Sermon Tone Analysis

"*LIBERATED FROM YOUR PAST*"

(A Sermon from Colossians)

 

Westgate Chapel 7-23-06                              Colossians 2:8-15

 

PROPOSITION:     The powers of this dark world would hold you captive to the indictments of your past but in Christ those tyrants are disarmed and you have been liberated by the power of the resurrection that is alive in you.

! i. introduction

!! -     ONE of the most convincing proofs for the authenticity of Scripture is that the characters God uses as a canvas on which to paint a revelation of Himself are pretty normal men and women complete with their weaknesses.

!! -     THE Bible is full of stories of men and women who dragged their past with them...like a ball and chain.

!! -     ISAAC, an only child, apple of his mother's eye, spoiled, pampered.

And as a result, not much back bone.

He lived and died a wimp.

!! -     JACOB was raised by his mother to be a deceiver...and that dishonesty plagued him and cost him dearly for most of his life.

!! -     MOSES had a problem with his temper....from killing the Egyptian that was in a fight with an Israelite, to striking the rock for water when God had said just to talk to it.

And it cost him his chance to lead Israel into the Promised Land.

!! -     SAMUEL was raised by a permissive high priest, Eli, who let his sons run wild...and even after seeing God's judgment fall on Eli’s family he made the same mistakes with his own sons.

!! -     PETER has a problem telling the truth under pressure...and even after the incident in Herod's courtyard it showed up again when he treated the Gentiles one way when he was alone with them and another when Jews were around.

!! -     WHAT a tragedy to carry around with you, all of your life, the very things that weigh you down and keep you from being your best for God.

!! -     BUT fact that those stories exist in the Bible doesn't mean that God intends for us to drag around the ball and chain of our past weaknesses and failures for the rest of our lives.

!! -     JACOB is one example of a man of God who, towards the end of his life, got so desperate to be free of his deceitful past that he wrestled with the angel of the Lord until the breakthrough came.....and got his thigh out of joint in the process and limped the rest of his life but he was a changed man.

!! -     PETER really was a fundamentally changed man after Pentecost….in spite of the problem he had in Galatia.

!! -     BUT many of us as believers, are still struggling with sins that were woven into our lives from way back....and we don't know how to get free.

!! -     SOME have just given up on the faith because they got tired of the battle.

!! -     SOME of us have just accommodated themselves to the sin, and live a covert lifestyle so as to minimize the embarrassment.

!! -     SOME have actually come to the place where they condone their sin....and have just knitted an attractive cover for the ball and chain to camouflage it.

!! -     SOME have turned to the wisdom of the world for answers.

!!! ~*     We have been told that we just need to adjust our beliefs...so that we have more “realistic” expectations of ourselves.

!!! ~*     We have been told that we just need to love ourselves more...to improve our self-esteem.

!!! ~*     We are told that our problems are a result of our being victimized some where in our lives....and that it will be years of therapy before the past, dissected in painful detail, can be healed.....and that in the mean time there is no freedom from that ball and chain.

!! -     THIS is what the believers in the Greek city of Colosse were being told.

!! -     SO let’s listen to Paul's response to them in Colossians 2:8.

!!!         “*See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ*.” (Colossians 2:8)

!! -     WHAT is this verse talking about?

!! -     IT is talking about the spiritual forces of darkness in this world that confront us every day with the deceptive philosophies of man.....and present them as the solution to the ball and chain of our past.

!! -     THESE verses are a call to vigilance.

Be watchful!

Be on the alert!

!! -     DON'T let some book (I’m OK, You’re OK) or some late night TV program, or tape, or talk show guest take you captive just because what is said is so convincing, and seems to make sense.

!! -     BE on your guard, says Paul, or you will be taken captive by some idea or philosophy that sounds sophisticated and well-researched....but does not line up with God's Word.

!!! ~*     It world’s solutions are empty, says Paul.

!!!! ~*     Empty of truth.

!!!! ~*     Empty of power because the dunamis of the Gospel of Jesus is missing.

!!!! ~*     Empty of hope because they lead away from the light of God's presence.

!!! ~*     It is deceptive, says Paul, because it is attractive and seduces the mind with flattery....and appeals to the intellect or the ego.

!!!! ~*     It is misdirection.

!! -     IF you follow these empty and deceptive traditions and philosophies of man to solve your personal problems...you will actually end up in a worse captivity than at first (eg.

Methadone treatment).

!! -     WHAT is behind this deception?

!! -     PAUL calls it the "elementary principles of the world."

!! -     IT is the same phrase he uses in Galatians 4:8,

!!!       “*However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods.*”

(Galatians 4:8)

!! -     PAUL is talking about the powers of darkness....which operate in the spiritual realm influencing the philosophies of the world.

!! -     THESE are the powers of darkness that influence:

!!! ~*     What the world believes about overcoming your past.

!!! ~*     What the world believes about how significance is achieved.

!!! ~*     What the world believes about right and wrong.

!!! ~*     What the world believes about the basis of self-esteem.

!!! ~*     About how to find happiness....or what it even is.

!!! ~*     About power and control.

!! -     THE apostle Paul calls us to be on the alert.

!! -     THE influence of these philosophies on our lives is no small matter.

!! -     THE result of negligence is captivity.

!

ii.

remember your POSITION

!! -     WELL, in Colossians 2:8 Paul has told us where NOT to go to be delivered from the weaknesses of our human nature.

!! -     AND in the next seven verses he gives us a fail-safe formula for being LIBERATED FROM OUR PAST.

!! -     IF Isaac had followed this Biblical formula...he would not have been a wimp all of his life.

!! -     IF Moses had followed this formula...he might have made it into the Promised Land.

!! -     SAMSON would not have died a blind man in a Philistine Jamboree.

!! -     THERE are three things that Paul tells the Colossians to remember…in order to be freed from their past.

!! -     THE first is in verses 9-10.

!! -     REMEMBER your position.

!!!       “*For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form*, 10     *and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority*…” (Colossians 2:9-10)

!! -     WHAT is your position?

In Christ.

!! -     WHAT is the benefit of that position?

The fullness and authority of God.

!! -     THIS is much more than the useless self-talk that fills so much self-help literature today.

!! -     BECAUSE the world's self-talk has nothing to draw from other than what is already in your broken humanity...and after you have told yourself that you are OK...what has really changed?

Nothing!

!! -     NO, this verse is a faith reminder that there is a new YOU inside Christ, a new creation when you were born again by the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ.

!! -     THAT is not wishful thinking....or "I hope I am different."

!! -     IT is a living reality promised by God Himself.

!!!       "*Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!*" (II Corinthians 5:17)

!! -     AND now that you are a new person in Christ, you are now filled with the fullness of God, since Christ is the fullness of God and He lives in you now by the Holy Spirit.

!! -     AND since Jesus is the head over every power and authority....and you have been given His fullness....guess what that gives you?

Power and authority over the powers of darkness.

!! -     NO wonder James 4:7 says,

!!!       "*Submit yourselves, then, to God.

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.*"

!! -     REMEMBER your position.

!! -     YOU are in Christ and are therefore full of the fullness of God.

!! -     NOW, that is not a mind game you have to play, or psyche yourself up for.

!! -     IT is a fact of your relationship with Christ.

!! -     IT is not a feeling, a personality type, or the volume at which you pray.

!! -     IT is your legal position in Christ.

!! -     STUDY it in the Word.

Accept it by faith.

Meditate on it as you live in daily relationship with Christ.

!! -     REMEMBER your position.

!! -     WHEN you do, then the excuses that we all use for why we are defeated look pale by comparison.