Firmly Rooted
July 30, 2006
COLOSSIANS 2:1-10
I. KARL VALLETIN OF MUNICH, GERMANY WAS A CIRCUS CLOWN
A. ROUTINE: LOOKING FOR A KEY/BETTER LIGHT OVER HERE
B. TOO OFTEN WE ARE A LOT LIKE THE CLOWN
1. We Want to Understand the God of the Entire Universe With Only Simplistic Logic and Rational Thoughts
2. We Want to Understand God Clearly and Eliminate All the Mystery
3. We Want an Easy, Convenient Faith
4. We Want a Salvation that Puts Us & Our Efforts At the Center
C. THIS IS THE KIND OF PEOPLE THAT PAUL WAS WRITING TO WHEN HE SENT THIS LETTER TO THE COLOSSIANS
II. COLOSSIANS 2:1-10
III. GET THE PICTURE: PAUL’S CONCERN/BURDEN IS THAT THESE PEOPLE ARE BEING INFLUENCED BY PEOPLE W/ EASY ANSWERS. LET’S LOOK CLOSELY AT PAUL’S BURDEN
A. VERSE 1
1. Paul Is Burdened for the People
2. Look How Paul Prays
3. Read vs. 1
4. The Greatest Agony that Every Good Christian Pastor Has Is That the People that God Has Entrusted to His Care Will Fall Away from the Faith
5. Paul Isn’t Just Going Through His Prayer List, He’s Grieving When He Prays
a. He’s burdened for their souls
b. Seeing someone leave the church vs someone losing their way spiritually is painful to me
6. The Kicker Is that He Hasn’t Even Met Them
B. VERSES 2 - 4
1. Paul Is Burdened for the Churches
2. Read vs. 5
a. Delighted to learn of good news
b. Saddened to learn of bad news
3. Read vs. 2
a. Encouraged individually
b. United [or knit together] in love
c. So that …
i. They may have the full riches of complete understanding
ii. In order that they may know the mystery of God (Jesus Christ)
4. The Only Way to Understand the Mystery of God Is to Understand Jesus
5. Read vss. 3f
6. Jesus Alone Is the Source for all Wisdom & Knowledge!
C. VERSES 6 -10
1. Read vss. 6 - 10
2. Walk In Jesus
3. Limitations of Understanding
a. Unbelief
b. Hardened Heart [Eph. 4:18]
They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.
c. Judicial punishment [Is. 44:18]
They know nothing, they understand nothing;
their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see,
and their minds closed so they cannot understand.
d. Difficulties in life [2 Peter 3:16b]
His[Paul’s] letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
4. Understanding (difference between good & evil; recognizing God’s power & nature)
a. Studying Scripture [Psalms 119:130
The unfolding of your words gives light;
it gives understanding to the simple.
b. Visions
c. Being filled w/ the H. S.
d. Prayer
e. Faith [Hebrews 11:3]
By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
f. Enlightenment [Ephesians 1:18]
I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints…
IV. CHARLES BERLITZ…
Charles Berlitz, a vice-president of the Berlitz Schools of Language tells of going out to Sumatra last year with an oilman who had studied Indonesian with them in New York. The chap bought a house outside Palembang, and Berlitz urged him to plunge right in with the language. The first call the pupil took at the office turned out to be from one of his newly-hired servants.
“Just goes to show you,” the oilman said when he hung up, “you think you know the language, but when you get here you find you don’t know a thing about it. Sounded just like he said a tiger was in the house, chasing the cook’s dog.”
He heard right. It was!
—United Press International