Sermon Tone Analysis

"*LIBERATED FROM YOUR PAST*"

(A Series on Colossians)

 

Westgate Chapel 9~/2~/01 a.m.

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

!! -     ARE you chained to your past....dragging it like a ball and chain behind you wherever you go?

!! -     AFRAID to be freed of it;

!!! ~*     Either because you are not sure it is possible to be set free from its tyranny over your life?

!!! ~*     Or because so much of your identity is wrapped up in your past that you are not sure who you would be if you were delivered?

!! -     (TELL story of Diane Gatto)

!! -     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 them he made the same mistake with his 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.

!! -     THAT is part of the authenticity of Scripture.

It shows the men and women of God with their weaknesses.

!! -     WHAT a tragedy to carry around, all of your life, the very things that weigh you down.

!! -     BUT that doesn't mean that God intends for us to carry around the ball and chain of our past weaknesses and failures.

!! -     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 he limped the rest of his life but he was a changed man.

!! -     PETER really was a fundamentally changed man after Pentecost.

!! -     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 of us have given up the faith because they got tired of the battle.

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

!! -     SOME have actually come to the place where we condone our 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 (page 1166).

!!!       "*See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ*."

!! -     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 can be taken captive by some idea or philosophy that sounds sophisticated and well-researched....but does not line up with God's Word.

!!! ~*     It is hollow, or empty, says Paul, because it:

!!!! ~*     Is empty of truth.

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

!!!! ~*     Is empty of hope because it leads away from the light of God's presence.

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

!! -     IF you follow these hollow  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&9,

!!!       “*Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.*

(9) *But now that you know God-- or rather are known by God--how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles?

Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again*?”

!! -     PAUL is taking about the powers of darkness....who 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 whimp 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.

!! -     THE first is in verses 9-10.

!! -     REMEMBER your position.

!!!       "*For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,*(10)* and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.*"

!! -     WHAT is your position?

In Christ.

!! -     WHAT is the benefit of that position?

The fullness 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 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 is a faith reminder that there is a new YOU inside, 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.

!! -     AND since He 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.