting
that
you know
like
Paul
and
we know
each
other
you know
Paul
didn't
even
do
these
people
likely
so
that's
one
thing
and then
uh
it's
gonna
sound
classic
and basic
but
resting
in the
finished
work
of
the
cross
is
gonna
be
the
thing
that
will
sustain
each
one
of
us
individually
and
when
we
come
together
it's
gonna
be
the
thing
that
we
all
fellowship
around
is
that
rest
I
don't
know
if
you
guys
have
any
friends
or
I'm
sure
you
do
at
some
point
where
you
know
they
carry
a
presence
about
them
that
you
love
being
around
it's
like
almost
like
a
fire
that
you
draw
near
to
and
get
warned
walk
away
warned
by
you
know
in
Acts
it
says
that
the
members
of
the
council
recognized
that
Peter
and
John
had
been
with
Jesus
you
know
something
about
them
so
if
we're
not
resting
in
the
finished
work
not
only
will
we
ourselves
suffer
but
we
can't
even
give
to
other
people
we
need
to
be
filled
!
up
we
!
need
to
there's
not
a ton
right
now
that's
big
ticket
rebuke
items
among
us
but
there
is
always
a need
to
encourage
each
other
to
be
knit
together
and
to
be
thankful
if
there's
anything
that
we're
not
thankful
enough
or
maybe
worse
maybe
we're
just
grumbling
about
stupid
things
the
way
that
someone's
gifted
or
not
gifted
how
so
and
so
is
whatever
you guys
know
your
own
grumbling
tendencies
but
to
abound
in
thanksgiving
that's
what
he
says
be
grateful
you
know
and
so
in
closing
I
wanted
to
give
a little
bit
of a
benediction
from
Hebrews
10
which
says
or
sorry
13
Hebrews
13
20
which
says
now
may
the
God
of
peace
who
brought
again
from
the
dead
our
Lord
Jesus
the
great
shepherd
of
the
sheep
by
the
blood
of
the
eternal
covenant
equip
you
with
every
good
that
you
may
do
his
will
working
in
us
that
which
is
pleasing
in
his
sight
through
Jesus
Christ
to
whom
be
glory
!
forever
!