Please stand for the reading of God's word. Colossians 2, verses 6 to 15. 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. 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. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority. 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. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all of 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 authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. You may be seated. In the winter of, I guess it was December of 2001, our third child had just been born, and the Lord of the Rings trilogy had just come out with the movie adaptation of that story. And so we were at my parents' house, and with three little ones, my parents said, hey, we'll watch the kids. if you and Michelle and my sister and brother-in-law, Tim and Tammy, want to go watch Lord of the Rings?" And we're like, yeah, let's go. And so we go to the movie theater and we watch it. I wasn't super familiar with Lord of the Rings at that point in time, but immediately fell in love with it, knowing that it was a trilogy, really excited about the story that was to come. And in that, I actually have since read the book series several times over. It's become my favorite story. But the memorable part about that first time we saw the movie version of it is we are, we're sitting there and it's coming to the final scene and Frodo and Sam have just left the fellowship. They're standing up on the side of a mountain and it's talking about everything that's gone on and Frodo looks at Sam and says, Sam, I'm glad you are with me. and then they turn and they walk away, and then the screen fades to black, and somebody in the movie theater goes, what? That's the way it ends? And without missing a beat, somebody replies, it's a trilogy. In that moment, this person thought that that was the very end of the story. But rather than it being the end of the story, it was actually the beginning of the journey. It was the beginning of the story of what was to come of Frodo and Sam and their compadres and the destination of the ring and Middle Earth and that great story. It was simply the beginning of it. Well, in your journey with Jesus, where are you in that journey? Are you at the beginning? Are you at the middle? Are you at the end? Where is it that you land within that journey? And even with that, let me ask you this question today. Where do you stand in your view and perspective of Jesus? Perhaps you are here this morning and you are in a place of just complete rejection and maybe that Rejection is passive and you just you're kind of indifferent. You don't really care Jesus is cool, whatever But he doesn't really have that much of an impact on my life Or perhaps your rejection, on the other hand, is active. And you adamantly oppose everything of who Jesus is and what he stands for. You look and you say, I don't want to have anything to do with him. I'm not even sure he really ever even existed in the first place. And you just stand in this place of active rejection, not wanting anything to do with it. or perhaps you're here this morning and Jesus is but mere fire insurance for you, where you accepted him as your savior, it keeps you from going to hell, but beyond that, Jesus doesn't really have all that much impact or change in your life. Sure, you might cry out to him when things go wrong or things are sad or something's not going quite right, but the reality is Jesus really has almost no impact on your day-to-day life. Or perhaps, and perhaps more of us in this room might be in this place than we would care to admit, is that we've simply incorporated Jesus into our life. Jesus is our Savior. He died on the cross. I know that I'm loved and forgiven. But then you just kind of incorporate him into your life. You go live your life. And if what Jesus calls you to is convenient, then perhaps you'll go do it. Maybe you try to sin less. Maybe you try to live and do more right. But on the whole, you just kind of incorporate him in and ask him to kind of bless your life and whatever it is that you're going about and whatever you're doing. or perhaps you've had a life-transforming encounter with Jesus, that you have come to this place where you've recognized, He is my absolute lifeblood. He is the one who died and rose again. He is the one who forgave me. He is the one who has given me life now and forevermore. And He has changed every little tiny corner of my life. He is the one who is my chief end. He is the one in which I am seeking to glorify and enjoy now and for all of eternity. Well, the Apostle Paul had an encounter with Jesus that changed and transformed everything. The Apostle Paul on his road to Damascus was going there to persecute Christians. And on his way, Jesus appears to the Apostle Paul in a vision. And through that vision, Paul becomes a believer. And as a result of becoming a believer and follower of Christ, his entire life was changed. That encounter on the road to Damascus was the beginning of a whole new life, was the beginning of a new journey that led to him being a missionary, a church planner, him writing 13 books of the New Testament, one of which we are going through and preaching through right now. When Paul encountered Jesus, it was not an event that happened and his life stopped. No, that was the very beginning of his life. That was the very beginning of his journey. And in this passage here, he opens up in verse six and simply says this, therefore, as you received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk in him. He looks and he says, because you have received Jesus, this is but the beginning of your journey. This is the very starting point. It's not something that you did a long time ago at a certain date and a certain time. But no, this journey with Jesus is something that radically transforms and changes every little tiny corner of our lives. And he looks back and he says, Jesus is preeminent. He gives his thanks. He gives, Paul gives his thanks. He gives his prayers. He gives his challenge. And now he says, okay, Now, if you're in Christ, everything changes. And how is it that we are called to live? What is it that this looks out like played out in life? And in our passage today, I want to point out three things that shape what the Christian life looks like. If we have received Christ, if you are in Christ, if you are a believer, if you have professed Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then He gives us three callings here in this passage. And the first one is simply to walk in Him, or you could say it a slightly different way, and you could say His first calling to us is to walk in faith. As you receive Christ as your Lord, then begin to walk in faith, and He says do it rooted, rooted in Him, rooted in Jesus, rooted in nothing else. If you think about the idea and the metaphor of a tree, A tree is rooted in soil. And being rooted in that soil and what kind of soil a tree is rooted in determines the health and what takes place with that tree. He looks at you and I and he says, if you've received Christ, then be rooted in Jesus. Be rooted in Jesus alone. Be rooted in Christ alone. Because as we are rooted in Christ alone, the next thing he says is, you're rooted and you're built up. So that tree, through the soil that it's rooted in, receives nourishment, receives water, receives health, and that tree, over time, and trees can live hundreds of years, and over that time, they are built up, and they grow, and they become larger and larger, but it's all dependent on the soil and the water that they're receiving that it's filling up that tree and building up that tree. You and I, are built up in Christ and in Christ alone. Anything else will crush us and destroy us, cause us to wilt and to die. Just like if a tree is not in the right climate, it's not in the right place, it's not in the right environment, it doesn't receive the right amount of nourishment and the right amount of water, then that tree will wither and die. It will not be built up, but you and I, rooted in Christ, are built up. We are built up as we spend time in God's Word. We are built up as we spend time with God in prayer. We are built up as we spend time in community. And if you look at your life today and you go, man, I just don't see the fruit of being rooted in Jesus in my life, ask yourself that question. Are you rooted? Are you being built up by God's word? Are you being built up in prayer before God? Are you being built up by living in community with other believers, learning and growing and studying and worshiping alongside one another? It is what builds, this is what builds us up. And as we become built up, that tree becomes established. That tree becomes a place of shade for people, a place of shelter for birds, a place of fruit and nourishment for animals and birds and for people. That tree becomes established and it becomes firmly planted so that no storm, nothing can move it, change it, move it into a different place, take it down, and knock it over. It is rooted, it is built up, and it is established. And we are rooted. If we have received Christ, then we must become rooted in Jesus. And in Jesus alone, as we walk in faith, we must become built up as we spend time in God's Word, with God, and with his people. And then we become established. And as we become established, we become more and more at peace with life and at peace with the world. We become witnesses and we are proclaiming the grace and the hope and the mercy that comes by Jesus and in Jesus alone. We become a witness to those around us. If we have received Christ, our journey is just beginning as we walk in faith, rooted, built up, and established. And as Jeff already has mentioned this morning, this past week in the PCA, we lost two very well-known pastors. Harry Reeder, who was pastor of Briarwood Church in Birmingham, Alabama, he was tragically killed in a car accident. But I'm friends with one of his kids on Facebook, and the night before he died, God's providence was such that they had had a graduation party for two of his grandkids, and their entire family had spent the night together. What great mercy of God that he loved them, knowing what was coming the next day. And then on the other hand, or I'm sorry, the second pastor who passed away this week lost a long time battle to cancer. And as he passed away, we see in both of these men, to the best of our knowledge, men in our understanding, men who finished well, who ran the race, who walked in faith, men who loved Jesus, who loved people, who loved their families, who had a deep heart and desire and passion for people to come to know Christ. And God used them amazingly in His kingdom for His purposes. They were men, they were pastors, they were husbands, they were fathers, they were sons of God who walked in faith, rooted and built up and established. And as a result of that, just as Paul talks about here, they abounded in thanksgiving. Just a day or two days before Tim Keller passed away, his son posted a prayer and a statement from Tim Keller. And Tim Keller said, I'm thankful for all the people who've prayed for me over the years. I'm thankful for my family that loves me. I'm thankful for the time God has given me, but I'm ready to see Jesus. I can't wait to see Jesus. Send me home. This is a man who was rooted, who was built up, who is established in faith, and the result and the example and the evidence of it is he overflowed. He, as Paul says in this passage, abounded in thanksgiving. Does an abounding of thanksgiving demonstrate and mark your life? The result of a walk in faith, the result of being rooted and built up and established in Christ, and in Christ alone, is that we will abound in thanksgiving. We will abound in thanksgiving for the joys and the sorrows that we face. For the blessings that we receive, we will abound in thanksgiving for the pain and the suffering that we have experienced and we will experience and we are experiencing. We will be thankful for our marriages and our spouses. We will be thankful for our children and our friends and our family and our co-workers and our jobs and our employment and the place God has called us and the place God has given us and the place God has brought us in our lives. How would yours and my life be transformed? If we were thankful to God for everything that we've received, for every little tiny thing that we have received, how would our life be transformed? Because if I'm honest and I reflect, so often my heart is not a thankful heart. So often my heart is a questioning heart of why do I have to face this? Why do I have to deal with this in this place, in this time, God? God, why do my children have to go through pain and suffering? God, why is this happening? Why is that happening? What is going on here? I don't get it. And then at the exact same time, I look at all of the blessings that He's given to me of marriage and children and spouse and family, of friends, of a church, of a job and calling that I love and I'm passionate about, and I just take it for granted. Not abounding in thanksgiving. The result of receiving Christ, the call of receiving Christ, is to walk in faith. rooted, built up, and established, abounding in thankfulness. And this is so that we can get to the second piece that Paul calls us to hear, that we can watch out for falsehood. In verse 8, he calls us to watch out for falsehood. He gives us a warning. And 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 this world, and not according to Christ. He's saying watch out for worldly philosophies. Watch out for philosophies that are meant to deceive you, to draw you away. Watch out for these worldly philosophies that are made by the creature not the Creator, that are made by finite human beings, not by the infinite God. Worldly philosophies are people who are taking things of this world in their finite minds, trying to explain an infinite God who created a universe that for His honor and His glory and in His complexity. And those worldly philosophies are trying to explain that from a human perspective. And Paul says that they are nothing, those worldly philosophies, anything apart from God, is nothing but empty deceit, vain, empty deception, meant to lead us astray, meaningless, worthless, not satisfying whatsoever, rooted in human tradition. And he even goes on to say, They're the elemental spirits of this world. The things that are here, made, created, uneducated, uninformed. The ignorance, I'm sorry, the wisdom of man is more foolish than the foolishness of God. The wisdom of man is but nothing. And yet, we are all too often captivated by worldly philosophies. And these worldly philosophies can begin to penetrate our hearts and our lives. And there's those big ones that stand out perhaps a little bit more for us, that try to explain the origin of the universe apart from God. Watch out for that philosophy. Watch out for a worldly philosophy that says the killing of babies or that life has little meaning and value is okay. Watch out for that philosophy that says marriage can be between whomever wants to get married at whatever point that pleases them. Watch out for that philosophy that says gender and sexuality are fluid and it's whatever you make it and it's whatever you want it to be. And I could go on and on with different examples of these worldly philosophies that have captivated people, that have captivated people that claim to be Christians and have drawn people away from Christ. And perhaps we look at those and we're like, yeah, of course, Matt, those are really obvious. Yeah, yeah, I get that. Those philosophies are not a temptation for me. But what worldly philosophies are a temptation for you? What worldly philosophies have you fallen for? Perhaps it's that worldly philosophy that not only says you can do it all, that says you should do it all, that says you deserve it all. That worldly philosophy that says if you can pursue and accomplish the American dream, then you'll be happy and satisfied. That worldly philosophy that says you're not happy? Well, that just means you need to work harder. You need to do more. You need to put more effort into life. And then if you can get more things and accomplish more things and make a greater name for yourself, then you'll be happy. Or that worldly philosophy that takes the word of God and says, no, no, no, no, no. What they said and what the Bible says really isn't what they meant. What the Bible says needs to be reinterpreted under our more modern, our more enlightened, our more greater vision and understanding of what it is. Or, one of the most evil ones that I see out there right now is that worldly philosophy that says we need to deconstruct our faith. that we need to tear it down, that what you were taught in your church or what you were taught as a child is not actually what the Word of God or the Bible or salvation says. No, no, no, no. You need to deconstruct your faith. That's a lie straight from the pit of hell. We do not need to deconstruct our faith. We need a faith that is rooted, built up, and established in Christ and in Christ alone. that stems and flows from His beautiful, amazing, inerrant, infallible Word of God that doesn't change and never fades away. We are rooted, established, built up in Christ. When we are walking in faith, God works within us to resist these worldly philosophies. to run from the world, to run to Jesus. Because these philosophies are empty, worthless, and meaningless. When I was a little kid, one of the things that always enticed me was the great big huge chocolate Easter bunnies. I loved those things. I thought the appearance of those things, I thought those things would be the coolest thing ever. And so I must have repeatedly asked my parents for one because eventually they gave me one of those big, huge, massive chocolate Easter bunnies for Easter one year, and I got it. And man, I was so excited. I'm opening up the packaging. All of this chocolate is all mine. And I take one bite into it, and it's hollow. There's nothing inside of it. It's empty. I'm like, I have been deceived. I have been robbed. This is not okay. I still am suspicious of those stinking chocolate Easter bunnies to this day. I see one of those, I'm like, oh, that ain't real. That's just faking you out. That's not real chocolate. That's just hollow on the inside. But that's exactly what these worldly philosophies are. These worldly philosophies, these things that try to reinterpret the Bible or try to tell us that we need to deconstruct our faith or try to explain life outside of God are nothing but this nice-looking, logical Easter bunny that's nothing but empty on the inside, that leaves us hopeless, empty, frustrated, that leads us astray, that crushes us, destroys us, that causes us to wilt and wither. So what worldly philosophies have grabbed you? What worldly philosophies have kept you, have drawn you, and made you captive? And what do we do when we recognize those? Well, we simply repent. We look to Jesus. We believe and know that we are loved and forgiven, that there's nothing we can do to make God love us anymore, and there's nothing we can do to make God love us any less, that we are wholly belong to Jesus now and forevermore. When we recognize the ways in which we've been captivated, we come before God and say, God, transform me. I am yours, and it is you alone that gives me life. And how is that possible? Because we are wholly filled in Christ. And we are wholly filled in Christ as this passage says in verse nine. It says, we are wholly filled in Him, and who is Him? He is the one in which the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. In three words, Paul sums up the deity and humanity of Christ, that Jesus is 100% God and Jesus is 100% man. And that is what enables him to be our sacrifice because he faced every sin, I'm sorry, he faced every temptation that we have faced yet remains without sin. He is the holy, righteous son of God, who is God, who is not made in the image of God, but who is the image of God, as it says earlier in chapter one. And in him, the deity dwells bodily in Jesus. In Jesus, God dwells. And when we see Jesus, we see God. And then it goes on in verse 10 that says, where does Jesus dwell? Where does Jesus, what does Jesus do? In verse 10 it says, and you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority. Think about that for a moment. In Jesus, the fullness of God dwells, the wholeness, the unity, the three persons, the three in one dwells within Jesus and we are filled in Christ. So that means the wholeness and the fullness of the Holy Trinity dwells within us by the power of Jesus who died and rose again. How is it that we walk in faith? How is it that we can watch out for falsehood? It's when we have received Christ, when we are in Christ, when we have the fullness of God dwelling within us. And what is the result of that? If we continue on, we see that sin and death have been destroyed. In him also, verse 11, in him also you were circumcised with the circumcisions made without hands by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ. And in verse 12, 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. We have been, Paul uses this illustration of the sign of the Old Testament covenant of circumcision and circumcisions being that part, being that thing where a piece of the man is actually cut off from him. And now it says we've received a circumcision not made with hands. That circumcision pointing towards the circumcision that comes in Jesus. And that circumcision being the cutting off of our sin and death that rules within us without Christ. If we have been circumcised in Christ, that means sin and death no longer have any bearing or burden or weight or power or control over us. They have been defeated. They have been buried with Him. They've been buried with Christ. They've been put to death through His death and His perfect righteous sacrifice. And then we have been raised with Christ. And if Christ is raised from the dead, then you and I will be raised from the dead and sin and death will no longer have any ruler reign over him. But it gets even better. Look at the next verse. Not only are sin and death conquered in us because we are filled with Christ, but verse 13, And you who are dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive, together with him having forgiven us all our trespasses. If we are filled in Christ, and we are wholly filled in Christ. It's not something that we have a little bit of Jesus and we'll get more Jesus later. It's not something that we have partially. It's not something that's incomplete. It is something that is completely full. We are filled wholly and completely in Christ here now today. This isn't something that's going to happen in the future. It's not something that happened in the past and maybe we drifted a little bit. No, no, no. In Christ, we have been wholly filled in Him and we are wholly filled in Him right here, right now, today. and being filled in him, it says you were dead, you were the past, what you used to be, you were dead in the trespasses and uncircumcision of your flesh. So when he's looking at the Colossians here and he's pointing specifically to them and saying you are a bunch of Gentiles, you are not Jews, you are Greeks. You are not of the people of God, or you were not of the people of God. You were dead in your trespasses. You were dead and separated from God in the uncircumcision of your flesh. He says, but you've been made alive. And Paul here uses a change of a pronoun in a good way. Paul uses the change of a pronoun and goes from what you were. And then he goes and he ends the verse and he says, but we are forgiven. We are one, Jew and Greek, Jew and Gentile. As Paul says in other places, slave and free. You in Christ are forgiven, are loved, are set free from death and sin, are made alive and raised with Him now and forevermore. You and I are made alive and it is done by nothing but Jesus. and Jesus alone. It is not Jesus plus circumcision. It is not Jesus plus tradition, Jesus plus works, Jesus plus theology. It is not Jesus plus finding a spouse, Jesus plus having children, Jesus plus the right job, Jesus plus living in the right area, Jesus plus being a member of the right church, Jesus plus nothing is salvation. There is nothing else that can save us. There is nothing else to be added to it. It is in Christ and Christ alone that we are filled, that we are made alive, that as the next verse says, that our record of debt has been canceled. Not only have we been separated from our sin and death, not only have we been made alive in Christ as He dwells within us, but our record of debt is nailed to the cross. It is gone. That's actually a legal statement and a legal term that Paul is using right there. Paul is saying, look, you had this legal debt, you had this legal record of sin that condemned you now and for all of eternity. You were going to be separated from God in hell now and forevermore because of this record of debt that you have. But Paul says that record of debt was nailed to the cross. I remember as a kid, going to church camp, they would have you like write your deepest, darkest sin down on a piece of paper, and then you would like attach it to a cross or you would like literally write that sin on the cross. And I have to confess that I always thought that was just a little bit hokey. I know some of you, it probably really resonated deeply. I know it resonated deeply with some of my friends, but it was one of those things I was always a little bit cynical and skeptical about and kind of went, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I read this passage and a few days ago I went, oh, that's a little more biblical than I ever gave it credit for. Because that's exactly what's happened to you and I. If we have received Christ, if we are in Christ, if we are walking in faith, watching for falsehood, We can do that because we are wholly filled in Christ. And if we are wholly filled in Christ, then all of our sin and all of our debt has been nailed to the cross. It has been put to death and it no longer has any rule or reign or power over us. It's gone. And Paul closes out this little paragraph in verse 15, and it says, he is the one who has all rule and power and authority over. the spirits of the air over the powers of this world. In verse 15, it says, He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in Him. Jesus has put to death the rulers and authorities. He has shamed this world. He has minimized them. And for those of us in Christ, we are separated from our sin and death. We are filled in Jesus. We are made alive. Our debt of sin has been canceled, eliminated, destroyed. We are with Him now and forevermore. In Christ, we are filled. and there's nothing else that we need. And it abounds within us and it flows out of us. How? What is our response to being filled with Jesus? That we are simply called to walk in faith, rooted in Jesus alone, built up through the Word and through prayer and through time and study and worship with God's people, that we watch out for falsehood, and we repent of, and we turn from the worldly philosophies that have captivate us and drawn us in, that we, as a result of the glorious work that Jesus has done, as a result that we are filled, knowing the peace and love and being a witness to those around us, we abound in thankfulness. When we receive Christ, when Jesus works within us, opens our heart and mind, when Jesus saves us and draws us to himself, not by any works or efforts or energies that we have done, when Jesus brings us to himself, We are filled in Christ, and we abound in thankfulness. As Frodo and Sam stood on the top of that mountain, they look out, and in their future, lay a journey through the dead marshes, being captured by Boromir, going and being in, going through Minas Tirith, going up on the mountain through the spider's den, walking across the fields of Mordor to Mount Doom, where the ring is cast in, where evil is destroyed, where the evil in that age is defeated. But even then, from standing on the mountain at the beginning of their journey to being at the Mount Doom and having the evil of that age destroyed, their journey still goes on and continues in Christ. When we receive Christ, that is but the beginning of our journey, a journey to walk in faith, to watch for falsehood, a journey filled wholly with Jesus and the power of His Spirit within us that begins continues through life, and when we pass on to the next life, we live with our God forevermore. Let's pray.